misplaced momma

I can’t believe we’re already over a week into the new year! I hope everyone had a very Happy New Years Eve and a great start to the New Year! And hopefully you found something to do for New Years Eve, even if you have kids and had to sit at home watching the ball drop.  It’s not about going out, but about being with people that you love, finding something that you like to do!

It’s funny but a couple people I talked to said they didn’t even watch the ball drop! That is the tradition I have to do every year!

This year my favorite person was with me, my baby Abby! Yes, she was up for her first new year! She woke up when we left our friends house and headed to the hotel around 10. She didn’t want to settle down until I went to bed too, and I wasn’t going to bed before the ball dropped! So we stayed up together while everyone else was having fun at the casino. But me and my baby had our own fun, and my first kiss of the new year was just perfect!

My New Years Kiss!

The other night our power went out at 530pm. Now the bad thing with that, being in Michigan in December is it’s Really cold outside! And no electricity means no heat!! When we were in FL and our power went out we had to worry about sweating to death with no a/c! But we could jump in the pool to cool down, or buy a battery operated fan if we really wanted to. One time I almost did, but luckily the electricity came back in time!

Being that it was only 20 degrees outside, and the later it gets the more the temperature drops, I was a little worried. We weren’t so worried about ourselves, we can bundle up with blankets when we go to sleep. But that is not safe for babies! So all I could do for Abby was put a onsie on under her PJ’s, but the warmest PJ’s on (fleece) and leave her socks on, which I normally do anyway because her feet tend to get cold without them. And I put her in her sleep sack.

I figured the heat had to come on sometime during the night because Consumers Energy said that a substation blew and 4800 ppl were without electricity in our city! So I knew they had to be diligently working on it! But I told my husband if he wakes up after we go to sleep check on her and i’ll stay up holding her with a blanket wrapped around us if she’s too cold. Well, I woke up and checked on her. I felt her cheek and it was cool but it wasn’t cold, so that was good. The only other thing that would be exposed were her hands, so i felt around in the dark for her hands… I found them nice and toasty underneathe her head!! What a smart, smart baby!! She kept her hands warm by putting them under her head! I was so proud lol.

Luckily the electricity kicked on at 1130pm. It was 6 hours without it! It didnt get too awfully cold, but I was happy I could actually sleep after that, knowing it was back on and I didnt have to worry about my Abby.

Wow, can you believe 2009 is almost over with?? Just over a month left of this year! And what a year it has been! Probably one of my most eventful, in good times and bad.

I start out the year pregnant!

6 months pregnant January 09

January 13th we celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary!

2nd Anniversary dinner

I celebrated my 27th birthday, in March, with Taco Bell and a Brownie Hot Fudge Sundae (which was actually just perfect for the timing) and my big big belly! Sitting on the couch, seemingly to be my permanent place.

27th Birthday!

April 1st, my first baby was born!

Abigail's birthday! 4-1-09

May 6th we were celebrating Abby’s first trip to the beach!(We did live in Florida remember…) … but

Abby's first beach trip

…when we got home, my mom called and told me my dad was admitted to the hospital. He went into a coma, because of an abscess on his brain due to lysteria meningitis, a very rare disease (only 10 documented cases in the WORLD before him!) And he passed away 17 days later.

Abby with Popa Mike RIP

After spending a couple weeks in Michigan, for the funeral and visiting family, we decided it would be best to move back “home.” Well, it was actually a very long process to decide this, it wasn’t right when we came home we decided!

July 18th we packed up the truck and moved from our Sunny Home in Florida, back to Michigan.

Moving Truck

October, when Abby was 6 months old, we got our first professional pictures done, and our first ever Family Portrait, as well as a 4 generations photo!

For Abby’s first Halloween we carved a pumpkin and dressed her up at a black cat.

Happy Halloween!

And now we are awaiting Abby’s First Thanksgiving and First Christmas celebrations! I’m sure they will go by very quickly and we’ll be starting next year awaiting many more firsts.

I think you should all put together a picture post of your year in review! Link back here so I can check them out (even if you wait til the end of the year to complete it!)! It was fun going over all the past big events of this year.

Last night we gave Abby rice cereal for the first time! She absolutely hated it, and loved it all at the same time!!

ICK!

Look at that face! And that was just the first of many! She did not like the taste! However… she kept eating it! lol. I could tell she’s been wanting to eat “big people food” for a while now. She watches intently when we eat, and always reaches for the food if you happen to be holding her while eating.  I think she must have just liked the idea of eating that she didnt care how gross it was! At least we have some hope that she will take after momma and not be so picky like daddy!! At least she will try things. Hopefully this will continue! And hopefully she’ll get used to the taste and not make these faces anymore. We’ll see when we try again tonight!

This was also my first try at homemade rice cereal, so maybe this was my fault… I’ll try better next time Abby, promise!

I dont think parents take enough blame on their childrens behavior. Some kids are just monsters and the parents look the other way and say, that’s just how he is! Or even worse, the ones that say, “He’s such a little f***ker” right in front of the kid and wonder why they swear and act up and have self esteem problems… I could go on and on with that one, I was Shocked to hear it!  Almost as bad as that is the one that goes something like…”well I can’t disapline him for swearing if we do it too.” Um yes, it’s called being the parent. He’s a child and needs to learn those are bad words. And why don’t you make an effort to stop in front of him? Be a role model!

I could go on and on with those examples… but mine isn’t half as bad as that! My situation just got me thinking about all these situations where parents don’t realize they’re the ones doing something wrong.  I was wondering why my daughter would not take a nap… she was horrible at naps… but really… it was my fault!

Finally Napping

I wasn’t being disciplined enough with her. I thought my husband was too lax with her. When he was the stay at home dad when I went back to work he would just let her fall asleep on the floor when she was playing. I don’t like that, I think it should be more structured. But… turns out he can be more disciplined in some areas regarding this than I. I wasn’t giving her enough discipline to stick to the routine. I hate hearing her cry. I always want to fix it and make her happy! If she cried for a little I’d say, shes just not going to go to sleep right now, and go get her up. I wouldn’t necessarily give her attention, besides going to get her, making sure her diaper was dry, etc, but then I’d either put her in her swing or lay her on the floor.

Well that was too much attention, too much stimulation. She needs a quiet place without distraction to fall asleep, even if it takes her a while to realize it! If I just leave her a little longer than I wanted to, *snap* she’d fall asleep! And that works for short naps too. If she only slept for 30-40 mins and wake up I’d go get her! One weekend my husband was home and I went to go get her after a very short nap and he said, no, leave her, she needs to go back to sleep. What? She’s awake, she won’t go back to sleep. But I listened, tested it out, and sure enough she fell back to sleep!

Sometimes it’s the little things the parents don’t do which actually makes the situation worse! If you stick to what you know is right, it ends up working in the end. You just have to learn to discipline yourself and not give in so easily! Something I am still working on…

Well… we did it! We survived the day without each other! Believe me, there were tears… mostly mine… but we survived. lol. Actually she did cry when I dropped her off. But I think because she was sitting in her carseat too long while I was explaining the how-to’s. She doesn’t like sitting in her carseat going no where. So I took her out, gave her hugs and handed her off to Auntie. Blew kisses and quickly walked out the door, choking back the tears that were on the verge of falling… But I didn’t actually shed a tear. I kept control and remained calm.

I promptly called the hubby to tell him I did it, and asked him to call and check on her later (i think mostly for me to feel relived knowing he was going to) because I didn’t think I would get the opportunity to.

As soon as I was able to get out, I raced back to get her waiting for the happy smile to greet me! All I got was a sleeping kid! geesh! she doesn’t even care! haha. She heard me talking to Auntie and blinked her eyes open and closed a few times, trying to decide if she should nod back off to sleep or wake up to see me. I grabbed her out of the swing because I needed a hug! She did wake up and smile big and act excited to see me, so that made me happy!! Auntie said she did good, but she didnt want her to leave the room or stop paying attention to her! But other than that she was fine! Well I find of figured she would be, I knew auntie would take good care of her!

But I was so anxious last night I couldn’t sleep a wink! The few moments of sleep I did get, I was having weird dreams. And one was very fitting, actually. The reason for the baby sitter was because I was starting a new job! (also why I was so anxious, because I had the same job for 4 years! I was nervous to start another one…) Well in my dream I was leaving my old job! I was packing up my desk,  and then the girls “in my group” so to speak were all crying when I was walking out the door- which pretty much happened, they were teary eyed and choking back the tears, them And me!  And then as my dream continued,  I went to dinner with Ria and her dad, of all people, they took me to dinner to say good bye. I vividly remember eating pizza in a resturant lol. Funny thing is they are here in MI and when I left my job to move I moved TO Michigan, so that wouldn’t have been possible in real life…

Well, I’m off to bed, and hopefully can sleep better knowing Abby did fine without me for one day, and the fact that I don’t have to work until Sunday, so I have two days to relax!!

I am sooo anxious just thinking about tomorrow! My Abby turned 5 months old yesterday, and tomorrow is the very first time we’re leaving her with someone! Luckily it’s a family member, BUT STILL! I have my orientation tomorrow for my new job, and its from 8-12! So I have to drop her off at 730 in the morning… and I’m so not used to getting going early either. Me and Abby take our time getting ready in the morning usually. If I have to go anywhere before her first nap, which is around 1130ish, I take her out in her pjs and then get her ready when we come back … First nap, who am I kidding, I’m lucky if she gets one nap in!…

But anyways…. I’m so nervous about tomorrow! When I went for an interview the other night, I was there for about 45 mins, and she was home with daddy. When I came back she looked so relieved to see me! I haven’t been away from her besides that since we moved here at the end of July! So really, I’m more nervous for her than for me! We haven’t even been over to her aunts house since we moved here so it’s not like it’s even a familiar place for her! She’s only been there once, when she was 2 months old, for crying out loud, how is she going to remember that?

With the drive time it will be 5 hours she’ll be over there… and after that I will work 4am-8am (crazy, I KNOW) so she’ll be home with daddy at that time, and sleeping for almost all of that time. So we just have to get past this one day… I guess I can manage that! That is, unless I get the job that I just interview for, which I am DYING to get! It’s teaching at a pre-school! it would be the absolute perfect job for me and I would LOVE it! But that is working during the day, obviously, so Auntie would have to watch her more. So we’ll see how tomorrow goes and take it from there… I just can’t wait until tomorrow is over with! lol.

Wish me luck!

I DID IT! I conquered the morning nap! My baby now goes right to sleep (well, sort of, sometimes she does still fight it for a little.)

It all started with me, when I was a baby. My mother always told me what a stubborn baby/child I was. Um, yeah it’s still with me! The stubbornness has never gone away… but that’s another story…  I was so horrible with naps and would refuse to take them, my mother said. I would still get tired, however! And I would end up falling asleep in my dinner plate! I even had a birthday party where I fell asleep at dinner. My parents had to open my presents for me, so the guests could see. I have pictures where my dad is trying to hold my eyelids up to take pictures with my toys and presents they opened! Oh, how hilarious…

Well anyway… My Abby… she fights sleep just as bad. But then she’s sooo cranky all day if she doesn’t get a nap in. I was going out of my mind! She would scream and scream and scream and not go to sleep. So I’d finally give up and take her out of her crib.

I think it started when Daddy would let her just fall asleep whenever/where ever. It wasn’t consistent. Not to only blame him! It’s not completely his fault. I was home for about 10 weeks after she was born. But she slept so much at that point there was no sense in trying to set schedules for naps. And the last 2 weeks before I went back to work we were out of state for my dads funeral. So everything was just a mess. Then a month later we moved from Florida to Michigan! So really, we’re just getting settled!

Well anyway, I figured out how to do it. It’s all about routine. I know this much. So I finally figured out a routine that will work for us and stuck to it. I do both breast feeding and bottle. She gets one morning bottle, one afternoon, and one before bed. So I feed her when she gets up, (which is when daddy goes to work around 730) and she sleeps through the night so she’s pretty hungry I guess because an hour later she’s ready to eat again! So I feed her again around 830-9. Then I get her ready for the day around 1030, we have a whole routine there. But I have to wait until it’s almost time for her to eat again because we got in the habit of giving her a bottle right after we got her ready for the day… so after I give her the bottle of formula which is around 11, I put her in her crib and she takes a nap!

It was hard at first. She would scream and scream like normal and I would pick her up to calm her down and put her back. and when that didnt work I’d put her in the swing or in her bouncer. But I did that for a few days, at the same time put her in her crib, and I guess she warmed up to the idea! Cuz now she actually falls asleep in her crib! The first time she actually slept she took a 2 hour nap! Oh you can imagine my relief! The 2nd day was about 2 hours as well, but yesterday was only about an hour, but that’s better than nothing!

The one thing I do have to remember to do is turn her mobile on before I put her down. She likes to look at it first before I put her under it. Somehow this calms her or something, because she doesn’t scream the second her body hits the mattress anymore lol.

The only advice I can give, is start routines early! It’s hard to settle into one when you’re really not sure how things will work or when things are constantly changing, like with us! But routines work miracles!

By the temperatures, you wouldn’t know it was August! It was so cold this morning that the grass frosted over!! Is there a term for that? For frozen dew? I think my brain is frozen as well! lol.

We’ve always had a problem with Abby keeping her blanket on her. She HATED to be swaddled. She always promptly kicked out of it as soon as we put her in bed. We still always try, becuse I think at least if the blanket is under her it will keep her a little warmer than just being on the sheet… well at least it makes me feel better, I’m not sure if there’s a difference! But now that we’re in Michigan and it’s going to be winter soon, I’m really worried. I have seen those sleep sacks. I think we’re going to have to try that out. Any ideas? Know where to buy them cheaply?

I’m hoping it won’t get too cold in here, but I can’t imagine the walls being too thick because we live in a modular! So we’ll see what happens!

Even though Abby was sleeping when I called my mom last night, she somehow knew that my sister, who is visiting her,  said that her daughter (my niece who is exactly 29 days younger) was rolling over from back to tummy. Well Abby somehow knew that she was falling behind on this milestone… After I put her to bed she practiced in the comfort of her own crib. She repeatedly rolled over, but somehow sideways in her crib and got her legs stuck out the bars of her crib!! She would cry in distress, so I ran in to see what was wrong and find her legs dangling, up to her knees which were lodged in between the bars! Scarey! After the 3rd time I said, you must not be tired (since she took a long late nap) and took her out of her crib. I put her in her swing until I saw her eyes get a little droopy and then put her back. She fell asleep with no more incidents. But when she got up this morning she remembered to perfect her rolling over. We found her playing on her tummy in the corner of the crib, this time not sideways so she didn’t get herself stuck!