I’m Just Me

Sometimes I feel like I struggle to accept the person I am and stop beating myself into this mold of the person I want to be. There is always this picture in the back of my mind of how I want to look and the things I wish I knew how to do, or liked doing. But when all is said and done I am just me. I’m not glamorous or organized. I don’t cook dinner every night and the bed rarely gets made. I have to accept that I may never be a size 2, or 4 or even 6! I wish I could play an instrument, or be extremely intelligent, or decorate my home well. I wish I watched TV less and spent more time hiking or reading or developing talents. When I was young I was full of energy and talent, now I struggle to make conversation with strangers and there is never enough time at the end of the day to work on talents. Still, I endlessly struggle with this idea that I could be, should be so much more than what I am. I wonder, does that ever go away? Or will I always wish I was a brilliant chef/seamstress/decorator/guitarist/scrapbooker/quilter/ triathelete/photographer/writer/videographer/nurse/and the list goes on…In addition to being a good wife and mom?

 

4 months and loving every minute!

 

Weight: 15 lbs 6 oz

Milestones: Consistently rolling over back to front and front to back, laughing, babbling, testing vocal range with high pitched squeals and cooing, reaching out to grab toys and mommy’s hair(ouch!), going 9 hours between feedings at night.

Current Nicknames: “Reesey-Piece”, “Reesey”, “Peanut”, “Sweetie-toots”, “Booger”, “Silly”, “Chubs McGee”, “Munchkin”.

Favorite toy: Giraffe lovey.

Favorite place: Baby gym, she just loves to grab the toys and try to pull them down to her mouth. She also manages to usually move her body in a complete circle if you leave her there long enough.

New things: The pediatrician gave the go-ahead for starting to feed her solids any time now, but I think we’ll wait another month. I don’t want to start too soon.

Upcoming: Reese’s first vacation. We’ll be taking her with us on a cruise to Mexico in 2 weeks. Stay tuned for what I’m sure will be a plethora of pictures and stories about the trip!

“A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise.”-Winnie the Pooh

This was the first baby outfit I ever bought for Reese. I bought it years before we even were trying to start a family. I loved it because it would work for either a boy or a girl. Plus you can’t go wrong with Pooh! I just realized yesterday as I was getting her ready for bed that this will probably be the last time she will wear it, she’s getting to big and it barely fit. What a great journey it’s been from buying that outfit for a future baby to now. My how the time flies.

Sweet dreams my little pooh-bear.

Gummy Grins

My favorite time of day is around 11 pm. This is the time when I wake Reese up and give her a good feeding so hopefully she will sleep through the night. She is totally out of it, but still manages to eat, which I find rather funny. Her eyes are completely closed so she is just jerking her head around with her mouth wide open searching for milk. Then while she’s eating she makes these little sighs of pleasure between gulps. This is one of the few times out of the day when she falls right back to sleep when she is done eating and I have the patience to not put her in her crib right away(example: 6 am, she eats and I dump her in her crib and stumble back to my bed for a few more hours of precious sleep.). When she finishes we just rock for awhile and I watch her fall deeper asleep. I wait, and if I’m lucky, there is this moment when she smiles in her sleep. A big gummy grin of pure and utter contentment. It’s enchanting. I look forward to that moment all day. That’s not to say that I don’t love so many other moments with my Reesey throughout the day. That one is just my favorite. My baby loves me. I make her happy. What more could I ask for?

MOMMY MUST-HAVES

Looking back on my pregnancy I remember that I was extremely stressed out about having everything and anything we could possibly need for our future little bundle. Call it extreme nesting. I learned a lot in my professional babysitting career about what items were useful, what strollers were the best, and what toys kids actually wanted to play with. So I had very specific ideas about the things I NEEDED and what things were totally unnecessary.

In response to my good friend Wendee’s comment on the previous post, I’ve decided to compose a list of the baby items that I love and could not live without. Granted, there will be many more in the future I’m sure. We are, after all, only 4 months in. So I may be adding to the list over time. But these are the things I definitely recommend to new first-time mommies. I’ll preface this by saying that these are my opinions and preferences based on my own experiences. I will try to explain my reasoning behind each item, but you may not feel the same. Choose the things that work best for you! You should plan for your baby in a way that makes you feel comfortable and confident that you will providing the best environment for yourself as well as your baby. If you are happy with things, then your baby will be also.

24

That’s my age now. Strange how birthdays just don’t matter so much anymore. I remember counting the days until I turned 12, 16, and 18 years old. Birthdays always held new privileges with the new age, and the potential for amazing gifts. I’m not complaining. I still get some pretty awesome unexpected gifts, but the excitement of being another year older is gone. Sad how time changes things like that. I feel the same way about Christmas. It’s just never the same when you grow up, although I look forward to experiencing it as a parent now.

Despite being somewhat lackluster with my hubby when he inquired about what I would like for my birthday, he managed to plan a wonderful day for us to spend together. He took the day off work and made plans with Grandma Mac to watch Reesey for part of the day. I’m so lucky he doesn’t let me wallow in my birthday blues.

To start- I got to sleep in while Mark took care of Reese. She must have decided that her birthday present to me would be rolling all over the place, and being an angel baby most of the day, because that is exactly what she did. After taking my time getting ready for the day-we went to a very late breakfast at Hobee’s(mmm, blueberry coffecake). Then Mark took me shopping for some new clothes. Yes, that’s right-MARK took me SHOPPING! Amazing isn’t it? Who is this guy? My husband hates to shop! I guess he was tired of me complaining that nothing in my closet fits me:).

We dropped Reese off in the afternoon at Grandma’s house and Mark whisked me off to a total surprise. He took me to an amazing spa in Palo Alto called Watercourse Way for some relaxation.

Then we picked up Reese, and after giving her a bath and putting her in her PJ’s we went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner so I could get a yummy salad. Reese was an angel and slept through dinner. Then I got to come home and watch the season premier of “The Biggest Loser”, which is one of my favorite shows.

It was a good birthday. I’m excited for 24. It’s going to be a good year, I can already tell.

Just another day in paradise

Reese is consistently “sleeping through the night”! (Or as close to it as I can hope for at this point according to the books I’ve been reading, hence the quotations.) She has been sleeping a 6 hour stretch from around 11 pm when I wake her up for a last feeding, until 5 am, and then she goes right back to sleep until around 9 am. So that means I get like 9 hours of sleep! Not without interruptions but still… sleep, sweet sleep. It’s done wonders for me. I can finally carry on an intelligent conversation, well for me anyways:). I can finally get through the day without desperately needing a nap! I have energy to go to the gym!

Whoever says that it gets easier after the 6 week mark was wrong when it came to Reese. 6 weeks old was when she got really difficult. 3 months is when we really hit our stride and it’s been getting easier and easier ever since. She sleeps like a dream in her crib. In fact, she falls asleep there better than anywhere else, including her swing and car seat. She eats better now because she is well-rested, and she is a pretty happy baby when she is awake. I’m loving this age!

Reese has rolled over a couple more times from belly to back but she is still is not rolling over consistently. She has also started to grab deliberately at toys when you put them in front of her.

So for the first 3 months of life Reese rarely spit up or drooled. I thought we were in the clear, but now she has started spitting up a little after nearly every feeding, and there is a stream of drool flowing from her mouth almost constantly. Yuck! Mark can’t stand it. He begs me to clean it up and practically throws her at me when she has spit up on herself. Ahh the joys of babies:).

The best news is that Reese has started giggling. It’s the cutest thing ever! So far I’m the only one who has gotten a chuckle out of her, it’s good to be the mommy:). She rarely does it, and it’s usually when she is the most tired and worn out but it’s moments like those that make it all worthwhile:).

To see more pictures from this photo shoot by yours truly, click here.