Eat, play, sleep, poop....

Hello again! Its been a while....in baby years its been an eternity! Mia is now 10 weeks and 1 day old. It is amazing the difference a couple weeks can make at this point in the adventure. She is really coming into her own now. She is awake FAR more than she ever has been and during the waking hours, she is not always crying or fussy. Most of the time, she isn't even hungry! this was a very hard concept for both Dan and I to grasp at first, so we mainly just stared at each other wondering what we were supposed to do with her. Now we fill our time with playing....and by playing I mean mommy making funny faces and kissing all over her and daddy clapping his hands, jumping around and just being kind of a goober in general. All of which she seems to be relatively amused by....at least while we're present. I'm sure she's already rolling her eyes when we walk away ;-)

So much has happened since I last posted. I have mentally started this update about 15 times, but there just hasn't seemed to be a good time to sit down and actually put pen to paper (or hands to keyboard, whatever the case may be). We managed to make it through Christmas without a hitch. We spent Christmas eve with my family at my grandmother's and then at my mom's house and then we went to Dan's parent's house on Christmas day. It was definitely a long weekend. I am learning very quickly how much a weekend like that can take longer than a wicked hangover to recover from. I guess without realizing it, Mia had put me on a schedule (and herself of course, she's very bright). So, to be gone from our house for so long all weekend, and off of her routine, we definitely felt the reprocussions. Our normally mild mannered little one had screaming fits at night, which I am assuming were from sheer exhaustion and her bed time got skewed so we are now back to getting up in the middle of the night. I hate to say we're "back to normal" now, for fear of what that might mean later tonight, but that seems to be the case.

I remember from the get go after Mia was born, I would go back and review these baby sleep books and updates I got from 'what to expect' to try and figure out when to try to start putting her on a schedule. Well lucky for us, Mia is her father's daughter and she put herself on one pretty quickly. It seems like over night she went from falling asleep while she ate to making it through a feeding, playing for a while then being perfectly content putting herself to sleep. I was thriled the first couple times I didnt have to rock her until she was completely asleep and then gently place her in the crib and slowly back out without making a noise.....but now I kind of look forward to the nights where she needs a little cuddle with mommy before she turns in for the night :)

Dan is off this week so he has gotten to spend a lot more time with her. I have to fight the urge to tell him what she needs and how she likes things done because I know he needs to figure it out on his own, but I have to admit....its painful sometimes, but also equally amusing. Dan has learned that our daughter is calmed from a scream when he sings (yes, you heard me, SINGS) the chinese food takeout menu to her. For those of you who have been to a greek church before, you know the priest sings the scriptures in a weird sort of talk to music way that doesnt really have a pattern or rythm of any kind.....and Dan has adapted this method in calming our child. He always begins with the "starters" (makes sense) and finishes each section with 'Ameen' (I assume its Amen with a Greek accent....). I'm not sure what on earth made him think to do this, but clearly someone was craving chinese while the kid was screaming at some point ;-) It's hilarious. See, if I had told him that she probably had a dirty diaper, and THAT'S why she was screaming, I may have never been witness to his sure fire method. Sometimes it pays to keep your mouth shut. We'll consider that my lesson for the week ;-) I am also amused when Dan informs me what Mia likes or needs. For instance, the other day, I was told that Mia prefers to go to sleep with the light on. Hmmm...ok? Well apparently when daddy put Mia to bed one day last week, he left the light on and let her fall asleep on her own, so now in a man's world, this method will work until the day she dies. Noted. Thanks, Dad ;-) I think as women we are more adaptable and willing to try new things should situations call for it. For Dan, if this method doesn't work, then Mia is hungry. End of story. These are the situations when smiling and nodding come in handy ;-)

As for how I'm feeling....I feel good. I am getting sleep, I know what to expect during my day, I'm not scared to take my child out for longer than a 2 hour stretch and I have become a MASTER at getting my enourmously oversized stroller in and out of my car. I feel  like now I am just working out the kinks. I am trying to figure out how to make Mia's bedtime closer to 11 or midnight so that I can actually sleep completely through the night. As of right now, she goes down about 9ish and wakes up around 3-4. I'm definitely not complaining about a 6-7 hour stretch of sleep, but in order for me to actually get that, I have to be in bed by 9 too....and that is generally not the case (I see all of you who knew me before laughing, as 9 used to be LATE for me).

In other news, we are getting closer to being homeowners! We have a tentative close date of January 24th. We have already had a number of scares on the mortgage front mainly due to idiots who don't know how to do their jobs...and inaccuracies on our credit reports. So far though, all of those things have been remedied fairly easily and things seem to be moving in a positive direction. We started packing earlier this week so we are now living in what seems like a box fort. It's amazing how quickly the walls start to close in when you have the promise of almost 4 times the square footage just over the horizon. We visit the house about once a week to see how things are progressing. It's so cool to see how quickly things are coming together. We now have our coutertops in along with the tile in the bathrooms and laundry room. They have painted and stained the cabinets, and just put in the light fixtures this week. The fence posts are going up and they are getting the lawn ready for sod. Next week they are projecting that the wood floors will go in, and then the appliances not long after that! We are so excited :) I'll take some pics the next time we go out to post on here. Right now the only ones I have are when the only thing that was inside the house was the drywall.

Well I guess that's it for now, I am going to try to update sooner than later as I'm sure there will be a period where things will be pretty chaotic in january, so there will most definitely be some lag time then. Plus, I'm sure there were a million things I forgot that I wanted to say......

Until next time, i've posted some pics from Christmas. Hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and a happy new Year to come!

Christmas morning I can't figure out who was more excited ;-)

my precious baby girl right when she woke up....her dad and I had been up for hours already! who does that?!

This was a laugh in case you were wondering....

so studious already

Mia's first stocking!!

This was at Dan's house for Christmas day - this was the first outfit we bought her :)

Cooper and Mia in their matching out fits that aunt Deanna got them :)

it was love at first sight ;-)

crazy to think we met 11 yrs ago, and now we have kids that are a year apart...love :)

So, today Mia is 7 weeks and 5 days old. Saying that amount of time and living it seem like two very different increments. I am still constantly amazed at how quickly things are changing both with her on her own, and with our family in general. I always find that the end of the year flies by most of the time, but this year, it's out of control how quickly its moving. Mia goes in for her 2 month appointment next Monday. How can she possibly be that old? I'm pretty sure I just got out of the hospital, and I had every intention of being back to pre-pregnancy weight (haha) by this time....so surely there has been some sort of miscalculation. None the less, my baby will be 2 whole months old on the 19th. I'm not sure why, but just saying that makes me a little sad.....

Mia now has a distinct grasp on the concepts of day and night. She is sleeping consistently at least 6 hours at night....a day that only a few short weeks ago, I was sure would never come. A few nights ago, I leapt out of bed at 4AM and ran (literally) across our apartment to make sure she was still breathing! She was. And she didn't seem in the slightest concerned that I almost took out our Christmas tree and nearly broke my neck tripping on Luci's chew toy that has been in the floor since I can remember....not sure why I haven't picked it up, it's still laying there, I must enjoy a challenge....I digress....I just couldn't fathom her being asleep for longer than 4 hours, but as it turns out, she is her momma's girl and it didn't take her long to figure out that day time hours are SO MUCH more bearable with more than 2 hours of sleep ;-) Needless to say, minus the occasional moment of hysteria thinking that my child is no longer breathing, I am thoroughly enjoying the added hours of slumber. They certainly help me deal with our new little emerging drama queen :)

She certainly is developing quite the personality! She smiles all the time, and the world stops for a moment, then in the very next instant, she screams...it's a viscious cycle, each to counter act the other. She smiles so I know I'm doing something right, and screams to remind me that even though she's happy, this is no cake walk. And I'll take it however it comes. She definitely has me on my toes though. Seems like when she was younger (yes I realize has only lived 7 weeks) there was no question what she wanted. When she was awake, she was hungry. I would feed her, and she would go to sleep until she was hungry again. Easy (I'm pretty sure my self from 5 weeks ago would punch me for saying that). Now, when she's awake, there's no telling. Maybe she's hungry, or maybe she just doesn't like the color shirt I have on that day....and don't think I haven't tried changing my shirt to see if that stops her from crying! Want to know the even more awesome thing, and by awesome, I mean not awesome, when she is crying from sheer boredom and I finally do something to appease her, then she starts crying again....she requires a WHOLE NEW thing to become contented again! I'm learning very quickly that the same thing twice in a row NEVER works! I feel like I could be on one of those weird cooking shows where they give you a pumpkin, a jar of strawberry jam, two clams and a bag of fish livers that you have to make a gormet meal out of...except instead of cooking, I'm trying to keep an infant entertained and happy. I am very resourceful these days ;-) But seeing her little faces (both happy and sad) still makes my day. I can't say enough how grateful I am to be able to spend this time with her.....she's pretty cool, I think I'll keep her.

As far as how I'm feeling, I am pleased to say that I am LESS tired. I'm not sure how this happened, but I went from being a morning person, to NOT being a morning person after having this baby. Wha?? Yea...I can't figure it out. I keep telling myself that after her 6AM feeding, I need to just get up and start moving, but I have yet to fight the urge to get back in bed (being the couch after the 6 o'clock feeding, we normally snuggle up together) and don't emerge again until around 9. Even at 9, I am still not totally with it. I'm just glad that we have at least a slight resemblance of a routine in the mornings, so I know that after she eats at 9, I have at least 2 hours to do something with myself before its boob time again ;-) While I'm starting to feel more confident in the mommy department, I am still lacking confidence in the woman department. I am struggling a lot with what this pregnancy has done to my body. I honestly thought that losing the weight would be a walk in the park, I also thought that I would have plenty of time to work out and would start that immediately...yea, right. I'm finding that it's not so much a matter of 'I don't have the time to workout', its more 'I don't have the energy to workout, plus I kind of don't want to even if I did have the energy'. But, I am reminded every time I go to get dressed that if I ever plan wearing anything in my closet again that is not an old t-shirt and oversized sweater, that I am going to have to get off my bum. So.....in an effort to make that happen, I have enlisted the help of Jillian Michaels :) All of you who know me well, know that I have a secret infatuation with the woman. And she and I are going to be seeing a lot of each other in the next couple of months. I have decided (just now) that in order to keep myself motivated, I am going to track my progress on this public forum...so get ready ;-)

To date I have lost 26 of the 40 lbs I gained while pregnant. My goal is to be at my pre-preg weight by the time Mia is 5 months old.....so I have 3 months to lose 14 lbs. I think I can. Bring it, Jillian.

Aside from my body image issues, I am doing well. I  am getting out a lot more often and, lucky for me, my child is an ANGEL in public! If she is fussy at home, I pack her up and put her in the car and as soon as we start moving, she's out. Now, the one draw back is that if I happen to hit a red light, sh*t hits the fan! I have never encoutered a being that was so motion sensitive! I now make it to my destination by way of right hand turns I can take in order to avoid having to stop.....Also, I have now begun mentally packing our apartment nightly in order to prepare for our move. Unfortunately, none of my mental packing translates to ACTUAL packing...its a shame really. We don't have our official close date on our house yet, but the guess is that we will close around January 24. We are super excited, but along with the excitment of a new house comes the anxiety of a new house.....

I guess I've written enough about not much, so I'll give you guys a break for another week or so ;-) I don't have any pics uploaded at the moment, but as soon as I upload some current ones, I'll post them. She looks so different now! It's amazing how much she's changing every day :)

And for the record, I've learned this week that the only thing that is consistent in this house now, is change.....and Mia's crazy man farts ;-)

It's all about the little victories...and the BIG purchases

Hello all! I'm not sure if you knew it, but its December....as in the LAST month of the year. Holy cow. Where did the year go?! My little Amelia will be 7 weeks old tomorrow. 7 WEEKS! It seems like so much has happened since my last post so please forgive me in advance for being completely scattered. It's 7:15AM, I've been up for 2 hours and chances are good that the tiny one will be joining me at any moment, so if this post drops off out of no where, you will know why ;-)

Well I'm pretty sure that when I last blogged, my little one was starting to smile and be awake for longer stretches, she probably was sleeping for a good 4 hours during one stint at night and I'm not sure if I shared or not, but her insides were not functioning properly....if you know what I mean. Things are still similar to the aforementioned, but so different at the same time. Mia smiles all the time now! It's the cutest thing I have ever seen. I still can't find that 1 thing that consistently makes her do it, so Im always pleasantly surprised when my sessions of cooing and making funny faces pays off. Its kind of like she's just humoring me....and I'm ok with that. I have a feeling this is only the start of a long line of her humoring me in one way or another ;-) I figure it's the least she can do, afterall, she does have a personal assistant to cater to her every whim 24/7. She is really starting to become more and more aware of her surroundings too. She recognizes me now and will follow where I am (assuming I'm not right next to her). When Dan gets home and night, she lights up! Its adorable :) She is really starting to gain control of her head too. She still is kind of wobbly and I get the occasional head butt (hopefully unintentional), but I got to give her credit, I mean, that is a HUGE brain she is carrying around....so it's going to take time to get full control of the sheer volume!

Now, I think I've established over the last almost year that this blog is a no holds bar kind of forum, so here goes. My new rant topic: poop. (*immediately everyone logs off*) I'm pretty sure there was a time in my life where being pooped on first thing in the morning would have been a good indicator of a bad day to come. That is no longer the case. From about week 2, Mia has had problems going to the bathroom, and was super gasy (which I can only assume she got from her father). When we saw the pediatrician, I let her know that she was only going once every 3-4 days. And by day 4, like any human would be, she was not a happy camper. The doctor said that was still in the "normal" range, and not to worry. Well let me just tell you what the normal range is: babies can poop after every feeding (8-10 times a day) or they can go up to 5 days without a movement. Seriously?? wow. Well, being the expert that I am on these things, I decided to diagnose my child on my own because while the doctor can tell me what's "normal", she does not have to endure the sad faces and colichy behavior that comes along with an infant that hasn't pooped in 4 days. So, I determined that maybe she had a lactose allergy. I changed her formula to soy, and have noticed a dramatic difference. Now, she's an every 2 day pooper.....still not a lot for a baby, but hey, I'm not going to complain about not having to change 8 poopy diapers a day! This is what I meant when I referred to small victories....

And I officially just wrote more about poop in one day that I suspected I would in a lifetime....not that I ever predicted I would write about it in general....but you get my point.

Another small victory is the fact that Mia is now doing a 5 hour stretch at night! MOST nights, she will go to sleep around 10 and wake up at 3. This is huge! I never dreamed that I would be this excited about 5 hours of sleep, especially given that pre-Mia, I was an 8-10 hr/night sleeper, but good Lord...give me 5 hours any day now over the 2-2 1/2 I was getting at a time before! Its amazing how refreshed I feel during the day now ;-) I even attempted a workout last week (from which I am still recovering). She is also napping regularly during the day, and I find that once she goes to sleep, I go into speed racer mode. Never knowing when she is going to wake up makes me prioritize things very differently....and move much more quickly. Yesterday, she went down around 3:15 and got up at 5:30. during that time, I was able to clean my entire apartment (including dusting and vaccuuming), do 3 loads of laundry (fold and put away), prep dinner and sit down for a little 'me' time :) I was actually waiting for her to wake up when I got done. Needless to say, I am starting to get my groove I think. I think the one thing I'm lacking now some sort of schedule. I like things to be predictable, and while there is a general theme to my days....there is still not a solid schedule. I know that she's only 7 weeks old though, so I'm trying to give it time. Patience is not my stong suit...even now.

Last BIG pice of news is our purchase :) Dan and I will be closing on our first house next month! This was something we had intended to be a little further down the line, but we came across a deal we just couldn't pass up. We had been looking at builders in Frisco hoping we could move into a new home sometime in the summer. Well one of the builders had an inventory home on a large lot with the floorplan we had fallen in love with for sale to be finished next month! Since the home was already being built, there were already a lot of upgrades in it and since it's the end of the year, we got a great deal. We are still going through the process of selecting our finishes, but everything should be finalized in the next week and we will get our closing date! I could not be more excited to be moving into a bigger and permanent place. The house is gorgeous, it really is our dream home :) Once we get everything finalized, I will post some pics. Until then, please pray that everything goes smoothly for us on that front!

I am still thrilled to be able to be at home with Mia, if I were working I would most likely be going back next week. It's probably a good thing I'm not.....last week I walked out of the house twice with my top on inside out. The other times, there is no doubt I had spit up somewhere on my person or was wearing sweat pants that hadn't been washed in a week. Dan's one lucky S O B ;-) I just keep getting sexier.

Well, I am guessing I have about 3 minutes to spare before I get to hang with the little one again, so I'm thinking I might go brush my teeth or something equally exciting ;-)

We just got our edits back from Mia's newborn pics, so here are some of my favs... :)