A day in the life- Maternity Leave

I thought it might be interesting to look back and see how we spent our days while I was on maternity leave. And what better day to do it than on Julia's 11 week birthday! This is my last week of maternity leave-- I can't even let myself think about the fact that my baby is going to daycare next week. Most of our days look pretty similar... Julia is on a pretty set eating schedule, so I typically plan our day around that since I know we need to be home for her to eat every three hours. If I need to, I could pump and give her a bottle, but it's just easier to nurse, so that's what we do 99% of the time. 

Ok, on to the day! 

Jeff wakes Julia up at 7am and changes her diaper. He used to get her dressed during this time, but lately Julia has been spitting up a ton after she eats in the morning, so I was having to change her anyway. After Jeff got Julia ready to eat he had to wake me up-- oops! but I was so sleepy! Hah.

 Julia bibbed up and ready to eat! I fed Julia while Jeff and I watched the news and he made me a delicious carnation instant breakfast before he left for work about 7:40. World's most helpful dad/husband!

Around 8:30 it's nap time! Julia typically takes this nap on my chest so we can both get in a little nap. Yep, that's a burp cloth I make her sleep on- I don't want to be covered with even more baby vom during our nap! Also, I realize it's a terrible habit to hold your baby during nap time, but I can't help it! She's so cute and cuddly! 

Julia woke up around 9:15 I wasn't ready to get up! so I got around to getting us ready for the day. Every day is like playing dress up with my little doll baby. Julia has a ton of adorable clothes, so it's always fun picking out her outfit. Julia just hung out in her bouncy seat and on her activity mat until 10am when it was time to eat again. 

After Julia finishing eating, we loaded up to go to Two River's Park to go on a walk (after a stop at Sonic for a coke!). I walked us for about an hour- I was hoping that Julia would sleep the entire time. Or some of the time. Or at all. She decided she would rather stare at me and the scenery- can't say I blame her. Don't be fooled by the above picture and her closed eyes, I just have her positioned with the sun in her eyes so I could get the pretty trees in the backdrop. Haha. Isn't Murphy's scarf so cute?! Halloween puppy. 

Julia fell asleep on our way home from our walk, so of course I took the long way home to get the most out of that quick snooze. We were back home for Julia to eat again at 1pm. Since Julia didn't take a good nap after she ate at 10, I decided that I would get her wrapped up in her swaddle and try the crib (first nap in the crib- how is that possible?) so she would sleep a long time. That didn't work. After I got her to sleep, I laid her down and her eyes popped open. I was hoping that she would put herself back to sleep while I ate a quick lunch, but no. I got her back to sleep and she laid her down and she was sleeping pretty well until Murphy started barking at nothing and woke her up. So, after murdering Murphy (just kidding....), I tried getting her back to sleep, but she wasn't having it. I tried.

Hi, Murphy! He likes to hang out in his room even when we're home during the day. He takes the neighborhood watch very seriously. And yes, that's a sheet of the bed because Murphy sheds like it's his job. Even though we got his specific breed for the sole purpose of having a non-shedding dog. But I digress.

While Julia was napping, I did some laundry (how can a baby produce sooooo much laundry?!?!?) and changed the sheets on our bed and actually made the bed! I think this might have been the first time our bed has been made up since I bought this comforter a month or two ago. Shhhh... 

We still had some time to kill before Julia ate again at 4pm, so we did some book reading. Here we are reading "Cooking Monster and the Cookie Tree." I remember this being my favorite book as a little girl. Julia wasn't too impressed with it, but she didn't hate it either. That's a win in my book. 

Here's Julia around 3:50 losing her mind thinking that she might miss a meal for the first time in her life. 

Just ate and feeling good! 

We met Carla and Carmen for dinner at J Gumbo's (spicy!). We hadn't seen them in way too long so it was good to catch up and have Carmen entertain us with her five year old self. 

Since we didn't get home from dinner till close to bedtime (7pm), we skipped bath time and got ready for bed! Julia ate at 7pm and I rocked her for a while (she doesn't need this to fall asleep since she usually falls asleep while nursing, but I do it because I love it and I'll probably do it for as long as she lets me or until it starts interfering with her sleep). I put Julia in her crib around 7:45pm and she sleeps until Jeff wakes her up at 7 for the day! 

So, that's a typical day for us. We might normally go to Target or something in the afternoon, but didn't do anything today since I wanted Julia to take a really good nap and get some things done around the house. Some days we are running around all day (usually on the weekends) and some days we don't leave the house at all (we don't have too many of these because I need to have a reason to get myself ready for the day!).

The end.

Two Month Checkup

We had Julia's two month checkup last week. It was the worst. Julia was crying when we walked through the door to check in (I think she sneezed and milk came out of her nose?? Cool party trick, lady...). As previously mentioned, girl has some lungs, so as we walked through the entire waiting area--yep, walk through the sick area to get to the "well" area... totally makes sense-- we got the stare down. I tried getting her out to soothe her/figure out what the hell was coming out of her nose/cursing myself for not having a nose sucker. For the most part, she was inconsolable for a few minutes, which of course feels more like thirty minutes when you have an audience. Yes, stranger, I agree that my baby "has quite a set of lungs." Thanks for noticing. We continued to wait to get called back and enjoy a few comments about "what a sweet little boy" we have. Seriously?!?! She's wearing a dress! Moving on.. we finally called back to the exam room where we waited some more. Foolish me thought we'd be home in time for Julia to eat at her regular time, since it was going to be about an hour after her appointment time. But 4 o'clock came and went and we still hadn't seen the doctor. So rude. The doctor finally came. Julia screamed the entire time. Hopefully he remembers her name and keeps in mind that she does not like to be kept waiting! However, I do forgive him since he lays on the compliments and says Julia is perfect and we're doing great as parents. Hah. Then the nurse came in (after another long wait with a hungry crying baby) and gave our sweet girl three shots in her chubby thighs. It was terrible. I nursed her right after and she calmed right down. But we were still traumatized. More shots in two months. Ugh.

The fun stuff: baby stats!
Weight- 12 lbs 7.5 oz (70th percentile)
Height- 23 inches (60th percentile)
And that's why she is having to wear size six months clothes! Stay tiny, little baby! But, also keep being a cute little chubby baby!

Two months old!

Well, we have officially survived 2+ months of life with a baby. On the one hand, it seems like Julia was just born, and on the other, like she's always been a part of our family. Our tiny baby is growing like a weed. We're obsessed with her giant cheeks, arm rolls, big belly, and chunky thighs. She's grown out of her newborn clothes and mostly wears 3-6 month. Where has my teeny tiny baby gone?? Julia has been sleeping through the night since October 3 (this seems like a date that will forever be ingrained in my mind :) ), and we looooooove it. The very first time she slept through the night, Jeff and I both woke up around 4am and asked each other "Did you feed the baby?" "No." "No." and Jeff bolted out of bed to make sure Julia was still breathing. Hah! 

Julia's first month was mainly one of survival. Trying to get on a schedule, feeling sleep deprived, remembering to give her a bath at least every other day, going to Target (just so we could get out of the house and have a reason to get out of our PJs), hanging out at home, and having lots of visitors- your Grandma and Grandpa Medford can't go more than two weeks without seeing this sweet girl (who can blame them??). 

Julia's second month found us in more of a routine and more clear headed (remember, she started sleeping through the night at 7 weeks, and was only waking up once a night the previous few weeks). When Julia was 6 weeks old, I flew with her to Dallas to visit Grandma and Grandpa. I thought several times I had lost my mind deciding to fly alone with a newborn because this girl has got a serious set of lungs. Of course she was a perfect angel and didn't even make a peep. We made the drive home with Jeff (and Murphy!) at the end of the weekend and turned a 5 hour drive in to a 7 hour drive, but it went as smoothly as we could have hoped. We still like to make pretty frequent Target runs, go on lots of walks with Murphy, enjoy visitors, and hang out at the house. And this past weekend, Julia went to her first Razorback tailgate, which she basically slept through, and the pumpkin patch. We are having lots of fun with our sweet girl!

Julia, 

You are the world's greatest baby. You really only get fussy if you're hungry or tired. You like to eat and you like your sleep. But then again, who doesn't? You've started smiling the past few weeks and we do just about anything to get a smile out of you. You are the sweetest little thing and we could not imagine life without you. Every day spent with you is a new adventure and such a blessing. What a great two months we've had together!

Love, 

Mommy