Five Months!

Tomorrow Alaina turns five months old. Five months! All at once it seems like time is flying by and creeping. That could be due to the crazy amount of stuff we need to do every day to keep up with all of our commitments, and it most definitely has something to do with lack of sleep and the fact that at least one of us is now sick at all times. Since Alaina started daycare she’s had a stuffy nose, pink eye, a cough, a few days with a fever, and who knows what else. I’ve been sick twice, and Philip has been sick at least once. We used to be so healthy in our house. Now that we have a baby in daycare, friends assure us that it’s normal for all of us to be sick for most of the first year. YEAR?!?! Ugh. I don’t know if we’re going to make it. On a positive note, I’ve also been told that once we get through this initial onslaught of illness, Alaina should have a rock solid immune system and will be much less likely to contract every little virus. Here’s hoping that that’s the truth.

I imagine much has changed as Alaina continues to learn and grow, but it’s becoming harder to remember when she learned how to do this or that. In my last post, I mentioned that she found her feet around my birthday, and it took her until Memorial Day to figure out how to get her toes in her mouth. 

It’s still the cutest thing ever (I don’t consider her feet to be gross yet because she’s not using them to stomp around yet). And although she rolled over a few times that weekend, she didn’t really get the hang of it until last weekend (6/1). Now she’s only on her stomach for a few seconds at a time because she rolls right over. I have to admit that I’m guilty of putting her on her stomach much more often than I used to just because I want to see her roll. (You can see her roll here.)

We’ve also had a lot more success with rice cereal. There are still days when she’s not interested in it at all, but other times she’s really excited to get that food in her mouth. She even makes a little noise when I stick the spoon in her mouth…maybe mimicking the “mmmm” that I’ve been saying all along? Alaina had her 4 month check-up a few weeks ago (about 2 weeks later than it should have been, but that’s the schedule we’re on with the doctor’s office), and we got the go ahead to start fruits and vegetables at five months. For some reason I’ve been really anxious to let her try new foods lately, I guess just because I love each and every new experience with her, so I imagine we’ll get around to that sooner than later. I’m currently contemplating making pureed foods for her instead of buying her jars of who-knows-what at the store. It doesn’t seem like a difficult task, just something else to take up time in my day. I’ve also read a bit about a practice called “baby led weaning” where people give their babies pieces of “real” food instead of mush and let them work at figuring out how to handle it, and I’m thinking of trying some of that too. She’s so good at putting absolutely everything straight into her mouth…I’d love to give her a cooked carrot or a piece of banana and see how she reacts to it. Of course that’s opening things up for a gigantic mess, which will make meal times take much longer than they need to. So we’ll see which way we go with that.

At her four month check-up, Alaina was 13 lbs. 11 oz. and 24 ¼ inches long (at least I’m pretty sure those were the measurements). The doctor checked her ability to sit up with assistance (she’s been doing that for months) and a few other things that she is, of course, awesome at. I get pretty excited when I read lists of the “milestones” babies should be hitting in this month or that and I see that in many ways Alaina is way ahead of the curve. On the other hand, there are things that she could be doing already that she’s not. So it’s a bit too early to diagnose her as a total genius, and we need to remember that. One day I told her that I don’t care if she grows up to work at McDonald’s because I’ll love her no matter what, and I hope to be able to keep that promise. 

Also at her four month check-up, Alaina was diagnosed with pink eye – her first “real” illness with a name and a treatment, not just “mystery virus x” that we just had to wait out. Luckily, her eye never really seemed to bother her—she just had some greenish goop in her eye for a few days—but that’s probably related to the fever she had for the next two days. Her doctor’s appointment was on a Monday, and her school called me on my way to pick Alaina up to let me know that she had a fever. I wasn’t overly concerned since we were on our way to the doctor anyhow, but the fever meant that she couldn’t get her four month shots that day (which I didn’t want her to have to get anyhow, but I wanted to get that over with) and that she couldn’t go back to school until she was fever-free for at least 24 hours. Her doctor warned us that the fever could last for several days, and as it turned out she did have it through Wednesday, so I just decided to keep her out of school for the rest of the week to give her some germ-free time. I was lucky enough to be able to work from home that week, and Lainey was the perfect patient. She got a little cranky when her head was hurting…mostly just laying around moaning…but Tylenol was her friend on those days and she perked up quickly after each dose. She did sleep a lot, which allowed me to get my work done, but it was nice to get to spend time with her like that again. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I’m dying to quit my job and become a stay-at-home mom, but there is something so appealing about not having to get ready to face the world every day!

(I should mention that Alaina did get her shots the next week. I still was sick inside thinking about it, so Philip bravely took her into the exam room and held her while I waited in the waiting room. She took it much better than she took her two month shots, thankfully. Maybe next time I won’t be so nervous. Yeah right.)

After her week at home, we ventured to Cleveland for Memorial Day because it was my grandma's birthday and my cousin Melanie and her kids were in town. I can't remember the last time I saw Melanie in Cleveland, but I suspect that it was at her baby shower when she was pregnant with her daughter who is now 5 years old! The last time I saw her anywhere was in Washington D.C. about a year and a half ago when she was pregnant with her son, who turned 1 recently. So it was nice to see them and to see other family and to let them see how much Alaina has grown and changed since the last time we visited.

So as we close in on Alaina’s sixth month, I am still counting my blessings because I have such a happy, easy-going, adorable kid. I guess that could mean that she’s going to be a crazy toddler or that we’re going to be pulling our hair out when she’s a teenager (if we still have hair). These days I catch myself looking at older kids and feeling sad about the fact that Alaina’s not going to be a baby forever. I never understood how fun and entertaining babies could be until that little girl stole my heart. I’m sure we’ll have our ups and downs, but I hope that no matter how old she gets, and how independent she becomes, that Alaina will still let us share her joys and discoveries with her.

Happy Mother's Day

I feel that it's only fitting that I post an update about Alaina on Mother's Day. How far we have come from a year ago when I was "technically" a mother, but didn't really know it yet! To say that that little girl has changed my life would be an understatement. She's four months old now, and I still don't think I understand the many ways that my life has changed forever. But one thing I do know is that being a mom is better than I ever expected it to be. And apparently it shows....Just last night at dinner, Philip and Christopher were talking about how they can *see* a change in me that's happened only since Alaina has been in my life. I already know that I smile more. And apparently I *glow* more too. But who wouldn't smile more when they had an adorable face ready to smile right back? And who wouldn't glow when they got to look forward to watching that cute kid explore and learn new things each and every day? I tell Alaina often that she is the best baby I've ever had (I don't want her to be too full of herself, after all). And she truly is the sweetest, most easy going baby I've ever known. On this day and every day I am so lucky to have her in my world. :)

Now for the Alaina update - The last time I posted was about a month ago when I went back to work and Alaina went to daycare for the first time. That's still our weekly routine, and it seems to be going well (other than the stuffy nose that Alaina just can't seem to shake that I know is the result of all of those snotty kids touching her!).Ever since Alaina was born I've been telling her that she's not allowed to get bigger...not allowed to grow up. But seeing her learn how to do new things is so exciting. Just a few weeks ago, Alaina gave me several gifts for my birthday in the form of new things that she learned how to do. All along, I've been blowing raspberries at Alaina with my tongue (at least that's the best way I can describe it), and I swear she started sticking her tongue out at me when she was only a few weeks old. Well, she surprised the heck out of me on my birthday weekend when she started actually trying to blow raspberries back at me (see a video here). That same weekend she found her feet, and ever since she's been waving them in the air and grabbing at them with her hands. I don't know why that is so adorable to me, but it really is (maybe because I love her feet so much?). She also rolled over from her stomach to her back a few times while we were doing "tummy time." She hasn't quite gotten the hang of that one yet, but I know it's coming.

This weekend, I decided to introduce Lainey to "real food" in the form of rice cereal. We had a REALLLY long week, and I got very little sleep, so I guess I was hoping that giving her some solid food would help her sleep through the night as the legends go. Alaina was doing great in terms of sleeping....going to sleep around 9 ish and then getting up once to have a quick bottle and go back to sleep. A week or so ago, she started waking up sometime between 12 and 1, again in the middle of the night, and then between 6:30 and 7 to get ready for school. I think the reason she started getting up again was because she hasn't been feeling well, and - at least according to her daycare teacher - she wants a bottle because that's what she uses to comfort herself right now. I guess that makes sense, huh? The only problem was that I was going to bed WAY too late, and I would end up having to wake up again an hour or less after I fell asleep. Not good. So back to the cereal thing. I bought a box of rice cereal, and got all excited to give her her first taste on Friday night. We got her all set up in her fresh-out-of-the-box highchair and got the cameras and iPhones ready to record the event. She looked confused before we even started, but when I tried to put some of the cereal in her mouth, the confusion turned into anger! She did not want that strange stuff in her mouth! I think she accidentally swallowed a little bit of it, but I'm glad we didn't lay down tarps all over the kitchen and put on our haz-mat suits like Philip and Christopher thought we might need to because it was a total non-event. Oh well. We'll try again in a week or so.

Today, Philip and I were in Babies R Us looking at the amazing amount of stuff in the bottle aisle when I noticed that some of the sippy cups are "rated" for kids 4 months and up. Alaina just turned 4 months this week, and she's been showing interest in holding her bottle for a while now. Sometimes when she holds it she guides it toward her mouth, and other times she violently shoves it in the other direction :) But pretty much anything she gets ahold of goes in her mouth, so it's hard to know if she understands what she's doing or if it's just a reflex at this point. Anyhow, I put a few ounces of formula in the sippy cup and showed Alaina how to hold the handles and she did great! I know she liked chewing on the rubbery part of the cup that goes in her mouth, and she was very good about guiding it in there. I think she may have actually gotten some formula out too (sippy cups have amazing "technology" these days that allows the kids to hold them upside down without dripping any liquid, but I think they have to actually suck on them to get liquid out). At one point she did turn the cup upside down and start licking the bottom of the cup...but she's learning!

Back to Life

After almost a year of great big life changing events, this week (hopefully) marks the last big adjustment we’ll have to make in a while. On Monday, I went back to work and Alaina had her first day at school.

I can’t really say I was looking forward to going back to work, but after being out for 14 weeks, I wasn’t dreading it quite as much as I had expected to. I love Alaina more and more every day, and having the chance to spend almost every minute of her first few months watching her grow and change was one of the greatest experiences of my life. At the same time, having a life that revolves around diaper and feeding schedules was starting to get to me. And knowing that there are some things I should have been doing as a parent that would have been good for Alaina and me (like putting her down for regular naps) that I just couldn’t get into the habit of doing just proved to me that going back to work might be good for both of us.

This year marks my 11^th year of working for The McGraw-Hill Companies, so going back to work should have been a matter of settling back into an old routine. I was a little nervous about it, though, because not only did I leave just as my first big project was getting started, but the company also closed the building I was working in while I was out and moved the people from that location back to the Polaris building, which is where I started 11 years ago. Although I was glad to be working in a building that’s closer to home and much nicer than the Easton building I left in December, a lot has changed at Polaris since the last time I was there, and I was afraid I would feel like a kid starting at a new school. For a few weeks, I toyed with the idea of bringing Alaina in to the Polaris building to introduce her to my friends (and to have them show me where my new desk was). I put it off until the last possible moment, but I did end up bringing her up there last Friday. And I’m really glad I did. Seeing old friends and getting my bearings in the “new” building before my first day made me feel much better about coming back. It reminded me that although working in a cube farm isn’t always glamorous, I do like my job and the friends that I’ve made, and that helps me get through the day. I wish I could say that the project I left was a little farther along than it is (like completely finished, maybe), but that’s not so much the case. Oh well. That just means that I’ll have less time to waste while I’m at work, which also means less time to miss the kid.

I felt the same way about taking Alaina to school as I did about going to work. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to being away from her all day, but I didn’t see it as being the end of the world, either. I know there’s a lot of controversy in some circles about whether we can ruin our kids by putting them in school too soon (or even at all), and that some people think it’s disgraceful to let people at daycare “raise” your kids. A part of me certainly agrees with that idea. The fact that I got pregnant and chose to bring a child into this world means that I am responsible for making sure she gets the best possible care and has the best possible opportunities to grow up and become a successful member of society. At the same time, I know enough about myself to know that I’m not cut out to give a tiny person the kind of patient attention she needs 24 hours a day.

Philip and I began our search for a school for Alaina last September. That was actually one of the first things we did because it was a straightforward task that I understood how to accomplish (unlike all of the other planning we had to do to get ready for our first baby). And thank goodness we did it so early because those places have waiting lists! I think we toured only 3 schools, each of them unique in their own way. The first was a brand new facility that seemed nice enough, if not a little sparse and empty because there were hardly any kids enrolled at the time. But given the location and the fact that we didn’t need childcare for 6 more months at that time, I figured they had time to work some of that stuff out. The second facility was one that I drove by every day on my way to work. I’d always wondered what kind of place it was because on the outside it kind of reminded me of the daycare I went to when I was little. But I was less than impressed with what I saw on the inside.  It just seemed so institutional and….used. Given those two options, I was feeling pretty good about the first place, but I don’t think Philip was convinced. On a whim, we decided to visit one more school late one afternoon, and that’s when we discovered Primrose.

                The Primrose location we visited is in Lewis Center. I didn’t even know it was there until I started researching daycare centers, and I had never heard of Primrose schools. Actually, that’s not true. One of our neighbors has a Primrose magnet on her car, but since I’ve never seen schools advertised like that before, I figured it was some kind of elite private school that her kids went to. Not so. At it’s core, Primrose is very similar to the other schools we visited or looked into. They all have their own “curriculums,”  and most of the classrooms are very similar. But what immediately struck me about the Primrose in Lewis Center was that it feels like a private school when you walk in. Instead of cinderblock walls and white tile floors, Primrose has wood floors and wood trim on the nicely painted walls (which are not painted in primary colors, which I’m not a big fan of). We happened to arrive right when parents were starting to come to pick up their kids, and it was nice to see every family stop at the front desk to chat with the staff and to see that the staff knew everyone by name. As we took our tour, the thing that I was most excited to learn was that each school has its own chef, and that instead of serving just crackers and juice at every turn, they actually offer fruits and vegetables and other nutritious options. Overall, I think Primrose felt so much more comfortable and cheerful to me, and I think Philip agreed. I left that visit saying “we’ve got to find a way to get our kid into this school!”

Unfortunately, the Lewis Center Primrose didn’t have an opening in their Infant room until September of 2012, which was too late. After doing some quick research, we found another Primrose location that was still pretty convenient, and we toured that location as well. I still had the warm and fuzzies after that tour, and was so excited to hear that they had an opening in April of 2012, which was exactly what we needed. I don’t know how we got that lucky (I heard this week that their waiting list now stretches to September of 2013), but I’m so glad we did!

Alaina was exactly 12 weeks old on her first day of school. In a way, I think that was a good thing because she didn’t have the awareness to be nervous or scared or sad that we had to drop her off and leave her somewhere new all day. We visited her classroom a few times in the weeks leading up to her first day, mostly so that I could get acclimated to the idea of leaving her there, but also so she could maybe get a little familiar with it. Spending time in that room and watching the teachers handle the constant diaper changes and feeding schedules while also finding time to read books, sing songs, and do simple art projects certainly gave me a respect for what they do. And it reminded me that Alaina would be experiencing things at school that she couldn’t get at home.

So now it’s Friday afternoon and I’m counting the minutes until I can shut down my computer and go pick up my kickie pants. My first few days at the office were pretty good—people came to chat all the time and I slowly eased back into having tasks to complete. I actually didn’t feel too badly about having to sit in this cube. But I’m over it now. Before I came back I submitted a proposal to telecommute full time. It hasn’t been rejected yet, but it also hasn’t been approved. That’s one of the things that keeps me from falling back into the work rut that I was in before I left. Alaina, on the other hand, has done wonderfully at school. She’s eating and napping on a more regular schedule, and she came home two out of the last four days with paint underneath her nails (one day it was fingers and one day it was toes). Last night we got her first official artwork from school (a bunny with her footprints on the ears). And suddenly all the girl wants to do all evening is sleep. For the past two nights she’s fallen asleep a little after 6 and hasn’t wanted to wake up again until around 6 the next morning. It makes me a little sad that I don’t get to interact with her as much during the day, but I guess I really shouldn’t complain about a baby who sleeps through the night!

Alaina's first day of school.