Buddies!

Evelyn has a new buddy....Crosby!  She thinks that everything that he does is hilarious. She laughs at him all the time.  She loves it when he rolls over and when he 'kisses' her toes.  He is slowly becoming more comfortable with her too.  He's still scared of her, but he likes to lay next to her if she is playing on the floor.  I think eventually these two will be great friends!

Zzzzzz.....

Before I had a baby, it didn’t faze me much if I had a sleepless night.  I’d endured plenty of all-nighters during college studying and writing papers without issue.  I’ve stayed out until the wee hours of the morning, knowing that I had to get up early the next day, but I could do it easily.  I’d often wake up at 3:00 am while I was pregnant, unable to fall back asleep, but I would show up at work the next day without a problem.  Then Evelyn came along.  And I realized that I had no idea what sleep deprivation really was.

Evie is a good baby, truly she is.  She will sleep just fine as long as some is holding her.   It’s sleeping her bed where we’ve been having issues.  She was doing really well and could sleep through the night most of the time.  However, about a month and a half ago, we started putting Evelyn in her own room, in her crib, at night.  I didn’t want to do this.  I liked having her next to me, liked seeing her little chest rise up and down, liked hearing her soft sleep noises.  But it was time.  Little noises were starting to make her stir, and Pat and I were almost afraid to even whisper good night to each other for fear of disturbing her slumber.  So she turned four months and into her crib she went.  The first few nights went well – at least for Evie.  Her 4 months shots hit her hard and at night she slept 6-7 hours at a time, waking only briefly when she wanted her pacifier.  I, however, had a much harder time with this transition that she did.  I kept the video monitor on the pillow next to my head (neurotic, I know) and slept so lightly that every little noise sent me flying into her room to make sure she was still alive.  One night, I crept into her room to check on her before I went to bed and panicked because I didn’t see her chest rising.  I grabbed her out of bed, shouting her name – only to realize that she was fine when she groggily opened her eyes and stared/glared at me.  Poor little thing was probably thinking “Holy cow Mom – what is your problem!”  

A week or so past, and I started to adjust.  The monitor was moved to the night stand, I didn’t jump up at every sound, and I started to enjoy the extra sleep I was getting.  Evelyn, however, started to wake up multiple times a night.  Sometimes she would fall easily back to sleep, other times she would be wide awake and want to be held. 

However, unlike Evelyn, I couldn’t make up for the lack of sleep by taking naps during the day.  The lack of any decent sleep started to get to me, especially since she continued to wake up 2-3 times a night between the hours of 10pm-6am, for almost a month.  I was moody and irritable.  I would burst into tears every morning when I had to leave Evie, and cry most of the way to work.  I would forget things if they weren’t written down and make silly mistakes.  I was clumsy and had bruises because I was continually bumping into things.  I would flip out over the most trivial of things and had no patience whatsoever.  In short, I was royal mess.

 And then, just went I thought I could take no more, she slept 6 hours straight.  When I woke up that morning and realized that I had FINALLY gotten some good sleep, I was gleeful.  I practically skipped to her room when she awoke and was greeted with her cherubic little grin.  When she did it again the next night, I was elated.  My equilibrium started to return, my energy was up and I just felt SO MUCH BETTER.  Three nights of sleep, and I felt like a new woman.  We've now had about two weeks of sleeping through the night and I feel like doing a happy dance.  I’m under no illusion that she will continue to do this.  One thing I’ve learned from being a parent, it’s that as soon as you get used to something, it changes.  But until it does, I will enjoy every blissful moment of sleep I can get.

Routines and Adventures

The past few weeks have been a little bit of a blur.  Between working and taking care of Evelyn, I don’t have time for much else.  I have a love/hate relationship with the routine in our lives right now.  I love my routines with Evelyn.  I love nursing her each morning and watching her stare contently into my eyes.  I love how her face lights up when we pick her up from the babysitter’s house at the end of each day.  I love watching her kick her legs and splash water everywhere during her bath in the evening.  I love reading her books before bed.  I love how, when I wrap her up in her favorite blankie, she snuggles into my chest and sighs.  I love watching her sleep, so peaceful and serene.

However, with routine comes monotony.  I’m not necessary the most spontaneous of people, but sometimes I find myself yearning for a change.  This may seem a bit strange.  I mean, our lives just underwent complete upheaval with the arrival of a new baby.  Nothing is the same as it was before.  And yet, I’m tired of the routine.  I want to do something crazy, something different.  In answer to this, Pat and I decided to take Evie on a few adventures.  First, we went blackberry picking.  We had fun getting our fingers all purple and enjoying the fresh air and sunshine (not to mention the delicious berries!).

Next, we took a trip to Lima, OH to visit Pat’s grandma.  Evie loved getting to finally meet her Gigi Marker!  We had lunch at Gigi’s favorite restaurant and then hung out at her house for a while.

The following week, we took Evelyn to the Columbus Zoo one evening.  It was a gorgeous outside and we really enjoying seeing all the animals.  I think Evelyn’s favorite was the elephant :)

Over the weekend, we took Evie to her first festival – The Blessed Sacrament Corn Roast in KY.  Unfortunately, I think that the sheer amount of people and commotion was a little overwhelming for her and she got a little fussy.  Everyone took turns holding her, and she finally dozed off in Kiki’s arms.

The next night, we went out to dinner for Kiki’s birthday to Buckhead’s Mountain Grill with my parents, Holly, Matt and Adam and finished the night off walking around at Newport on the Levee.  Pops insisted on holding Evie while we walked around Barnes and Noble (she didn’t mind – she likes pulling on his mustache).  It was fun to get to hang out with everyone and I liked that Evelyn got to spend time with her grandparents, Uncle Adam, Aunt Holly and Uncle Matt.  They are an important part of my life and I want them to be an important part of hers as well.

It was a busy weekend and we all had a great time.  When we got home on Sunday, we fell right back into the same routine, but I didn’t mind.  It was comforting and I was thankful.

5 months and fabulous!

My little cutiepie is 5 months old today!! EEK!

I'm learning to sit up all by myself!

Sweetie

Come on...gimme a kiss!  You know you want to...

Time flies....

I can’t believe that it’s already August.  Time is flying by at warp speed, especially now that I’ve returned to work.  I miss my days with Evie, when we had all the time in the world.   It’s hard to be apart from her and, honestly, most days I really struggle with it.  I miss her so much while I am at work and regardless of how much I try and tell myself that she is fine, I never fully believe it until she is back in my arms again.  I know that this makes me sound crazy and over-protective.  Maybe I am to a certain extent, but it is my job, my obligation, to make sure that my daughter is happy and healthy.  But, as the saying goes – it takes a village to raise a child.  As much as I would love to do everything for Evelyn every day of the week, I can’t.  As Pat loves to point out, someday she will go to school, have her own friends and activities and *gasp* possibly even move out of our house.  I know that I need to let her be her own person, but I didn’t think that I would have to start doing this at 4 months old.  It hurts me to know that I’m missing her smiles, her cuddles and sweet cooing sounds (accompanied by the occasional, ear-piercing screech).  But I tell myself that she is having good experiences, getting socialized and hopefully learning skills that I may have trouble teaching her -like patience :). Being with a babysitter is certainly not affecting her happiness as far as I can tell.  At 4.5 months old, Evie is still a happy, smiley baby.  She delights in chewing on her fingers and toes.  She pats the pages of the books that Mommy reads to her every night.  She LOVES the grocery store – all of the sights, sounds, smells and colors are simply fascinating to her.  She rolls all over the place and is already practicing sitting up.  She’s not very good at it yet, but her back is getting stronger and before long she’s gonna be a pro.  She giggles and ‘talks’ all the time.  She is an absolute drool machine and wants to put everything in her mouth.  She likes playing peek-a-boo and getting kisses (and Mommy LOVES to give her kisses).  She knows how to get Mommy and Daddy’s attention when she wants it.  She sleeps in her crib now – a big milestone for her and Mommy.  Thank goodness for video monitors or I’d be a basket case!  She’s not always sleeping through the night, but we’re working on it.
Here are some recent pictures of our Little Miss: