WOH, mom!

Well, it's official. I'm now a WOH mom. Unfortunately, it's not some endearing term for being a hot mom, or even a term that teenage boys use to refer to their friend's mom. (I suppose that's ok.) I'm a Work Outside of Home Mom.
This new title was given to me on Monday, and so far, it's not awful. I got dressed (like, in an outfit with layers) and I even accessorized a little! My mom came to my home to watch Charlotte, and I begged her to stay until my lunch so I could run home and feed her (probably more comforting to me than to her). The plan is for my mom to pick her up from my house, and then take her to her house for the day. Well, apparently C refused to take a bottle. She's taken one before without any problem, she just turned into a milk diva suddenly and a bottle wasn't going to be good enough. That makes going back to work very difficult, knowing that my baby is spazzing out and starving herself. (That might be a dramatic description.)
We'll work on it. She wouldn't take a bottle yesterday from my mother in law either. She had no problem drinking from one given by me and by my husband, and she even took one (with hesitation) from my friend Katie while I was present and talking to her.
I might have the grandmas wear a scarf of mine or something so she can smell me, or show her a picture...hahha, I have NO idea if that would work. But I'm willing to try just about anything, because mama's gotta work (right?)
I will add that Charlotte is SO into me when I get home though. She's so so sweet and snuggly. I grow to love her so much more every day.
So today is my day off...I'm getting my hair done! I am SO excited to try something new, and hopefully it turns out. I'm getting on the Ombre train and I shall have super model hair by noon today.
I also am trying out a new sunless tan and I'll give you the report soon! We're going out for a nice dinner this evening with the family and I'm really looking forward to this little makeover before hand. :) I hope whatever I get done today will distract from the awful stye I have on my eyelid. Ack! Have you ever had one? It's miserable! You can barely see this little boil thing, but it caused my bottom lid to get puffy (just what I need!) and red and it's super painful. Gotta get rid of that asap.
Alright, on with the day!
Have a great week, friends!

a photo of Charlotte in her new hat. It might have to wait a year.

 

More Change is Coming...

Well, it's almost here.
The end of baby vacation. (HA!)

I go back to work next Monday, and it brings much more than just feelings of apprehension.
I made a committment to go back to work, and the agreement was to work 20 hours a week. Very doable, right? I think so?

Let me break it down.
On Mondays and Thursdays, I will work from 8-5. I will leave the house at 7:45, and pick Charlotte up from Grandma's around 5:30. That's nearly 11 hours without seeing my sweet loving baby's smile, snuggling her before nap time, and hearing her coo.
We've gotten a baby sitter only 3 times so far, and at the most it was for 4 hours. The thought of someone else (even though it's a loving Grandma) feeding and rocking and laughing and playing (for hours and hours and hours) with her just breaks my heart.

This is when I tell myself to "SUCK IT UP WOMAN!!" and I give myself a little pep talk.
It will be great to contribute financially to our household, to have adult conversations, and to help people through my job. I might feel like I'm less of a drag to be around, since all I have to talk about is baby hiccups and which diapers prevent a blowout. I just fell asleep thinking about how boring I am right now.
And besides that, I will still have 4 and a half days with the little stinker. It's good to have some time apart, and it's wonderful that we have such wonderful moms to help!

An added bonus to going back to work is that I will be watching less TV.
Why oh why???? are there so many hormone replacement commercials on during the day? If I have to listen to one more over tanned middle aged woman talk about her libido...I might just sign up for it myself! kidding.

I know I will miss my little girl so much. But just like coming home after birthing the little monster, it's going to be a big change. I think it took me a good 8 weeks to get into a decent "routine" (the loosest translation of the word is more like it), so I expect that it will take about that long after I go back to work to really get the hang of it.
When people told me that the first year of their baby's life was a blur, I thought they were joking. I now can see how that's a possibility. So here's to the next 9 blurry months!

Are You A Blogger? And Quick Update on C!

Hi Friends!
Any of you have a blog you'd like to share with me? I'm always up for a good read!
Leave a comment and share your link!
Or...if you have favorites, I'd love to see what's out there.

While I'm here, I'll do a very quick Charlotte update.
At her 2 month appointment last week, she weighed in at 10 lbs 14 oz (50th percentile)
She is....shoot I can't remember how "tall", but she's in the 55th percentile and her head is in the 50th too.
Nice little average size baby.
She is sort of getting better with sleeping, still working at it. When she sleeps on her back in her crib, she'll only go 2.5-3.5 hours between feedings, when she sleeps in her carseat in her room, she goes 4-6 hours. So I've been opting to put her in there where she gets good sleep and lets me get good sleep too!
She's getting SUPER crabby at night between 7-10, but I'm also figuring out what works and what doesn't. She used to want to be held close, but now have discovered that she wants to lie flat on the couch or floor, but wants to be in close reach.
She had her first public spaz out yesterday at wendy's.
I've nursed her in the van more times than I can count...anyone else feed their baby in the car a lot? (obviously parked, for any people who think I'm an idiot.)
She's reallly starting to look like daddy.
Strangely I think she also looks like a turtle, even though Marcus doesn't resemble one.
She loves her panda on the play gym.
She is really starting to smile and make lots and lots of sounds.
She discovered her hands which is hilarious. She sticks them in front of her face during diaper changes and goes cross eyed when she holds them too close.
This is no longer a "quick" update.

But seriously! Share your blog with me, I'd love to read it. Even if you know I already rread it, share it so others can read it too
Happy Saturday!

Adventures in Emily World!

I had a different blogspot.address chosen when I first started my blog. The one I wanted was already taken.
I won't mention what it was going to be, as I don't want to out the author.
But for reals, yall? That poor, poor woman and her sad blog. It's a woman with cats, and she loves to take photos of them. And it also documents the discovery that her live-in partner was leading a double life and had a spouse and a child.
Seriously, woman. Give me my blog name and I promise it will be more upbeat. I will help you choose another one.
Such as catloverseeksfaithfulpartner.blogspot.com, or readthisandbethankfulforyourlife.blogspot.com
But ya know, she has more followers than I do. So obviously there is some sort of draw. Maybe my baby-rearing chronicles don't interest as many people as the recounting of a crumbling life held together by the love of felines.
So with that, readers, I leave you with a photo of a dog. An awesome one. :)

Here's Darby when we had to cover her stitches up.

A song where all your dreams come true

I've had about 3 different blog entries today but never published any.
You know it's a boring day when I decide to post the lyrics to my husband's made up song.
We've noticed over the years when someone has written an "original" song it usually ends up being about chasing your dreams and pots o' gold. So while watching Glee tonight, it was mentioned that in an upcoming episode that they will perform "original" songs.
Enter Marcus, with these lyrics:
Gonna chase down a rainbow
or take my horsey there
shake hands with a leprechaun
and pull a fairy's hair

So stay tuned to the upcoming Glee episode, where I'm sure something close to that will be featured.

Adios

So it's not just me, then?!

My life has been flipped, turned upside down for 8 weeks already!
Just thought I'd remind you of that.
I'm sort of surprised at how little I actually get done on a daily basis. I mean, she's just a newborn. (wait, when is she no longer a newborn? I like saying newborn. I don't want to stop.) newborn. See, it's nice.
There are days where I'm super psyched that I am able to complete a few simple tasks. Oddly, since I brought baby C home, I haven't been able to increase the number of simple tasks per day.

Well yesterday, like every 4th monday of the month, I had cooking club. This is where I prepare 8-10 (depending on the month) meals and meet with neighbors and swap. Preparing the meals is pretty time consuming, and if I were a smart person, I would have planned to do it sooner. I usually do it the day before club, but suddenly it was already Monday and my meals were not made. I knew I would need help because it's not as easy as "oh, I'll do it when Charlotte sleeps." (HA!!!)

Long story short, my mom came over and helped with Charlotte and when she needed to eat, she helped with cooking club. Thanks, Mom!

It was a busy day for me, as I had cleaned up the house a bit, worked on getting C to nap in crib, which is not as easy as it sounds, got groceries, and then spent 3 hours working on my meals.

When Marcus got home from work around 6, he was excited to bring in the 2 enormous boxes that contained our new lighting fixtures proclaiming, "I'm going to play electrician tonight!" which was then followed by my reminder that I have cooking club and I'll be leaving around 7:30.

I started dinner, installed some printer software on my computer so I could (holy crap!) finally print my labels for my meals (did i mention i was leaving in like a half hour?!) and gave Marcus a refresher course on how to heat a bottle, all while holding fussy child.

Meanwhile, Marcus is on a ladder, beginning the installation of the new fixture.

Dinner was not finished in time for me to eat, oh well. I'm trying to lose weight anyway.

When I got home around 10 pm, I see that the boxes are still everywhere, ladder still in front of door, light not installed. (not a big deal.) Marcus says, "She's been crying pretty much the whole time."

Surprisingly, only a small amount of guilt set in.

The only other thoughtI had was "ahhh...so it's not just me!!"

I still don't think it really occurs to Marcus that most days are just like those 2.5 hours he had, and that's okay. I'm not here to rub anything in. (teehee)

But it sort of feels good to know that I'm not a big loser who can't take care of a baby, clean a house, make food and do laundry all in one day. Or if I am a big loser, so is my husband. :)

Today, when feeling utterly exhausted, i cried to marcus, "I can't even dry my hair!!" to which he responded so adorably, "it's okay, it dries itself."

I love how he hs come to expect so little of me. :)

This is C's new favorite face. Breaks my heart and makes me smile at the same time. little stinker.