What did I do with my time before I had a baby?

I ask myself this question almost daily. Not in a bad way, just that I don't understand what I did with all of my free time. I remember sleeping a lot, and watching tv...gosh I was lazy. I seem to be way more organized and get much more accomplished these days. Ellie and I have our routine in place: wake up and eat breakfast, put all clean dishes away from the night before and clean up the breakfast dishes, playtime, naptime/my time to get stuff done, lunch, clean up the lunch dishes, playtime/errands, naptime/my time to get stuff done, dinner, clean up the kitchen for the evening (all bottles, dinner dishes, wash the high chair), playtime, bath time every other night, bottle and cuddle time before bed. Once she's in bed I get to clean up her toys, finish any laundry or cleaning that I didn't get done during the day and then finally relax, usually around 8:30-9 pm. The one thing I need to learn is to be more relaxed with RJ on the weekends when I'm working and he has run of the house. It drives me absolutely crazy that the kitchen is a disaster, Ellie's schedule isn't followed very closely, and that the toys never get picked up. But I have to remind myself that nobody gets hurt, Ellie survives, and at least she gets to bed on time. I guess every weekend I'll have to read this to remind myself and spare RJ some nagging.

This last week has been incredibly difficult. It was my first experience being sick and trying to take care of Ellie. It was easier during my first trimester of pregnancy then it was this week. There were a couple of days I didn't think I'd make it. RJ was out of town overnight one night, my car broke down on him another day and I had to chase out to get him, and I worked for 2 of the nights. I made it, and am not looking forward to ever doing that again. Thankfully, Ellie was her sweet smiley self and napped wonderfully, which made it easier.

Ready for naptime.

Although I felt awful, RJ wanted to go out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary. I sucked it up, and am incredibly thankful we were able to spend some time alone. It's been a long time since we went out without Ellie. He surprised me with balloons and a gift, and took me out to my favorite steak place, Sullivan's Steakhouse.


My first pregnancy shot this time around, 16weeks.



Ellie thought the balloons were for her.

My biggest problem these days is Ellie getting into everything. I feel like she can grow ten hands and turn into Inspector Gadget by grabbing things I thought there would be no way she could reach. It's either that, or she's crawling and getting into everything, her favorite is dumping the dog's water bowl over. Today I tried cutting coupons while she was awake. Impossible. Everytime I would turn my back she either got ahold of the scissors or started eating a coupon. I lost some good coupons that way, and she thought it was hilarious.

I finally was able to get a video of her crawling, sorry for the dog's butt getting in the way:

Lunch Time:

Best Buds:

I wish I would've had a video of Ellie and Baron today. Ellie would wrap herself up in the blanket on the floor and Baron would grab it and pull it off of her. He, of course, was just trying to chew the blanket, but she thought he was playing with her. She kept smiling and laughing. It was so incredibly cute. She just loves him so much, and he is so good with her.

All night long

Ellie is officially sleeping 11-12 hours at night without eating! Last week I decided to give it a shot, and take away her 11pm "dream feed." The first couple of nights she did wake up and fuss a couple of times for 15-30 minutes, but after that it's been pretty smooth sailing. Well, other than the night that I worked. RJ told me she cried for 15-20minutes and he couldn't handle hearing her cry, so he fed her. She has him wrapped around her little finger.

Her second upper tooth has poked through in the last couple of days. Can't wait to see those cheesy smiles with 4 teeth!

She has graduated from her baby tub to her "big girl tub." I probably should've done this a little while ago, but that thing took a long time to blow up.

Last bath in her "baby tub"

First bath in her "big girl" tub. And it quacks!

I've been giving her more attempts with real food. Breakfast usually includes a little bit of a pancake with some pureed fruit, and she can't get enough. Dinner has been some cheese and spinach ravioli or bits and pieces of what we're eating, with some pureed yumminess to actually get some nutrition in. She's getting much better with actually getting the food in her mouth on her own, but it definitely makes dinner a process. No more eating dinner on the couch watching tv.

First tastes of a cheeto.

I guess she liked it!

Father's Day was pretty low key. I gave RJ a "me" day, and let him pretty much do what he wanted. He slept in, worked out, and even took a nap when Ellie and I did. I made him pot roast for dinner, and then he spent the night with Ellie while I went to work. I hope he remember this when I want a "me" day...

RJ's gift was a new tennis racket. He's already talking about teaching Ellie.


Give her a blanket and she'll entertain herself for a while.

I guess she thought she wanted to put my pajamas on. If only she could dress herself in her clothes.

Oh Baby

The news is officially out. Baby #2 is on the way. We're due December 11, 2011. Here are a couple of ultrasound pictures from our 13 week ultrasound.

This little one took us by surprise, but we're both excited to see how close Ellie and the baby become as they grow up. They'll be 14months apart, so they're definitely going to keep us on our toes the first couple of years. Just so everybody stops asking, yes we will find out if this one is a boy or girl, and yes we will tell everyone. I'm incredibly anxious to find out this time, and am counting the days down until we know. However, the name will be kept a surprise. We have it narrowed down to a couple of boy names and a couple of girls names, and everyone will find out after the baby is born. So you can all stop looking up names that you want us to name it, because it's not going to change our minds!

The first trimester was definitely a lot more difficult the second time around. I didn't get the chance to sleep or eat whenever I wanted to since I had Ellie to take care of. I believe this is why I was nauseous all day this time around. I also threw up which I didn't do with Ellie. Mostly around the 5am or 6am time frame at work, in the mornings after I woke up after working, or in general if I didn't sleep much. My migraines were pretty awful for a while, but that might have also been because I had to stop taking my migraine medicine. However, now I feel back to my old self. I have almost forgotten how awful I felt. Even better, so far everything looks great with the baby. Our first trimester testing this time around came back completely normal.

8 months

Ellie turned 8 months old Sunday and weighed in at 19lbs!  She's turning into such a big girl. I had to work that night, but RJ took us out to dinner Monday to celebrate. My big girl had her first bites of Cheesecake Factory- bread, crab wontons, and Louisiana chicken pasta. She surprised us both with loving it all.

 She had a big week lastweek. On her birthday, her third tooth poked through. She still tolerates teething like an angel, never any fussing. On the 9th, she pulled to a standing position all by herself! The first time she did it was when she was trying to climb up by me on the couch. The second time I had left the room to get her a bottle and this is what I walked back into:

Just give her a remote, computer, or cell phone and she's a happy girl.


Here are some pictures I took the week of June 4th:

Still love sleeping pics, but not sure how she got her woobie on top of her.





This is a long video, but it shows what I wake up to every morning, and how nap time usually starts everyday. Now that she's more active, she would rather play then sleep. The last 2 minutes are my favorite. Even when I've had little sleep, being a mommy is definitely worth it. Waking up to that smile and beautiful face is the best part of my day.







Pool Time

One of the best things about living somewhere warm is being outside by the pool. I want to make sure Ellie gets used to water and isn't scared of it. So far, no problem. Not only does she absolutely love it, but it exhausts her as well. Some pictures of my water baby.

Memorial Weekend

We don't often have entire days to spend together since I work a lot of weekends. This is one of the best parts of a 4 day holiday weekend. We even took Ellie to the pool for the first time...she loved it!

Swimming's exhausting.

Daddy time:

Helping mommy with the laundry.



Little angel.



Ellie Crawling:

 

Best Buds:





Sitting and Crawling

The week of May 16 was a huge week for Ellie. She learned to push herself up into a sitting position and army crawl. I tried to get a video of her crawling, but surprise, surprise, she wouldn't do it on command.

The chair is now one of her favorite toys to crawl in and out of.

So sweet

Think we need to take the bumper out pretty soon.

Best Buds:

Ellie kissing Baron.

7 months

Every month seems to go by so fast these days. When the 12th rolls around I get just a little sad knowing Ellie is just a little older. She's growing and changing so fast. At this point she's pushing up on all fours, but can't quite stay there when she tries to crawl. She falls to her belly and does a combination army crawl and roll to get where she wants to go. She still mostly rolls, but I can see she's trying to figure it out.

Some daddy time:

I still go in at night just to see her sleep.

Best Buds:

Mother's Day

My first Mother's Day. It felt more important than my birthday to me. I worked the night before, so I slept a lot of the day away. However, it was wonderful to wake up and get to spend the evening with RJ and Ellie. It was low key, but nice nonetheless. Although I don't have any pictures of Ellie and I (I really need to get RJ better at taking pictures), I at least have some of Ellie.

Best Buds: