4 Months on Saturday!

We are home today as baby girl got her 4 month shots yesterday and is running a slight fever and fussing today. I was so proud of how well she did getting the shots, though! 4 sticks in her tiny thighs, and she only cried for a minute or so. She even gave the nurse a tentative smile afterwards! Either she is very forgetful or very forgiving. I'm hoping it's the latter :)

As of yesterday, Amy Grace was 23.5 inches long and 10 lbs 3 oz. We are supplementing with formula now as multiple trips to a lactation consultant and various strategies to get her weight up indicated that I have too low of a supply. Since we have added in the formula, she has started to fill out but is still a beautifully petite little girl :) I don't care how much she weighs as long as she is getting enough. However, I hope she's not planning to get into a wresting match with Michael, the boy at daycare who is a week younger than her and about twice her size! I still struggle with the fact that I don't believe that formula is part of God's design for us, but I have to accept that for whatever reason, we need to use it. I'm just thankful for the breast milk that I am able to give her.

She gets more and more alert and in tune with her surroundings every day! She recognizes me and Brent and will watch us from across the room. She smiles and coos a lot, and knows how to ham it up when she meets someone. She has started to reach out and intentionally touch and grab things. (Lately she has been quite fascinated by my hair and the breast pump tubing. I think she might be jealous of the pump :)). Best of all, she has begun to settle into a routine and is sleeping much more soundly than she used to. All of a sudden, she started falling asleep around 7 or 8 o' clock. At first we would lay her down in her carseat or bouncer and keep her with us until we went to bed, and then brought her back in the bed with us after she ate around 2 am. Then, we started putting her carseat/bouncer in the crib and turning the monitor on. Now, we lay her down in the crib (with the help of a sleep positioner that elevates her head and keeps her secure) and enjoy the rest of the evening until she wakes to eat. She isn't sleeping through the night, but I don't expect her to at this age. Simply having her sleep by herself has been a nice break for us, and I'm glad we didn't try to force it when she was a newborn. It is neat to see her grow up and mature a little bit :)

Amy Grace Is Online Again...Kind of :)

A few months back I posted a link to Nublette's first photo shoot, from MyHomeIdeas.com. Her second one, for a "Girls' Night In: Baby Shower" article for MyRecipes.com (where I work), is online today!

I had to laugh to myself a little bit when I realized that today I am wearing the same shirt as I am in that picture - just with a little less belly :)

Jon & Kate Plus 8

Ok, time for a little vent. I left TLC on yesterday afternoon while I was home cleaning for a little background noise. During that time and into the evening, several episodes of "Jon & Kate Plus 8" came on. I'd seen it a couple of times before, though I don't quite understand the obsession with watching people run after 8 kids. Guess it's something akin to staring at car wrecks on the interstate. Not that having a large family is tragic...but you know. It's so voyeuristic.

Anyway, I am just wondering: Am I the only one who can't stand this show? Jon and Kate - Kate in particular - annoy the heck out of me. Seems like she is constantly bossing him around or degrading him and he either just takes it, or his bitterness comes out later in some sort of snide comment. I want to say, "DUDE! Stand up for yourself!" I would say that I don't understand why this show is so popular, but considering the number of women out there who feel entitled to belittle their husbands...I'd be kidding myself.

If I were going to regularly follow large broods of kids, I think I'd watch "18 Kids and Counting" instead. I saw part of an episode the other day, and it's a neat story about a couple that decided to quit taking birth control (after miscarrying due to getting pregnant on the Pill) and let God determine the size of their family. 18 kids later (with the oldest one now married), they are on tv and are a great witness to the power of God and the joy of letting Him decide how many children they'll be blessed with. I doubt Brent and I will end up with anywhere CLOSE to 18 children (and he probably just had a heart attack reading this :)), but it's refreshing to see a show featuring a family that strives to live outside the dictates of society, and inside the principles of God's Word.

One Year Ago

March is a big month for us. March 1st is Bo-Baby's birthday (whoops, forget it yesterday - sorry BB!) AND the anniversary of our first date (three years ago). Our wedding anniversary is on the 24th. Turkey season begins. And today marks another anniversary of sorts. One year ago today, we found out that we were pregnant with Amy Grace. It's amazing how at first that (unexpected) positive test seemed so overwhelming, when today we have a precious baby girl to show for it. Now I can truly see how ALL babies are blessings.

It's been a crazy year, full of so many ups and downs. But I will say one thing: pregnancy and parenthood grow you up immensely. We have both grown so much as people in our marriage, that it's hard to believe where we were a year ago. I am so very thankful for this year, and excited for the years to come.

The First Week Back

Overall, the transition to work and daycare went well. I actually had butterflies on the first day back! It felt like the first day of school for both of us. After three months at home, it was just a bit of sensory overload and a challenge to adjust to a new routine. I was nervous about how the first morning would go, but of course everything went fine. I dropped her off at daycare, and I think I was just in too much shock from the whole day for it to really hit me. I walked around the rest of the day in a daze. Each day after that, though, it got better, and now I feel like I've been back at work all along.

Many moms describe feeling guilty when they go back to work, either guilty about leaving the baby with someone else or guilty about WANTING to go back to work. While I wouldn't say I was itching to go back to work, I knew it was what needed to happen so I made the best of it. So I felt very little guilt, but I did miss Amy Grace a lot :) It was like having baby withdrawal! I've been going over to nurse her at lunch, though, which has been a great thing for the both of us.

As the days have gone on, it's gotten SO much easier. I never really got cabin fever at home, but it's nice to be back in the swing of things again too. Plus, I'm only working 30 hours a week and have Wednesday and Friday afternoons off, which has been GREAT. Since we are paying for that daycare time anyway, Amy Grace stays there on those afternoons while I clean, go grocery shopping, or do whatever else I need to around the house so that we can all enjoy nights and weekends more. Yay for that!

House of Pain...

Well, on Friday our little Nublette started coming down with the sniffles. This was somewhat to be expected, as lots of kids get sick right after starting daycare (or so I hear). We took a quick trip to the doc as I mistook her sniffles for wheezing. (It sure sounded like wheezing, but the fact that it mostly happened when I nursed her - aka, when the only breathing she could do was through her nose - should have clued me in. Oh well. She was fine.) In any case, her cold worsened over the weekend, but Amy Grace remained in good spirits and was quite the trooper! We've taken to calling her "Dragon" as well (I forget how that started), and it was pretty funny to hear our little Dragon actually sounding like a dragon. Perhaps she's been spending too much time with Star Baby. There's nothing quite so humorously tragic as taking care of someone with a cold who does not have the motor skills nor verbal comprehension to learn how to blow her own nose.

In any case, Brent started coming down with AG's cold on Monday, and I bit the dust on Tuesday. Now we are just one big, not-so-happy-right-now family of snifflers and coughers. Here's hoping everyone recovers by the weekend...

Serious Case of Mommy Brain...

Well, it is Day 2 of being back to work (more on that later), and I just gave everyone in the office a serious laugh. I heard a text arrive on my cell phone (thanks Holly!) and thought, "hmmm, I need to put it on vibrate." A quick search yielded no phone. So, I called my phone instead and got down on my hands and knees to search under my desk. No matter where I looked, it sounded like it was so close by! Not in my purse. Not in my pumping bag. Not in my pockets. What??

After about 4 calls to my phone, I went on the other side of the cubicle wall to see if it had somehow scooted under to the other side (completely unlikely). Our office manager saw me and asked what was wrong:

Me: I can't find my phone!
OM: What? How can you tell it's ringing?
Me: I keep calling it, and I can here it, but I can't find it.
OM: (Comes to my desk) Oh!! I thought you meant your OFFICE phone! I mean, there have been a lot of moves and I thought maybe it had gone missing.
Me: (Laughs) Hah! No, my cell phone. (Puts hand on belly by accident). Oh, wait...oh no, this is so embarrassing!
OM: What?
Me: I stuck it in my waistband this morning because it falls out of these pants pockets easily. Ok wow. Nevermind.

This was all made doubly embarrassing by the fact that I was able to stick it in my pants waistband so easily because I am STILL WEARING MATERNITY PANTS for my black dress pants. Hah. :)