Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from this little bunny!  We have another costume as well in case this one gets too hot!  I'm taking today off and spending it with my girl.  We have a couple of parties to go to!  Pictures to come on Monday. 

Catch Up Thursday

Let's start with Monday.  I booked a flight Sunday night to Richmond.  Of course there were no rental cars so I ubered to the construction site!  It worked out perfectly and was cheaper than a rental car.  I was only there a couple hours then I cruised back to Charlotte!

Tuesday I flew up to Chicago for the day. Well again for a couple of hours.  Check out these views we were treated to from the ride in. 

I sent Kevin this picture and said, "name this spot."  He easily identified it. This is where we spent hours on a layover when we were on our way to China last year.  

Wednesday - well Kevin came into Molly Anne's room on Monday night and said I have something to talk to you about.  Yikes!  He told me my car was going away on Wednesday and he had made a deal on a new one.  But, the new one wouldn't be here until mid November. Okkkk.  So Wednesday we went to Mexican for lunch then to the Toyota dealership to give them my car.  I'm driving a dealer car for a few weeks until our new sequoia comes in.  Woohooooo!!

Goodbye dear car. You were good to me for a whole year and a couple weeks.  Now I'll drive Kevins car and he will drive the big one.  

Nannie sent us a Halloween package this week and she never forgets ole Mills!  He's loved these boo bars made with pumpkin and cinnamon. 

Thinking about getting Molly Anne one of these hats for this winter. I'm hoping if I get 6-12 month that she can wear it next year too!

That's all I've got!

How Work Has Been

Well let me go ahead and be straight up: it hasn't been easy!  I'm on week four.

The first week was good.  I was in town all week and I left around 3pm most days to go pick up my girl. It felt good to be back with my second family and doing something I love and is challenging to me.

The second week, I traveled. I did a day trip and also an overnight.  I didn't leave until a 10:30pm flight so I could put her to bed but I still hated being away.  Wine helped me stay sane for that first night away. ;)  Also the second week, I found out more information about her neck and flat head.  I immediately wanted to be in control of her daily (doing all of her exercises and holding her all of the time versus in a swing or something) but i realized I had no choice and had to rely on someone else.  Now since then, Becky has done an amazing job with her and she never puts her down for long periods of time and does all of her exercises. This is evident by the physical therapist seeing so much progression. But it was still hard for me to release control of a medical thing to someone else.  I'm fine with it now and extremely thankful to Becky for continuing to be really conscious of it. 

Week three, I was home all week but officially back in the swing and very busy.  Everyone knew I was back so my phone was off the hook.  I started to realize that not working the kind of hours I used to work will make it more difficult but I can still get it done.  I just have to prioritize....more than I did before which would be interesting.  I already prioritized. But ok this is new. And this will be my new normal.  

Week four is happening now. I'm currently on a plane writing this to publish tomorrow.  I did a day trip Monday and a day trip today (Tuesday).  Day trips are wonderful because you get to be home in your own bed but they're long, very long.  And back to back days this week, whew.  I will have seen Molly Anne a total of three hours in two days.  And I miss her like crazy.  

I realize there are a lot of women in this world that work and raise children.  I think everyone deals with it differently. I'm still learning.  I'm learning how to be wife, mom, daughter, sister, aunt, employee and friend all at once.  I think I'll always be learning.  I'll be learning how to prioritize in my daily workload at work but also in my social calendar and family time.  Suddenly your priorities change when you have children and I still want to do it all.  I need to be easy on myself because that's not humanly possible. So I'm going to have to give up social events and focus on my main squeeze and our baby doll and then work!  I'm totally fine with that!  It's what I prefer to be honest. But that doesn't make it any easier to say no to things with friends!

Working in general has been really good for me. I don't want people to think it hasn't.  It's my choice to work and I think it's been positive.  Plus, I love who I work with and what I do.  They are all amazing and tell me to be mom first then work.  So nice.  

So, I'm still a work in progress on this working mom thing.  I'll report back in as the months go by.  I think we all have to support each other through this sort of thing.  And take it day by day.  

PSA

A PSA.

I went to my annual dermatologist appointment in July just a few weeks after Molly Anne was born.  The doc took one spot off my back (which turned out to be benign thankfully) and wanted to see me again in three months to check on a few other spots.  Last Monday was that check up and she took a mole off my thigh that I've had forever.  Thankfully it came back benign. She also asked me to come back in six months and not wait a whole year.

I love how aggressive my doc is being with wanting to see me regularly. We were talking Monday and she told me how pregnancy gets your hormones going, specifically your growth hormone.  So any iffy spots use your growth hormone as fertilizer so it can make these spots irregular after pregnancy.  She said its best to have a lot of follow up visits while those hormones calm down.  

GO GET CHECKED.  I don't care if you've been pregnant or not - go get checked.  Yes, it runs in my family big time so I've always been extra crazy but melanoma is no joke. Make your appointment today please!!!

Halloween Big Times

It was a crazy busy weekend!  We definitely had a big time!

First up, dinner at Highway 55 with friends!  Kevin was pleased that Molly Anne slept through most of her first date! ;)

Saturday night - Halloween party at friends of ours.  

 

They go all out on decorations and they put up a tent in their back yard for the pumpkin carving contest.  

Jenga to break a costume tie!

So funny!

She always does the best party favors!  These are big buckets with our last name on them to hold our Halloween candy. Cute right?!

And Sunday our other neighbors had a fall festival in their back yard!

A pony was there giving rides to the kids, there were crafts, good food and sweet friends!

A weekend well spent!  Now for a busy week!

Five on Friday

1.  My niece had to write about her favorite trip.  She wrote about coming to meet Molly Anne for the first time.  She also got my moms old iPad last weekend so now she can text and FaceTime family.  We get to chat most afternoons now.  I love it! 

2.  Mills went with me to pick up Molly Anne on Wednesday!

3.  Yes he's been getting just as much attention! ;)  He's very tired these days. He thinks he is Molly Anne's parent and he is obsessed with being near her 24/7. It's adorable.  

4.  Bumbo sitting while we have dinner.  Working on her neck getting strong still.  Update on that: physical therapy is helping SO much.  Amy her therapist is really impressed by how much she has progressed.  We work on her exercises every day at home.  We are determined to get her strong whether that means a helmet or not!  Still have to fix those neck muscles from being inside of me for 9 months (torticollis).  

5.  This babydoll still has the crud.  We hope she gets better soon. She's still just as smiley as ever!

Happy Friday!!

These Are My People

Some Pics

Ahhhhh I cannot believe my girl is almost four months old.  Every day she changes and I race to get her every afternoon because I just can't wait to see her!  

She's still fighting her first cold but you wouldn't know it. She's a happy little baby!  Happy Wednesday!  We are off to physical therapy!

Here are some pics over the last week.  

How Molly Anne Started Sleeping

I know everyone is extremely opinionated on this topic but I want to record this so I remember for round two! 

No hard feelings if you agree or disagree but this is what worked for us.  Maybe what you did worked, more power to you!  I'm a huge believer in doing what is best for your family, period. 

Yes Molly Anne is a good baby (or so I'm told by others that have children).  Obviously I have nothing to compare her to.  I just knew that sleep was important to ALL of us!  So I did what anyone does these days - I talked to my friends who are in my same season in life and read Google!  I decided to do Moms on Call.  Well, kind of.  I downloaded the $10 book from their website and read some of it. I also read parts of a Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. I have two friends of mine who have children that SLEEP and they used these.  Our pediatrician helped me too.  

And then I made it what works for us.  I mainly followed moms on call but I didn't do any of the day time schedule.  I used the general idea of how to help your baby sleep.  I just couldn't figure out how to make a newborn nap at a certain time.  And honestly to his day, she doesn't ALWAYS take a nap at 10am or any real schedule. I kinda think some of that is nuts because you have to have a life.  But she does take a morning and afternoon nap, the times just vary.  Sometimes she naps 4 times a day.  And Molly Anne has never taken long naps, ever....as in she usually only sleeps 45 minutes.  But the doc said it didn't matter because she is sleeping at night. 

Here are some specific things we did....

First, she slept in her crib from day one.  I just didn't see the point of the rock n play or any of that in our room. I felt like that was more out of convenience for me and less for her.  If she had been colicky, that would have been different.  But why add another transition to complicate things more?  

Second, we did the same routine EVERY night since July 6 when we got home.  Bath, bottle, bed.  In that order. Never missed a night. And still haven't.  She knows what to expect.  We read books now but at the beginning we didn't.  So now it's bath, book, bottle, bed.  

The biggest thing that our pediatrician told me that would affect her sleep was eating.  It all about getting enough calories during the day so she isn't starving at night.   Right now at 3.5 months, she gets 30 ounces every day.   I make sure of it!

I have never used white nose and she has slept with and without a nightlight.  I wanted her to be flexible. 

I remember some of those nights early on, I'll be honest - I let her cry.  After two weeks, if she was fed, burped, had a clean diaper, she didn't NEED me.  She felt loved and never abandoned. She knew if she bloody murder screamed that I'd be in there in an instant.  But I learned her cry. She was fine. Just fussy. But by me leaving her in there, she learned how to put herself to sleep.  The doc told me it was perfectly fine and she encouraged me to let her cry.  She didn't cry for hours - I think the longest she was ever fussy was 15-20 minutes and that was her just being wild and flailing her legs and arms around.  She didn't need anything.  Then in the middle of the night, I'd go feed her when she cried that it was time.  Those initially were around 12a and 5a then went to only one time around 3a (I'd say this was around 7 weeks).  Then amazingly on her two month birthday in Maryland (at 9 weeks), she slept through from 8-5:30!  

She only had a swaddle on during her first nine weeks of life. She hated that thing. It restricted her.  I never zipped her arms in except for the first few weeks. She kept breaking out of the zip swaddle.  And her legs - she would pick them up in the air and scoot down her crib like a mermaid.  Child still does this without the swaddle!  I put her in the crib at the left side because she moves so much she is at the other end of the crib by morning. Ha!  

She still is up in the middle of the night moving around about once a night but always goes right back to sleep.  I never go in there unless I can tell something is really wrong.  Usually she's in bed by 7:45 and sleeps until 7am. I'll take it.  I'm soooo lucky we have a good little sleeper.  I think it's half of what we did above and half that she likes to sleep.  

I'm not going to lie, there were many nights that Kevin had to keep telling me to not go in there. It hurts your mama heart to hear them cry.  But he was right that it's good for her to sleep.  And it would have put us back to square one too.

Oh!  And zero co sleeping.  Our bed is for us, not her. But yes, she does come cuddle a couple mornings a week! ;) 

Ok let's pretend this post isn't out there because I don't want to jinx it all by talking about it too much!!!   Here's to everyone's baby sleeping!!!

Boo Bash and Wedding

Friday we had lunch in Charlottesville with friends who used to live in Charlotte.  And Connor is still our attorney for work so luckily we have all stayed in touch since they moved!  Their little boy is the cutest!

I was excited to fly back home to my babydoll.  

We had hot dogs on the grill Friday night and just hung outside. It was so nice out. 

Saturday morning we worked on tummy time and did her exercises that physical therapy has taught us.  She is getting stronger for sure!

Then we went to the Boo Bash with our friends!  It was the cutest festival!  Gigi's dress was adorable - it just says Boo!

Us with our girls!

Saturday afternoon we took Molly Anne to Kevin's parents for her first overnight with them!  She did well!  

Saturday late afternoon we ubered to the Lake Norman area for a gorgeous wedding!

It could not have been a more perfect day on the water. 

The band was amazing. 

And the bride was absolutely stunning!  I work with her Dad and also her new husband!  They are the cutest couple!

Work girls!

They're off to Maui!!!!!

Then we ubered to a bar up there.  And then we decided to head back south so we called our IRL friend Sean who also does uber to grab us.  We all hung at Bradshaws for a couple hours late night. We didn't get home until after 2am. Ahhh. 7am came early when we had to get up to go get Molly Anne.  Bojangles was essential.  ;)

But this sweet baby is worth it!  I couldn't wait to see her!

Yesterday afternoon I went to a Chloe and Isabel party at my friend Jenns and it was so good to see friends.  And try on gorgeous jewelry! 

Molly Anne isn't feeling well so I'm taking her to the doctor this morning per the on call nurse recommendation last night.    Monday, Monday!