Well, I had a better week at work this week.  I was so proud of myself for not crying at all this week   Nothing too exciting happened Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday- just typical stuff.  Although I do have to note that the stars and planets must’ve been aligned because twice this week we fed Skylar at about 9pm-ish and were all in bed by 10pm and she slept straight thru til 5am!!!  Woo hoo- 7 hours of continuous sleep!!!  I wish that could happen EVERY night.  I’m sure it’ll happen eventually for us.  Overall, she’s doing very well- eating well, growing (growing out of some of her clothes now!), etc.  This weekend, in fact, I’m convinced she’s in the middle of a growth spurt.  Normally she’ll drink about 4 ounces at each feeding.  Well, at 1 or 2 feedings each day on Saturday and today, she drank like 7 ounces!!!  Holy little piggy   But that’s good that she has an appetite and is eating well.  She still loves the playmat and kicking her legs and looking at all the fun toys.  She’s also doing very well and exploring her vocal chords by making all sorts of different noises- cooing, gurgling, clicking, etc noises.  Very cute- I love “talking” to her when she’s in her happy, talkative mood.  I wish I could get a video of it but it’s hard to video her while trying to make eye contact and imitate her noises to keep her talking.  She’s doing well with tummy time- for awhile there she really didn’t like it.  But yesterday and today we had her on her tummy and she was doing very well at holding her head and chest up and leaning on her arms.  She was tolerating it and looking around for probably 10 minutes- amazing!  No laughing yet but that’s apparently the next milestone to hit.

On Thursday, we stopped by our friend Sarah’s house after work because our friend Yexi was in town this week for business.  He works at Ingersoll Rand with me (although he’s based out of Indianapolis) and is working on a project that brings him to CO alot right now.  So Sarah was having him over for dinner and asked if we’d like to join them.  We passed on dinner since that would keep us out too late but did stop by so Yexi could meet Skylar.  Yexi is alot of fun to talk to because he’s from China and I love hearing all about his country and how different things are there.  Here he is holding her:

And 1 of Chris, Sarah (holding Skylar) and Yexi:

Then on Saturday I was holding Skylar and my hair happened to drape over her head- so I said to Chris, “Here’s how she’ll look later on (if her hair stays red that is)”  So we decided to take a picture of it to see if it would look like she had alot of red hair- not sure how successful we were with this photo

Also, on Saturday, my friend Kristy arrived in CO for a friend’s baby shower.  She got to Castle Rock at about lunchtime and hung out with us for a couple hours before heading down to the Springs to have dinner with her friends.  She stayed with us Saturday night and then went to the baby shower on Sunday.  She was flying stand-by because her brother-in-law works for an airline (I forget which one right now) and can get them stand-by passes to fly cheaper.  However, her flights tomorrow weren’t looking very empty so her flight itinerary might be kind of “interesting”- I hope she makes it back to Cincinati smoothly!  Here’s Kristy holding Skylar (in her Penn State sleeper- thanks Kelly!):

Sunday we went to JC Penney to get Skylar’s 3-month photo taken.  We also had a Halloween costume for her and got a picture taken in it too.  The photos turned out very nicely despite the fact that Skylar wasn’t very enthused by having her photo taken.  We couldn’t coax a smile out of her but we still got some super cute faces in the pictures.  In fact, we had to use the pacifier to keep her from crying and then quick pull it out and take the picture and then put it back in.  Maybe at her 6-month photo she’ll be smiley-er (I love making up words!).  Here’s Chris in the waiting area afterward holding Skylar in her pumpkin costume.

I’m hoping to get our Christmas photo taken at Thanksgiving time.  We’re going to go to The Picture People to get this photo taken because they allow pets.  So it’ll be the entire Mellinger family for this portrait- should be quite the circus event to get this photo taken   In fact, we’re doing it on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving because Chris’ parents will be here for the holiday and we’ll have extra sets of hands to help hold dog leashes and baby   

Sunday afternoon I headed out to do some errands (Target, grocery shopping, etc) and I came home to 2 nappers- so I had to snap a photo of the 2 of them napping.  Skylar in her swing and Chris on the chair.  Too funny.

And now it’s Sunday night and we’re watching the Phillies stomp on the Dodgers- go Phillies!  We’re going to try out a new type of formula tonight- it’s from Enfamil and is called “Rest Full”- it’s supposed to be an expanding, slow-digesting formula designed to help babies stay fuller during the night and sleep longer.  I figured it was worth a try   Hopefully it tastes the same as the other stuff, she likes it and it works!

Good night!

Since the Primrose School (daycare place we chose) is a couple blocks away from where Chris works I made him promise me that he’d go visit Skylar everyday at lunch and take a picture of her and send it to me   With his new job he got a Crackberry (Blackberry) phone that has photo and email capability- so he can take a picture with his phone and then just email it to me at work.  He’s been pretty good about going at lunch so far- he went Monday, Tuesday and Thursday of last week (Wednesday he had a meeting in Denver and couldn’t make it and Friday he was super busy trying to get out of the office for what was supposed to be his half-day of work) and he went today.  Here are the photos he’s been sending me.

Monday, 10/5- she was napping when Chris stopped by: 

Tuesday, 10/6- with Miss Cynthia holding her:

Thursday, 10/8- napping again

Monday, 10/12- she was just waking up when Chris got there so he fed her a bottle and then took this picture with Miss Jenny holding her:

I took some new photos this morning of Skylar (so technically she’s 3 months and 2 days) when she was a bit more awake and happy.  I couldn’t quite get a smile out of her because she just kept staring at the camera but at least she didn’t have her pacifier in her mouth and wasn’t half asleep    I like her face in this picture because it reminds me of a Calvin and Hobbes face

Well, I survived my 1st week back at work… barely   I haven’t updated the blog sooner because, frankly, I haven’t wanted to talk about it.  I don’t want a pity-party here but, honestly, this past week was horrible- for me anyway.  I’m sure all working-moms experienced the same feelings during their 1st weeks back- dropping her off Monday was so freakin’ emotional I was worn out by the time I got to work!  Walking into the plant and seeing everyone and having everyone say “Welcome back” was nice- but as for being back at work?  I could do without that…   I managed to not cry at all at work (quite an accomplishment for a major cryer like me!)- I almost teared up when my boss asked me 1st thing in the morning how dropping her off at daycare was (obviously my boss is a man and has never dropped his 3-month old baby off at daycare before and so, therefore, has NO IDEA how emotionally unstable I was at that point!) but I tried to make light of it and say “I survived”.  And it’s true- I did survive the day.  My co-workers took me out to lunch because they never got to take me out that last week before I had Skylar.  My original plan was that Friday, 7/10 was going to be my last day of work and my co-workers were going to take me out for Chinese (our favorite restaurant) to celebrate.  But then Skylar had other plans and decided to arrive before that.  Anyway, they took me out to lunch and the day passed pretty quickly.  However, what I wasn’t prepared for was picking her up from daycare and going home with her and being very, very sad that night thinking about how much I had missed her during the day and how much of her day I had missed out on.  It truly hit me like a ton of bricks… so much so that I was sending out emails to a couple of my working-mom friends asking “When does this get easier?!?  Everyone says it gets easier… but when????”  Anywho- like I said, I’m not looking for a pity-party here- I’m just stating the facts.  Our AM routine seems to be OK- I wake up at 5:15 or earlier if Skylar wakes up and start changing/feeding her.  Then i wake Chris up at about 5:50-ish and hand her over to him so i can get in the shower.  Then Chris gets ready and we’re out the door by 6:30am.  It seems to work OK so far. 

Here are a couple photos from day #1 at daycare:

 

Miss Jenny with Skylar:

There are 3 main ladies who work in the infant room- Jenny, Cynthia, and Ana- all very nice ladies.

Skylar also had her 3 monthversary on Friday- unfortunately, it was late when we took the photos and she was tired so she wasn’t smiling in them- oops.  Also, we’re having problems with being able to rotate our photos so I’m not going to post any right now… here’s 1 of her doing her new favorite hobby- chewing on her hands:

And here’s one where she had grabbed onto my finger and was intently studying it- pay no attention to my clothing- we were just hanging out at home Saturday night so I’m wearing my flannel pants and sweatshirt

And a video of Skylar sitting up- her neck is getting stronger and stronger…

http://s489.photobucket.com/albums/rr258/dlc136/?action=view&current=MVI_4234.flv

We’re enjoying the weekend- Chris had his 1st ice hockey game of the new season last night at 10:30pm.  Skylar and I did not go with him- that’s just too late for us.  Besides, I had to go into work this morning at 7am (can you believe it?  I had to go in on a Saturday MY FIRST WEEK BACK!  What the…??) so I had to get to bed as early as possible.  I managed to go to bed at ~9:30pm and then Chris fed Skylar her last feeding of the night at about midnight when he got home.  This morning the roads were quite icy from a storm that had rolled in overnight and the drive to work was quite interesting- but I made it safely and was home by noon and took a nap.  Then we ran some errands and had to get Skylar all bundled up to go out in the cold- the high for today was 24- brrrr!  We didn’t get much snow down here- mostly just freezing rain/ice.  However, on the news they showed that up near Ft. Collins they got several inches and there was even 1 town just south of the Wyoming border that got 17″ of snow- holy moly!  The weather was so cold, in fact, that they postponed game #3 between the Phillies and Rockies til tomorrow when it’s supposed to warm up a bit.  No big plans for tomorrow- just hanging out and catching up on sleep as much as possible.  Hope everyone’s having a good weekend.

Well, unfortunately, the time has finally arrived… I have to go back to work tomorrow.  Where in the world did 12 weeks go???  It just flew by (as I knew it was going to).  I’m sure I’ll be a crying mess tomorrow when we drop her off- I’m so sure in fact that I’m not doing my makeup beforehand and will do it in the car after we drop her off   I think 1 of the things I’m most worried about is the sleep deprivation with having to do the late night feedings and then getting up for work the next day.  I don’t do well with not alot of sleep so this will be a challenge for me!  I’m also interested to see how my proposed morning routine works out…  I”ll keep everyone posted on how it goes.

We had a pretty uneventful weekend.  We watched alot of college football yesterday and then did some chores around the house/yard today that we’ve been avoiding for a couple weeks (laundry, mowing the lawn, vacuuming, etc)

Here’s a photo that we took today of Skylar using Nittany as a pillow- Nittany was really good about cooperating!

And a picture of my “fur baby” as my cousin Tracy calls our dogs- his face was just too cute and I couldn’t resist taking a picture:

Also, here are some photos that Brian sent us from when we visited him, Priscilla, and their daughter Gabrielle last weekend in Chicago but forgot to bring our camera:

 

Look at the size difference between the 2 girls- Gabrielle (she’s ~13lbs right now) is a month older than Skylar (she’s probably close to 10lbs by now) but was born at 8+ lbs!

And the boys with their girls:

Hope everyone has a good week and hope mine goes smoothly and quickly!!

Well, we survived Skylar’s 1st plane ride and major trip   I don’t think I really said WHY we were going to Wisconsin in my last post.  We wanted to introduce Skylar to her great-grandmother and I wanted to make the trip before I go back to work so I didn’t have to worry about taking any time off to do so.  I mentioned this to my mom when she was here right after Skylar was born and my mom asked if I’d mind if she drove out to be there during the visit so we could get a 4 generations photo.  I said that would be great if she’d make the drive out.  Then, Lisa said she’d be interested in driving out as well with the girls so she could visit our grandmother again.  Then my dad said that he’d be interested in driving with Lisa since she’d only be there for a long weekend (my mom was staying longer to visit with friends/family).  So that’s how it came to be a family trip to Wisconsin   It was nice to have us all out there in WI for the weekend.  As I said in my previous post, my mom got to WI on Wed. and then Lisa, the girls, and my dad arrived on Thurs. and then Chris and I came in Friday evening.  Lisa had loaned us her infant carseat and sent it out to WI with my mom to be installed in her car.  They also brought a pack and play for us to use with Skylar too.  My dad picked us up from the airport Friday evening- it was raining of course.  I swear it’s ALWAYS raining whenever we’re in Chicago   The last time we were in Chicago was about a year ago for my friend Savi’s wedding in Valparaiso, IN- and during that quick weekend trip it never stopped raining from the time we touched down til the time we left IL!  Anyway, we got up to the hotel in Racine, WI and my mom, Lisa, and the girls were just getting back from dinner at a pizza place in Kenosha that we all like- Villa D’Carlo’s (sp?)- they were nice enough to bring a pizza back to the hotel with them so we had some food for dinner.  Yum.  Here’s a photo of uson the airplane:

And my dad feeding Skylar in the hotel room:

Skylar slept pretty well Friday night- I think she fell asleep by about midnight (11pm CO time) and then slept til about 6am (5am CO time)- so not too bad.  Chris and i fell back asleep for a little bit til Lisa knocked on our door to say they were heading down to the pool.  So I decided to get up and go down to the pool with them and then Chris and Skylar joined us down there a little bit later.  Here’s a video of the girls blowing bubbles in the hot tub:

 http://s489.photobucket.com/albums/rr258/dlc136/?action=view&current=MVI_3979.flv

And a photo of us all in the pool:

 

After we played in the pool and hot tub for a bit we headed back to our rooms to get ready to head to Kenosha.  We were getting together with a bunch of family and friends at my mom’s high school friend’s house in Kenosha.  She was nice enough to host everyone for a get-together.  There were about 16 adults (Gramma, Kim/Wally, Aunt Jae/Uncle Ron, Aunt Elaine/Uncle Brownie/Kenny, Mom/Dad, Lisa/the girls, Chris/me/Skylar, Aunt Susie/Uncle Ron, JP and his girlfriend showed up later) and the girls and we had yummy Kringle and other foods.  I think I ate most of the kringle by myself!  And I brought some of the leftovers in a plastic bag to bring on the plane with me to eat later- but then I accidentally left the bag in my mom’s car when she dropped us off at the airport on Sunday- oh no!!!!  So I didn’t get to eat the leftovers- darnit!  Anyway, we hung out in Kenosha til about 6pm-ish and then headed to The Brat Stop for dinner.  We asked them if they could put the Penn State vs Iowa football game on a TV near our table but they said they were unable to do so- so we ate our food quickly and headed back to the hotel to watch the rest of the game- I think we got back at about 8pm-ish or so.  We all headed to our own hotel rooms because we were pooped.  And what a depressing, disappointing football game to watch!!!  Skylar pretty much slept during the entire game- so that kept us (and the fact that we were in a hotel room) from yelling at the TV too much.  Skylar slept pretty well again Saturday night and we woke up at about 6am again on Sunday.  But this time we stayed up to pack up our stuff and then get on the road down to Chicago to spend the day with Brian and Priscilla.  We got down to Chicago at about 10:30am and found Brian and Priscilla’s new place- they have a really nice apartment!!  We got to meet their daughter Gabrielle (she’s about a month older than Skylar- she was born 6/6) for the first time.  Priscilla had a bridal shower to go to so she had to leave at about 11:30am but then Brian’s dad, Gary, showed up to hang out with us.  Brian made a “gourmet” appetizer for us- I forget what it was called but it was some sort of “peanut satay” sauce that we dipped grilled chicken in and it was super yummy.  Then he grilled brats and hot dogs for lunch.  and before we know it, it was 3pm and my parents and Lisa and the girls were showing up at Brian’s place to pick us up to take us to the airport   My mom drove us to the airport in her car and Lisa, my dad, and the girls headed back to PA/NJ in their car.  Skylar did really well on the plane ride back to CO- she pretty much slept the entire flight as did Chris.  I watched a movie called “The Proposal” with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Renolds- very cute. 

A video of Hannah holding Skylar:

http://s489.photobucket.com/albums/rr258/dlc136/?action=view&current=MVI_4077.flv

Here are a couple photos from our get-together:

 

And now it’s my last week of maternity leave and I have to go back to work on Monday- boo hoo!  The daycare lady called yesterday to see if I had any questions before we drop Skylar off on Monday and she asked if I was ready for it- I almost burst into tears right there on the phone with her!!!  Of course I’m not ready for it!!!  There are moments when I think I”ll be OK with going back to work (the structure of it and the adult-interaction) and then there are most of the days when I think “How in the world am I going to be able to leave her???!!!???”  The daycare lady assured me they’d have plenty of tissues ready for me on Monday morning- I’m going to need them!!!

We’ve had really nice weather so far this week so Skylar and I have gotten out and taken long walks each day (about 4-5 miles)- I need to get my walking stamina back because I put in quite a few miles during the day walking around the plant.  But now a front is moving in and it’s going to turn cold tonight- high of about 53 tomorrow.  Brrr.  But no snow forecasted this time.  Skylar was in a really good mood today so I snapped a bunch of photos of her smiling and sent them out on Kodak Gallery so I’m sure everyone has already seen them… but here’s my favorite:

 

also, a video- not very exciting but I was trying to catch some of her noises on camera:

http://s489.photobucket.com/albums/rr258/dlc136/?action=view&current=MVI_4109.flv

We got a “Red Box” video rental thing at our grocery store so during my walk today I walked over there and rented “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” and am looking forward to watching that tonight.  Last night was a busy night for TV for me (pathetic)- NCIS, Dancing With The Stars, and 90210… and we can only record 1 show and then flip between the other 2.  So we recorded NCIS and mainly watched 90210 and then flipped to DWTS to see who got voted off.  And, good lord, during my walk today it was SO WINDY that I was having a hard time steering the stroller!  The wind started ahead of the front that’s moving in and holy moly was it windy!!!  When I was walking directly into the wind I seriously felt like I was barely moving!

Skylar’s definitely more interactive these days- smiling and making noises- but everytime I break out the camera to try to record her noises she clams up.  Darnit!  The emails we receive from parents.com say her next milestones will be pushing up on her arms and laughing.  She’s definitely not a big fan of tummy time right now- she only tolerates it for a couple minutes before getting mad.  And I can’t wait for the laughing- I remember the 1st time I heard Ellie and Hannah laugh- it was so cool!

We’re looking at heading back to PA for Halloween weekend to introduce Skylar to her great-grandfather.  We’ll fly in late Fri night and then back to CO on Sunday evening- our typical quick weekend.  And we’re also looking at plane tix for Christmas- I”ll only be home from 12/23- 12/27 but Chris’ office is closed the week between Xmas and New Years so he’ll be staying til 12/30 to spend more time with everyone (or more accurately, let everyone spend more time with Skylar!)  Listen to this one- his company (assuming they hit their revenue goals for the year and they’re on-track to do so) is taking everyone and their family to either Cancun or the Caribbean (I forget exactly where right now) for that week between Xmas and New Years (they leave 12/26) but Chris and I aren’t going because of going back to PA and I don’t have any vacation left- bummer!!!

OK- I guess that’s enough for now.  Hope everyone had a nice weekend.

Skylar will be taking her first airplane trip this weekend.  We’re headed to Wisconsin (& Chicago too) to visit my grandmother and other friends/relatives.  My mom drove out earlier this week because she’ll be staying longer to see friends/family.  She also brought 1 of Lisa and John’s infant carseats and a pack and play in her car for Skylar.  Thank goodness we don’t have to try to bring those things with us!!  Lisa, the girls, and my dad drove and got there today.  We’re all staying in a hotel in Racine, WI (the hotel we normally stay in in Kenosha was all full- go figure!!!  Who knew a hotel in Kenosha could actually fill up?!?  Wonder what’s goin’ on there?).  I’m not super nervous about flying- I think the main thing I’m nervous about it trying to feed Skylar in all different location and attempting to keep her somewhat “on schedule”.  I’m not sure why I’m nervous about it- I mean, Lisa and John have flown numerous times with the girls and they survived.  So surely Chris and i will survive with merely ONE child.  And Cindy and Sergio flew with Bella from Italy to the US- so surely we can survive merely flying to Chicago

Anyway, the plans are that we’ll be getting together with friends and family on Saturday at my mom’s high school friend’s house.  Not sure who all she has invited but I figure I’ll show up and whoever wants to hold Skylar is welcome to (assuming that we know them of course!).  Then we’ll do something for dinner on Saturday night- I’m hoping for either The Brat Stop or a burger place called The Spot- both yummy food places!!!

On Sunday we’ll be heading down to Chicago to visit our friends Brian and Priscilla and their daughter Gabrielle.  Gabrielle is about a month older than Skylar and this will be the 1st time we’ve met each other’s kids.  Brian and Priscilla have also invited other folks from the “Illinois Crowd” to come visit- again, not sure exactly who will be there but it should be a fun time.  Then our flight to come home is at 6pm on Sunday- so a super short trip but I’m sure it’ll be a great time. 

Not too much goin’ on around here- I believe most people already know we got some snow on Monday- I posted some pictures on Facebook.  Well, we got a little more on Wednesday but then it changed to rain and melted.  Here’s a picture in case you didn’t see the one on Facebook.  It’s not alot of snow but it was our 1st snow of the season!

I was so proud of my mad driving skills on Wednesday and here’s why… Tuesday night Chris had moved the Toyota in the driveway to behind my Subaru (parked in the garage) in anticipation of driving his Jeep to work because of the possible snow.  Well, then the punk took the keys WITH HIM TO WORK!!!  And the other set of keys was locked in the glovebox IN THE CAR!  And I desperately wanted to get out of the house that day because I hadn’t left the house either Monday or Tuesday because of the weather.  So I searched al over for the keys and then called Chris to ask him (not so nicely) where the keys were.  He was like “Oh… they’re with me… do you want me to drive home to give them to you?”  and I said “No, don’t be ridiculous- I just want to yell at you!!!”    So at first i was just gonna give up and stay home- but then i started looking at the cars and thought I could do a 47-point turn and get the Suby out of the garage.  And I did!!!!    So Skylar and I went to the Post Office, the grocery store, and Babies R Us to run some errands.  She had her 1st experience with snow- I don’t think she noticed it very much except for the couple flakes that managed to get inside the covered carseat and get on her face- but she didn’t flinch at all.  and I realized that we don’t have any warm clothes for her- just the long-sleeve sleepers and a heavy blanket over top of her.  We have the carseat cover so I broke that out and put it on- she stayed pretty warm.  Funny story though- I had it zipped up to keep her warmth in- well, it turns out that cover does a pretty good job of keeping the poop smell in too- ew.  She wasn’t fussing though so hopefully she had just pooped in the car on our way home.  Stinky!  Anyway, enough about poop.

Here are a couple photos:

You have to look closely but she has a hold of the caterpillar toy thing and was shaking it all around (not on purpose i’m sure!).  And she was actually looking in the mirror that’s on the other side of the sun toy (directly in front of her) and smiling- I assume at her reflection.

And a link to a video of Skylar in her bouncy seat;

http://s489.photobucket.com/albums/rr258/dlc136/?action=view&current=MVI_3957.flv

Anyway- time for me to get moving.  Gotta give her a bath tonight and pack the suitcase so I can have plenty of time tomorrow to drop the dogs off.  That oughta be interesting- dropping the dogs off at daycare with Skylar.  I’m hoping I can just sorta back up to the door of the daycare place and that no one else will be there at that time of the morning and let the dogs run in without have to worry about carrying Skylar while putting their leashes on.  Ugh- makes me cringe thinking about it.  Wish me luck!

hope everyone has a good weekend!

My mom had brought out a couple of my baby pictures when she visited back in July.  I’m just getting around to scanning them in and posting them.  I think Skylar looks like me in a couple of them but she also looks like Chris too when you check out his baby picture. 

Check out the size of that cabeza!!!!  My dad tried to say that it was just a bad camera angle- thanks Dad

Check out the pants on Lisa and the pattern on that couch (hey, it was the 70’s!!):

And, look, my mom’s hairstyle has come back into fashion again!  well… maybe not the sideburns

And, last, here’s me doing some tummy time:

And here’s Chris’ baby picture- I noticed right away that Skylar had the same squinty-one-eyed-look going on (the 1st time I saw her in the operating room after she was born) that Chris does in his baby photo … could that be genetic???

Skylar did pretty well after her shots yesterday- she was a little bit fussy and wouldn’t eat very much so we wanted to give her some of the Baby Tylenol the pediatrician’s office had given us and said we could give to her.  However, neither Chris nor I could remember what dosage they said to give her and the box said for babies under 2 yrs and/or 24 lbs “ask your doctor”.  Doh!  It was about 10pm at night and the pediatrician’s office was long closed.  So we called their answering service and got transferred to a help line at the Denver Children’s Hospital where a nice nurse told us how much we could give her based on her weight.  It took ~30min for the Tylenol to kick in and then she calmed down.  She even calmed down enough to eat some more.  And, thank goodness, she’s back to her usual self today.  So, all in all, her reaction to the shots wasn’t SUPER bad but we definitely came to a realization yesterday- ALWAYS schedule her well-baby checkup appointments when she’ll be getting shots for a FRIDAY in case you’re up all night with a fussy child you don’t have to go to work the next day!!!  We all had a pretty lazy day today- just hanging out watching football, taking naps, doing some laundry, etc.  Again, thank goodness we got the Big Ten Network channel so we could watch the Penn State football game.

Wow- another week has gone by.  I’m now down to 2 weeks left in my maternity leave.  Time is flying by TOO QUICKLY!!!  Skylar turned 10 weeks old yesterday, 9/17.  Wow.  So let’s see- how was our week?  Nothing too exciting happened on Monday.  On Tuesday I took HB to the vet to have an ultrasound done to look at her liver.  I can’t remember if I reported that we had had some bloodwork done for her because she had, unexplainedly (is that a word?!?), lost some weight- but the bloodwork showed elevated liver values so the ultrasound would hopefully give some more insight.  Well, it did and it didn’t.  The ultrasound showed that there wasn’t any cancer or anything like that- and it showed that there was some slight inflammation.  So we have some medicine to give her for a month and then do some bloodwork again to see how her liver values are to make sure the medicine is helping.  So that was the excitement for Tuesday- taking HB (and Skylar) to the vet and then picking her up.  Luckily the people at the vet are super nice and saw me struggling with Skylar and HB and came out to get HB for me so I could get Skylar out of the car.  And then they helped me walk HB out to the car when I picked her up- whew, thank goodness for nice people!

Nothing very exciting on Wednesday.  Chris has been working super-long hours at his new job.  His company is very busy right now so he’s had to jump right in and try to help out as much as possible.  He went to Alamosa for work on Monday- so that was a late night.  He also played roller-hockey that night so it was a long day to be by myself.  I haven’t really joined any mothers groups around here since I’ll be going back to work but sometimes I regret not doing so.  It gets especially bad/lonely when I don’t leave the house all day- that’s a bad thing.  Luckily I’ve only done that maybe twice so far.  Otherwise, I get out and go to Target, Babies R Us, the vet, go for a walk, etc.  Wednesday night I was trying to prepare for Thursday when I was going down to the plant for a potluck going-away lunch for a co-worker.  He’s in the Naval Reserves and got called to active duty starting next week.  So I headed down to say goodbye to him since he’ll be gone before I get back.  Thursday was quite the hectic day- trying to get down to the plant by 11am is quite a challenge!  That meant that I couldn’t do my usual routine of feeding Skylar at ~5am-ish (whenever she wakes up) and then going back to sleep for as long as she’d let me.  We usually sleep til anywhere from 9-10am.  That’s my nap that I take.  I’ll go to bed at about 11 or 11:30pm after her last feeding and then she usually starts moving around by about 4am and I can manage to hold her off til about 5 or 5:30am.   So I get about 4-5hrs of sleep at 1 time and then go back to sleep afterwards for another 2-3hrs so I’m getting a pretty good amount of sleep so I can manage to get through the rest of the day without a nap.  I”m not sure how our schedule is going to change when i go back to work.  Chris and I are gonna have to alternate who does that last late-night feeding to determine who’s going to be the zombie at work the next day   I’m sure we’ll work out all those details later.  Anyway, seeing everyone at the plant on Thursday was nice.  I also stopped by the Primrose School daycare in northern Colorado Springs on my way home.  Turns out Chris had stopped by at lunch too- so we double-teamed them with asking questions   I think we’ll be taking Skylar there for daycare starting on Mon, 10/5.  They seemed very nice and, actually, several of my co-workers take their kids there too so we get a 5% discount because I’m a Schlage employee.  Sweet.  We need to turn in our application and deposit on Monday to secure Skylar’s spot.

Today was Skylar’s 2-month checkup (even though she’s actually 10 weeks old).  I had delayed it a week so we could get a Friday afternoon appointment so Chris could go with me.  Everything is fine with her- the doctor said she looks great.  She was 9lbs 5oz and 21″ long.  So that puts her in the 10-25% range for weight and 5-10% range for height.  But her head circumference is in the 50% so she’s short and skinny but has a big head   Sidenote- I had tried the Target brand diapers but didn’t like them because they caused a rash (I’m guessing it was the diapers that caused the rash) so we stopped using them.  The pediatrician noticed the rash and mentioned it so I told him about the diapers and that I’ve stopped using them.  We’ve pretty much decided we like the Pampers brand the best- Huggies seem to be too big or lose or something for her- Pampers seem to have the best fit.  She also got 3 vaccines today- 2 shots and 1 oral.  And man did she SCREAM after the 2 shots.  She did the whole crying but not really breathing thing so much so that the nurse who gave the shot had to blow in Skylar’s face to get her to breath.  Wow.  And she cried for probably a good 3-5 min afterwards.  I felt so bad for her but she’ll live and not remember any of this!  She’s currently chilling in her swing and is starting to wake up so I’m going to end this now. 

No big plans for the weekend.  Watching football tomorrow and then golfing on Sunday (the first time for me since ~May!) for me with a friend.  The weather is supposed to be nice this weekend before turning cold on Monday.  Pikes Peak had a fresh coat of snow on it Thursday morning- yay!  Chris got his notice that he’s invited back to Copper Mountain to be a ski insructor againn this winter.  I think he’s going to do it but I also want to start working on our house to get it ready to be put on the market by springtime ‘10 so we can hopefully look for houses in the Springs next spring/summer.  I’m REALLY looking forward to having a reduced commute time; however, I’m not really looking forward to selling our house and buying another one. 

OK, that’s it from her.  Hope everyone had a good week and has a nice weekend.  Oh- here’s a photo I took during the week.  I haven’t taken as many photos since I’ve been home by myself- and I forgot my camera (again!) on Thursday.

 

And 1 photo of her sleeping on Chris’ chest today after her tiring doctor’s appointment:

We had a nice but pretty uneventful weekend.  Thursday (not technically the weekend but it’s still new since my last post) Skylar and I went with Chris to his roller-hockey game up in Parker.  Then on Friday night we went to dinner at a new(er) restaurant in Castle Rock that we had never tried before.  It was nice and the food was very good.  Skylar was a very good girl and slept the entire time.  Saturday the weather turned chilly (cold even!) so we had all the doors and windows closed and put Skylar’s Penn State sweatshirt on instead of her onesie to watch the PSU vs Syracuse game.  The sweatshirt came from Kelly and Mark and is a 3-6mos size so it was a bit big- we had to pry her arms open to get this photo:

Here’s what it looked like without us prying open her arms:

I got a massage (my 1st one since having Skylar) and it was heaven!!!  Then we headed up to Ft. Collins to go to our friend Katie’s house for dinner.  There were about 15 or so of us there for dinner- unfortunately it was raining so we were inside the entire time.  She has a very nice patio out back that has a fire pit and a great grill area.  We’ve been there several other times and have been able to sit outside and then sit around the fire pit when the sun goes down and make Smores.  Yum.  So we had to make do with inside-made Smores.  I never make the full-blown Smores anyway so it wasn’t a big deal for me.  I usually just melt the marshmellow and then eat the graham cracker and chocolate separately.  Here are a couple pictures of our friends holding Skylar.

Jim (holding Skylar) and Bill:

Karen holding Skylar:

And, lastly, our friend Sarah holding Skylar:

Sunday was a very uneventful (read:  lazy) day for us.  We slept til about 9:30am after her 6am feeding.  And it was windy and cold (although the sun was out) again.  We watched a show called “102 Minutes that Changed America” on the History channel that we had recorded from Friday, 9/11.  It was basically a documentary of sorts of videos that people took.  It was very interesting.  We watched some football too and Chris took a nap with Skylar:

And now we’re watching some football and Chris is doing some work stuff (yuck).  He’s heading down to Alamosa tomorrow to visit a project- that’s about 4-5hrs away.  They’re working on a project at a university there- doing the cabling for all the internet stuff in the dorms.  That’s about all I know about what he does

I’m down to 3 weeks left of my maternity leave- boo hoo!!!  We decided on a daycare place where we’ll be taking Skylar- it’s called Castle Academy and is in Castle Rock.  We were also looking at a Primrose School down in the Springs since it’s a block or so away from where Chris works- unfortunately, their infant room is full.  So we might get on a waiting list and switch when a spot opens up since we’ll eventually be moving to the Springs.  Chris isn’t very excited at the thought of moving to the Springs- but I”m excited about the thought of reducing my commute time!!!  First we have to get our house ready to be put on the market and sell it before we can think about buying a house in the Springs.  Wish us luck!

Oh yeah, 1 more thing… a couple videos.   Playmat time on 9.10.09:

http://s489.photobucket.com/albums/rr258/dlc136/?action=view&current=MVI_3849.flv

Playmat time on 9.13.09:

http://s489.photobucket.com/albums/rr258/dlc136/?action=view&current=MVI_3869.flv