Oh Hey

So yeah, I'm pretty much done blogging, at least for now. I may pick From the Mixed-up Files back up in the future if the muse descends. But I wanted to pop back in quickly to review my goals for 2013 because I actually did pretty well. As a reminder, here are the goals I set for myself on December 31, 2012:

• Celebrate my 30th birthday in New York - DONE! Between that and my actual birthday celebrations, I could not have asked for a better way to ring in my 30s.
• See another Hanson concert (at least one) - DONE, DONE, AND DONE! 
• Finish revising my novel, get a few more eyes on it, and decide what to do with it - Still working on this one. But I have started.
• Participate in NaNoWriMo again in November - DONE!
• Develop and add more structure to the blog - I think I was a lot more style- and outfit-of-the-day-centric in 2013, so we'll consider this done.
• Continue to attend blogger meetups - Sort of? There were bloggers at both those events.
• Get pregnant - DONE!!!! 

So yes, the point of this post was really to announce that my husband and I are very excited to be welcoming another member to the family, coming in September! Since I've now announced it everywhere else, I wanted to make it known on my blog, too. Thanks for reading!

Taking Back Our Evenings

Every once in awhile, my husband gets on these kicks where he gets restless or concerned about something and wants to better himself. Usually, it results in us spending less money for a month, us taking a whole day to clean the house, or (when I'm really lucky) him going downstairs to work on the basement that he's been trying to finish for almost four years now.

A week or so ago, he brought up something that caught me off guard. It wasn't one of his usual concerns, but I guess it was related now that I think about it. He decided we needed to watch less TV, and I begrudgingly agreed.

Up until then, our nightly routine was to come home, I'd make dinner while he entertained Bridget, and then we'd all sit in front of the TV. Often, since we all wanted to watch different shows, I'd be in the living room watching something I DVRed, Bridget would be next to me with her Kindle Fire on her lap watching Wonder Pets most likely, and my husband would be in the bedroom powering through a season of something on Netflix. It was pretty bad, mostly for Bridget although she didn't seem to mind too much.

When my husband got this idea, we discussed the terms and decided that we could only watch TV after 8:00 on weeknights, which is after Bridget goes to bed. Then, Saturday and Sunday were fair game. I mean, I'd feel bad depriving her of her friends the Wonder Pets forever. "What's gonna work? Teamwork!" Stupid ear worm of a song.

Activities that we can do with Bridget involving a TV, like Just Dance or Rock Band, are OK.

So far, it's been going OK. On the days that my husband beats me home, he's been taking the dog for a walk with Bridget, which I'm sure we'll continue to do as it warms up. I've been having a little trouble deciding what to do with Bridget in the hour and a half after dinner when it starts getting dark but before she goes to bed. The last couple nights, my husband's been out, and Bridget and I have sat on the couch and had some bonding time. I would ask her about her day, and she would earnestly tell me all about it while gazing into the distance and furrowing her brow. It's pretty cute. Monday, she told me how she was playing piano until her friend Andrew took it away from her. Not one to be trifled with, she took the piano back and then hit him. To which I, of course, told her it was never OK to hit anyone (while trying not to laugh because she just looked so serious).

Playing with one of her favorite toys right now - putting different outfits on Minnie

While I'm enjoying having little conversations with my daughter, and I look forward to the days when we can get out and actually do something, I do kind of miss vegging all night, too. But I know this is for the best and is benefiting all of us. As long as my DVR doesn't fill up, I'm a-OK! Haha. And who knows, maybe one of these nights our project will be to finish that basement. Or hire someone to do it.

Empty Nest Recap

Bridget's back. Woohooo! Although she was noticeably more excited to see hubs than me, she was the most excited to see the dog. Seriously, she was geeking out. It was funny. Bridget and I are buddies again now, though, so all is well.

Anyway, here's the recap of our week sans Bridget, including outfit pictures because I happened to take one either on my phone or camera almost every day:

Sunday - Hanson concert. Loved it, obviously.

Monday - dinner and a movie at Fox Bay Cinema Grill. Saw Brave. So good!

Monday - Dress: Target; Blazer: Gap; Shoes: L.L.Bean; Bracelet: Marc by Marc Jacobs

Tuesday - sailing (my first time). So not good! I got motion sick, so I'll have to take Dramamine next time I guess.

Tuesday - Tank: L.L.Bean; Cardigan: Target; Pants and Shoes: NY&Co; Necklace: DIY; Bracelets: Mexicali Blues and Marc by Marc Jacobs

Wednesday - out with friends at Silver Creek. Super fun and definitely made up for my unfortunately sailing experience the previous night. It was great getting the old gang back together and ordering almost $100 worth of pizza rolls and cheesy breadsticks from the place across the street. Haha.

Wednesday - Top: NY&Co; Skirt: Deb maybe? Who knows, it's really old; Necklace: ?; Sandals: Aldo

Thursday - Helped hubs pick out a new pair of glasses since his are somewhere at the bottom of the lake in Maine. Then had dinner at The Pasta Shoppe and called it an early night.

L.L.Bean

Friday - checked out Chiselled Grape Winery in Grafton then grabbed dinner at Anvil Pub & Grille in Cedarburg.

Friday - Top and Jeans: Old Navy; Shoes: Aldo; Bracelets: Charming Charlie, Mexicali Blues, booth at Bastille Days; Bag: MICHAEL Michael Kors

Saturday - RAN. Then hung out with the girls to plan our Disney trip and watch them scrapbook since I wasn't feeling creative that day. After that, I met hubs and later Bridget and hubs' parents at our other friends' house for LOTS OF MEAT. I already posted that outfit yesterday.

All that plus grilling out and drinking a hard cider yesterday equaled eight days of drinking in a row. Yikes. Not typical for me, I assure you. I usually average one or two times a week. However, the majority of those nights I only drank one beverage, so it's not quite as bad as it sounds. But um...(BUT UM!) if I drink tonight, that'll make it 10 days in a row because we're going back to The Pasta Shoppe with the in-laws tomorrow for their martini deal night. They're not big drinkers, but I got my dad-in-law hooked on The Pasta Shoppe's angel food martini. It's delish.

Although I enjoyed my temporary break from parenthood, I kept thinking I was missing something whenever I would go anywhere. Then by the end of the week, I was more ready than ever for Kid #2. We've always tried to do everything we crammed into empty nest week occasionally, but usually it's a lot more spread out. I'm OK with that. I know with two kids it'll be harder, but I'm OK with that, too.

After my many days of indulging and socializing, I'm completely ready for things to slow down for awhile again. I just want to sit by myself and maybe Bridget and either watch TV or read. I just need a little break to recharge my introverted self before the fun stuff starts up again.

Mother's Day Recap

Inspiration picture:

My interpretation:

Dress and Sunglasses: Target; Cardigan: Old Navy; Shoes: Amazon

I may or may not have bought this dress just because of Inspiration Monday...worth it!

My Mother's Day consisted of going to church, having lunch at Cream & Crepe Cafe in Cedarburg, looking for a new Michael Kors bag at TJ Maxx, walking along the lake, and finishing the day off with pizza and Cinnastix.

Decisions, decisions. I ended up going with the tan one on the end.

Bridget didn't like the sand.

The water was a tad cold, but there were still people swimming and sunbathing.

Dela was loving life.

How is it Monday already??

Happy Mother's Day

My parents in...1978? Weren't my mom and her dress gorgeous?

Things I love about my mom:

• She's the only one in the world I can talk nonstop to. And she has to care because she's my mom, ha.
• She can appreciate and partake in a good concert and geeking out session.
• She has good style and is a great shopping partner.
• Speaking of style, we have similar tastes in wedding attire - we both wore lace dresses and had yellow bridesmaids dresses (see below)!
• She loves my daughter so much, and my daughter loves her.
• Even though she doesn't agree with a lot of the things I do, she loves and supports me anyway.
• She's smart, ambitious, and sticks to her values. 
• She set an example for me for what a mother should be, and I'm trying to live up to it.

I love you, Mom! Happy Mother's Day to my mom, my mom-in-law, and all other moms!

Picture Day Scare

Top, Pants, and Bracelet: NY&Co; Other Bracelet: Kohl's; Cardigan (below) and Sunglasses: Target; Shoes: All Black via (shoo)

Today was Bridget's picture day at school, but the morning didn't start off so well. Like every morning, I gave Bridget a little bit of food to hold her over until she got to daycare. She was standing by the couch, watching the cat, eating her mini muffin when suddenly she started choking and gagging. I could tell she was trying to/going to throw up, so I patted her on the back to kind of help her along. Because really, I didn't know what else to do. I grabbed a nearby cloth to catch what was coming out of her mouth. She threw up a few times, and continued to gag and whimper after that. I saw that there was a huge chunk of muffin stuck to the roof of her mouth, and she didn't know how to spit it out. After a few attempts with paper towel and a baby spoon, I got everything out, and all was well. She chugged some water, ate a couple wagon wheels to wash everything down, and then acted like nothing happened. Phewwww. That was not a pleasant way to start the day.

On a materialistic note, somehow she managed not to get anything on her dress or my white top. Not that I would've cared as long as she was OK, but it would have added to the stress of the morning. I'm just glad she wasn't really choking because I don't know if I would've remembered how to do the Heimlich maneuver on a toddler in my panicked state. Must review that.

My Daughter, the Bully?

While taking a family walk yesterday afternoon, the husband dropped a bomb on me. Daycare said we need to work on "no" with Bridget, he said. My initial thought was that maybe she was being a little precocious and curious and climbing on furniture or throwing food or something. He continued, saying that she's been slapping other kids and smiling when the the teachers said "No!" I was shocked! My daughter is a bully? As someone who was mildly bullied as a kid, there was no way I was letting my child turn into a bully. We definitely cannot let that happen. We must nip this in the bud! And I don’t want to turn into one of those parents who thinks their child can do no wrong either even though up until that point, I still thought of her as my little angel baby.

Daycare suggested that next time she is being naughty and thinks the word “no” is hilarious, we should remove her from the situation and put her in her pack n play or someplace without any toys. Apparently, just picking her up and moving her like I had been doing is positive reinforcement since she gets a free ride and attention from mommy.

Right now, Bridget is screaming at the top of her lungs because I told her no and put her in her play yard. She was doing the slapping motion on me, which I now know what daycare is referring to is just her playing, not being malicious. But still, slapping is slapping, and it's no good when she's doing it to other kids. Poor Bridgey.

I was not looking forward to this part of parenting, and I didn’t expect the sassyness to come on so soon. I thought she’d be at least one before we’d have to worry about any kind of discipline. Guess I was a little naive! Discipline’s gotta be the suckiest part of parenting, I imagine, but I guess I gotta start sometime and determine what works and what doesn’t.

The slapping thing did haunt me all last night, though. While I was giving Bridget a bath, I just kept wondering and worrying about if she was just being silly or if every little thing from now on is going to lead to bad habits if we don’t correct it. Like splashing in the bathtub or holding her rubber ducky under water. I just got horrible images of her in the future wanting to hold living things under water--not to be evil, just because she didn’t know it was wrong. Gosh, how morbid. Sorry about that. Gotta love this paranoid motherhood thing.

I don’t know. Anyone have some words of wisdom/encouragement/like experiences to share? This probably isn’t even a big deal, but I’m still a first-time parent, so I can make it one, right? Right.

Moms Day Out

Another fun part of my weekend was my moms day/night out on Saturday. Originally for me, it was supposed to be a full day of scrapbooking, shopping, then dining and drinking; but I had to skip the scrapbooking part and the end of the shopping part when hubs got called into work.

I’m kicking myself for not getting any pictures that day. My fellow longtime shopping buddy, Lindsey, and I were tasked with giving her mommy friend an updated everyday look. She wanted something more modern and playful than the boot cut jean/v-neck sweater outfit to which she was accustomed, and I was excited to take on the challenge. Her friend was so funny, getting all excited about wearing drapey cardigans and leggings, which her designer husband previously rejected as viable clothing options due to her proportions. When really, her slender proportions were a lot of fun to dress! Not to mention, her flexible budget made it enjoyable when we could just throw things at her and she was able to buy them. In retrospect, we totally should’ve gotten before and after pictures, but I created a Polyvore set that will do. The skinny jeans took some convincing (the Jessica Simpson ones pictured are the ones she bought), but when she came out of the dressing room exclaiming, “I look like a normal person!” we knew we had her. I don’t know if that was the exact quote--Lindsey? Something like that.

Mini Mommy Makeover by ritzgrrl featuring a hidden wedge

After the mini makeover, the three of us met two other mommies, Amanda and April, for dinner at Cubanitas in Milwaukee. Dinner was pretty good, but the sangria was delicious! We also enjoyed sharing stories about our children since they are all pretty close in age--from 9 months to 18 months. We then headed next door to Hotel Metro, who are known, at least in our minds, for their delicious martini options. We indulged in one drink there and some more conversation and then dispersed for the night. And we forgot to get a group picture! But it was a fun time, and hopefully all our kids can hang out sometime in the future!

Mommy Realizations

I had two mommy realizations this week.

First one...

It hit me a couple nights ago that my reactions to babies have taken a 180 in the last year.  When I was visiting my friend's baby on Wednesday, I took my turn holding the little guy right after dinner while sitting at the kitchen table.  He started to fuss, so I adjusted his position so that his head was facing my chest and stood up to bounce around a little. 

Flashback to last year:  I sat nervously on another friend's couch while her adorable son was passed around.  I waited until someone asked if I wanted a turn and sat rooted in my spot until he was set in my tense arms.  I was terrified of standing up while holding a  baby back then!  Oh what a difference a year and a baby of my own makes.

Second one...

I was one of those moms tonight.  The mom that makes onlookers raise their eyebrows.  Bridget and I joined Hubs at a work party, which was held at a brewery with an outdoor seating area where everyone was hanging out.  There were a couple other babies there, so that wasn't the weird part. 

At one point, Bridget needed a diaper change, so I took her inside to ask if they had a changing table in their bathroom (only one person can go in at a time, so I couldn't just check myself) although I was 99% sure they didn't.  When my suspicions were confirmed, I shuffled back outside and debated whether to walk back to the car to change her or just go home.  I didn't really feel like doing either, so I sat at an empty table, considered for a moment plopping Bridget's butt right on the tabletop, but then thought better of it and changed her right on my lap.  Everyone in our group thought it was funny and inventive, but a couple at a nearby table was definitely judging.  Just trying to make it work over here!  But admittedly, before I was a mom, I probably would've judged, too.  And at least I didn't put her on the table!

One Gobbledygook of a Weekend Recap

I'm still kind of in weekend mode in my head at least, and I'm having some sort of a writer's block, but I did have an interesting weekend, so I'll tell you about that quickly although there are only two pictures. Pardon me if my recap is kind of choppy.

OK, so Friday, I went to a fitting after work for the fashion show at the Sustainability Fair on Saturday. The store who needed the models is called E-Collectique Runway Boutique. If you ever find yourself in Saukville, GO TO THIS STORE! Actually, you'll probably never find yourself in Saukville, but I encourage you to go out of your way when you can.  I've only bought one thing there, and that was over a year ago, but I'm sure I would've had an armful of things had I not lost my wallet earlier that day (oh yeah, I lost my wallet on Friday, too, fun times). I tried on five dresses--a few of them were from Target--but one was a Michael Kors dress for only $17!!!! I would've found a way to purchase it, but it didn't look great on me. Mikelle, the owner, who is suuuuuuuuuper nice, ended up choosing a Wayne by Wayne Cooper dress for me to wear. I wasn't familiar with the brand, but the original price tag on it said it was $200 something, and they were selling it for under $100. Then, it was time to try on some shoes. The size 10 selection was limited, but there were some cute Coach flats I saw (too small for me unfortunately). For the fashion show, Mikelle almost chose a strappy pair of Stuart Weitzman heels, which is another luxury brand I never thought would grace my feet, but a tall peep toe heel ended up looking better. I forgot to look at what that shoe was.

Saturday morning, I headed over to the church where the fair and fashion show was being held. There were three models from E-Collectique, including me, and then there were another...maybe eight models from other organizations. No one was really sure what was going on, so Mikelle ended up taking the reins and organizing everyone. There were basically two rows of chairs set up, and we were to walk in front of the first row then between the second row while Mikelle talked about our outfit. Although it was quick and a pretty disorganized, it was still fun, and it definitely will bring in more business to E-Collectique.  One of the other models (pictured below) was funny--she ended up buying both of her entire outfits that she wore for the show, the most expensive item being 7 for All Mankind jeans for only $28!

Me with another one of the models

Sunday, my parents came over to celebrate my dad's birthday and go to the Pirate Festival in Port.  They were a little late because their cat ran away that morning, so they went around to all the neighbors and called the humane society where she came from.  Luckily, she was waiting underneath a tree in their yard when they got home.  Anyway, Pirate Fest was interesting, as usual.  I would say half the crowd there is actually dressed in some sort of pirate attire--I myself was wearing a red and white striped scarf with skulls on it, so that's something.  We were only able to stay for a little over an hour until Bridget got sick of it, but I think my dad enjoyed it, and we bought him a sword there for his birthday (he's a nerd who collects swords among other things--and by the way, nerd is a term of endearment for me).

That's about it.  At the beginning of the weekend, hubby's plan was to watch movies all weekend.  We ended up watching not one movie.  Our downtime was spent cleaning, both inside and outside, and watching a lot of the first season of Glee, which hubs got me for Mother's Day.  I don't think either of us feel as refreshed as we would've liked after a weekend, which is making this Monday morning even more challenging than usual.

Bridget is turning six months old tomorrow, so to celebrate, I will be posting her birth story (for those not interested in reading it, you've been warned!) and telling you about her latest stats after we go to her appointment in the evening.

From after I got home from the fashion show and after hubs made me scrub off all my eye makeup, heh

Hosted by Krystyn at Really, Are You Serious?

Guest Post by Plus Size Momma

While I'm on vacation in Orlando, I've invited a few local style and mommy bloggers to tell you about what they're looking forward to this summer. Here's April from Plus Size Momma.

I was asked by Rebekah to do a guest post for her, and though I was excited I was also a bit intimidated. Not only does she have more readers, but she’s far more put together than I am and I wasn’t sure what I could offer in the form of gibberish. She recommended that I write something about what I’m looking forward to this summer, and unfortunately due to my recent Negative Nelly attitude I can’t be oh so excited about summer… but I’ll try my best, for Rebekah, because she’s fricken’ fantastic (see, I even curbed my swearing… just for her!).

Ode to Summer

hot humid
better than this
windy rainy
grey space.

sleeveless, SPF
50
painted toes
waxing appointments,
yeah, I said it.

Now that I was brilliantly impromptu, let’s talk Summer for real here. I cannot wait to open my sunroof (moon roof, what have you) and let my arm hang out the driver’s side window. I can’t wait to finally wear tank tops without a sweatshirt over them. I can’t wait to wear my flip flops outside of the house, and I can’t wait to see the look on my son’s face when I plop him down into a (very shallow, of course) pool for the first time. Oh what fun that will be! I just hope summer comes soon or else he’ll outgrow all those cute short sleeved& sleeveless rompers I recently bought. I love ice cream, and soon enough I won’t get crazy stares for eating it (in negative degree temperatures). I do not like the oppressive heat that comes with a Midwest summer, but I love that even as an adult summer still (always) feels like “vacation”.

To tell you the truth, I’m pretty surprised Rebekah asked me to guest post, considering my wacky, not very formatted way of writing things. I’m happy she did though. It’s an honor really.

So, with that said, I look forward to summer because I’m hell bound on setting up a play date between our little ones. At only a week ish apart they must be friends, and I’m dying to see how two completely different random women meet and get along.

I’m a sucker for social experiments.

Four Month Checkup

We took Bridget to her 4-month appointment yesterday. Here's how it went:

The Appointment

• 26 inches long, which puts her in the 95th percentile for height
• 14 lb 10 oz, which puts her in the 75th percentile for weight
• I don't remember her head circumference, but she was only 25th percentile for that I think.
• Got her second dose of vaccines, which of course she didn't like.
• Her thigh folds are slightly asymmetrical (???), which could be a sign of hip dysplasia.  Doc said not to worry, though, and if it's more prominent at her 6 month, we'll do an X-ray then.
• She has a mild case of eczema, so we're to put Cetaphil on her dry patches.
• We're supposed to wait until she's 5 months old to start solid foods.
• We are NOT supposed to be feeding her at night (Doc looked slightly taken aback when we told her we still were) because she should be able to go for eight hours at night without food.  Bridget should be sleeping through the night now, so we need to start sleep training her.
• Otherwise, she seemed like a happy, healthy baby.

The Aftermath

6:00 - Gave Bridget a dose of infant Tylenol because of the shots, and I started to give her a bottle.  The drugs were making her drowsy, so we decided to try to put her to bed.  By the time we actually got her in her bedroom and ready, she was screaming. 

7:00 - Still screaming, after Nate trying to soothe her, and she spit up all her food.

7:45 - I decide she's hungry again having no food left in her tummy, and I take her out to feed her.  She doesn't eat much, so I put her back down, and of course, she starts crying again.

8:30 - Nate gets up and tries to soothe her again.  Somehow, she finally falls asleep.

11:45 - Starts crying, so I get up and rock her, try giving her a pacifier, put on her seahorse a couple times, read the sleep book recommended by the doctor for tips (didn't really find much useful information for the situation, but more on that later).

12:45 - Essentially cries herself to sleep when I can do nothing to comfort her.  I was sitting in her room the whole hour, so I went back to bed at this point.

3:30 - Crying again.  At this point, it's been about 8 hours since she ate, so Nate got up and fed her.  Apparently, she wolfed down this food in minutes.

6:15 - Woke up but only ate 1 oz of formula.  Seemed happy, though.

Needless to say, night one of "sleep training" was hard.  But I kept reminding myself that it's supposed to be hard, but it should get better soon.  It was kind of nice to know that we're actually doing something proactive to get her to sleep through the night.

The book the doctor recommended was Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child.

I could see how the book would be very useful had we started sleep training earlier.  He had a lot of tips for babies birth through 3 months.  Most of the tips for 4+ months were for "post colic" babies, which Bridget is not.  We just haven't known we needed to sleep train her (or how we needed to) until now.  The vast majority of the book seemed to emphasize the importance of naps and a timely schedule.  That's all well and good, but it left me no advice for what to do in the middle of the night besides one page on how to soothe your baby.  So I guess we did the best we could--try to console her and know that crying is going to happen at this point.

This Post Is Brought to You by the Letter M

Thank goodness for Sesame Street.  Hubs wasn't feeling well this morning, so he slept in, and I took Bridget to daycare.  Unfortunately, I didn't wake up any earlier than usual, so I was rushing around the house trying to get things ready for the day and made it out the door over a half hour later than usual.  Oh well!  Luckily, once I fed Bridget, she was perfectly content to watch Sesame Street while I made bottles and finished getting myself ready.

This week is Child Appreciation Week at daycare, and the theme is Out of This World.  Today, we were encouraged to dress our children in wacky clothes.  In keeping with the "out of this world" idea, I added these pants, which kind of look constellation-ish, to her rock n roll tutu ensemble.

Since today was Everybody, Everywear Maxi day in the style blogging world, it was pretty easy picking out my clothes this morning.  However, safety pinning my maxi dress to resemble a midi skirt for work proved a little more challenging.  My first couple attempts left one side slightly longer than the other, but I finally got it together.

Maxi Dress (worn as a skirt): Wet Seal; Top: Old Navy; Trench Coat: New York & Company; Shoes and Sunglasses: Payless; Belt: Kohl's (off of another shirt); Necklace: gift 

I also tried out Sydney's bun tutorial.  I often wondered how people got such cute, full buns, and it's pretty much just a matter of back-combing like crazy.  I like the height of my bun, but I think next time, I'd try to make it a little wider.  And tame the flyaways.  And bobby pin the back more.

After work, I did a quick change in the car, spotted a bright sunny spot on the top level of the parking garage, and took a couple pictures before heading off to pick up Bridget and run errands.

Scarf: Boston Store; Shoes: Kohl's

Caffeine Coquette Feature Writer

I'm very excited to be the new feature writer on The Caffeine Coquette! Check out my first post as The Fashionista Mom: The Easiest and Cheapest Way to Update Your Wardrobe.

I'll be there every Thursday, so visit often!

STTN

These two members of the family slept through the night last night:

From Valentine's Day (first day she laughed!)

 These two did not...:

This one didn't either, but I'm not mad at her about it:

Here's how my night went:

9:00 PM - Went to bed.  Stayed up until 9:30 reading blogs on my phone.
12:30 AM - Dela woke me up whining next to my side of the bed.  I figured it was a Lassie-type-thing, and I heard Bridget grunting a little, so I got up, let the dog out, and made a couple bottles.  Bridget was quiet by the time I was done, so I let Dela back in and went back to sleep.
2:00 AM - Dela woke me up once again, whining.  This time, I figured I should check on Bridget.  I did so, and she was tossing around a little bit but was still asleep.  I filled up Dela's water dish, and went back to bed.
3:00 AM - Dela whining again??  I told her to go away and fell back asleep.
5:00 AM - WTF.  The dog again.  I let her out, grabbed a bottle, and headed to Bridget's room.  She was still asleep, so I sat in there until 5:30 when she woke up. 

Since she went to bed at 7:30, Bridget got 10 straight hours of sleep!  Woohoo!  I have no idea what my dog's deal was.  At first, I thought maybe there were bunnies outside that she wanted to chase, but that didn't seem to be the case.  This was Bridget's second time sleeping through the night, so it's probably going to go back to normal tomorrow.  Which is fine, as long as Dela's schedule goes back to normal, too.  I blame the weather.

Bridget Lately

Bridget's wearing pretty much all homemade stuff here (except her undershirt)--neat!

We've settled into a pretty good routine in the Mixed-up household.  I'm still working on finding the balance in my life, but that's nothing new.  Hubs and I have implemented a good system of taking turns so that neither of us lose sleep or patience.  I still do the laundry, and he still does the dishes for the most part, but we alternate nights putting Bridget to bed.  She still wakes up once or twice during the night, so we take turns with that, too.  If one person took the 1 AM shift one night, the other one does it the next night.

Last night, I got up at 1 AM, so when Bridget started grunting and fussing at 4:30, Nate suggested waiting a minute to see if she started crying instead of him jumping up right away.  I mumbled "K," rolled over, and fell back asleep.  At 5:30, my alarm went off, and I heard Bridget grunting a little again.  Nate didn't end up getting up to feed her at 4:30, but he also said he didn't get any sleep that last hour since she had been up the whole time.  So on one hand, score!  We may only have to get up once a night now.  On the other hand, bummer, she's still going to make noise from probably 4-6 every morning.  Baby steps.

Some of you may have seen my tweet yesterday about Bridget's cradle cap.  A couple of my friends reassured me about it already, but it still does kind of weird me out.  The girls at the daycare asked if they could work on remedying her cradle cap.  I said, "Sure, go for it!"  I certainly wasn't having any luck getting rid of it.  By the way, if you don't have any idea what I'm talking about, cradle cap is basically dry scaly skin on the baby's scalp.  It's kind of gross, but not the grossest thing ever, by any means.  Anyway, when I picked her up yesterday, I noticed that her head was noticeably free of scales.  Neat!  It wasn't until later that I also noticed it was almost entirely free of hair.  She now has very short wispy hairs on the top of her head, but her normal hair on the back of her head.  And of course the small bald spot on the back of her head that's always been there.  My poor baldilocks.  Like I said, though, a couple friends reassured me that her hair will grow back soon, and all will be fine.  It's not like the kids in class are going to make fun of her.

Bridge certainly doesn't care.  When I picked her up yesterday, she was all smiles with her feet up in the air.  Her new thing is playing with her feet, which seems to be pretty standard for babies her age.  She still likes her hands and anything made of fabric that she can bring to her mouth, like her shirts, blankets, or the tutu pictured.  I was really hoping she'd like her Sophie giraffe because it's cute and French, but no.  Not so much yet.  Unless it's her feet, hands, or fabric, she's not really interested.

One toy that does hold her attention briefly is her new LeapFrog My Puppy Pal that she received from a family friend.  I think our dog, Delaware, and I are more amused with it right now than she is, but I think Bridget will really like it when she gets a little older.  It's pretty cool because you can program it to say her name.  I also got her one of those seahorse toys that everybody raves about, but she wants absolutely nothing to do with that right now.  I guess we'll stick to her Queen or Journey lullaby CDs when we need her to go to sleep since those seem to be most effective.

Speaking of her sleeping and going back to the fact that Bridget now lifts her feet, that skill has also given her the ability to roll onto her side.  One day I found her practically face down in bed, which freaked me out a little, especially since she was still in her swaddle blanket.  Ah motherhood.  Now I get to worry about my kid for the rest of my life.  I'm starting to understand that aspect of my mom more although I think she can stop worrying about me now.  I'm 28, for crying out loud.

I think that's all that's new in Bridget's life.  Her 4-month checkup and shots appointment is coming up in a few weeks, so that'll be fun to see how much she's grown and such.  I'm glad Nate's taking her again, though, because I wouldn't want to watch her get the shots.  Although he hates needles and I don't mind them, he's much calmer in situations like that.

Daycare Days 1 and 2

Another pic taken by sis-in-law

First of all, thank you, friends with baby experience, for your insight on my last post about Bridget and her lack of sleep.  I'm definitely starting to realize that every day is something new; and just because she's really happy one day, doesn't mean she will be happy the next day.  Or even the next minute.

I promise I won't write about daycare every day, but this was significant because Bridget's first two days of daycare were polar opposites of each other.

Day 1: Happy Day.  Her daily report card showed that she was happy all day but that the only thing wrong was that any loud noise startled her.  Even when we got her home, she was completely content and smiled at Nate and played in her jumperoo while I made dinner.  (It all sounds very domestic and idyllic, but the meal was Tuna Helper, so don't give me too much credit, haha.)

Day 2: Fussy Day.  The day seemed to start off OK, so I was expecting more glowing reviews when I picked Bridge up from daycare.  Not so much.  Maybe it was in part because of her sleeplessness the night before, but Bridget apparently had been fussy all day.  Every time any baby started crying, she would start, too.  She didn't like the noise in the room at all, and she had only eaten 4 oz. of formula since she got there.  That alone was concerning to me, but the lady assured me that often there's an adjustment period, and I shouldn't be too concerned.

I had to stop at Target, and Bridget was an angel the whole time and mostly just slept.  Throughout the night, she alternated gurgling happily to herself and bawling her eyes out, but she still didn't eat much at all.  Nate had some trouble getting her to go to sleep, so I took over, threw some music on, and she was out.

Even though she seemed to be coughing and sneezing more than usual, she slept so much better than Monday night.  At that point, she was probably just so exhausted that she finally had a chance to catch up on some sleep.

Day 3: Yet to be seen.  This morning, she was smiley as usual and chugged down 3.5 oz of formula.  Actually maybe it was 2.5...I didn't check the bottle beforehand.  The car ride must've left her pretty sleepy because she didn't fuss at all when I moved her from her car seat to a little rocker chair thing at daycare.  So we'll see how today goes!

The reason I mentioned the coughing and sneezing is because Nate just came down with a cold and is home today with a bad sore throat and headache.  So hopefully Bridget doesn't catch whatever he has.  I had to get Bridget ready by myself this morning since Nate was resting, and it was even harder getting out the door on time.  Another shout out to single parents--I don't know how you do it, and you amaze and bewilder me.

Just Sleep Already!

Photo taken by sis-in-law

Whooo, last night was rough. Lately, Bridget has been waking up three times a night instead of the one time it used to be for awhile. Up until last night, I hadn't really noticed since we've had family helping take care of her. Luckily, there are two of us, so it's not as bad as it could've been, but still.

I put her to bed at 7 since she was really fussy as usual. 6:30 is her fussy time of day. It took her about an hour to fall asleep; and even then, it was definitely not a deep sleep. Every couple minutes, she would start wiggling and grunting. But, she wasn't crying, so I left her to have some quiet time and eventually fall asleep for real.

I was just starting to get comfortable in our bed when she started crying at quarter after 9. This is when I started to problem solve. My first theory was that she was too cold since she's in a fuzzy sleeper but only a thin, T-shirt-weight swaddle blanket. She had outgrown her fleece swaddle blanket already, but I got the seemingly brilliant at the time idea of cutting the bottom part so that she'd have a hole for her legs to stick through. My new method did not cure her wigging, though. She kept shaking her head from side to side and lifting her feet up. But again, she was quiet, so I went back to bed after feeding and rocking her.

I think it was about midnight when hubs got up with her. When she woke me up again at 3, she was still in the fleece swaddler with the cut-out bottom. My new theory was that she was too hot now, and the thicker blanket wasn't doing any good anyway, so I switched her back to the thin one.

She didn't eat much food, so I put her back in bed, and she continued to wiggle like she was Houdini trying to escape her blanket. So then, I thought maybe she was over the whole swaddling thing and wanted her arms free. Her little arms went right above her head when I freed them, and she seemed content for a minute. It wasn't long, though, before she started lifting her legs again and grunting.

At 5:00, she was crying again, so Nate got up with her while I slept another half hour until my alarm went off. He said at that time, she didn't even want any food, and she went right back to sleep after he changed her wet diaper.

So I'm at a loss. If she's just adjusting to her new schedule, that's fine, but it's not good for any of us if this becomes routine. Nate mentioned that he heard there was some kind of diaper that was bigger for overnight usage. Has anyone heard of such a thing? If so, where can these be purchased? Any other suggestions of how to get Bridget to sleep more soundly and longer would be welcome, too.

Photo taken by sis-in-law

Morning Baby

Nate and I agree that Bridget's best and cutest time of day is the first hour she's awake in the morning.  She usually just grunts, makes other little noises, and looks around until someone comes and gets her.  When she sees a familiar face appear above her crib, she gets a big smile on her face.  The cuteness continues when one of us unswaddles her, and she raises both her arms and commences her groggy stretching. 

It's easy to understand her needs in the morning, too.  Change the diaper, give her a bottle, and then entertain her until she needs to be changed again or gets cranky.

She's playing with her fists right now and trying to eat them.  It's very cute.  I better go play with her now--I just wanted to write about how my girl's a morning person.

By the way, I'm trying to post this from my phone, so we'll see how it turns out.