aaaannnnddddd.....we're in!

Today Mia is 14 weeks and 1 day old. She still eats about every 3 hours and is starting to nap a little better during the day. We have started giving her formula about half of the time and breastmilk the other half. This is not me trying to ween her, it just kind of happened. My body wasn't keeping up like it should I guess. I couldnt figure out why she wanted to eat so often so I started pumping and realizing she was only getting about half of what we would normally give her if we made a bottle, so now we alternate, and it seems to be keeping her on a more predictable 3 hour schedule. She has started to go to bed A LOT earlier now too....it seems like this stuff just happens overnight, literally! Last week, there was a night she was OUT by 7:30 and slept until 5:45...Ummm, thats a little over 10 hrs! Typically when she wakes up before 6, she takes another 2.5-3 hour nap after she eats. I heart her BIG time for that :) While her bed time seems to be creeping up to the evening hours, mine seems to be pushing back to the wee hours of the morning! I just get so much done once she's in bed that once I get going, it's hard to stop! When she is awake, she enjoys laying on the floor and playing with her toys. She can grab  at them now and even reach for them when you shake them in front of her! I think it's even fair to say she has favorites now (one is a frog rattle thing and the other are these flash cards on a key chain - I just thought I might want to remember that)....I can't believe how grown up she is already. She can totally hold her head up like a pro and I feel like she is dying to sit on her own! One thing I'm a little worried about (not really) is that we may have a "loud talker" on our hands.....you know, one of those people who is standing right next to you talking, but insists on yelling like you are across the room? Luckily, she's got plenty of time to learn that no one likes "that guy" ;-) So, I'm not overly concerned about it. I'm finding myself weeding through her clothes and we are just about out of all of her 0-3 mo sizes and on the tail end of the 3 month ones! I see her every day, so at first, I thought I was shrinking her stuff (you know, like I shrink mine....that's the main reason I can't fit into my jeans still, right? ;)) but when people who don't see her every day see her, all I hear is how big she's getting. Big and awesome, that's my girl :)

So, I'm rushing to finish this up, but wanted to get to the main point of the blog (aside from the REAL main point from the first paragraph)...the move. Before this move, I only THOUGHT  I hated moving. I'm pretty sure I had it easy when I only had to pack up my things and could do that at any point during the day for however long I wanted. I could literally have my WHOLE apartment packed and live on one pot, one bowl, one spoon and Ramen for a week before I moved into the new place. This...THIS was a whole new ball game. Now, I am not one to be unprepared for things, especially things as big as moving. I started packing the day after Christmas....yes, 1 month ago. I was thinking that would be AMPLE time. What I didn't realize is that, with a kid, you can't pack everything up and live on Ramen. They actually need things during the day, EVERY day that they can't go even a day without. That means that yesterday morning after I dropped the baby off with Dan's mom, I was frantically running around trying to pack the last of her things. That was the least amount of fun I've had in a long time.

Well, I didn't manage to finish the blog during that nap, so today, Mia is 14 weeks and 6 days old :) We are finally getting settled into our new place. When I woke up yesterday I finally felt relaxed (yes, even on a Monday). I was able to get up and make coffee and go through the day in a sort-of-routine just like before we moved. It was the most at peace I've been in over a month. Since we moved, Mia has started a fun new habit where she wakes up around 3:30-4 crying. Most of the time I just have to go put her paci in, which sounds simple, except that now there is a stair case between me and her :-/ If I have to go up more than once, my second trip down is with her in my arms. I've tried to not let her sleep in our bed as much, BUT....I'm not all about midnight stair sessions! I was beginning to think that we were reverting back to not sleeping through the night, but last night she actually slept pretty much through. She woke up at 5, but then went back to sleep until about 8. I hope that 5 am wake up gradually moves back to where we were at the apt, and she was sleeping until 7 ;-)

All in all, we are really enjoying our new place. I think we are all in a better mood now that we are finally settled and we know we're going to be here a while....a LONG while. I told Dan that I was NEVER moving again. I meant it. May make it a little awkward for the new family if we ever sell....but, its a big house, I'm sure they won't mind an extra body ;-)

As soon as I buy some batteries for my camera I will post some pics of the house.

And my last order of business: me. I'm feeling really good now. I think I was in a funk pre-move, but I am in a much better place now :) I have lost another couple lbs and now have 9 pregnancy lbs left hanging around. Even so, I can now fit into (even if just barely) most of my pre-pregnancy jeans, so I am thrilled to not have to wear sweat pants every where....as I'm sure is my husband who I think was convinced I was never going to wear pant's without an elastic waste again ;-) I feel like now I can finally focus on me a little more, so trying to work in some exercise to our daily routine.....even when I can't work it in, the 90 trips up and down the stairs with a 13 lb weight give me a leg up from where I was before. My friend, Erin, is coming in to town and will be here for a while so I am going to start training for a half marathon with her soon :) I would love to think I will be able to run the whole thing, but honestly, I'd just be ok with finishing. So....I guess that's all for now. I've included below, a couple of pics of my little angel sleeping. Me and Dan aren't the only ones who were worn out by the move!

New Tricks and other stuff

Hello all! Today Mia is 13 weeks and 2 days old. We finally managed to recover from her first sickness....that was a rough 2 weeks for all of us! We have now had a weeks worth of resuming business as usual. She has all sorts of new tricks now though.....She smiles, laughs, grabs on to toys, blows spit bubbles and the trick that will bring her much attention at her first college party...she can fit her fist entirely in her own mouth. We're so proud ;-) She's starting to roll from side to side and I swear one day soon she'll make it full circle. I am constantly amazed at how much this child "talks" now too! We have a regular little chatty Cathy on our hands....Lord help us. It's really cute though, I swear she is actually trying to communicate....finally starting to take on some of my traits I guess. Her hair is really starting to lighten up too....aside from the baby mullet that is still very dark in the back. She has huge blue eyes that perfectly compliment her ginormous "cheekies" as we lovingly refer to them in our household. She's really just becoming a little person. She lets me know in no uncertain terms that when she is awake (which is often during the day) my attention is to be on her. Noted. However, our trade off for NO mommy time during the day, is that she sleeps through the night...like ALL the way through it. She goes down around 9-10 and I'm rarely up before 7. I'm not going to lie, it's awesome. We kind of won the lottery, as far as I'm concerned, in the sleep department! Aside from all that, we're now on a pretty regular schedule. She eats about every 2 hours during the day still and then plays for a bit then naps for a short time and we do it all over again. I can extend the time between feedings if we're out and she happens to sleep longer, but other than that, we have another Rain Man on our hands ;-) Luci must have filled her in on how to be totally predictable.

In other Jones news, we are closing on our house next Tuesday. All of the paperwork is finalized, the house is completed and we have done our first walk through. There are still a few things that need to be fixed before we can sign off on it, but they are due for completion this weekend, so we are super amped! Next week is going to test the limits of my sanity though. Things are crazy at Dan's work, so I will be over seeing our move on my own. Luckily Dan's mom is able to watch Mia when the movers come. Although that will be the first time I have been away from her for more than a couple hours (aside from when she's sleeping) so that is another source of anxiety for me. I know that she will be in very capable hands, but her and I have kind of a groove and I'm finding it's hard for me to relinquish control....shocking Im sure for anyone who knows me well ;-) So, until next Wednesday, I am continuing to pack our stuff and play in our box fort...and by "play" I mean "go crazy".

I finally took some pictures of the house when we were there yesterday so I've attached a few.

when you walk in the front door

Study

dining room

living room. the room that's lit up upstairs is Mia's bathroom

breakfast room

kitchen - they are changing out the backsplash to what we actually chose

view of living room from the kitchen

view of front door from upstairs

view of living room from upstairs

wet bar upstairs

For the rest of the tour, you'll just have to come visit us :)

And lastly, how I'm doing....I'm finally making some head way in Project "stop being fat". I have lost 3 more lbs so I now only have 11 more hanging around. It's still a lot, but I am actually able to fit into some of my pre-pregnancy pants, so I think it's helping to motivate me to get on the ball :) I am also noticing now how LOW cut some of my jeans were...good Lord, it's a wonder you couldn't see my goods before. Now I understand where the term "mom jeans" came from. I feel sometimes Like I might be more comfortable in some higher-waisted pants ;-) I am, however, standing strong on my stance against fanny packs....so I think that's a mark in the 'my old self' column.

I am quite sure I won't be updating again until after the move, so until then, I've posted some pics of how my little one has grown :) Hope everyone has a great weekend!

we took all the girls to get their pictures made after Christmas....talk about traumatic, and I don't mean for the kids!

this is when she was sick....still smiling :) i sure love her

12 weeks old!!

daddy has the magic touch ;-) haha

13 weeks

fell asleep after all the excitement of meeting her Aunt Enny



We couldn't let Mia have ALL the fun....

So, it's been 12 weeks since I shoved a human through my loins....12 WHOLE weeks! I will probably say this at some point during every blog, but I can't believe how time is flying. Mia now has a pretty stringent 2 hour - eat play sleep - schedule during the day. Im not sure if the time is shortened because we've been sitting at home and she's bored, or because she's been sick so she hasn't been eating as much or just because I blogged last that she was on a 3 hour schedule....there's really no telling. It seems though that regardless of whether its 2 or 3 hours, she is very exact. We are also now sleeping 8-9 hours at night.....and by 'we' I mean 'Mia'. I'm still probably getting only 5-6 hours. I have started a horrible new habit of letting her sleep in our bed. I tell myself on a nightly basis it's just because she's sick....but I sure hope she got that memo so we can transition seemlessly into sleeping apart again in the near future. It's not that I don't love having her right next to me, but I'm not a huge fan of being punched in the boob 20 times a night....call me crazy.

I thought Mia was on the mend last week....on Friday she seemed to be back to her old self. She was playing and sleeping regularly and she was not congested like she had been all week. The doctor had originally told me it could take up to 3 weeks to fight this RSV off to which i scoffed....NO Swindle stays sick for 3 weeks! Well.....we're nearing the end of week 2. :-/ I had to go back to the doctor on Monday because she sounded really bad when she was breathing, like something was stuck in her chest. Its a sound that makes you want to clear your own throat on the off chance that she'll get the idea and do the same. They told me that it had now moved to her chest and so they started her on breathing treatments. I am not sure how they expect a 12 wk old to sit still for 15 minutes at a time in order for me to administer them....so it's been interesting. She does pretty well, but I am definitely getting creative to keep her attention. Im just glad there's no camera watching me all day, that could be pretty embarassing. And of course I mean for Mia, as I'm pretty sure I have no shame left ;-)

Well just as I was sure there was no way my child would be sick for longer than a week, I was even more sure that I would elude the sickness myself. Not. The. Case. Last Friday, just as Mia was starting to get better (so I thought), I started noticing that my nose was congested and I was sneezing pretty often. Great. At first I wrote it off and just assumed it was allergies....but as I'm still fighting SOMETHING to date, I'm pretty sure that Mia has shared some of the fun with me.....AND Dan. He woke up this morning with a sore throat. Its just a barrel of monkeys at our house right now. Every where I look in the house right now I see tissues, nose spray, snot suckers, or breathing machines. Party! I'm confident I will feel fine soon, but you know how men are....it could take Dan weeks to recover! ;-)

Aside from all that fun, I'd say we're doing pretty well. Even when feeling her worst, Mia managed to keep a smile and stay pretty even tempered. AND, I think more importantly, this child has not missed a night of sleep! PRAISE THE LORD my kid's a sleeper!

In the down time, and by that I mean Mia's 45 minute naps, I have been packing our apartment up. I look to the dining room where I see boxes upon boxes stacked up....and then I look around the apartment and wonder what the hell is in them. I swear our things are multiplying. I think the only thing getting me through this move is the thought that I will not be doing it again for a VERY long time, and my new closet alcoholism ;-) (kidding). We are still scheduled to close on the house on the 24th of this month and we are planning on moving in the next day. Dan is in the middle of year end close stuff, so I will be overseeing the move on my own....I plan on checking myself into rehab in February to recover from the binge drinking I will most likely need to get me through the next couple of weeks.

I guess that's about it. I have lost another 2 lbs (one of which shows back up every once in a while....) so I'm 13 lbs away from pre-pregnancy weight. I'm pretty sure that if the move doesn't kill me, I will at least have a couple lbs to show for it (God willing).

So, if you think about us at any point during the next couple weeks, we could really use your prayers for a smooth transition and no surprises at closing.....

All good things must come to an end....

Well, I managed to make it back to blogcity only about a week after my last post! I wish the circumstances were better, but it's mainly because I'm on the couch watching my poor sick little girl sleep :( Mia will be 11 weeks old tomorrow and we are in the midst of fighting her first illness. With Dan off this past week, we were able to be out and about quite a bit more than usual. It was so fun to have him around so much and to be able to get out with some help. We did a lot of checking up on the house (as progress is so fast these days) and a little shopping and some eating out....apparently we also did some virus contracting. Friday we noticed that Mia had a little cough. It was nothing serious and it wasn't interfering with her sleep or mood, so we kind of just brushed it off as a tickle in her throat. Well, Saturday rolled around and it persisted. We had planned on going to my brother Toby's house to hang with him and Amie and the kids. With Mia's cough, I was a little concerned about bringing her around other children, but honestly I thought it was just a seasonal thing and that she was fine. I ran to the store that afternoon to grab some stuff for the evening and while I was gone, Mia went from being 'fine' to being 'not fine'. Dan called and requested I come back home IMMEDIATELY. I walked in to a screaming baby....she was unconsolable :( It was heartbreaking. She ended up throwing up some junk (sorry for the details) but the congestion seemed to stick around. We decided it was best that we stay in that night (New Years Eve) and just make sure she was ok. I assumed she would be fine the next morning...but that was not the case. Sunday she was super congested when she woke up and couldnt seem to kick it. The only thing that kept me from calling the doctor then was that she wasn't running a fever and this child's mood was still just as cheery as she always was, minus the intermittened fussiness that is common for most kids who can't breathe through their noses. Last night though, things went from bad to worse. She was up all night coughing and trying to get the gunk out of her throat. She finally went to sleep around 5 and woke up around 6:45 to eat. I called the doc when they opened and got in at 8:20 (awesome pediatric office!). It turns out Mia has RSV. Its a pretty common virus from what I understand, but I was informed by the doctor that it tends to stick around for 2-3 weeks :( Being a virus, there wasn't anything he could give us, except for a nose spray to help with the congestion. He said it didn't sound like it had moved to her lungs so there was no need for breathing treatments just yet. We basically just need to do what we've been doing and wait it out....awesome. So, here we are....waiting. She is eating about every 2 hours and then gets a little fussy because of the congestion, but when she calms down, she sleeps for about 45 min-1hr. She's such a trooper. We have officially reconfirmed how awesome our kid is. Even when she's super sick and can't breathe out of her nose, she smiles and laughs....that is way more than I can say for the two adults living with her ;-) I am far from laugh-y when I don't feel so hot. Lucky for us, neither Dan nor myself have started feeling bad....let's hope that stays the case!

Well before I had all that news, I was going to get on here to share what I learned this week.....you ready? Here it is:
When your husband offers to help you with a household chore....ANY household chore...let him. Don't tell him how you do it, or how absolutely back-asswards he is doing it. Just keep your mouth shut and re-do it when he leaves ;-)
Wanna know how I came across this very valuable lesson? If not, stop reading....on Sunday I realized I still hadn't folded Mia's laundry that had now been sitting in the dryer for 2 days, so since Mia was asleep and we were both just sitting around watching hour number 7 of the DIY network (Lord help me....) I plopped the laundry down on the couch. Dan politely offered to help me fold "the big things", you know, like towels and blankets and other things that didn't have tiny sleeves and feet. I immediately accepted (which is highly unlike me given how particular I am about how I like things done). I threw him the blankets, burp cloths and one of her hooded towels. As I was folding all of her little things, I politely informed Dan that I like to fold those sorts of towels in three, and then in three again...you know, so you can see the adorable hood part when you put it in the drawer. Dan did not stop his incorrect folding of the towel and then proceeded to immediately inform me that HE prefers to fold the burp cloths into iscosolese triangles...it's just better that way......what a kidder. He, knowing me all too well, waited for my response of distaste....which I kept to myself for possibly the first time since we've been married. Now, I may not ask for his help again, but if he offers, I will still take him up on it and just deal with the triangles I have sitting in Mia's burp cloth drawer....where EVERYONE knows, there should only be squares ;-)

As far as how I'm feeling....I'm tired, and just worried about my baby. I know she will be fine, but it kills me to see her not feeling well :( Besides that, I realized in my last post, I neglected to update my weightloss status. I have made no progress. I still have 14 lbs to lose. BUT considering we made it through the holidays AND I am coming off a 40 week junk food bender and didn't GAIN any weight....I consider that to be progress in itself. I would imagine working out will not be much of an option until the munchkin feels a little better....but we'll see.

Here are a few pics I took yesterday and today....She's still precious even when she's feeling like poop....I have no idea WHERE she gets that from. It's certainly not from me!