Naptime

Today is the second day we've had workers in our house.  I'm not a huge fan.  It's sort of awkward, because you never know where they're going to pop up, and my whole house is disheveled as they replace all our windows.  Don't get me wrong, I'm SUPER excited for new windows and more light in my house, BUT I wish they could just magically appear there one day...

Since they're working in Stretchy's room today, she's napping in our bed.  I don't know how she's napping as the noise of hammering and sawing is about to drive me insane, but I guess after our Friday swim lesson, she's pretty tired.

This is what I saw when I came to check in on her.

I often post that photos are "the cutest thing ever" but come on... this has to be top 10...

Nap Anyone?

According to Mirriam Webster:

nap: to sleep briefly, especially during the day.

According to one almost six-month old baby that lives in my house:

nap: to engage in vocal and mouth exercises, dorsal activities, occasional spurts of crying and whining and/or experimenting with bodily functions while in the confines of one's crib (see video below).

I, for one, cherish "nap time" as it allows me to get some chores done (or more often check e-mail and write blog posts) and occasionally take a break with coffee and a magazine.

Up until now, naps were short-lived, but soundly taken... now, well... let's just say my house is dirty, if you write me an e-mail, I probably won't respond... and as far as blog posts... they may be few and far between.

Time. I've Lost Mine, Can I Borrow Some of Yours?

Let's start by saying that before I had a babbling, rolling, giggling, smiling, energetic baby on my hands I actually wondered in those last months of pregnancy, what I was going to do with myself during the day once she arrived.  SERIOUSLY??

Let me continue by saying that the few posts I've managed to write in the past few days have occurred for the following reasons.  1. My parents were here and successfully managed to entertain the baby for a while.  2. I have decided that despite my New Year's resolution to be more organized, which resulted in a cleaning schedule, that cleaning is not the best use of my time. 3. Stretchy is taking a nap.

Since she was born, I have gone from having all the time in the world.  Time which I used to fill with mindless activities like browsing the internet, playing mindless solitaire games on the computer, drawing random doodles, trying new recipes, shopping at stores by walking down every single aisle, and even, on occasion, napping.

For some reason, now that I have zero time, I continually think of things that I never did WHEN I HAD TIME, but that seem imperative now that I don't.  Like making a home organization binder, redoing my teaching portfolio, making a book of our photos from our year in Dresden, sleeping...

In fact, now it seems that I have actually managed to have negative time.  Negative time occurs when you not only have zero time to get anything done, but when it seems that the time you might have to get things done is so minimal that it doesn't exist.  It causes all "things that need to get done" to pile up so that you become so overwhelmed that even when you have time, you cannot utilize it because you are so befuddled by those "things" that you don't know where to start and are fairly certain that even if you did start, you wouldn't be able to finish and would probably just add to the list rather than be able to cross things off.

Stretchy naps about 3 times a day.  Awesome?  Sure, it would be.  If she ever slept for more than 20 minutes.  20 minutes allows for the completion of the following household tasks:  emptying 1/2 the dishwasher, washing 6.8 dishes, putting in 1.2 loads of laundry, folding 20 items, putting away a laundry basket full of items, except those 4 things, making a bed, taking a shower and getting dressed, writing 4/5 of a blog post, or most often, checking e-mail (resulting in the use of the remaining 19.5 minutes mindlessly surfing the internet).

So, how about it.  I've lost all my time.  Can I borrow some?

My Baby is Growing Up...

Before I get to posting about anything substantial, here are some photos from our long weekend:

This is where MiniM.E. sleeps at our house (in the pack-n-play under the changing table thingy so the cats don't accidentally jump on her...) but we couldn't fit it in the car... 

so this is where she slept at my parents' house- why did we spend so much on a pack-n-play?

trying out the new hat

resting up for the big trip

excited to leave... 

enjoying the comfy comforter

unsure about shopping on Black Friday

nice couch...

sleeping in with Daddy

MiniM.E. turned six weeks old on Saturday.  It's funny that when you have a new baby you mark the time first in days, then in weeks, then in months... then in half years... and sometime between kindergarten and fifth grade you just use years.  And eventually you don't want to remember how many years old you are.

But I digress... the point of this post is that MiniM.E. is growing.  She was so tiny when we brought her home and I kind of wanted to keep her that way.  You don't really notice something growing when you see it every day, but I think she just went through some pretty major growth-spurting, because a few days ago when I woke up and carried her down the stairs what used to feel like a Cabbage Patch doll suddenly felt like a bag of bricks.  Not to mention the fact that I'm squeezing my poor baby into clothes that have probably been too small for at least a couple weeks (what? that outfit isn't supposed to look like a spandex jumpsuit?).  But the biggest milestone was switching from newborn diapers to size one.

Looking back, apparently I should have made this switch weeks ago... however, being a new mom, I didn't realize the signs of a diaper being too small... those red marks around her legs- those have always been there, haven't they? and the fact that it's really hard to make the diaper tall enough in the front AND the back... well, she's just getting taller, right?  And maybe that's kind of the case- she's still pretty long and skinny...

While home for Thanksgiving we met up with one of my oldest friends and her 11-week-old.  He'd just moved up to size TWO diapers... which made me think... are MiniM.E.'s diapers too small??

So I decided that once we finished off the size "n"s, I'd move her up to size one.  But every time I changed her I couldn't help noticing that I was squishing my baby into teeny-tiny diapers when she really wasn't so teeny-tiny anymore.  I just didn't want her to get bigger...


To celebrate the last day wearing my favorite jungle outfit, MiniM.E. decided to show off all her new smiles:

...I also snapped a couple more non-smiling photos :

And finally this morning, I packed up all the newborn diapers and all the "spandex jumpsuits" and replaced them with roomy size ones and bigger clothes.  She seems much happier now.

and she fits in the NEW jungle outfit!!

My Daily Life Is...

currently not really worth blogging about.  Sorry :(  Plus, to be honest, I hardly have time to check and respond to e-mail, let alone upload photos and write blog posts.  Turns out MiniM.E. doesn't really like to sit and work on the computer...

Not that Molly isn't interesting.  She is the most fascinating human being I've ever spent 24 hours a day with.  However, what I find fascinating and interesting isn't really blog-worthy as there are probably only a total of 2 other people (Dad & Grandma) who would agree with my obsession with everything MiniM.E. does.

Originally, this blog was going to be:
A: A place to post funny stories about being a new mom
B: A place to post recipes that are either awesomely tasty, super easy, or fun for kids
C: A place to post artwork I make for the baby or that we make together

I think (A) might occur once in a while, but for the most part, my days include none of "cooking", "baking" or eating anything other than prepackaged foods and they certainly do not include time for creating artwork (with or without baby) or even thinking of ideas for artwork.

Instead, my days include a lot of
A: Feeding a baby (which sometime soon will lead to a funny story about being a new mom)
B: Changing a baby (again, I'm sure will have a good story at some point)
C: Holding a baby (which makes it hard to do anything else)
D: Watching a baby sleep (and occasionally dozing off)
E: Doing laundry (at least 3 loads a day)
F: A, B & C, in no particular order, repeatedly.

Like I said, while I find A-D fascinating because MiniM.E. is my baby, I'm sure the rest of the world probably doesn't need to read posts about my daily life -- unless of course something awesome, funny, unexpected, or ridiculous happens.

So here are some cute pictures to hold you over for a while.

Once MiniM.E. starts getting into a routine (and maybe napping by herself) I will try to post more photos and hopefully funny stories.  Until then, I'll be feeding, changing, holding, watching, cleaning and not sleeping pretty much full time, so please excuse my lack of posting... eventually, this blog will be all those things I planned... I hope...

Recovering...

So as it turns out, having a new baby really does take up all your time.  I knew they ate and slept a lot and needed to be changed and held, but somehow in my head, all those things did not add up to 24 hours.

Pretty much our days consist of sleeping as long as possible in the morning since we were up 3-5 times in the middle of the night for feedings that lasted at least 45 minutes because someone is finicky and has a hard time latching sometimes and falls asleep in the middle of eating and makes poopy diapers even though she was just changed.  Not naming names...

Then we get up and eat.  AGAIN.  Then I pawn MiniM.E. off on my mom (who thank God, is still here, because when would I have time to do dishes or laundry or anything else) so I can take a shower and check my e-mail really fast.  Because by the time I've done all that, guess who's hungry?

So she eats.  AGAIN.  Then, if there's anything we have to do, like buy groceries or stop at a store, or go outside for any reason, we have to get ready and do it really fast so we have the maximum time window possible, because chances are, before we are even finished with whatever errand it is, someone will be hungry.  AGAIN.

She does look really cute in the car seat though...

In the afternoon, after such a trying morning, we spend a lot of time doing this:

and this:

Before eating.  AGAIN.

Then Bob gets home and we have to eat ourselves... and Bob has to spend time with MiniM.E.

and I have to sit around and do nothing because the post-partum recovery stuff (I don't need to explain that here, do I?? No one wants to read about that...) hurts and my blood count is still low and did I mention that I was up every two and half hours last night??

And then MiniM.E. gets fussy and everyone tries their hardest to keep her quiet for "just another half hour" because I totally can't feed her again yet (why didn't anyone tell me breastfeeding HURTS!?!?).  And then finally I give in and feed her AGAIN.  And then I go to bed.

Which is why I have not posted in such a long time.  But, according to my doctor (and other women who've offered their advice and opinions- some helpful, some not) it will get better soon.  And by soon, they mean "three to four weeks".  WHAT?!?!

So until then... I will try, on occasion, to post cute pictures like this one.  Maybe.  Or I might just lie on the couch...