Be Still, My Heart

When picking up Charlotte from school today, I noticed a piece of artwork hanging in her little cubby.

It was the pointsettia the babies had made during arts and crafts day before Christmas.

Charlotte's first artwork - 12/16/13

Of course I got super excited to take home her very first art project and proudly display it on my fridge! What a proud mommy moment :)

This week we are working on getting into a bit of a better bedtime routine. She's still been waking up several times throughout the night, and for a few days there I couldn't see straight. Giving her a bath with Johnson's Bedtime Baby Bath seems to help, along with introducing a little bit of rice cereal with breast milk. This week she's been sleeping for a good 5 hour stretch (usually 9:30 pm - 2:30 am). She likes to get up again at 4:30 am, which is a bit early for me, since I don't really want/have to get up until 5 or 5:20 am. But we'll get there! I did order a book about sleep training in case I get really desperate, I'm just not sure it's for me yet.

Any mom's out there have any advice for getting baby to sleep longer at nighttime?

baby bathtime

I'm in the middle of trying to plan Charlotte's baptism. She'll be getting baptized in May at St. Dominic Church in Shaker Heights and we'll be having a little party afterwards (of course!) I really like St. Dominic's (it's the church where I'm in the choir) because it's not stuffy like most Catholic churches, and they love babies and children. No one looks at you funny if you bring a baby to church. We recently attended the pre-baptism class and we were the only ones who brought our baby (most of the other couples were pregnant - wow, they were really planning ahead and on the ball, unlike me) and Charlotte was a doll. She was very content just chewing on Sophie and looking at all the new faces.

happy baby

I'm glad I got to post twice this week - especially with a cold! Hope to write more later. Thanks for reading as always!

Just a few of my favorite things...about being a mommy

Charlotte turned 21 weeks old on Monday, and as I rocked her to sleep that night, I couldn't get over how much my life has changed for the better now that I have her in it. She has made me slow down and appreciate the small things again. A clean house, work stress - none of that matters anymore. My family is the most important thing, and I'm so glad I get to share my life with Sam, Charlotte, and Bruiser. I have more patience now which is something I am thankful for.

Charlotte at 21 weeks and one day


On my day off (Monday) Charlotte and I have a mommy and daughter bonding day. This week it involved lots of "airplane lifts," (her new favorite past time), posing for some photos, and a lovely nap together for 2 hours. Even Bruiser joined us for about an hour on the king size bed. It was heaven. Snuggling with her is my favorite part of the day.

She is becoming so vocal and animated -- now I know why the doctor said she was acting like a 6 month old when she was only 4 months. Now that she is almost five months old, she won't stop laughing, smiling, kicking, rolling over, and just going crazy. She is so active sometimes I worry I'm in trouble in the future!

Charlotte's first hair bow

Anytime I think she's not getting "that big" I have to stop and go look at pictures from when she was a newborn. So crazy! She's almost 15 pounds now and she's already wearing some 6 month old clothes - especially sleepers since she is so long-legged (unlike her momma). I've been trying to get pictures of her in all of her outfits before she outgrows them all. Right now she's loving to chew on just about everything, including my hair. She loves to put her fingers in my mouth and trace the outline of my face. When she puts her fingers in my mouth I literally want to die laughing. Most often this happens though when I'm rocking her to sleep and singing to her - so I can't laugh! She is obsessed with Bruiser right now and watches him everywhere he goes and smiles and laughs at him. I think she thinks he's smiling back at her because he does have a pretty cheery face.

She is very aware of her surroundings now - she knows when she gets in the car that she is either going to or from school. Charlotte also is very aware of her fingers, and she likes to scratch her sheets and her boppy and listen to the sound it makes. She is a doll, and she's my doll!

She seems to be fully recovered from her ear infection, but as warned by some mommy friends, guess whose ears are hurting now? You guessed it: mine. Oh well. I'd rather my ears hurt than hers! Comes with the territory.

I think that's it for today, it's 7 pm and she's taking a nap so I'm going to go get her things ready for school tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!

Christmas, New Year's, and Our First Ear Infection

I realize it's been awhile since my last post...and a lot has happened since then. Charlotte started daycare on December 2nd, and making the transition from just having my mom or mother in law watch her to complete strangers watching her has been tough. I cried several times on the first few days driving into work, but everyone was really supportive and told me it would get easier. That is true, but I still have some days where I question if I'm making the right decision to return to work full-time.

Luckily, I really love the daycare we chose and the infant/teacher ratio is lower than most daycares in the area (4 babies to one teacher, some are as high as 5:1). I still don't know how these women manage to feed, change, and play with all of these babies when I sometimes have a hard time managing one. The daycare teachers in the Baby Birch room (that's the name of their classroom - so cute) really seems to take an interest in Charlotte and her learning, and they send me daily progress reports including a new sensory experience (like handling ice cubes) each day. Sometimes they include a photo which just makes my day. For Christmas presents for her teachers Charlotte and I (well, she watched) baked chocolate chip cookies and put them in Christmas tins and tied it with a ribbon and pretty tag. They were all very appreciative of the gift and it just goes to show that it's really the thought that counts, not how much you spend.

Sam and I hosted Christmas in Shaker Heights for the third year in a row. I definitely had major anxiety over hosting with a newborn baby, but somehow it all came together wonderfully. I was even able to take a break from mom duty to see the Cleveland Orchestra's annual Christmas Concert with my mom and sister. It was a lovely night out filled with lots of laughs (shut di door, keep out the devil -- haha, inside joke there).

Charlotte received a TON of Christmas gifts -- she was spoiled for sure! Some highlights: her deluxe car seat that will fit her until she's 110 lbs, lovely personalized snow globe from Birdy, her "What Does the Fox Say" gift basket from Birdy, beautiful Ralph Lauren Christmas quilt from Auntie S, Bumbo seat from her grandma, Peanuts train set from my dad, talking dog that she can ride when she's bigger from uncle J, and her Stuffie from mom and dad. That was about 1/8 of the gifts she received but I'm sure you can imagine it was quite the gift opening extravaganza.

If you'd like to watch Charlotte's first Christmas, check out the video I made here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGVNSyrzXls

I had to work New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, and unfortunately we rang in the new year with a sick baby. We took her to the doctor this past Monday and she has double ear infections and a bit of croup. I've had to take a few days off work to stay home with her, and although they've been challenging it makes you understand what unconditional love is. I'd do anything to make her better. The antibiotics seem to have kicked in, and a few of my friends recommended putting Vicks on their feet, which also has seemed to help big time. Hopefully she is on the mend now!

OK, I hear a peanut downstairs that needs attention - hope to write more soon! :)