Um... not so expert

Remember that time that I mistakenly typed that we were teething experts?! WHAT was I thinking?! I believe it was that day or the next that we hit the peak of teething time. I mean the clingy, don't-put-me-down-or-I-will-wail, constant pain, nap times thrown out the window stage. I think we are over the worst of it now. I think that will put our teething time to two weeks. But we made it through. Alive. And somewhat in tact. That's when I had mistakenly referred to myself as an expert. That act alone required for something to happen to humble me.

You know those days when you feel like you did when you came out of the hospital the first time with your first baby? You know, the feeling like, "they are actually going to let me take this baby away from the nurses care?" They do realize I haven't done this before, right? I mean completely clueless? I am trying, but I just don't understand it all. And I want to. That is how I operate. I study something, I know what I am getting myself into and then I go for it. I am the kind of person that wants something to be perfect. For example, there were times when I was a secretary that I would take messages for my boss and then rewrite the message note because I didn't think my handwriting was presentable the first time.

So now that it comes to the point of dropping a nap, I am all in a whirl. What do I do?? I have tried just pushing her naps back. I wait until she acts tired. She goes down like a champ. I lay her down for her morning nap (or any nap for the matter) and she rolls over and sucks her thumb like she is off to sleep. I walk out and she proceeds to play in her crib for about an hour before she goes to sleep. It doesn't sound like that bad of a thing, but I thought we had a schedule down. This means that when I have something planned in the morning I have to take into consideration that an extra hour is now needed for all of her nap times. Or else, and this has happened. I have to take a baby that doesn't get her morning nap. Ugh! I know this too shall pass. I know that we will figure out her new napping routine where she doesn't need quite as much sleep now, but the process of trying to figure out is like learning this weird balancing act without any prior instruction.

Not gonna lie, sometimes I just want to take Kaela aside and say, "Hey, sorry that you have to be the guinea pig for all this parenting stuff! But the good news is you are taking it like a champ!"

Multiple Tooth Teething

I am so blessed to have such a happy baby. Seriously, I don't know where she came from, but you can't help but be happy with her. I love being her mom. That's why the last few days have been so surprising. She is still generally happy, but she gets fussier easier and she isn't sleeping through the nights. That's not normal for her. I was confused after 3-4 nights of waking up with her a few times in the middle of the night then I realized her second vampire tooth broke through (yep, she got her vampire teeth before her front teeth). That brings the total to 6 teeth. Then yesterday I wised up and felt her gums. Her front two teeth are also coming in. BASICALLY she will have had 4 teeth break through in the span of a week. Can you say pain? I would be fussy too!

(not to mention the time I failed to catch her when she lost her balance on my lap and hit her mouth on the desk... during skype... in front of my parents... I wanted to cry for her it looked so painful) (I promise mom, that's not a common occurrence. That was really the first time.)

Anyway, we have become teething soothing experts here. 

Hyland's Teething Tablets - When she started teething at 4 months, these upset her stomach each time I tried so I gave up. This time it took Kaela a few tries to finally get used to the tablets, but they are working now! Now she smacks her lips when she sees the bottle. Can I get a hoorah?!

Mesh Pacifiers - Fill these little gems with an ice cube or freeze some fruit juice for variety and she is SO much more calm. (Thanks so much to my aunt who mailed these to us as a gift, they are wonderful for snacking AND teething now)

Baby Tylenol..... if you like sleep, like me. I gave her this before she took her bedtime bottle (if I try to give it after when she is full she won't take it). Sometimes I feel guilty for drugging my child, but I have only used this a total of 3 times in the last week of fussiness so I really don't use it all that much. I guess the guilty factor only comes in when she is fussy at the beginning and I am not positive whether it is teething or not and I give the meds to her anyway. I have never been wrong though. I guess you have to hand that one to mother's intuition. Apparently I know more than I give myself credit for. 

Things Better Left Unknown

So last night we needed to go grocery shopping before dinner and date night. So in planning for our date night we decided to splurge and get ice cream (yeah, I am that bad of a wife that it is a splurge to get ice cream). The hubby proceeded to find a little treasure that I now wish he hadn't....

Did you know that Marie Calendar's makes personal pot pie sized apple pies? Did you know that my husband knows how to cook said pies perfectly in the oven to make them taste homemade?

Neither did I on either account.

I wish I didn't

I plan to promptly forget this blessed fact so that I don't blow up to the size of a small country from eating apple pies (or blow the budget from buying desserts)

The Sweet Life

I

Love

Being

A

Mom!

I don't think anyone could have ever described the joy that mothers feel. Or the satisfaction to see your child experience something new. Or the sense of accomplishment when you find a new better way to assimilate your child into an active lifestyle.

I accumulated a jogging stroller this week, a garden plot last week, a reservation for a boot camp and a whole lot more distractions from laundry. Plus now that it is feeling more like summer I am already planning our pool time to be quite extravagant since we have one right down the street. I love it!!  Who needs clean folded laundry anyway....

I feel like this next month may be a little hard at the garden since Kaela isn't walking really well and we live in Alabama which is officially home of the largest population of fire ants I had ever hope to meet. That means I won't let her crawl so gardening will have to either (a) be done in short spurts so she doesn't grow to hate the stroller or (b) work with other gardening families with children so she can be entertained. She likes to watch people. That makes errands pleasant even if she is having a grumpy day.

The last few weeks I finally found a great scheduling system for cleaning the house. Seriously it has made my life so much easier. Thanks to Jones Design Company and some great friends who introduced me to their monthly calendar printouts. I honestly don't even know how to sign up for the printouts, I just know that I love them. My friends printed them out for me and brought them over for February and I was hooked. Anyway, it worked great for February and then this week I forgot to take time to fill it out Saturday night and to plan time every day for my chores. I have been out of the house so much with the garden and the stroller and such that I am behind with my chores. I guess the good news is that now that I am I house wife I am my own boss and I am okay with the laundry being a little behind in order to figure out this gardening thing and get rid of our cabin fever we developed the last little bit.

 

Really though. Maybe it's the Vitamin D, maybe it's the endorphins, maybe it's because my daughter is so dang cute, maybe it's the fact she finally fell asleep in my arms today for the first time in weeks, I just can't get enough of being a mom. I highly recommend it. In fact, I wonder if with my next child I can go right to the 9 month old stage....