My Days with Amelia

I am now officially a stay at home mom. I put in my resignation with my job and I'm excited about this new journey. I will admit that I always thought being a stay at home mom would be easy and I'd feel so lucky to not have a job. Well, there are moments that I would love to be relaxing in my model home at work, but overall I'm loving it and am so thankful for this time that I have with little Amelia. We are finding our groove together and for the most part our days are pretty smooth. We are on a pretty good schedule that is helping me to learn what she needs. She eats every 2 1/2 to 3 hours during the day and the in between time she plays a little...interacting with me, me carrying her around, going for a walk with me or sitting in her bouncy while I do something and then she will take a nap hopefully until it's time to eat again. Then we repeat that all day:) I hadn't really thought much about scheduling prior to her being born and hadn't read any books, but I kept hearing about Eat, Play, Sleep and how that's a good order of doing things and I kind of realized that's what we were sort of doing anyway. But, I've looked a bit at the books Babywise and also Baby Whisperer. I've talked to friends and family about what they think and most people have found them to be really helpful. It's going really good. I can sort of count on what to expect from Amelia this way. I know about when she'll eat and then she'll be happy and content for awhile and then sleep.

Fussy time usually hits at about the time Daddy is coming home. I don't know what it is, but I've heard that evening is often a fussy time for babies. She's usually not too bad, but I can tell she's fighting sleep and acts really tired. She tried to skip that evening nap by fighting and flailing a bit, but eventually she can't help but fall asleep.

Bedtime routine starts at about 10:00. I feed her and we turn all the lights off and just have it nice and quiet setting the mood. After I'm done feeding her then Chad swaddles her in our "miracle blanket". This is basically a baby straight jacket:) I love it! She relaxes and is so calm when she gets swaddled and she can't work her way out of it during the night. Chad puts her down to sleep and she's such a good little sleeper that she just needs to be set down even if she's not asleep and she will put herself to sleep. She will usually sleep for between 4-6 hrs the first stretch and then I get up and change her, feed her and re swaddle her and she sleeps about 3 more hours. Sleeping has been going so good the past 3 weeks. We haven't had even one night where she's had trouble going to sleep and going back to sleep after her middle of the night feeding. It's made such a huge difference in how I feel. I feel rested every day now and can function like a normal person:)

Right now she sleeps in her bouncy seat in her room and we are wanting to get her into her crib. I've started doing some naps in her crib and they have been short and sweet. We are making the switch to the crib at night this upcoming weekend. Since it might require some more hands on attention in the night, I wanted Chad to be able to help more and not have to get up for work the next day. So, we're hoping we can make the switch.

Here are a couple pics of her first time sleeping in the crib for a nap. She looked so sweet and peaceful at first, but quite a different story about 25 minutes later.

She's Smiling:)

I haven't successfully captured a really good picture yet, but little Amelia is smiling! She had her first real smile at about 5 1/2 weeks and now she smiles more and more. Morning time is her happiest time and usually when I see the most smiles. The best ones are in the night when I'm trying to get her back to sleep. She knows that'll melt my heart and make me forget that it's 4:00 in the morning:) She likes when I do peek a boo and she has no idea what I'm doing other than my voice is high pitched and squeaky and she likes that. I love that she's doing new things and growing, but it's also kind of sad. Her tiny newborn diapers are now too snug for her and she's already outgrowing some of her clothes. People always say to enjoy every stage because it goes fast and now I really believe them. I'm trying to savor every day with her because time is flying by.

Here is a pic of a 1/2 smile. I didn't click the camera quite fast enough. We'll try to get a video of it and post that soon.

Just Chillin'

Hanging out while mommy gets ready in the morning.

Snuggling with mommy

So, I've created a monster...that is if a snuggle bug is a monster. Our little miracle sleep solution is that Amelia loves to sleep with my arm around her where she uses my arm as a pillow. We can snuggle close, but the good thing is that I can't roll over on her because my arm is under her. It's so sweet and she loves it and I love it. In fact last night she slept like that all night. I had to wake her to feed her and in total we got more than 8 hours of sleep. Yes, I'm quite aware that I can't sleep like that forever, but it works and I'm feeling pretty good with a full nights sleep.

We are trying to figure out what our strategy for sleeping will be. We've been told to not worry about it for the 1st 4-8 weeks or so. Well, we are already in the 5th week, so we need to think about how we are going to work to transition her to her crib or whatever it is we decide to do. If you have any ideas or things that worked for you....please let us know.

Mommy, please put clothes on me!

I thought this was such a cute picture. Amelia really does not like her clothes off, but I had to take a second to snap a quick picture because she just looked so silly:)

Bath Time

I'm sure eventually Amelia will love her bath time, but she definitely was not a happy little girl for her 1st real bath. She screamed at the top of her lungs the whole time...poor little thing. We haven't tried to give her another bath since then and might just stick with quick little sponge baths for awhile. Here are some pictures of a screaming baby:)

Finding our Groove

So, my mom has been gone now for over a week and Chad has been getting back into going into work, so me and little Amelia are trying to find our groove each day. I've looked forward to being a mom for so long and here I am....being a mom and just figuring out what that really looks like. Amelia has been all over the place on little outings. I'm not much for staying home all day and so we usually do at least something to get out. Earlier this morning....both of us still in pajamas...took a drive to Chik Fila for me to get a Diet Coke. They are the only place in town that serves up caffeine free diet coke and I was just craving that. For lunch today I met Tara, Greta and Jeremy and we went to La Hacienda. That's a favorite Mexican restaurant that Amelia will grow to know well. She slept pretty much the whole time....she did open her eyes a couple times but fell right back to sleep.

My last post was a pouring out of my honest feelings. Things are getting easier. We are still having trouble with breast feeding, but we are making some progress and I feel hopeful that we will finally "get it". My back is feeling a lot better and I'm just trying to be careful to not strain it...I've gotta be able to lug around that car seat. Amelia is really a very content baby and I'm so thankful for that. When she cries and I can't figure out what she needs it is so hard. I think my body actually has a reaction to her crying and it just makes my stomach almost hurt....probably just a motherly instinct.

She's growing right on track. She's up to 7 lbs 9 oz which is up from her lowest weight of 6 lbs 3 oz. She's so cute and makes the funniest little facial expressions. Scrunching up her face, smiling (ok...we know it's not a real smile yet), making her mouth into a little "o". It's so fun to just watch her and I'm just amazed that she's ours. I'm posting a few pics...one of her at the dentist..we thought she needed her tongue clipped, but she didn't, one picture of me and her snuggling and another where she's hanging out on the kitchen table while I work in the kitchen.