Ups and Downs

Things have been getting slowly better.  Items are starting to get crossed off my to do list, I have been able to keep the house within acceptable levels of cleanliness and I have just felt better equipped to deal with everything. Hannah is still not sleeping "through the night" but she is sleeping longer stretches than a few weeks ago and so that has helped a little bit of the postpartum fog lift.  I also had my follow up appointment with the ob last week and we started some pills that have already helped me get my hormones and emotions a bit more on track.

We have all been varying degrees of sick around here.  Hannah and I were spared the worst of it, but poor Ryan has been quite miserable for a few days now.   I did force him to eat a few bites of the top layer of our wedding cake.  

Sunday was our one year wedding anniversary.  It has not always been the easiest year, but it has been a good one. Ryan is a good husband, stepdad and father and I am lucky to have him in my life.  

I officially moved my "return to work" date up two weeks.  HR looked at me like

I was crazy when I met with them. I think I am probably the only person to ever request to end an approved leave early.  I had to meet with the head of HR and get special permission to return to my own job which was a bit weird.  I am really sad to have to leave Hannah earlier than planned but it will be good for us to get back to two full salaries.  I went to take Hannah to visit the kids the other day and it actually helped me feel a bit more excited about my return.  I do enjoy many things about my job and it was good to be reminded of those things.

Today was supposed to be our big Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet.  As a Den leader I was heading over early to set up.  Ryan, as the Cub Master, was going to go straight there from work.  I woke the baby up from her nap, and managed to convince Isaac to put on jeans only to find that my van had a puddle of mysterious liquid under it and no power steering.  So we never managed to leave the house today.  I had the van towed to my brother's garage am skeeping my fingers crossed that the repairs won't be too expensive.  

Happy Wednesday!

SIA and a Baby Shower

I have drafted a few posts but I haven't managed to get anything posted recently. I have been busy and Miss Hannah has been hit or miss with sleep at night.  Plus everyone at our house has been sick which has contributed to the craziness.  

Anyways, I did put together an outfit for Style Imitates Art.

Here is the inspiration piece, a Vermeer:

And here was my take on the painting:

Scarf: South Moon Under, shirt and khakis: Old Navy, shoes: boutique in University City.

Click here to see other outfits inspired by the painting.

I wore that outfit to a little double baby shower thrown for me and Miss Hannah and another mom and baby Asher.   It was really lovely and we were showered with adorable outfits and lots of diapers and wipes by the women of our church congregation.

Hannah was a little doll at the party but by the time I went to take a picture of her outfit after we returned home she was about out of patience for a photo session.

More tomorrow hopefully.  :)

Happy Birthday Isaac!

It's hard to believe that my sweet baby boy turns nine today!  It seems like I blinked and he is all grown up.

Isaac has always had a special relationship with his uncles and aunt.  My sister commented last time she was home how fun he has become.  He has a large vocabulary, an observant nature and a sharp wit which makes the time we spend together truly enjoyable.

Isaac is always up for playing or watching any sport.  His favorite sports to play are soccer and football, although he is trying Little League this spring.  He is eagerly awaiting spring when my dad can install the new basketball hoop.  He remains a 

devoted wrestling fan.

Isaac is a technology whiz.  I count on him to help me work the TV, make sense of all of our remotes and troubleshoot issues with my phone.

He is a math whiz but his favorite class is gym.  He has faithfully practiced his viola every day this year.  He was thrilled to earn his "cursive license".  His nose is often in a book. 

Isaac has a photographic memory.  I can always count on him to remember where I park the car.  He also loves commercials and easily memorizes and recites them. 

Isaac is such a good helper.  Everyone wants to know how Isaac has adjusted to being ousted from his position of "only child".  I am pleased to report he has done great.  He had become a lot more self reliant and responsible for his own things.  He has become a young man overnight.

He is the sweetest big brother.  He always wants to hold his sister and interact with her.  He tries (and often succeeds!) with calming Hannah when she is fussy.  Although she doesn't give him a whole lot in return, he never gives up thinking of ways to entertain her.  He set up an entire "Baby Olympics" for Hannah including events such as baby luge, baby bobsled, baby ice dancing and (my personal favorite) baby curling.

I couldn't be prouder of the young man he has become.  I love you Isaac Matthew!  Happy 9th birthday!

Monday Funday

Hey look!  I got dressed in real clothes!  Isaac spent part of the weekend with his dad, and I was tempted to roll out in pajamas, but I changed at the last minute.  I was glad I did.  I had some wind shield wiper issues and had to stop

at a gas station and to deal with it.  It would have been pretty embarrassing if I had opted for the hot pink slippers.

Winter in PA rages on as you can see from the snowy pictures.  I can't even talk about it anymore.  Thank goodness Ryan was already off of work when the worst of the snow hit.  He and Isaac did a great job staying on top of all of the snow.

Hannah and I had no part of the shoveling.  We cuddled on the couch and even did a little tummy time (which she hates).

And of course, even a foot of snow on the ground couldn't thwart viola practice (this time to a captive audience).  

Ryan surprised me with these lovely flowers.  

The other big news is Hannah finally had a better nights rest.  I am not naive enough to suggest that this could be anything more than a fluke.  The girl who gets up at 9, 11, 1, 3 and 5 like clockwork had an 8 o'clock bottle, a bottle at 1:30 and then at 5.  All because Ryan put her down on her stomach to sleep.  I know sleeping on her back is "better" but it was sure nice to get some longer stretches of rest for the first time in 7 weeks. 

Happy Monday!

Linking up with Molly

Honestly

My heart is very full tonight.  I have spent most of these last few snow days the same way I have spent most of the days for the past seven weeks-- cuddled up looking at this sweet face.

There were a few years there where I didn't think it would have the chance to have another baby.  I really longed for an opportunity to savor all of those special moments of pregnancy and life with a newborn.  I am so grateful for this sweet girl.

And as weird as it sounds, I am grateful for the sleepless nights, and the sink full of bottles to wash and the laundry basket that seems to fill up faster than ever because I am so lucky to have a precious little babe who needs me to love her.

I am so lucky for each day that I get to spend at home with this sweet girl.  I am aware that the clock is ticking down I til it is time to return to work.  Two of my friends who had babies around the same time I did have already gone back.  I haven't even allowed myself to fully process the idea of that yet, although she will be in great hands with my mom or Ryan for the time being.

Being a mom is my favorite job in the whole entire world.   

Style Imitates Art

So remember when I was blogging about how hard it is to force myself to get out of pajamas when I am trapped in the house on maternity leave trying to keep a tiny human alive?  And how my new goal was to actually get dressed making the most of the pre-baby clothes that do fit?  The idea is that getting dressed can be the one area I regain control of my life when every other decision I make each day is based around the whims of a six week old.  I also stipulated that under no circumstances should these outfits feature my unattractive but oh so comfortable hot pink and leopard print slippers (blog post is here).

Well, after being snowed in the house for a week with the kids, I was more than ready to get dressed and get out of the house on Saturday for dinner with Ryan  followed by a bit of shopping at King of Prussia Mall.  I had a gift card to Old Navy burning a hole in my pocket and also some items to pick up for Isaac's birthday. Even though we brought along the baby, it is as close as Ryan and I are getting to a date night these days and I was not going to spend psuedo-date night in yoga pants.

 I figured while I was on a roll I could join Jen and the other girls for the Style Imitates Art link up.  The idea is you put together an outfit based on an art piece.  I always check it out but I have never participated. This time around the inspiration was this painting by John James Audubon.  

 I grew up a stone's throw away from the Audubon Society bird sanctuary, so I took that as as sign that I must participate this week.  

I chose my wide leg navy blue cords to go with the background of the painting.  The tree trunk is brown and grays so I thought of this big comfy cardigan.  It was a thrift store find ages ago.  I paired it with a gray tank and my owl necklace.  The Doc Marten Mary Janes are the oldest item in my closet: I actually bought them in middle school.  I wear them all the time and they are still in great shape.

(I am not a fashion blogger by any means, and I ended up busting out the self timer app on my iPhone to snap pictures in Hannah's room since that is the room with best light.  Later on I figured I should document my shoes, so I took a picture outside.)

I had wanted to add some white to the outfit since, duh, the owls are white but nothing in my closet seemed to work.  Then it occurred to me that my go to winter coat fit the bill perfectly. 

(One advantage of the poor quality iPhone shots is you can't see the dried spit up caked on the sleeve of my coat.  Just keeping it real...)

Bonus picture of Hannah Banana rocking her death stare and her owl bib:

If you are interested, hop on over to see the other owl inspired outfits.

Another week bites the dust

Well, we made it through another one.  This sweet little girl is officially 6 weeks old.  This Carter's outfit was one that my mom bought over the summer, shortly after we found out we were having a girl. This is a three month outfit and it fits her pretty well, even though some of her 0-3 outfits are still too big.   I don't understand sizing for baby clothes at all but I don't want her to outgrow any adorable outfits before she gets to wear them.

Miss Hannah is starting to crack an occasional smile, even though she is mostly quite serious.  Her nickname Hannah Banana has become shortened to "Little Banana" or "the Banana" as in "Do you need me to watch The Banana while Isaac is at soccer?".  Poor kid is going to grow up wondering why we named her after a fruit.  

Oh yeah and there's me: tired as ever rocking my glasses sweatshirt.  No one has given Hannah the memo that formula fed babies are supposed to sleep longer stretches.  She is still up every two hours like clock work and I am EXHAUSTED.  

Full disclosure: she only had this outfit on for about ten minutes.  Then she spit up all over herself and we had to change her shirt.  I did snap this picture first though:

Not gonna lie, I was a little nervous cause her head was a bit floppy but it was too cute not to document.  Isaac tries hard to interact with his sister, even though she still isn't much fun.  She does love him though.  I put her down on my bed and then Isaac lay down near her to talk to me.  She wriggled her way over next to him, put her chin on his shoulder and then closed her eyes.  It was so sweet.

Two friends recently sent me some articles on motherhood that  I really appreciated:

          New Moms Get Nothing Done (And Other Untruths)

and

    

          And Before I Forget

Have a happy Friday!

Linking up with Katie