Brooklyn's first sickness

So Brooklyn has officially been sick. Poor little thing. She was battling a cold a few weeks back and then she seemed to rebound and get better. In the mean time passing it on to both her parents. However, we were all just starting to get better when Brooklyn woke up on a Saturday morning and had her cough and cold back.

She seemed to be doing well, but then Saturday afternoon she seemed out of sorts and when she woke up from her nap she had a fever. Her first "official" fever. I just felt so helpless. She really would not eat or drink much. We were super worried about dehydration and keeping her fever down and her comfortable. Bryan took her to the Dr on Tuesday and said that she had developed fluid in her lungs. Thankfully after a breathing treatment it sounded better, so they didn't need to do an x-ray. But, the Dr did want her back bc they were still watching for pneumonia.

Also, because of her nose being so stuffed up the mucus and gunk that backs up and was coming out her eyes. The Dr said this is normal, but still it was disturbing and we had to keep cleaning her eyes all day and night long. Bottom line the dr said it was viral and to continue breathing treatments at home.

poor little eye-looks like she got punched

I was able to take Brooke back to the dr on Friday. Dr Lacy said she was looking better, but to keep an eye on her and that she was super contagious. I think it took to about Tuesday until she started to seem like our playful silly girl. She is also starting to eat better again :) So all in all we all survived her first illness. Now for mom and dad to get better again-she passed it back to us again, lol.

Updates...

So yes, I am aware that I have been super bad about updating. Life these past months has gotten so busy. I never have been as mentally of physically exhausted as I have been. I did some thinking and holy moly have there been so many changes in my life in just the past 1.5-2 years. They say that getting married, losing/getting a new job, having a baby and buying a new house are some of the most overwhelming and stressful times in ones' life. Well I guess I hit that out of the park then didn't I. See below the craziness

Nov' 11- got married
Dec' 11- lost job
Feb 12- got new job
Mar 12-got pregnant
Jan 13- had baby
Mar 13- got new job
July 13- bought a house

That is a lot when you lay it out on the line like that. I have never been one who is great at dealing with stress. I work on it, but it hasn't been one of my strengths so to face all of that and come out the other sides, with some minor "bruises or bumps" so to speak, but still in 1 piece. I think I should be proud.

A lot has been a learning experience,very trying and time. I have lost cries tears of sorrow, pain and joy and then sometimes I didn't even know why I was crying. Hormones=AWESOMENESS!! Haha. I am sure any woman post pardom knows what I am talking about. There have been so many times that you just scream out of frustration, or lose your patience/temper, you tend to snip at those you are closest with, become over sensitive one minute and then decide not to give a f*ck then next. Trying to balance motherhood, being a wife, a friend, a sister, a daughter and figure out who you are now is tough. It is like walking a tight rope with and elephant on your back.

The hardest thing to balance has been having a child of course. She is such a wonderful blessing and angel in my life, but also the hardest thing I have ever had to do is be a mother. She requires so much attention, affections, love, nurturing and most of all time and gives us a lack of sleep. Just when I feel like I am getting into a good "reliable" pattern then she will switch something up on us. But, I will say lately I feel like I am getting the hang of this and being able to balance better.

Now of course that goes with out saying that somethings or family or friends have unintentionally fallen on the back burner. It of course was never meant to be that way or for lack of caring/love and missing of things and people. It is just that all my priorities switched as they should becoming a mother and well having a child turned my life up side down. I know have to focus on my family and my daughter. And there is so little time left in the day once Brooklyn is asleep. And it is usually filled with checking email, doing chores, paying bills, dinner, etc., and then maybe spending some time with my husband or factoring in a workout. By 9pm most days I am beyond ready to go to sleep. And with a baby that doesn't sleep through the night-it leaves me always running close to E. I took for granted my sleep and rest before. I didn't think this would effect me so hard, but it has.

So I am still getting a grasp on this new "normal" and doing the best I can. Some days are better than others. I  miss having "me" time and being able to just pick up and go to the nail salon or go shopping or call a friend up and makes plans spur of the moment. My long phone calls that I could always rely on with some of my BFFs have fallen to the wayside as have those calls with my family as well. I am sure they all understand since most have been through this or will at one point in their life. And I hope that they cut this new mom some slack. But, still I think it is important that I do recognize it and try and do better. There is no saying that tomorrow might be worse, but I can always try again the next day.

So after all those introspective thoughts and mumblings of a new mom. Bottom line is I am tired with bags under my eyes that no concealer can hide, I am lacking time and 90% of the time I am run down. But I hold all of my lovelies in my heart and encouraged that things will get easier. I know that this is only temporary and soon I hope to get that "pep" back in my step and figure out this new life and mother hood one day at a time.

Brooklyn is 4 months :)

So I have been a busy busy mom.  I apologize for the lack of posting, but life has gotten so busy. I am hoping to have more time, but then I laugh and think when is that going to happen.

So on 5-22-13 my little girl turned 4 months old! Brooklyn had changed so much in 4 months alone. Babies do grow up fast. She has come a long way from the little peanut that we brought home and now she is such a little person with a huge personality. She can bare weight and stand and loves to be up and interacted with. Her smile lights up a room and melts my heart. It is true what they say…you will do anything as a parent just to see your kid smile. And her cute little baby laugh is adorable. I can’t wait for the days of full baby belly laughs. Brooke’s laugh is very sly if you didn’t know it you might miss it.

EATING
Baby girl is getting big and strong. We still don’t know for sure how much she weighs etc, but will find out shortly at her next dr. apt. But she can put back some bottles for sure. She will usually eat between 5-6oz bottles every 3-4 hours during the day. And at night we have added cereal. She has been eating cereal for about 2 weeks and she seems to really like it. She has gotten the hang of it and now when I put the spoon to her mouth she will open her mouth big and is learning to swallow and not push the cereal out with her tongue. She has come a long way with eating her cereal in just a few weeks. 

We usually feed her cereal just at dinner and give her some bottle too, and then down for bed. When we go to the dr. we will ask about adding cereal to her in the morning. I am excited for her to try new foods, because that means she is growing and getting big and healthy. Even though I know it will be a mess and it means a lot more baths in our future I hope she enjoys trying all the foods. 

 

SLEEP

Brooklyn is a pretty good sleeper for the most part. We put her down for bed between 7-7:30 at night and then awake again in the morning between 7-7:30am.  She does fuss in the night and mostly because she spits out her pacifier or she broke out of her swaddle. But, we can calm her down and get her usually to go to the morning without feeding her. Every once in a while there will be an early bottle, but for the most part she has been great with this. 

Her naps are very hit or miss. Somedays she will have long stretches for 1-2hours and other times we are lucky to get 20 minutes. I just ordered a new “sleep sack” type thing. It is supposed to be a transition in between the swaddle and “cold turkey.” I have heard good things about it and to start using it at naptime. 

Her Favorites: shoving her fists in her mouth, kicking and pumping her legs, morning playtime, her paci, sitting up or standing up, the words feetsises and brookie cookie, the book Madeline,  the alphabet song, watching cartoons especially; sponge Bob, laying on the changing pad and smiling and playing, the color yellow and hot pink.

Her Not-so-Favorites: bedtime/fighting sleep, lying down for long periods of time, the sun here eyes, sitting or playing alone, the bumbo-but she is coming around to it, being snuggled when she wants to be awake and play

Milestones: discovered her feet, can hold and reach for objects especially her bottle, recognized her name and certain words, recognized her parents and loves ones, eating cereal, can play in her exercauser and jumparoo.

Quick Update-changes & challenges

So I got a new phone which helps me to take pictures easier of my little girl. However, with all the changes that have been going on I haven't had nearly enough time to go through everything or post pictures that I want to. So I am trying to keep up with everything, but it has been hard.

One of the biggest news and challenges is starting a new job and going back to work. I am so excited for a new chapter in my life and a better life for our family. However, I never imagined it would be so hard. I have always thought that I would love to go back to work and have that "balance' between work and family. But, it just harder that I thought it would be. I know she is in good hands, but it isn't the same as me taking care of her all day. I just feel like I am missing out on so much and I miss her tons. I think I went through a kleenex box at least over this. I usually get home and scoop her up right away. I like every mom in this position worry if she still knows me and who her parents are *sigh*. I would love a perfect world of being able to work 3 days a week and then be home the rest with her.

It has also been challenging adjusting to a new schedule; with work, adjusting to not being home and her new schedule and trying to keep up with all the household duties, spending time with Brooklyn when I do get home, spending time with Bryan, trying to catch up with friends and family and oh yeah then maybe there is some me time at the end of the day-HA! Most nights lately I haven't been able to sit down until 9-9:30 at night and I am just exhausted. I hope it will get easier, but right now I am just trying to stay positive and pray that the magical nap fairy will come over for a little bit, haha.

sleepy snuggles

playmat fun

she loves her Mini-Kerm

Sunday Family nap time-except for "mom" that is.

Smiling Girl

All Clean

she hates being cold/naked

Give me my bottle or else

WW month #1 over

So I have been trying to get back into my groove of eating healthy and going to the gym. I have to say the first 2-3 weeks were a struggle. Just between the stress and lack of sleep it was hard for me to keep motivated. And eating things that I wouldn't normally because we were out or I would go way too long with out having ate anything and then I would be starving and overeat. But this past week and a half I have started to fall back into my old groove. Eating really healthy for the most part and going to the gym and kicking my own ass.

So I have not seen the scale move much, but I know it will come down. But I think my belly is starting to go down. It is hard because some days I feel like oh wow it is going down and then others I am super bloated and it seems like no change. So who knows.

But again keeping it real and honest so here we go....

start/month #1 "progress"

Milestones

So Brooklyn has been doing great with news things lately. About a week ago we started to change up her schedule slightly. We started giving her her last bottle before bed between 8 - 8:30 and then right to sleep after that. In addition waking her up between 7-7:30am (but mostly she is already waking at this time on her own and has been stirring) and feeding her every 3-3.5 hours in the day with one long nap and more short ones. Doing this she will now sleep 7 hours!!! Can I get a hell yeah! Yep I am really proud of her and thankful that this schedule is seeming to work for her. She will sleep till about 3:30am and then we feed her and back down until the morning. Sometimes she does fuss in between, but we just give her her pacifier and "training" her to not need food. We know she can go 7 hours so that is awesome.

I love my hands above my head when I sleep

 She also loves her playmat and will spend about an hour on it at a time just happy and content. She will look around, kick her legs, coo and "talk" and just seems to be so happy. I love hearing her like that. I feel like a proud mom, even though I didn't do anything, lol.

I love my playmat

According to the milestone chart she is right on track with vocalizing, following objects, noticing her hands, and holding her head for short times. She is advanced in that she can smile, hold her head at a 45degree angle and can bear weight on her legs. She has her 2 month doctor apt in about a week so I am sure we will hear and find out more.

And now for some "Brooklyn talking time" Sorry for how dark the video is. I took it on a rainy day and with the camera quickly.

Irish Princess

My 1st St. Patrick's Day

 So today we celebrated Brooklyn's first St. Patrick's Day. I love this Holiday. It is one of my favorite holidays. Christmas is my favorite and then it is a toss up between St. Paddy's Day and 4th of July. So being that we are very Irish, Brooklyn needed to get a dose of how to celebrate from the start. So of course I dressed her up in her cutest Irish Outfit and she was ready for the day. I am sure she couldn't care less as long as she was warm with a belly fully of green beer...opps I mean milk. But, it really made me smile and some of my favorite pictures of her so far were taken today.

Irish Eyes are Smiling

Green Milk for me today-woot woot

what do you mean I don't get a shamrock shake

 She also got a visit from her Auntie Julie. Julie spent lots of time snuggling up Brooklyn and enjoying her as much as we do. She feed her, helped with bath time and did what us girls do best....we went shopping. Having Julie here was really nice and it was great to hang out with a great friend, even if most of that was spent just chillin in the house. Brooklyn seemed to be not feeling well Thursday and Friday. She is really such a good baby, but for some reason was really fussy and then cried and screamed at bed time both days. Friday night was the worst. I am not sure what was wrong, but hearing her like that broke my heart. I just felt so helpless and that just isn't her temperament. She seemed to be better on Saturday and back to her old self today.

Auntie Julie Loves Brooklyn

Look how cute I am in the outfit Aunt Mary got me

Grandma sure knows how to pick adorable outfits