Potter Lane: April 2012

Thursday, April 26, 2012

5 Whole Months!

Dear Margot:

You are 5 months old. Actually you have been 5 months old for a whole week! This has been an exciting month for you. You experienced snow for the first time during the great snow event of 2011. This month you have become really excited watching Mommy and Daddy eat. You love to read Good Night Moon and you really look at the pictures. Sometimes when I start to read it you waive your arms about in excitement. You talk all the time and have started to laugh so much more. You were sick for the first time, which was not a happy time for any of us. You have become great friends with Sophie the giraffe. You enjoyed your first Easter and looked adorable in your fancy Easter dress. You went on a trip to Portland and met your Great Grandparents from Walla Walla. And perhaps most exciting, you learned to sit in a high chair and eat some solid foods. Mommy was determined to Wait until you were 6 months old to give you solids but you seemed to want our food so badly that we went ahead and gave you some rice cereal, which you really seam to enjoy.

Here you are at 5 months:

At 5 months you are starting to become mobile having rolled over twice! You also turn yourself 360 degrees on your activity gym and love to kick and stomp your legs and stand up on our laps. You love to sit in your high chair where you can see what is going on. You sleep in your own bed in your own room for the most part. you sometimes manage to "crawl" back to Mommy and Daddy's bed by morning... You still wake up once or twice during the night to nurse. You however don't seem to crazy about naps or schedules. You are kind of shy but seem to enjoy people from the safety of Mommy and Daddy's arms. You are really starting to enjoy your time with other babies, especially your friends Matheson and Grayson, and all your friends at Birth to Three.

You are generally a happy baby and we all love you to pieces!

Weight: 14lbs and 10oz
Clothes: size 6 months,6-9 months and some 9 months

Monday, April 23, 2012

The best day

Life has been really busy for us the past few weeks. Work has been crazy for both Chris and I. We've also just had a lot going on. This weekend we had no plans and Saturday we make the impromptu decision to take little Miss Margot to the beach for the fist time. The weather was beautiful an we had the best day!!!

Margot's first view of the Ocean. She is clearly more interested on chewing on her ergo. However, to her defense she had just woken up to find herself in a crazy new place.

Sitting in the fish house high chair like a big baby while we ate chowder and fish.

Feet in the sand for the first time and loving it!

Margot says, "It's so much fun to be at the beach!"

Digging her hands into the sand. This activity was of course followed by trying to put her hands in her mouth.

Getting a better look at the ocean. And no we did not let Margot into the water as the Pacific Ocean is FREEZING

After the beach we played the park a bit. Margot liked he daisies.

Margot was so tired that she slept the whole 2 hour drive home. She was a happy baby all evening and hung out in her high chair while I made our delicious dinner of fresh trout, roasted baby potatoes and Swiss chard.

Basically it was the best day ever. And given how crazy work is going to be this week I'm so glad we had all that time together over the weekend.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Margot's First Easter

Or the day I took no less than 62 pictures of my child...

Margot's dress and cardigan are a brand called First impressions purchased on sale at Macy's. Her tights with shoes are Trumpetto, which I found at Target. And her darling little bonnet was made by my Aunt Coral especially for her. You may notice it looks different in the top picture this is because I put it on wrong so she was wearing it backwards all through church until my Mom corrected me--woops.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Friday Brain Dump

I can't believe it's Easter already--this year is flying by.

I simply can't wait to dress Margot up in her Easter dress, it's so sweet.

I have no idea what I am going to wear for Easter.

Do you all remember the movie clueless? I think I was in the 5th grade when it came out and I remember the movie starts out with her using a computer program to select her outfit. From what I remember the computer catalogued all of her clothes and then helped her select outfits. I often wish I had this program. Wouldn't it be lovely to just scroll through your itemized wardrobe and assemble outfits?

Margot has been sick for the past week which has been really hard. Poor baby has broncilitis, which according to our doctor is common in babies. She's been congested, coughing, and had a fever for a few days. It's been so sad. I think she is pretty much over it now, so hopefully Chris and I can catch up on our sleep. We've been up with her every night this week.

We are so excited for our Easter weekend--we will be spending a lot of time with family and friends.

Wishing you all a Happy Easter!

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Working Mom: Making it work

I have been back at work for almost two months now and people often ask how it works for us. Honestly it's hard but it works. What's particularly challenging is that my job is not really a 9-5 job. I manage the public policy at our local Chamber. This means I often have to be at work for 7:30am meetings and/or be at evening events, public forums, and City Council Meetings. It's not uncommon for me to have a 7am-7:30pm day or leave work at 5pm only to be back at City Council at 7:30pm until 10pm. However, I have other weeks with no evening meetings and I try to maintain balance by leaving work early on a day when I have less going on to make up for the days I am working 10 hours. I amlost always go nurse Margot at least once a day. If I have a lunch meeting I try to go before or after if I can.

Here's what at typical day might look like for us:
5:30-7am: Chris wakes up and showers, then I shower, and get ready, wake up Miss Margot, change her diaper and get her dressed, Chris usually makes tea and breakfast while I get Margot ready, nurse Margot (I usually drink some tea and eat something while I'm nursing her), get out the door
7:15-7:30: drop of Margot at my Mom's, drop Chris at his office and head to work
7:30-noon: work, stopping to pump sometime between 9-10
noon-one: go to my Mom's to nurse Margot and eat lunch, this usually includes some good cuddle or play time with my baby
one-4:45: work, stopping to pump around 3
4:45-5:45: pick up Chris from his office, go to Mom's, nurse Margot, get her ready and go home
5:45-6:45: change, pick up, rotate laundry, pack bags for next day and make dinner while Chris plays with Margot
6:45 ish: eat dinner, usually Margot sits on my lap at the table or hangs out in her bouncy seat in the dining room with us
7:15-7:45: give Margot her bath, baby massage, play time, pj's, story and nurse to sleep
7:45-9:30-10: Chris and I do dishes and rotate laundry (on a good night) and hang out watching TV or reading
9:30-10: nurse Margot one more time before I go to bed. Usually then she will sleep until 2:30 or 3am then I'll nurse her again.

Things that make it work for us:

Always pack our bags (diaper bag, pump bag and work bag) the night before. This is also when I replenish my pump parts and wash and sterilize things

try to do one load of laundry every day or at least every other day otherwise I spend the whole weekend doing laundry

easy quick dinners and go to breakfasts

meal plan and grocery shop on the weekend so we don't have to stop at the store on our way home or figure out what to make for dinner at 5pm

change expectations of a clean house--I try to keep our house picked up during the week but I try not to stress if a few days go by without that happening. We try to do at least some cleaning on the weekends but again that doesn't always happen. It's more important to us that we spend our free time with Margot since we both have to be away from her so much. That's more important than a clean house right now.

respect Margot's schedule--Margot isn't on a really strict schedule but one thing we do try to maintain is her bed time routine. We've found to do this we need to limit taking her out at night. She does best when she's home by 6 and in bed by 8. Also we need those 2 hours of downtime and if she doesn't go down by 8 she gets a second wind and then we spend those two hours getting her to sleep. This means if I have an evening meeting Chris has to be home with her and if we both want to be out we have to have a sitter come to our house.

We are lucky that we have a lot of support and help. Margot goes to my Mom's house everyday when I'm at work. This is a huge time commitment for my Mom. Often she has Margot as early as 6:30am and sometimes as late as 6pm. But knowing she is with my Mom makes it much easier for me to be away as much as I am. We also have a lot of other family around to help babysit. Although we don't leave her very often outside of work when we do it's nice to know we have people that love her to take care of her. And as much as my job is demanding and challenging I am blessed to that I really love what I do.

Are you a working Mom? What makes it work for you? What are your tips?

Monday, April 2, 2012

Photo A Day--March

I decided to join the photo a day challange for March. It was really fun. It forced me to keep my camera on me and take more pictures, something I'm not very good at doing. Here's a glimpse at our March.