starbucks

It's now very interesting to think back to a year ago. Last year at this time I was jet lagged from visiting my friend Anna in London. I spent two wonderful weeks with her! I would drive to my neighborhood starbucks to get a mocha for a bit of a perk until I fully recovered.
Now, I see that same starbucks as I drive to daycare and think "oh what a difference a year makes!" I think about this almost daily. I can no longer spend $3 for a drink because all my money goes toward diapers, wipes, baby bath, etc. I can no longer drink coffee for a perk because of the caffeine. I can no longer spend time sitting in the drive-thru lane or get out of the car with a baby in tow. You know what?! I think I'm happier! Who needs starbucks anyway!?

green

So this is a bit gross but...my expressed breast milk is green! According to the ladies at daycare, it means that it's full of iron so my baby Bella can grow big and strong. It could also have to do with my strong craving for spinach. I ate a ton of it last week! Interesting, huh?

Memorial Day Weekend

Matt, Bella & I went to the lake house to visit Dan & Sandy for Memorial Day. We had a great, relaxing visit...well, I should say, Bella and I had a relaxing weekend. Matt had to work...and the only place with good reception was the dock. Matt spent a LOT of time on the dock talking to work people and following up with email while Bella and I hung around, went on a walk with Sandy and chatted on the deck. Dan made a delicious pork roast and Sandy made lots of yummy side dishes. You know...the lake house is all about eating good food! We did!

Duchess was privileged enough to join us and as you can guess, she spent all of her time following Matt around...which meant she was on the dock a LOT. Despite being deaf and nearly blind, she didn't fall into the lake. She did voluntarily go for a swim, but then got confused and had to be rescued. It was nothing traumatic, she just went to the wrong dock then couldn't figure out how to get back to Matt.

a typical day

I want to write about my typical day so when it gets better I can reminisce and be so proud to survive being a newborn parent. I'm working now so that changes a lot of things. Here goes:

2:30 - feed Bella (unless she doesn't wake up because I fed her at 10-11 pm the night before)
6:30 - feed Bella, wake up for real, eat breakfast, change diaper, put cute clothes on Bella, find descent clothes for myself, shower, put lotion & lipstick on, dry hair if Bella is crying, put hair in pony tail if she's not crying (she likes the sound of the hair dryer), pack pump parts from drying rack, pack lunch, make trips to car to load everything. Matt helps to entertain Bella.
8:00 - feed Bella one more time before going to work (I'll probably have to stop this feeding so I can be at work earlier in June)
8:30 - drop off Bella at daycare
9:00 - work
11:00 - pump at work, read blogs, facebook, entertain myself with one hand on computer because other hand carefully holds pump in place
between 2:00 and 4:00 - pump at work
4:30-5:00 - leave work (remember to bring expressed milk!)
5:00 - pick up Bella, chat with Ms. Cindy or Ms. Llda
5:30 - hang out on front porch with dogs, wait for Matt to come home
6:00 - feed Bella
6:30 - fix dinner or Matt fixes dinner
7:00 - eat dinner, maybe go for a walk
7:30 - bathe Bella, Matt cleans kitchen and pump parts & does laundry
8:00 - feed Bella, Bella goes to bed
8:30 - watch tv, hang clean laundry, listen to Bella breathe on monitor, plan meals, help Matt with my work projects, talk to Matt, yawn a lot!
10:30 - sleep or feed Bella (depending on how sleepy I am at the moment)

Whew! and it starts over the next day!

Nursing is certainly not taking the 40 minutes that it used to! It takes about 20-30 minutes which is good. She gets distracted if there's unusual noise around so we try to be quiet and boring. When she uses me as a pacifier, I stop and she actually doesn't fuss that much about it. I attribute the ease of switching from bottle (expressed breast milk) to nursing to the nipple shield. It's a soft, silicon cover for your nipples, but resembles a bottle nipple. The instructions say to only use when necessary to prevent soreness, but I use it exclusively...and it worked and continues to work for us.

Bella seems to enjoy daycare. She likes being around the other kids, or at least watching them. She has had 2 "excellent" days since starting (about a month) so that is good. She has not been sick at all either!

Cut and Paste

It takes a lot to get us all smiling at the same time. If only we could cut and paste the best pictures together into one!

poo!

Yesterday was a beautiful day! The weather was gorgeous. The baby was happy. Our new maid cleaned the house. We planted flowers in the garden. We ate a home-cooked meal. We went to bed early. Indeed, we were satisfied. With the baby asleep, we laid in bed each reading our magazines... when all of the sudden we heard a burst of water, as if a water balloon landed and splashed. We looked at each other and then smelled the WORST smell ever. Penny barfed on the carpet at the foot of the bed. She barfed some sort of poo!!! I immediately started gagging and ran to the toilet to barf. Matt ran downstairs to get old towels. Penny sat nearby with a I'm-terribly-sorry look on her face. Matt cleaned up as much as was possible with carpet cleaner & a box of baking soda. Tonight were renting a carpet cleaner to really get things cleaned. ...and Penny will be supervised 100% while outside from now on. (I think she ate something poo-like from the end of the alley.)

By the way, my coworkers office smells just fine today. No need for febreeze!

shhh! don't tell

While at work, I used my coworkers office (because I was kicked out of mine in order for the floor to be repaired). It was not a big deal since my coworkers were on their semester break. I needed to pump so I started. While pumping I usually peruse the internet and click away with my free hand, but in their office couldn't do that...I just sat there and was bored until I turned around in my chair to discover magnetic words on the side of the file cabinet. I started arranging the words to make funny sentences. I thoroughly entertained myself! I accidentally dropped a word on the floor. It was right next to my feet under the chair. I bent over to pick it up unknowing that the top of the funnel and bottle of the pump could leak. I spilled milk! Don't worry, I didn't start crying...but it made a mess. About an ounce of breast milk was all over my pants, the chair and the carpet. I wonder how much febreeze will be needed to remove the potential sour smell? I'll find out.

thumb sucker?

Matt found Bella in her cradle this morning with her thumb in her mouth! She took it out a couple of times and put it back in. It seems to work! We'll see if she continues to "find" it.
...And yes, I have thought of the implications later in life if she becomes a thumb sucker - potential speech distortions (which I can fix) and expensive orthodontic work (which may be needed regardless) but I think it's worth it if she can soothe herself. I was a thumb sucker and I turned out okay :)
Picture taken from Matt's cell phone.

at 3 months...

...Bella can suck on her fists (usually her right), smile when talked to, sit upright in a bumbo seat, roll-over from tummy to back (actually it just happened once) and wake up just once at night. According to Ms. Cindy, she likes the Lion King, the ABC song video and a older, hispanic newscaster on Channel 13 (they joke that she's falling for older men). She likes going for walks, taking baths, swings and morningtime. She's getting mostly breastmilk while at daycare and I'm pumping successfully at work. I love breastfeeding now that the alternative is pumping. She stopped having "blow-outs" from her diaper, either because of the Pampers & Luvs size 2 or just because she's not so explosive. Overall, I think she's happy and I'm happy.

what to eat?

Lately my appetite has changed. Maybe it's a side-effect of sleep deprivation? I usually think of a restaurant to eat out and make plans to get there somehow during the week. Here's a list of my usuals:

• Mission Burrito: burrito in a bowl, rice, beans, cheese, pico, corn, sour cream
• Carrabbas: Scotty Thompson: goat cheese and red sauce with garlic toasts to dip
• Tila's: Marinated grilled beef nachos: avocado, powdery cheese, lime, black beans, beef
• Subway: 6" seafood on Italian herb and cheese bread, cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle, olive
• Mandola's: Veggie Poboy: fried eggplant, sauteed mushrooms, lettuce, tomato, mayo
• Spaghetti Western: Veggie Poboy: fried eggplant, squash, mushrooms, red pepper
• Nundini (Pure Italian Deli): mozzarella and tomato sandwich
• Ihop: Migas: eggs, onions, tomatoes, cheese, hash browns
• Onion Creek: veggie pizza: black olives, onions, mushrooms, bubbly, brown cheese
  
• Bambolinos: pepperoni pizza
• Brown Bag Deli: tuna sandwich, cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle
  
• McDonalds: hamburger happy meal, only ketchup and onions on the burger, GIRL to

Now, I don't crave any of these foods or places. What's wrong with me?! I feel like eating homemade deviled eggs or hummus or rice with soy sauce with chocolate cake for dessert. Please suggest other casual restaurants to try. I think my taste buds are bored.

Mother's Day Weekend

Here's Bella and Matt at Onion Creek. We celebrated surviving a week at daycare and being back at work (for me). Yes - I got to go to work 2 weeks early so now I have two weeks of money (remember that my maternity leave was unpaid). Bella was great at the very casual restaurant! We sat outside and had a great time. I think we can start taking her out and about more. I think she was on her best behavior so we wouldn't take her back to daycare!
Here's Jack and Bella reunited after not seeing each other for over a month!
Bella's saying "Yo, Jack - look at the dogs over there!"
Here the BIG HEADS meet! Jack and Matt get along just fine. How could they not?!
We celebrated Mother's Day with John, Ashley and my parents. We had a good time! Here's Bella in the bumbo on the back porch with Lucy and Penny being themselves.

Thursday nights

On Thursday nights we discovered a free, fun outing - it's at the Discovery Green! We ran into some friends, Jan and Mariza, and shared a bottle of wine while listening to music. Bella enjoyed hanging out with Camilla (who is 3 months older). The best part is that when Bella gets a little fussy, you can't hear her over the music! Holding a crying baby at a concert when no one is irritated by a baby break-down is great! If you can't find us on a Thursday night, you'll know where we are. Dogs can go too!

swings

Daycare has taught Bella to love swings and mobiles! Ordinarily she likes being in her pink "calming vibrations" bouncey chair, but now she insists on being in a swing. Lucky for us, we have 2 swings! At Busy Bee she has a sideways swing and at home we have a regular chair swing and then a swing that lays down a bit so by the end of the day she's well mixed! Busy Bee says she cried when they put up 2 other (apparently boring) mobiles...but when they put up the pink and yellow flower mobile, she loved it! We'll have to pull out our mobiles to try them out at home. Initially I had them on her cradle but she never looked at them and they were just in the way. Since being back from Missouri, she has loved staring at her aquarium that's attached to the side of her cradle - it does a nice job of getting her to sleep at night. Oh! the things we try and use to soothe our babies! What would we do without?!

daycare has begun

Monday was Bella's first day at daycare - It was bittersweet. I was a bit scared to take her because the surrounding school was closed due to the flu, but it turned out just fine (and the suspected flu was not confirmed). I cried on the way...which wasn't long since it's just 3 streets over. Bella was okay there and comfortable in her own Pack 'n Play (that Matt set up that morning). I spent a bit of time chatting then said goodbye to her. It's really not all that dramatic at the moment. I then drove to Target and walked up and down all the isles getting everything that I needed, really, everything...not just half of what I meant to get. Of course I missed Bella but also enjoyed the time without fretting about a potential baby break-down. I drove home and took a long, much-needed shower and drove right back over to pick her up. She was sound asleep in the swing so that was good! I'm sure she's picking up Spanish, much faster than I am. She's also very clean as they like to give her a bath a day. She has to wear socks while there - it's a rule. They can't wait for her hair to grow so that they can put it in little pig-tails!