I Survived!

I survived my 1st day back to work. My mom definitely lightened the mood when she got here. I answered the door, and my mom was dressed like Mary Poppins, head to toe. I'm dead serious. She smiled & said, "Grandma Poppins, reporting for duty!" I laughed, grabbed the camera to take a picture, & then told her to hurry up & get inside before anyone saw her. She looked hilarious. It definitely made me laugh, & it eased my tension a little bit.



I was sad when I left because I didn't get to say goodbye to Reese (although it was probably easier that way). She had gone down for her morning nap at 7:45, & she was still snoozing away when I left at 10:30. I had thought that I would get to feed her & say goodbye before I left, so I was really disappointed. I cried on the way to work a couple times, but I pulled it together before I pulled in the parking lot. I was pretty sure I was good to go, but when I walked in the door, I started crying again. Once I got it out that time, I was fine for the rest of the day.

The day went really smoothly, & I'll even admit that I enjoyed talking to grown ups during the day. I missed Reese like crazy, but I only called my mom twice to check in (and once on the way home to get every detail of how the day went). My last patient was stuck in traffic & was going to be really late. I was bummed, because getting home any later meant that I would miss bath time & possibly bedtime, but I wasn't about to refuse to see a patient on my first day back. My boss was really great though, & told the receptionist to call him & cancel his appointment because I "have a family to go home to." I thought that was very nice of him. Maybe he just didn't want to see me cry again if I had to stay late. Haha.

It was nice to have the day off today. Reese & I had a lot of fun. We spent almost every single second together...because she REFUSED to sleep. I don't just mean that she refused to sleep in her crib. She refused to sleep in my arms as well. The girl was WIDE AWAKE. Luckily, she was wide awake & happy. I've read that sometimes when babies are learning a new skill, it will disrupt their sleep habits. So, I'm wondering if that's the case because she has learned a new skill in the last couple of days--she is holding her head up really high & looking around during tummy time!!! Until this week, anytime we would lay her on her belly for tummy time, she would just lay there, & sometimes she would even fall asleep. A couple days ago, she lifted her head up & started looking all over the place. Surprisingly, she didn't stop doing it when I grabbed the camera. I was so excited! I never thought I could be so proud of a baby holding her head up, but it was a pretty big deal. She showed off again for Matt when he got home, & he was pretty excited too.



So, since she has this new skill to show off, & since I had the day off, & since she wouldn't sleep, I decided we should play dress up today. I may have gone a little overboard by taking 75 pictures in one day, so I'll just share my favorites. :)

Mail From The White House

Well, as it turns out, President Obama & Michelle are pretty excited to hear that Reese has arrived. They must have seen a picture of her on Facebook & thought that she was just the most adorable little girl ever, & decided to send her a letter. Or maybe I requested it. Either way, Reese got some mail from The White House this week. The envelope was actually hand addressed. I studied it carefully, & it's definitely pen, not printed ink.





Today is my last day of maternity leave. Boo. Boohoo. I am so grateful that my mom will be watching Reese & that we do not have to take her to daycare for now. It helps so much to know that she will be so well cared for, & by someone who loves her ALMOST as much as we do. I know that we are SO lucky for that. But it's still really, REALLY hard. It's not so much that it's hard to leave her for 8 hours (although that's tough too), but it's harder just knowing that Reese will be spending more time away from us than she spends with us. It terrifies me that Reese will confuse someone else for "mama". I don't want to miss anything, and I know I'm going to. It sucks. I promised myself that I would not spend this entire day crying, so that's all I'm going to say about that. And, although this is a sad transition for me, I know someone else is really excited about it. :)



We have really been working on tracking Reese's schedule & trying to find a rhythm in her routine. I had to recognize that my go-go-go routine was just not working for her anymore. She's getting too old to get good naps in her carseat, & it's time to respect her need for good rest & start letting her stay at home & nap at home in her crib when she needs to. So, no more gym, no more errands until Matt is home at night as much as we can avoid it. The good news is, it's made a big difference. She has really gotten good about taking naps in her crib, & I can finally see a pattern starting to develop in her routine. I don't necessarily want to try to create a "schedule" for her to be on at this young of an age, but it's nice to have some predictibility. I'm also hoping that if we keep most of her days normal, the days that we do have to run errands or be out of the house won't be so hard on her since they will be an exception rather than the norm (and we will also be able to plan our errands for times that we know are good for her).

Ok, I know that you guys don't follow the blog to hear me ramble on, you follow the blog for pics of this cutie. Enjoy!

1st Vaccines

Reese got her first set of vaccines on Thursday afternoon. She did SO good! They did one in each leg, & they did them simultaneously so it was over really quickly. She cried for a brief second, but she was fine as soon as they handed her back to us. She was totally fine until about 7:00 that night. At that point, she got reeeeeally fussy, & she would scream bloody murder if you just barely brushed against her little legs (which was hard to avoid while holding her, moving her, & changing her diaper. It was SO sad. I hate that she has to go through this so many more times, but I know it's what's best for her. Here are her cute chubby legs with her bandaids.



Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful week, so I'll just give you lots of pictures!



























Her Baby Legs finally fit (well, sort of), and they look so cute on her little legs!

2 Months!

Reese turned 2 months old yesterday! To celebrate this milestone...SHE SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you tell that I'm pretty excited about this? I'm sure this is not even close to the end of our nighttime wakings, but I'm just happy to know that we're making progress. We had originally put her to bed around 8, but she woke up hungry at 9:15. I had kind of figured this would happen because she wasn't interested in eating before she went to sleep. She went back to sleep at 9:45 & slept until 6:45. I, of course, did not sleep through the night. I kept waking up & checking on her because I was so surprised that she hadn't woken up. I thanked her a lot today & told her how much I appreciated her sleeping through the night, so hopefully she'll do it again soon!





We had her 2 month visit to the pediatrician today. She is growing right on track, & everything looks great. She weighed in at 11 pounds, 2 ounces, & she's 22.75 inches long (so, she's up 4 pounds, 12 ounces, & 3.75 inches since birth). Her head circumference is 38.75cm. We decided to wait to give her the 2 month vaccinations until next week because we want her to be 100% finished with her cold to make sure that her immune system isn't compromised at all. We will go back for her 1st shots on Thursday night. :(

She is definitely getting more & more fun everyday. She's getting so much more interactive, & her smiles are THE BEST. My sister's husband explained it perfectly when he said that for the first several weeks, you give and give and give to your baby. They take, take, take, but aren't really able to give anything back. And then, the smiles start. It's so cool to feel like they're able to do something to reciprocate your affection. Her smile melts my heart every single time. I feel like she might like me. :)

Here are some pictures from this afternoon. I gave her Sophie the Giraffe for the 1st time, & she loved chewing on her face. She cried when it moved away from her mouth, so I kept putting it back, & she would gnaw away at it. So cute.











And this is a perfect picture of what it's like around here when our furbabies feel the baby is getting too much attention.

Reese's 1st Cold :(

Reese has her 1st cold. She started getting a little stuffy on Friday morning, & by Friday night, she had a full blown cold. I called the pediatrician, & the nurse was SO nice. She reassured me that every 1st time parent calls about the first cold, & told me that she knew how scary it was to hear their congested breathing. So, I'm not the only crazy parent out there. :) It's so sad to see her so stuffy & her eyes all watery. She has been a real trooper though. I keep telling myself that it's helping to build her immune system.

We had a full day of cuddling on Saturday, & Reese just slept all day long in her adorable little cupcake pajamas. When she was awake, she was still her smiley self, which made us feel much better.


On Sunday afternoon, she was still stuffy, but having a good day. It was 80 degrees outside, & sunny, so we decided to take her out for a walk. She wore her first hat for the occasion, & she looked so cute.



She kept trying to look at the hat:


And, this photo session ended the same way most of our photo sessions end. I take too many pictures, & Reese lets me know that she has had enough.