Ella Updates and Life

Raspberries
Miss Ella started trying to blow raspberries at the end of last week. My mom saw it and so did Jason but then she hasn't done it since. So neat (that she's doing these things) and so hard (that I'm not there to see them) at the same time.

Long Car Ride
She recently had her first really long car ride. There were some moments of crying but overall she just chilled or slept. She did great. And there was only one poop blow out, but it made for an interesting paper towel bath in an Irving rest room :) (And yes, the poo blow out occurred wearing disposables...NOT cloth)

New Cries
The cries we did hear were new cries. They were distinctly different from any we'd heard before. It was no longer a newborn, "I need something" cry. It was an, "I'm ticked and am telling the world" cry. Interesting and quite humorous at points too!

Tummy Time & Rolling Over (attempts)
Ella doesn't really like tummy time. She tires of it in approximately 2 minutes and then gets real fussy and tries to roll over. She gets about half the way, but still can't figure out how to get that pesky arm out of the way!

Grabbing
She did tolerate tummy time a little today and even reached out and grabbed a toy that was in front of her, that was a first on her tummy!

T.V.
I'm afraid this little one takes after her mamma in that she likes to watch T.V. The little bugger hears it and cranes her head right around to try to see it no matter where she is. Consequently, her mamma doesn't watch T.V. anymore! It stays off when she's up!

Page Turner
Ella turns the pages of her board books when we read to her. At first I thought she was just grabbing them, and no she doesn't get them turned quite the whole way, but now I'm pretty convinced she's actually trying to turn them. I even got it on video. It makes sense that she's trying to copy what we've been doing with her since the day we brought her home!

Laughing
Also today, I think I heard her first laugh. She LOVES laying on her back and grabbing at dangling toys. She talks up a storm and smiles and squeals. Today amongst all of her chatter, I'm pretty sure I heard a few laughs. They were so funny! Low "hahahaha's" and a little evil sounding if I do say so myself!

Good Life!
And today is just a wonderful Tuesday. I'm relaxing, baking homemade bread, washing diapers, picking up around the house and just soaking in the moments with my babe. Every sigh, every cry, every smile, every coo, every movement and every snuggle is precious. Life is good.

Week Two

Bear with me if you will...for a little while you will probably get a weekly post on how my work week went. It's my way of getting it all out and moving on.

Jason has been quite the sick puppy for a good while now. Tuesday night before I went back to work he was in rough shape and coughing so loudly that he slept on the couch because it kept waking Ella and I up. I got very little sleep due to that and due to the fact that Ella, who usually wakes up once in the night, woke up 4 times to eat! And Jason, who is usually super helpful with her in the night by alternating diaper changes, was down for the count. In the morning I was so exhausted I felt like I could barely stand!

My morning prayer on the drive to work Wednesday morning was tearful and short and went something like this, "Lord, I know you tell us You won't give us more than we can handle. But this sure FEELS like more than I can handle right now. Help. Please." I was lucky to make through Wednesday. I felt absolutely out of it all day and by 4pm I had a raging headache. On my drive home that night the street signs looked blurry and I had to fight to stay awake.

Thursday and Friday were much better. Jason was still down and out so I was on my own with her at night but she went back to her normal sleep pattern. I felt motivated at work and got a lot accomplished and, surprisingly, felt pretty good when I rolled in the drive Friday at 11pm. I remember distinctly thinking. I remember distinctly thinking, "Okay, maybe I CAN do this whole working mom thing." So it's still a bit of a roller coaster ride!

And Jason is feeling better now. And I am feeling sick. Blah. I'm determined to fight it off. Jason has been amazing as usual. He spent his Friday afternoon and a good part of his Saturday doing things he saw on my weekend to do list like: Tidy House, Change sheets, do laundry, do dishes. What a man!

Working Mother

"Working mother"...someone called me that today...it was the first time I had heard that in reference to myself. Surreal. Can't say I like the ring of it. Because that was never the plan. Let's be honest. If I had all the money in the world of course I'd be a stay at home mom! But life isn't so.

Work week number one is over. My team makes it easy to be back. I did miss them and the clients. I'm getting back into the swing of things there quicker than I expected.

Surprisingly enough there were no tears. I cried a little the day before going back, thinking about leaving Ella, but there were no tears during the actual workdays or even the drive to and from. There was a lot of praying, and a lot of singing along to worship tunes in the car to distract myself. And a lot of trying to stay distracted enough in general so I didn't really think about missing her. So maybe I'm just repressing all the feelings. Hmmm healthy for a social worker! :)

My first day back wasn't hard because I had seen Ella all day the day before. And it was exciting like your first day back to school after summer break (So maybe I was a nerd! So what!?). It was day number two and three that were killer and double killer.

I got home at 8:30pm Wednesday and Ella was already asleep. I hadn't seen her all day and didn't get to interact with her except to nurse her. In the morning she was still sleeping at 9am. I was so bummed that I wouldn't get to see her sweet waking up smiles and exchange those adorable coos with her before I left for another 11 hours... so I selfishly woke her up so I'd get to have like 15 minutes with her...it was SO hard to go to work Thursday.

Got home Thursday night to yet again, a sleeping baby and again only got to interact with her to nurse her and had to leave the next morning to be away from her for 13 hours this time. It was KILLER to leave her Friday morning. So now, here I am at 11pm on Friday night and I feel like I haven't seen my child or interacted with her in 3 days straight. Crappy, Crappy, Crappy! (That's the nicest word I can think of right now.)

Ella, of course, did just fine. My mom, sweet woman that she is, had me write sheets of instructions so that she could be sure to honor and follow the way that we raise Ella and the routine that we have carved out for her. So wonderful. And Friday Ella was with Jason because he's a super sicko boy! Here's hoping Ella and I don't get it.

I guess that's all for now. Just needed to process my first week back. I guess it can be summed up with, "I miss her like crazy!"