Life with Millie - 8 weeks

Millie was 8 weeks on Sunday. Can't believe it's already been 8 weeks!! I remember so vividly the week before she was born and it seemed like she was never coming!! So to already be at 8 weeks is crazy!

Here are some highlights from the past few weeks:

Millie meeting her Uncle JR. We think she was a little overwhelmed by his beard. She was quite amused by him though! JR, Molly and my dad were in town almost 2 weeks ago. It was partly work and partly pleasure. We had a great time with them!

This is Millie in her bath. She likes her bath time! We bathe her pretty much every other night. Last night we actually took the net thing out so she was more in her bath and upright. I think she liked it a little better. Easier to wiggle her legs around. So cute!!

And for the record, I don't really know how to get these pictures upright.

Millie sleeping on Grandpa Rick. Grandpa Rick was great at taking the "early shift" holding Millie when/if she didn't go back to sleep.

Millie meeting her second cousin who is about 5 weeks older than her (yes, he is 5 weeks older). It was fun for these cousins to meet. They were good sports about letting us take pictures.

We had a busy weekend when family was in town. After a family lunch in Salem (where the last picture was taken) we had a gathering at Barb's. Both served as opportunities for everyone to see dad, Jr and Molly, but also to meet Millie. In this picture we swapped "kids" with my cousin Michael and his wife during the dinner at Barb's.

Couldn't help but take a picture of Millie in this really cute outfit!! The leggings were adorable on her chubby little legs ;)

I took this picture on Monday. Millie is starting to suck on her fists. She can't hold them in place long enough to really get soothed by the sucking but she's trying more often. It's so cute and wet!

Mark plays with Millie when he gets home from work. Here they are enjoying time on her playmat with her giraffe friend that she likes to talk to. I love her outfit in this picture! She wears these cute nightgowns to bed so midnight diaper changing is easier. The onesie doesn't entirely match and Mark picked out the socks and likes to pull them up as high as they go so they are more like knee highs.

Millie is doing well at living. She smiles a lot and sometimes carries on conversations with us and we're getting better at reading her signs when she is hungry and tired. We've worked her onto a good daily flow of eating, staying awake, and sleeping. I like it because it helps me know what we're doing next ;) She does still eat about every 2 hours, although easily sleeps through feedings to go as long as 3 or occasionally 4 hours, but only when sleeping. I sometimes think I should keep her awake more during the day but she's so fussy when she's sleepy that I hate to make her stay awake.

Speaking of sleeping, she takes 1 or 2 long naps a day and 1 or 2 short naps. She sleeps best in her car seat (but when she's awake doesn't like the car seat unless it's in motion in the car or stroller), bouncy seat or in your arms. The best way to wake her from a long nap during the day is to try putting her in her bed ;) She still isn't going to sleep before around 11:30 or midnight and I'm slowly working to put her to bed a little earlier (although last night didn't work) and get her to fall asleep in her bed... a work in progress. Within the next week we plan to transition her from the bassinet in our room to the crib in her room. I don't feel emotionally ready to have her out of our room yet. Makes checking on her and nighttime feedings really easy. But we think she is getting a little big for the bassinet (always ends up with her head against one side or the other).

Next weekend Millie and I are heading to Montana for 5 days to visit my parents. I'm excited to travel with her (although a little nervous about how she'll do) and excited for my parents to see her again, but will be sad to be away from Mark.

The big thing for me is going back to work (with Millie) in 2.5 weeks. I'm starting to mentally think about this transition and getting excited and anxious to go back to work. I'm excited to be back at work and be around adults again. But a little anxious to see how Millie will do. My work people are great though and willing to give it a try! I will miss being at home to getting things done during the week like cleaning so we don't have to do it on the weekends. But I will still get Friday's off and am only working part-time.

I'm trying to squeeze in 4 workouts a week. They are either a walk/run by myself or with someone (and Millie), 30-60 minutes each time. Or 20-30 minutes of pilates at home. The pilates is really hard!! But I like the idea of toning along with cardio. Yesterday I signed up for a half marathon on April 11th. Not sure how well I'll do but now I'm committed! The farthest distance of run/walked so far is 3.5 miles so I have a ways to go ;)

More on life with Millie - 6 weeks

Not sure why this picture loaded side ways, but it's cute even with your head turned. I especially like the bow ;)
It's been 6 weeks and I'm cleared to start working out again. Last week I took Millie for a 1.25 mile walk in the stroller. I didn't think it would be much of a workout since I was only walking but with a good sized hill and pushing the stroller, it was brutal!! I couldn't believe how hard it was and how out of shape I am!!

We're supposed to be walk/running a half Marathon in early April so need to get started. So we have a plan to do a walk/run with our good friends Peter and Trisha (my running partner) on the weekends. So Saturday we ventured out to our beloved "long route". Trisha and I did small spurts of jogs while Mark and Peter walked while pushing the stroller. It worked out great! Except that it was hard and I was a little sore the next day.

Not sure how to fit workouts in during the week other than walks when it's not raining and the conditions with Millie are good. But I figure the worst case scenario we can walk most of the half marathon. The point is to get out there again! Peter and Mark are planning to walk it as well and we enjoyed our workout together on Saturday!

After our walk we all went out for breakfast than back to Peter and Trisha's for the guys to play xbox and for us all to hangout for a bit. It's nice to fit Millie into pieces of our life that we've had to take a break from lately.

Millie smiling and talking.

For several days this week we've tried a new schedule with Millie. Well, not so much of a schedule just a better "flow" for the days. It was one I read about before she was born but it didn't seem to work until now. She doesn't follow it completely, but pretty close. It's a 2-3 hour pattern of eating, staying awake and then sleeping (in that order). Although she throws some extra sleeps in there and has a long nap in the early afternoon. But I have to say, it's nice to sort of know what should be happening next. I watch for her signals and what's going on and roll with it. But it's only been a couple days so far. We've also tried putting her to bed earlier. Before we just put her to bed when she fell asleep at a time that worked for us but with this new flow we put her to bed during her sleep time around 8ish. We are trying to do about the same thing every night so she'll be familiar with the routine and know what time it is, time for bed! She'll wake up after only a couple hours and I'll feed her again and then we take turns staying up to rock her to sleep, when she'll sleep for her 3-4 hour time block.

Millie isn't doing any kind of sleeping through the night. She normally has a good 3 or 4 hour sleep but is otherwise up every 2 hours. I still haven't figured out how to put her back to sleep during the night if she doesn't do it automatically while eating. It's hit and miss for her to fall asleep on her own if I put her down when she isn't quite asleep. It's kind of amazing how you can go to bed early, get up kind of late, and still not feel like you sleep enough! Of course, being up multiple times a night for various lengths of time might be why ;)

This picture doesn't have anything to do with the schedule, I just think it's cute ;)

Life with Millie

Millie certainly keeps us on our toes!! We came back from 1.5 weeks in Whidbey with Mark's family feeling pretty confident about our parenting abilities. So much time with extra hands will do that to you! She also did great on the drive sleeping almost the entire time and when she wasn't sleeping she contentedly looked around... it helped that I sat in the back seat with her when she wasn't sleeping.

However, the first night we were home, Millie cried for over 2 hours! We tried everything we thought could help and nothing worked so we just took turns holding her and trying to comfort her and she eventually settled down.

That Monday was a little hard as I transitioned into being home alone with her again. However, some breaks hanging out at Barb's helped and a few activities that week.

Here we are snuggling ;)

Millie has started smiling in the past week! It's SO cute!! She smiles all the time when you talk to her and melts our hearts like butter. There is nothing that makes getting up in the middle of the night more worth it than a smiling baby.

Millie had also started talking to us! She makes several different sounds and moves her face and looks at you so intently we are convinced she thinks she is actually telling us things. It's adorable!!

And who could resist these eyes?

My Birthday, New Year's and other pics

My 29th birthday was 12/30. Mark and I decided to do something we pretty much never do while visiting his parents... actually leave the house ;) Other than our short trip to the mall before Christmas and our drive to Whidbey, we had our first family outing and did a short walk and lunch at a little bistro in Old Town Oak Harbor. It was a small adventure, but we felt good about getting out with the baby.

That night Jean made me a special meal and I opened some nice gifts from everyone. Mark's gift for me was a little late and I didn't get it until we got home, a necklace with charms on it with all our names on it, SO fun!!

It was a wonderful birthday!

This is us at lunch. Other than a small snack, Millie slept through almost all of it ;)

We had a small misunderstanding with our New Year's celebration. Being a new mom, I get tired early and the 31st was no exception. I went to bed at 10pm and had Mark promise to wake me at 11:45. So I headed to bed. The next thing I knew it was after 1am and Mark was bringing me little Millie to feed her. Umm... what happened to 11:45?

Apparently Mark woke me but I was SO tired that I quickly fell back asleep and didn't realize that when he said "happy new year" it was still only 11:45 and not 1am like I thought. I completely forgot he had woken me up earlier until the morning when he jogged my memory and thought he decided to let me sleep. I had really wanted to get up and celebrate the new year with a kiss and he really wanted me to get up.

So... we missed our New Year's kiss and family picture. Here's the substitute picture, taken the morning of the 1st.

Millie and her cousin's, Rian and Tegan.

Millie, wearing the first outfit Mark and I bought for her. It was still a little big, but SUPER cute!!

Mark and Millie right before bath time.

Things I love about being Millie's Mom

- I love how Millie lets out these little frustrated waaa's as she tries to communicate something. It normally starts with her grunting and making little noises and then she cries. But she doesn't all out scream, she gives you a few warnings first. And of course her arms and legs start moving more and more as she gets worked up.

- I love how she pumps her little leg (normally just one) when she is getting hungry and right before she gets fed.

- I love how she seems to want to push anything out while you are changing her. She practically smiles as she catches you off guard with a little pee and/or poo or something that doesn't come until you've put on the clean diaper. Which frequently ends with changing her clothes, her changing pad cover or at the very least the new diaper.

- I love how she smiles at me sometimes and occasionally for no apparent reason. They are few and far between but do amazing things to my soft squishy heart.

- I love how Millie doesn't like to take her pacifier even though she likes it after a while. We think she's going to be a little like me in that she won't like something until she understands the purpose, poor kid (or poor us!). At the very least she'll make a nasty face (like she's eaten something she doesn't like) and try and spit it out. However, it's better than the alternative where she nurses 24/7.

- I love how she just lays there while you change her and seems to enjoy a little naked time. Unless you are taking too long than she'll start to make those frustrated sounds.

- I love when I'm changing her and she stretches out her super cute little baby legs! I'm not sure why but that movement is the most adorable thing without pants on!!

- I love how I'm getting to know things about her. How she's been getting fussy when she's tired and you just have to hold and bounce and sway and pat and try and hold the pacifier in her mouth until she suddenly nods off. Sometimes she'll go completely out or she'll take 30 minutes of waking and then falling back asleep before she's really out.

- And call me crazy but I also love how Millie always spits up when I'm not prepared with a cloth. And how I've gotten blasted 3-4 times on the same shirt in one day and how it's even gone down my shirt and/or unnoticed as I've gone about my day.

- I love how when she stretches she curls up her legs, sticks her little butt out, arches her back, scrunches her face, and bends one arm while putting the other straight out like she's trying to fly.

- I love how Millie makes all kinds of noises. She grunts ALL the time like she's constantly trying to push out a poo. She squeaks and groans and whimpers and many other sounds we don't understand why she makes, but we think are the cutest!

- I love how she curls up on her daddy's chest once or twice a day to sleep. It's familiar, comforting and melts my heart.

- I love how her daddy takes SUCH good care of her!! He's constantly willing to take her at night, change and dress her whenever he is around, and take her while I get a little break. He's not afraid of her cries or her fussiness and isn't quick to hand her to me if she gets like that. And I especially love how no matter what she is doing he keeps saying how cute she is and how in love with her he is and how all the things I've just mentioned, he loves too. And we think it's the funniest thing ever how she likes to surprise you during her diaper changing sessions. Seems fitting that we'd get a kid who does those types of things ;) He's an AMAZING Dad!!

I think I love everything about my daughter and being a mom. There are so many little things that I delight in and am thankful for! I'm still scared and uncertain about pretty much everything we are doing but when I look at her face and her many different changing expressions, I just smile and can't believe what a blessing we have in our little Millie. So I say lots of prayers, take it one day at a time and look forward to each phase passing and the new phases coming while trying to enjoy the moment!