Sleeping Baby .. Ha!

As so many people have told me may happen, Chloe has decided that sleeping through the night isn’t a good idea. She was doing so very well for so long, but now for the past 3 weeks Last night was the first night that she wasn’t up every other hour. I really don’t know what’s causing it, but I definitely don’t like it! At MOPS on Thursday Trish suggested that maybe her belly was upset from feeding her dinner. So from Friday through now we haven’t fed her supper, only lunch and dinner, but it hasn’t helped. So for the time being, we’ll still keep it at breakfast and lunch and we’ll see what happens … During the day, she’s pretty much keeping her naps at 11:30 and 3:30 ish. The morning nap always happens, but we’re still having trouble with the afternoon one. I definitely think that once I can stay home, she’ll have a whole lot easier time getting on a set routine. I just really hope she gets back to sleeping through the night for 4 hours at a time

Times at work have never been so stressful. We have way too much work to do and not the adequate staff to complete it. So with me not being able to work 100%, it makes things very difficult. Even pregnant I was able to juggle all the balls. Each passing day, Chloe gets more and more inquisitive and very attention needy. This is perfectly fine because I love playing with her and loving on her, but I need to get some things done during the day. Dad is having a hard time juggling all the balls too. He has got to get this Samaritan’s purse job done so that we can get out of under it before it buries us ALIVE!!

Home life has gotten a lot better over the past month and a half. Shane and I aren’t fighting every single day like we were. We still bicker, but that’s the joy of marriage! We’re still adjusting to managing our time at home having a baby and maintaining the house. Each day is different so I’m sure that for at least the first year it will be a big learning curve. And by time we half way learn to manage Chloe, we’ll be welcoming another baby into the family!! Well, hopefully …

This is her favorite toy right now. It’s a crinkle book that has teethers on the ends! She’ll sit and play with it for a good 30 minutes before she gets bored with it!

An Extraordinary 5 Months!

I can hardly believe it, but Chloe is already 5 months old! Boy time flies by! She has brought nothing more than joy and excitement to my life! It’s not easy, and sometimes it’s not fun, but I wouldn’t give up being a mom for ANYTHING! She has such a great little personality. The thing I love most about her at this stage is the way she is such a happy baby in the mornings. She always has such a big smile and is so very talkative when she wakes up. It makes getting up and going to work so much easier. She’s realized that she can hear her voice and that if she screams, it’s loud. So she will just randomly scream at the top of her lungs. Yes, it gets annoying, VERY annoying sometimes, but she’s learning cause and effect. She’s pretty much out of 0-3 month clothes now. I was going through her drawer this morning and I pulled 3 tops out, 1 of which she didn’t ever wear, that she can’t fit into anymore. There’s very few 0-3 month items, like a few pants and short sleeved onesies that she can still wear. But her legs and arms are so long, she can’t wear a lot of them. She’s in size 2 diapers and I don’t think that it will be long, and she’ll be headed to 3’s. Shane tried putting her in her bouncy seat and she cannot fit anymore. She’s way to long and slides right out of it! We’ve been eating cereal now since the 8th and food since the 20th. We started with peas and she LOVED them. Didn’t spit them out whatsoever. BUT last night, she didn’t want to eat green beans. She spit them out 3 times, so I decided to try something else. She took right to the carrots! Matter of fact, she ate 3/4 of a jar tonight for dinner. So we’re headed in the right direction to start enjoying more and more food rather than nursing so much. At night, we’ve got a pretty steady routine down and have her in bed by 8:30, usually asleep by 9. Some nights it’s a little earlier, but it all depends on when she starts showing signs of being tired. We’ve been putting her in the pack and play and leaving the room so she can get used to being in a room by herself. Come spring time, we’ll be putting her in her room so hopefully once we get her on a schedule and used to being by herself, it will make the transition a whole lot easier. About a month ago, she blurted “hi” to my dad and to me later that day. Shane thought we were crazy and she wasn’t saying that … well last Friday night, she looked up at him and said hey! He always says hey baby to her and she said it as clear as day! He doesn’t think I’m so crazy anymore …. She loves playing with toys now. We started by putting an elephant toy “elfie” in her carseat and with her at work about a month ago, and now she loves to have all types of toys around her! Everything goes to her mouth so we have to watch what’s within her reach. She loves the krinkle toys. She has a book that it totally krinkly and absolutely LOVES it! She’s very inquisitive when we’re eating. She wants to grab what we’re eating and try it herself, but she’s not quite ready for that yet.

Life has not been the easiest the last month. Work has been super busy and super stressful. There’s been a lot of tension amongst us all due to the amount of workload and the lack of works .. but let’s hope that gets better soon. I have set a date of the end of May for me to only be doing payroll and helping out with vehicles. We’ll see if I last that long. I’m just so ready to be a stay at home mom and take care of Chloe and prepare for our next bundle of joy! Don’t worry he/she isn’t coming anytime soon, but soon enough! We would like to start again at the end of the summer so that they are about 16 – 18 months apart. Many people think I’m crazy, but we’re young and need to keep going while we still have the energy. It’s sure going to be a challenge having 2 needing our attention all the time!!

Christmas is coming … too soon!

We spent the majority of our week with Shelley and Connor. It was so nice to have the socialization with someone other than my employees or my husband! Wednesday, we had movie night and watched (well, they did) Paranormal Activity 3 and enjoyed some of my homemade meatball sandwiches. Boy were they delicious!! It snowed again, but only stuck to the grass and cars so it didn’t cause any travel issues like the forecasters had expected. We still didn’t take Chloe out in it, because it was just way too cold that night and by the next afternoon, most of it was gone. Maybe, just maybe, she’ll get to enjoy her first snow before the end of the year!

Saturday, we made going to see Santa a family outing. Shelley and Connor came with us so that the kids could get their picture with Santa taken together. It was a blast! The mall has an option to take your own pictures for ten bucks. I have just as good of a camera as the photographer and his lighting was left up for us to use, so we got just as good of shots as he would have. We took the majority of our pictures while Santa was on his break so that we wouldn’t be rushed. They all turned out so good!

After the visit with Santa, we went to Randall’s house for a deer bbq with Monica, Cody, Jake and Cassie. I had never eaten deer before and really had no interest in it, but I actually tried his deer steaks. They weren’t anything I’d eat every day, but they were pretty good. He wrapped them in bacon and if I didn’t know it, I would’ve thought they were regular steaks. We had a great time watching Cody dance around with Jake and we actually danced! Shocker!!

We’re Double Digits …

In week’s that is! My sweet girl is already 10 weeks old! She’s the most amazing, well behaved, growing girlie I know! We’ve had a very important week this week meeting our cousin and Aunt as well as getting our very first shots and attending our first Christmas party!

A prayer has been answered and we are on speaking terms with Shane’s sister and her family again. After several years of silence, we have started making strides to establish a relationship with one of the only family member living close to us. Shelley had her baby 2 weeks ago and we met him Thursday night for the first time! I was trying to keep up with her facebook to see when she was in the hospital, but I was 2 days late! I really had all intentions on surprising her in the hospital, but it just didn’t work out that way. After holding Chloe, he’s soo tiny! It’s hard to believe that Chloe was that little just 8 weeks ago! It’s like holding an apple compared to two bags of potatoes! He was so very well behaved! He didn’t really cry or fuss besides when he was hungry. She’s formula feeding him and has already had to add cereal to it because he wants to eat so much. As much as Shelley and her mom don’t want to hear it, he looks like his father. I bet if you held up a picture of Corey beside Connor, they’d be almost identical! But, the visit went well. It was nice to catch up and for her and I to talk about and compare our pregnancies. We actually came back over for dinner on Sunday. Shane was able to express some of his hard feelings to her and vice versa. I’m sure it felt good for the two of them to get things off of their chests. As we take it day by day, all I can do it pray for the best and hope that we can have a big happy family for these two kiddos to grow up in together!

Many weeks ago, we received information in the mail about the study of new vaccinations that Blue Ridge Ped’s was participating in. We discussed it and decided that we were going to do it. When I got to the office on Friday, they gave me more information to look over so that I could make an educated decision. I will admit that I was a little skeptical because there was the chance of them not working. No mother wants her child to be sick if there’s a way to prevent it, so I wasn’t going to do it. Then once we saw the doctor, I decided to do it. She explained that there was 2 groups, A & B, and that one was regular already on the market vaccines and the other was the new ones already used in Europe. We fell into the group that is the FDA approved vaccines.

After being around Chloe for 10 weeks, I know her tones of crying pretty well and can tell what she’s in need of. And when they gave her the 3 shots, it was instant screaming in pain. I was heartbroken! I didn’t actually cry though until later when I was telling Shane about it. Dr. Lonus said that she checked out great. She’s not above normal for length and is perfect in weight. The only thing we need to work on is turning her head towards the left because she tends to favor turning to the right. He said that if it’s not better by the next visit, then we’ll have to take her to a physical therapist. So we’re gonna try our best to work it out and avoid therapy. Currently, she’s 24 1/4’’ long and 11 lbs 12 oz. So we’ve got a very healthy and growing girl!

Along with everything else that happened this week, we attended the Home Builders Christmas party on Saturday. It was a covered dish event and boy was there a spread! The food was delicious and the entertainment … well was watching others dance and make complete fools of themselves! Chloe was the life of the party being passed around so much! Even people we didn’t know wanted to hold her being she was just too cute! She danced with Gampy first, then slow danced with David Scott. Shane and I enjoyed our first dance since the wedding. Too bad he won’t dance more … supposedly with dance lessons he would, but we’ll just have to see about that.

New this week:
     - We’re smiling and laughing pretty much every morning. Some mornings she will just carry on for several minutes to herself.
     - We are continuing to like 3 AM, but still sleeping about 4-5 hours at a time at night.
     - We’re completely out of newborn pants! They are knickers on her – which would be fine if it was summer time, but with it being winter time, she’s gotta keep those legs covered.

Let The Festivities Begin!

Thanksgiving marks the beginning of a wonderful time of year – The Holiday’s. Even though there are holidays throughout the year, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s seem to be the most celebrated and most important of them all. It’s a time to give thanks for what we’ve been given, a time to rejoice in the Lord’s birth, and a time to celebrate the closing of one year and the beginning of another. There’s one factor in all of these that is the same and that’s FAMILY. Family is such an important thing now and during the rest of the year. I remember this time last year, I was working at  Westglow, and was hating my job due to the fact I had to work on Thanksgiving. My parents and brother made the trek to New Jersey to visit family and friends while Shane and I had to stay here all because I had to work. Shane spent Thanksgiving going to co-workers house while I cleaned up after many grateful members at the spa – and there were those not so grateful people too. (Did I mention how much I hated my job??) I cooked my Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday so that I could enjoy it with my family. We had a wonderful time together just sitting around the fire and eating way too much food! This year is a complete 180! There is a new member of the family, too much drama, and a missing person. As we celebrated Chloe’s first Thanksgiving, we were missing a very important link to our family chain. It was more than difficult … it was almost impossible to enjoy the day I prepared a huge spread that almost didn’t fit on the table – but didn’t have my best friend here to help. Shane tried his hardest, as well as Dad and Kile, but I didn’t want their help. I wanted Mom’s help …

Thanksgiving has always been a very important day to our family. Growing up, we would always make our rounds to family and friends house and totally eat too much! It wasn’t until they started going to the beach for the week did we spend the day apart. Over the past few years, I have come to the realization that not all families are like mine. Not everyone will do anything to spend the day with family during the holidays. As Chloe grows up, I want to instill in her the importance of family. I want her to see how important family is to everyday life! I want her to enjoy being with her family. Laughing and playing games with the ones you love during the most wonderful time of the year. I want her to love being around those who love her most. I hope and pray that she values and cherishes every second that she is with those who will never stop loving her – FAMILY!

We’re growing and growing and growing some more!!

After 8 weeks with my beautiful baby girl, I feel like I’m on top of the world! Each day brings some new kind of joy and another reason to smile! This week has been excruciatingly busy at work, but we did have time to sneak some mommy baby time in! This weekend was the first one that we’ve spent at home in quite a while. It seems like we’ve always got somewhere to go! Yesterday, Shane and I both slept in rather late and then headed to the farmer’s market to see what fresh goodies we could find. This was only my second time going, and I can’t say that I’ll keep going back every Saturday next spring, but it was nice to be outside and see what the local farmers had to offer. We then made our way to lunch and a stop at the Restore before coming back home. It was a lazy day, but a much needed day! She took a nice nap on my chest for an hour but other than that, she had little cat naps.After her bath, she was knocked out for 2.5 hours! We slept again for about 6.5 hours during the night – we could really get used to this!!! Today it was a gorgeous day outside, so Shane and I decided to head to the park. He played basketball for a bit, while I couponed some and then we walked up to the play area. we had some fun playing around and taking pictures.

New things this week:
        - We’ve slept three nights in a row for 7 consecutive hours! Most of those days we’ve been awake almost all day and a very happy baby.
        - We are completely out of newborn diapers. I was trying to squeeze her into them to use the rest of them up, but with about 20 left, I can’t quite get them around her chubby little belly!
        - We cannot wear our coming home outfit anymore! It just won’t zip up!!
        - We cannot wear any Carters Newborn sleepers!

    

     

I did WHAT 8 weeks ago??!!

Eight weeks ago today, I was at the hospital getting ready to have my sweet baby girl. It’s crazy how fast time flies by. I thought that my pregnancy went by quick, but man is my girl growing up too quick! These weeks have been the most tiresome and overwhelming, yet the most rewarding of my life. There is no better feeling than to cuddle up with your child and to have them look at you and smile! Chloe has been an absolute blessing to our family!

It all started on Friday after my “sweep.” (Please don’t read if you don’t want TMI!!!) I began to notice a lot of discharge. Saturday it didn’t get any better, and Sunday I started to have strong contractions that we’re timeable or painful, but I needed to really concentrate on breathing. Shane had been coughing for a month and his chest really started to hurt him. We had decided to go to Urgent Care to get him checked out and sure enough, he had pneumonia. Of course he did, that’s just our luck! A few days before we were thinking about an induction to meet our baby girl, Shane is diagnosed with something that may make him wear a mask around her!! When we were at the office is when I had to really start breathing through the contractions. I also noticed a slight change in my discharge, but everyone told me that if it were my water, I’d feel like I was peeing myself or a small continuous trickle. So I didn’t think anything of it, because it didn’t fall into either of those categories, but was different than what I had the whole pregnancy and during that weekend. When I was waiting for Shane to drop his prescription off, I decided to call the hospital and see what the nurse had to say. She told me that if they are consistently 2-3 minutes apart and that she wasn’t concerned with the amount of discharge. Once we got done eating at Los Arcos, the contractions weren’t as intense. I brought up maybe going and being checked out, but Shane pointed out that if I went, there was the possibility of them keeping me and I did NOT want to labor in the hospital until I had to. I wanted to be at home until I absolutely had to go. Not only did I not like the fact that I couldn’t eat, but I wanted to be comfortable at home. For the remainder of Sunday, there wasn’t a whole lot that happened and my contractions had died off for the most part.

Monday morning, I went to work to finish everything I needed to and to run some errands while I was in town. I had planned on staying at home Tuesday and Wednesday before heading for an induction on Thursday. I went about my business during the morning with not many contractions, but the ones I had were very intense. Around lunchtime, I decided to call the nurse and let her know what was going on and see what she had to say. She told me that Dr. Womack wanted to see me whether it was in the office or at the L&D in the hospital. I decided to wait until after work to go over to the hospital because I wasn’t hurting at the time. Philip and I were working on a Model 30 (sign talk LOL) and I starting having some contractions that I had to stop working and stand still. I knew that I needed to go to the doctors now and not later. We finished the sign and I headed to the office. I didn’t think that I was going to have my little gal that day! I didn’t even call Shane to tell him I was headed to get checked out! Many days during the last bit of the pregnancy, I woke up thinking “Today very well could be the day! I’m ready to have this baby.” But, Monday I wasn’t thinking that AT ALL! After being hooked up to the monitors for a little while, Dr. Womack came in and asked what was going on and we talked. The only difference today in other days that I had made a visit to the hospital was that I didn’t feel CAM moving around a whole lot. She had moved a good amount that morning, but only kicked a few times during the day. Shane called about 3:45 and wondered what was going on and why I didn’t call him. I told him I was okay and not to worry, and I’d call him once I knew more. Soon thereafter, he came to the office. Dr. Womack checked my cervix, I was 100% effaced and 3 cm dialated. She took some of the discharge and looked at it under the microscope. It wasn’t 5 minutes after Shane came, Dr. Womack came in and said, It’s time to have this baby! Sure enough I was leaking amniotic fluid (my water) and I needed to go to the hospital to be admitted! I’ll never forget the look on Shane’s face! He asked, “are you serious? We’re gonna have a baby? I’m going to have a heart attack!” For about a minute and a half, he was in total shock and then he was fine. He started making phone calls and we were on our way to having a baby!

Once we got over to the hospital, it took them about 20 minutes to get me up to labor and delivery. Thank God I wasn’t in a lot of pain because I would’ve been furious! Once up there, they took us to room 9 (the big room that we toured in the birthing class). I had already knew the drill because of having been in there several times. Putting that big gauze belly band for a long time was not my idea of fun! We got settled in around 5 ish. Shane was reluctant to eat, but he decided it was best for him so that he had something in his belly for delivery. Silly me didn’t think about eating before I went to the hospital, so I wasn’t able to eat until after she was born. I did have some jello and a popsicle – but that didn’t stay too long. Once I got settled, they put an IV in so that they could start giving me the antibiotics for Group B. The first IV hurt more than I thought that they should, so I had her do another one. She was so funny – she said “It must hurt pretty bad if you want another one done.” Thank the Lord, the second one felt much better. I really think that because she tried to put it in my wrist where there’s no fat, the needle was way too close to my bone! The antibiotics had to be in my system for 2 hours before they would start the pitocin drip, so until 8:30 ish, not much happened. I sat on the ball to help work her down, did a lap around the birthing halls, and did some much needed relaxing. As you can see below, even though my contractions were strong and semi-close, I wasn’t in any pain.

Once they started the pitocin drip, the contractions started to get more and more intense and closer together. I still wasn’t in any pain, just felt a ton of pressure. I kept saying that if this was all the pain I’d be in, I was easily going to have a natural child birth! About 9, I realized that I hadn’t called Tina McCarty yet, and she kept saying at the end of my pregnancy, that no matter what time it was to call her. So I had Shane call her, and she didn’t answer. I got on facebook and she was on, so I asked where the phone was and then had him call again. I didn’t want to tell her on facebook, I wanted her to be told on the phone. Shane says that she kinda screamed and then hung up and rushed to the hospital. It wasn’t 30 minutes later and she was there. And boy was I happy she was there! She was a tremendous support during the middle of my labor! I was still progressing well and was anxious to have my water broke the rest of the way because I knew this would speed things along. Finally, at 10:30 Dr. Womack came in. I was already 5 CM so she broke my water! But, let me tell you something – that was the turning point of labor, and I then knew why they call it labor! I was instantly in a ton of pain and I couldn’t handle it. Maggie came in around 11 and had me some pain medicine via IV. This helped a fair amount, but it wasn’t going to stick around for long, an hour at most.

Let me tell you how much of a God send this delivery was! Maggie was our teacher for the first half of our birthing class. She is an amazing gal with a super personality! She usually doesn’t work nights and especially not in labor and delivery. But, on that night, she was working! We had asked about her when we were admitted and requested that she be our nurse once she started her shift. The second amazing thing was that our baby nurse was Lana Mitzell, who I went to school with! What are the odds of knowing 2 faces!?

So back to labor now! Once she told me that it would wear off rather quick and that we weren’t going to be having a baby before it wore off, I knew I needed an epidural. Shane was extremely supportive! He knew that I was in a lot of pain and it killed him to see me like that. So Maggie ordered the epidural. From the time that the IV pain med wore off and the anesthesiologist came in, I was in a TON of pain! I was sweating profusely and Tina and Lisa did a great job keeping the washcloths coming to help cool me down. Not a minute later, I was freezing and shivering. I was taking short breaths and not really going to my happy place. As much as they kept trying to keep me calm, the pain was so intense, I couldn’t even think about breathing deep and slow like we had been taught. Finally the anestigiologist came in with the epidural. Shane did an excellent job of keeping me calm and still during the contractions while I was getting the shot. As much as I feared the shot, it wasn’t too bad. In comparison to the contractions I was experiencing, it was a breeze! Once I got the epidural, Dr. Womack came back in to check on us and I was already 8 cm. I guess because of the Pitocin, I was progressing quickly. I really couldn’t feel the contractions too bad, only the intense pressure. About this time, Maggie had a hard time finding CAM’s heartbeat. It had slowed due to me not breathing right, so I had to have some oxygen. I’ll tell you what – that was no fun! By 1 AM, I was already 10 CM and it was time to push. They brought in a cart of supplies and Lana was then in the room pretty much the whole time now. Around 1:30, the epidural started to wear off and I began to feel what was going on and I was able to push more successfully. Around 1:45, Maggie said that she saw hair, it was not light and that there was a lot of it! By 2:10, baby Chloe made it down the birth canal and blessed us with her presence. Boy what a feeling – I can’t even describe it! I thought I would be an emotional wreck, but she was so beautiful, I just smiled. Shane cried which made me cry, but not as bad as I thought. They let Shane cut the cord and then took her off my chest. Maggie had seen some meconium in the fluid, so the respiratory specialist had to come up to make sure none had gotten in her lungs. A third familiar face was that doctor – Marty who Shane worked with at the Restore. So when they had to take her, I was okay and not a wreck because I knew she was in good hands.

About 20 minutes later, I was able to nurse her for the first time. It was another indescribable moment! Neither of us had any idea what we were doing and it was nice to have Maggie there to help. After we worked on it for a little while, Shane was finally able to hold his little girl! Lisa and Jason left with the kids shortly after I began feeding her, so they were unable to hold her at all that night (well morning). Dad left around 3:30 so that he could go get some sleep before he had to come to the house to take the dogs out and go to work. Someone had to keep the shop open! About 4:30, the nurses came in and took her official measurements and weight. They gave us the option to have her bathed in the room or back at the nursery. If it would’ve been in the middle of the day, we would’ve had them do it in the room, but it was early in the morning and late at night (without any sleep), so we decided to let them take her. I think it was 7ish and they brought her back in the room ready to eat! The first day in the hospital was amazing! We had quite a few visitors including Jeff, Linda, Aunt Charlotte & Uncle Dipper, Michael & Ashley, JoJo Knapp, and even Patty Huffman. Tina came back to be able to hold her since she left pretty much right after she was born without even seeing her. The food wasn’t that bad considering it was hospital food. They had some AWESOME muffins! The rest of the food I picked at and ate most of it, and then Shane finished most all of the meals. Because I had Group B, we had to stay at the hospital for 48 hours after she was born. And because she was born in the middle of the night, we had to stay a few extra hours! So the second day was filled with more visitors and the first time of just me and Chloe. Shane left around 9 to go get breakfast and to run by the shop to make sure everything was going smooth. While he was gone, we took our first nap together. Looking back, I think that was the hardest and soundest I slept for the first 2 weeks of her being alive!! Unlike the day before, I was able to get up and walk around. I didn’t leave the room, but I was up out of the bed. I even put some real clothes on! And I didn’t have a huge belly to deal with!!

That evening we enjoyed a dinner for 2. They had either hamburger steak or chicken with a baked potato, salad, and vegetable. Apple pie was for desert. They gave us a bib and a handmade hat on the table. It was a wonderful meal! Chloe let us eat the majority of it before she started fussing for attention. Later that night, Mema and Papa arrived. This was the first time since I met Shane that she had come to visit. She didn’t even come up for our wedding, so Chloe’s arrival must have been a big deal for her! She stayed with us while she was here, so Shane went home to stay that night. I was going to keep Chloe with me in the room that night, but being Shane wasn’t going to be there to help, I decided that it was best for me to get one last good night of sleep. The nurses brought her in every 2 hours or so to feed, but it still was nice to not have to worry about her.

We were wide awake at 7am, so I had a little bit of mommy Chloe time. Shane didn’t arrive until sometime after 9 claiming that the alarm didn’t go off. Too bad I’ve been with him for 7 years and know that he doesn’t hear the alarm! But its okay because he got a good solid night sleep before coming home with a newborn! The lactation consultant, Melanie, who taught the breastfeeding class and part of the labor class was back at the hospital so I was able to talk to her about the few issues I was having with nursing. Since she had been born, she chose the left side and latched on so much better than the right side. I was so worried about having one really big breast and then the other being so small, so I was desperately trying to get her to latch on the right side correctly. Melanie gave me some good pointers and encouraged me to keep at it and it would get easier as we both learned. Overall, I felt comfortable to feed her at home without any help from the pro’s at the hospital. Sometime around 11, the pediatrician had seen Chloe, Dr. Miller did her final check on me, and the nurses were processing paperwork for me to leave. When it was finally time to go home, we felt excited but apprehensive since we had no clue what we were doing!

During the first few weeks at home, Chloe and I didn’t do much but lounge around. I tried to keep her awake as much as possible while I was awake that way when I was ready to take a nap, she’d rest too. We slept in most days until around 10 and not get out of bed until noon. It was so nice to be able to just relax and enjoy her company. The first week after she was born, I felt that we didn’t get much time for just mommy – baby – time, other than nursing, so it was nice to have her all to myself and not have to share all day! When Shane got home in the evenings, we spent a little time as a family, and then I went to bed around 8 so that he could have quality time with her (and so I could get some good sleep ). And we’ve ended up sticking to this schedule because it’s worked so well!