Today while I was at work, one of my co-workers came to visit us. She just recently had a baby 3 weeks ago! I was super excited to see her! Throughout our pregnancies, she kept asking me questions like "when did you feel your baby move? What did it feel like?" and so on. It was very fun bonding together and sharing our experiences!
Seeing her little princess really helped me realize just how much Emelia has grown as well as how fast this is all going already! I mean, it's been 12 weeks! That baby today was so small, and light, and "breakable" compared to Emelia, it just really put things in perspective. I could barely remember Emelia being so little and fragile.... the newborn stage was filled with a lot of tears from both of us as well as many restless nights and days. I'm glad I took a lot of pictures to remember her first few weeks as Emelia!
It helped me realize that even on a bad, crabby, cry fest of a night, I need to cherish every moment with my daughter, because some day, she'll be grown up wanting to go out on her own and be her very own individual. For now, I need to seize this moment and remember it all forever! Life is precious!
On a side note, this little 3 week old baby will be starting at the same daycare that Emelia goes to! I am so excited! I hope they are both there for some time and become friends since they are so close in age. This little baby lives in a different town than Emelia, but that doesn't always matter! I was also excited for my co-worker because I love the daycare so much, I hope she has a good experience as well!!
I have come to realize that my life, my every being, my very reason for doing everything I do is for my little lady... Emelia. I love her so much and want the best out of life for her! I sure love this feeling! I sure love being a mom!! :)
Monday, February 14, 2011
Working Again!
Today was my first day back to work since November 21st, which was my last day I worked. Emelia was born November 22nd! My life has changed a LOT since then, but I wouldn't trade it in for the world!!
Work went very well! Better than I expected. It didn't take me long to get back in the swing of it and get everything done! The majority of the early morning is spent passing medication to the nearly 40 residents under my care. I was surprised at how quickly I fell easily back into my old routines. It was nice. I enjoyed being at work, thinking with my brain again, interacting with my residents, seeing my coworkers. It was a great day and it went FAST!! I was super busy, which was ok with me, I was getting bored with the same home routine day to day and with the weather being so cruddy... well, I was stir crazy!
And Emelia had a great day at daycare today! She and her "friends" (what daddy and I call the other daycare kids) had a Valentine's Day party and they made cute little Valentines! They cut hearts out of construction paper then put the kids' footprints on them... sooo adorable, I hung Emelia's on the fridge right away! She was all smiles for me when I got there to pick her up, it was great! Everyone loves her at daycare... it's hard not to love that little girl! She continues to do well with the bottle, too, which is such a huge relief! I did feel a twinge of guilt this morning when I dropped her off... mostly because she was fast asleep in her carrier and I didn't want to wake her because the other kids were all sleeping (this is at 5:30am!) so all morning I fretted about what Emelia had to be thinking when she suddenly woke up and mommy wasn't there... :( I didn't let it get to me, though, and she did just fine. Hard not to think that way, though!!
The crappiest part right now is having to pump breast milk at work. It is time consuming and a pain in the butt!! I was able to successfully pump, but first I have to get out the pump, hook it all up, calm myself enough to relax so my milk lets down.... then I have to sit there and wait while the pump does it's thing while a thousand thoughts go through my head, especially of all the things I have yet to get done! My first pumping session took nearly 1/2 an hour! The second one, which I probably cut short, took 20 minutes! That's so long to wait! The second time, I probably could've gone longer, but I was totally running out of time!!
However, it is worth it to me to provide the essential nutrition to my daughter... and it saves us money! And she likes to breast feed, so it's all worth it for sure!! It won't be long and she'll be eating regular food and I will get to a point where I will miss the breast feeding!
SO, long story short, today was a great day! I feel good about myself, and I feel good about the daycare I chose, I am very happy with it!
Work went very well! Better than I expected. It didn't take me long to get back in the swing of it and get everything done! The majority of the early morning is spent passing medication to the nearly 40 residents under my care. I was surprised at how quickly I fell easily back into my old routines. It was nice. I enjoyed being at work, thinking with my brain again, interacting with my residents, seeing my coworkers. It was a great day and it went FAST!! I was super busy, which was ok with me, I was getting bored with the same home routine day to day and with the weather being so cruddy... well, I was stir crazy!
And Emelia had a great day at daycare today! She and her "friends" (what daddy and I call the other daycare kids) had a Valentine's Day party and they made cute little Valentines! They cut hearts out of construction paper then put the kids' footprints on them... sooo adorable, I hung Emelia's on the fridge right away! She was all smiles for me when I got there to pick her up, it was great! Everyone loves her at daycare... it's hard not to love that little girl! She continues to do well with the bottle, too, which is such a huge relief! I did feel a twinge of guilt this morning when I dropped her off... mostly because she was fast asleep in her carrier and I didn't want to wake her because the other kids were all sleeping (this is at 5:30am!) so all morning I fretted about what Emelia had to be thinking when she suddenly woke up and mommy wasn't there... :( I didn't let it get to me, though, and she did just fine. Hard not to think that way, though!!
The crappiest part right now is having to pump breast milk at work. It is time consuming and a pain in the butt!! I was able to successfully pump, but first I have to get out the pump, hook it all up, calm myself enough to relax so my milk lets down.... then I have to sit there and wait while the pump does it's thing while a thousand thoughts go through my head, especially of all the things I have yet to get done! My first pumping session took nearly 1/2 an hour! The second one, which I probably cut short, took 20 minutes! That's so long to wait! The second time, I probably could've gone longer, but I was totally running out of time!!
However, it is worth it to me to provide the essential nutrition to my daughter... and it saves us money! And she likes to breast feed, so it's all worth it for sure!! It won't be long and she'll be eating regular food and I will get to a point where I will miss the breast feeding!
SO, long story short, today was a great day! I feel good about myself, and I feel good about the daycare I chose, I am very happy with it!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Spring?!
Today it is BEAUTIFUL outside! The temperature is in the lower 50's! Warmest we've seen in a very long time... warmest it's ever been during Emelia's entire life (outside the womb anyway)! I thought it would be fun to take Emelia outside to see everything, but she wasn't too thrilled. For one, she was tired, but she was also absolutely hating her little snow suit deal I had her in. I will post a pic at the end of this post... I dug a hole in the snow and set her in it... she was mad, but it actually turned out to be a cute picture! I sure hope the weather stays this nice out! It's so wonderful to be able to move Emelia from the car without having to carry her car seat, too! She seemed to enjoy it, too, except for the super bright sunlight in her eyes, she didn't care for that too much! John and I didn't even need to wear our coats into church this morning!! It was wonderful! :)
Well, here's hoping Spring has come to Wisconsin! Enjoy the pic and more to come another day!!
Well, here's hoping Spring has come to Wisconsin! Enjoy the pic and more to come another day!!
Sad day today...
I am a little sad today. It is my last day of maternity leave. Back to the real world tomorrow, back to work, back to having to think with my brain, deal with other people, and not getting to spend the day with Emelia. I am more bummed out than I thought I was going to be. The last few weeks, I was feeling ready to go back to work and even missing it some. Now that the day has come, I'm not so excited. I just think of all the fun things I do with Emelia during the day and it saddens me that I will miss that more now. I also fear I will miss some of her "firsts"... Like her first roll over to her tummy, or her side, or all the way around. What about her first real gut-rolling laugh? I pray she does those for me, first, but I am sad that she might do them at daycare first, instead.
BUT, I am needing to go back to work, partly for my sanity, but mostly for the financial aspect. We are BROKE! At least I know I will be able to provide easily for my little girl once I go back to work, because even though we have had half our income coming in the past few weeks, I have still been able to keep her dressed, clean, healthy... as well as my husband and I have been able to eat properly and be warm and healthy.
I still wish I didn't have to go back to work so soon. Maternity leave should be longer! And it should be paid maternity leave!! Wishful thinking.
For now, I will snuggle and play with Emelia a little extra tonight, get everything ready for daycare and work tomorrow, then suck it up and get going bright and early in the morning! Well, not bright because I will be getting up between 3:30 and 4am! Still, we'll make it through this!
BUT, I am needing to go back to work, partly for my sanity, but mostly for the financial aspect. We are BROKE! At least I know I will be able to provide easily for my little girl once I go back to work, because even though we have had half our income coming in the past few weeks, I have still been able to keep her dressed, clean, healthy... as well as my husband and I have been able to eat properly and be warm and healthy.
I still wish I didn't have to go back to work so soon. Maternity leave should be longer! And it should be paid maternity leave!! Wishful thinking.
For now, I will snuggle and play with Emelia a little extra tonight, get everything ready for daycare and work tomorrow, then suck it up and get going bright and early in the morning! Well, not bright because I will be getting up between 3:30 and 4am! Still, we'll make it through this!
Friday, February 11, 2011
Daycare Continues!
Today, Emelia is at daycare again, for a full 8 hours! This is my last Friday before going back to work, which my first day back is next Monday, the 14th... Happy Valentine's Day to us, right?
So far, daycare has been going rather well. She doesn't really fuss much there, takes naps, and she is still drinking the bottle, thank God! It is challenging for me, though, because I have no idea how much milk to send with her! The first longish day she was there for 5 hours and she only drank two bottles. The second day she was there, she was little Miss Piggy and drank 3 bottles.... she had 4 ounces at 1:00pm and then another 4 ounces at 2:00pm!! I sent nearly 30 ounces with today, some of it frozen, so hopefully that will get her through the day. I imagine they would call me if they ran out.
I am thinking that today is probably going to be a little rough. Yesterday, we went to visit with my mom and her co-workers then after that we went to visit my work to see the residents and co-workers. Emelia would not let anyone hold her more than a minute or two and she would start crying and wanting me. As soon as she was in my arms, she was perfectly content and smiling at everyone! When I dropped her off at daycare this morning, she started to do that with the worker who was holding her, so I kissed my baby's forehead and told her I loved her before I left. I hope she is doing ok.
I am just so super relieved that she is taking bottles there, I hope it continues. I was told the other day she was "chugging" the bottles, so that's got to be good, right!? :)
Here's hoping it was a good day... and oh I hope I have a good day at work on Monday!! :) I think I'd rather be going to Daycare! Maybe Emelia wants to go do my work for me! Lol!
So far, daycare has been going rather well. She doesn't really fuss much there, takes naps, and she is still drinking the bottle, thank God! It is challenging for me, though, because I have no idea how much milk to send with her! The first longish day she was there for 5 hours and she only drank two bottles. The second day she was there, she was little Miss Piggy and drank 3 bottles.... she had 4 ounces at 1:00pm and then another 4 ounces at 2:00pm!! I sent nearly 30 ounces with today, some of it frozen, so hopefully that will get her through the day. I imagine they would call me if they ran out.
I am thinking that today is probably going to be a little rough. Yesterday, we went to visit with my mom and her co-workers then after that we went to visit my work to see the residents and co-workers. Emelia would not let anyone hold her more than a minute or two and she would start crying and wanting me. As soon as she was in my arms, she was perfectly content and smiling at everyone! When I dropped her off at daycare this morning, she started to do that with the worker who was holding her, so I kissed my baby's forehead and told her I loved her before I left. I hope she is doing ok.
I am just so super relieved that she is taking bottles there, I hope it continues. I was told the other day she was "chugging" the bottles, so that's got to be good, right!? :)
Here's hoping it was a good day... and oh I hope I have a good day at work on Monday!! :) I think I'd rather be going to Daycare! Maybe Emelia wants to go do my work for me! Lol!
Super Bowl Sunday!!
So I'm playing a little catch up here.... I have to get online by using my cell phone as a modem, and sometimes, I'm just too lazy to take the time to hook it up to my laptop! :)
Emelia's first Super Bowl was last Sunday, February 6th. How awesome that the Packers were in the big game! I am a huge, HUGE Packers fan! And until she can choose otherwise, Emelia will be a Packers fan as well! :) Here's a picture of her excitement for the game!!
She was in such a good mood, and I think it was because everyone around her was in an equally good mood! :) For the game, we went to her Great Aunt and Uncle's house where they had a feast of food! I made a Fruit Pizza special for the day!
It was delicous!
The only time Emelia wasn't happy was the first Packers Touchdown. I had her sitting on my lap, facing out from me, and I was bouncing her. The Packers intercepted the ball and ran it back for a touchdown and we all went crazy! We were shouting and I lifted Emelia up in the air to celebrate and it terrified her! :( I felt SO BAD! She started crying uncontrollably, I just hugged her and held her tight to me as I told her over and over that it was ok. I felt sooooo bad, I almost cried myself!
After that, everyone worked very hard to not shout so loud, and whenever something awesome happened and we were shouting, I made sure Emelia could see me and I smiled big and laughed at her to let her know it was ok. That worked very well, she never cried out again.
And the Packers are World Champions! They won the Super Bowl and it was a great night! We got home and we were TIRED! I took a few pictures of Emelia before bed.... we were whooped and glad to get to sleep! Here's another picture!
It was a great day, a lot of fun, and something I will always cherish being able to share with my little girl, even if she doesn't remember it! We have cute pictures to show her when she is all grown up! :)
GO PACK GO! WORLD CHAMPS BABY!!! :)
Emelia's first Super Bowl was last Sunday, February 6th. How awesome that the Packers were in the big game! I am a huge, HUGE Packers fan! And until she can choose otherwise, Emelia will be a Packers fan as well! :) Here's a picture of her excitement for the game!!
The only time Emelia wasn't happy was the first Packers Touchdown. I had her sitting on my lap, facing out from me, and I was bouncing her. The Packers intercepted the ball and ran it back for a touchdown and we all went crazy! We were shouting and I lifted Emelia up in the air to celebrate and it terrified her! :( I felt SO BAD! She started crying uncontrollably, I just hugged her and held her tight to me as I told her over and over that it was ok. I felt sooooo bad, I almost cried myself!
After that, everyone worked very hard to not shout so loud, and whenever something awesome happened and we were shouting, I made sure Emelia could see me and I smiled big and laughed at her to let her know it was ok. That worked very well, she never cried out again.
And the Packers are World Champions! They won the Super Bowl and it was a great night! We got home and we were TIRED! I took a few pictures of Emelia before bed.... we were whooped and glad to get to sleep! Here's another picture!
GO PACK GO! WORLD CHAMPS BABY!!! :)
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Little Laughs..
This is probably my last post today, but I wanted to add it so I don't forget it later on!
A little background first: Emelia has pretty much mastered smiling, is near mastering coo'ing, and her head control is incredible. She is now onto figuring out her hands and mouth and learning how to laugh.
Three days ago, she was laying in the pack n play and John leaned over and was talking to her and being goofy... I was doing dishes and couldn't hear exactly what was being said. Suddenly he comes into the kitchen and says "Honey! She just laughed at me!" Of course I didn't want to believe him because I wanted her first laugh to be at ME, but I kept that to myself, smiled, and said "Wow, that's great hon!" He was so proud! I didn't hear it, though, and I was bummed!
Yesterday, we did some errands and when we got home, Emelia needed a diaper change. Diaper changes are her favorite... she loves to talk and smile at me, well, whoever is changing her diaper really. I enjoy these times together. Yesterday during this particular diaper change, Emelia and I were being goofy and I started laughing and all of a sudden she giggled a little, snorted and then quick looked at me like, "Did I just do that?" And then for the next ten minutes she kept trying to laugh... she was making this "aaaahhhh" sound real loud over and over but she just couldn't get the giggle noise to accompany her voice. She was smiling the whole time and I was laughing with her, too, because it was so damn ADORABLE!!! It was so funny, and so neat to watch her trying to do something so hard :) (that DIDN'T involve pooping! :)).
And so the elusive laugh remains just out of Emelia's reach, but she'll have it down soon, in the next few weeks for sure... especially once she starts hearing the other kids at daycare laughing, too! :)
A little background first: Emelia has pretty much mastered smiling, is near mastering coo'ing, and her head control is incredible. She is now onto figuring out her hands and mouth and learning how to laugh.
Three days ago, she was laying in the pack n play and John leaned over and was talking to her and being goofy... I was doing dishes and couldn't hear exactly what was being said. Suddenly he comes into the kitchen and says "Honey! She just laughed at me!" Of course I didn't want to believe him because I wanted her first laugh to be at ME, but I kept that to myself, smiled, and said "Wow, that's great hon!" He was so proud! I didn't hear it, though, and I was bummed!
Yesterday, we did some errands and when we got home, Emelia needed a diaper change. Diaper changes are her favorite... she loves to talk and smile at me, well, whoever is changing her diaper really. I enjoy these times together. Yesterday during this particular diaper change, Emelia and I were being goofy and I started laughing and all of a sudden she giggled a little, snorted and then quick looked at me like, "Did I just do that?" And then for the next ten minutes she kept trying to laugh... she was making this "aaaahhhh" sound real loud over and over but she just couldn't get the giggle noise to accompany her voice. She was smiling the whole time and I was laughing with her, too, because it was so damn ADORABLE!!! It was so funny, and so neat to watch her trying to do something so hard :) (that DIDN'T involve pooping! :)).
And so the elusive laugh remains just out of Emelia's reach, but she'll have it down soon, in the next few weeks for sure... especially once she starts hearing the other kids at daycare laughing, too! :)
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