Transition....

A few days ago I posted about being an official SAHM.

I know that many of my fellow bloggers are SAHM. I have to give you the credit and respect you deserve.

In twelve weeks, it has been harder than any other job I've held.
Don't get me wrong, in twelve weeks, it has also been more rewarding than any other job I've held.
But, that doesn't make the difficult times disappear. It does, however, make them more bearable.

Today was a particularly difficult day. Chloe was just "off". She wasn't eating well, wasn't napping well and she was fussy in the morning and early afternoon. Typically she is fussy in the evening. Of course, this happened on what I call "Keith's long day", which means he leaves for work at 7:00am and gets home from work around 7:30pm. 7:30pm couldn't come fast enough today.

I have to admit, today I wondered if I was crazy for quitting my job and deciding to stay home with Chloe. But, once the cries stopped and the smiles appeared, I knew I made the right decision.
My husband only confirmed that for me when he got home. He is unbelievably supportive and said he was proud of me and what I chose to do for our family. He told me that Chloe will appreciate me being home with her so much and he appreciates it too.

I know those things, deep down. They were just buried a lil bit deeper today.....
Tomorrow is a new day and I'm looking forward to spending it at home, with my daughter.

Wordless Wednesday- "CHEESE"

It's Official......

.....I'm a stay at home mom.

Wow. How weird to even type that.

You know when you are young and you have this plan for your life? My plan was always to get married, have children, but keep my career. It was very important to me to remain independent, financially. Once I got old enough to start thinking about having children, the idea of staying home appealled to me, but I was pretty sure we weren't going to be in the position that would allow me to stay home. After I got pregnant, I knew that I was not going to be able to leave our baby with someone else all day long, week after week.

God truly had a plan for us. If I would have gotten pregnant even 8 months earlier, staying at home would not have been an option. Now, I'm able to stay home with our daughter AND we are getting ready to purchase our first home! I'm so thankful.

Friday was my official last day of work. It's strange, knowing that I am done. It's strange knowing that my days are now filled with diaper changes, feedings, lullabies and pat-a-cake instead of drawing blood and giving people HIV results. It's strange that I can wear my t-shirts and yoga pants and not skirts and slacks.
It's just strange.....

I won't miss my job, but I will miss my boss, Dale and my buddy, Karen. I feel so bad sometimes, leaving Karen "alone" at work. If she would have left me there, I would have been just devastated. She was my rock, my sounding board. Make sense? I will miss seeing her every day and our conversations. She must have been all part of God's plan for me at that job.

I need to bring this post to an end... gotta say goodbye to my husband, who has to go off to work in order to bring home the bacon.

Swaddle No More

I've been dreading this day...

The day we decide to stop swaddling Chloe.

That day came yesterday.

Chloe has a nighttime routine. She gets a bath about 30 minutes before her last feeding of the night. Then we do baby massage with lavender scented baby lotion, read her a book, nurse her, then swaddle her in a miracle blanket and lay her in her crib. This routine works very well for all of us and Chloe goes right to sleep on her own.

Well, we woke up Friday morning and she had done a complete 180 in her crib. I don't know how she managed this, especially while she is all swaddled up. That was enough to make me consider giving up the swaddle. (I was going to stop around 12 weeks anyways, so I guess we are just a week early)
I've read that when they start to roll over or move around, you need to keep their arms free so they can move their head if they get flipped over to their belly.

I was so scared. She sleeps so well all snug as a bug in a rug.

I was going to mess up her routine. I was just hoping that the bath, lotion, story and nursing would be enough for her to realize it was bedtime. Oh, the thought of those flailing arms and legs scared the crap out of me. They wake her up every time.

Everything was going fine (except for the puddle of pee that occurred while she was diaper-less on her way to the bath). I finished nursing her and got her all zipped up in her sleep sac.

Oh, I decided to use a sleep sac for the swaddle transition. Figure that way at least her legs don't have full range of motion.

I thought I was home free. She went to bed. Or so I thought. She gave me enough time to wash my face and go to the bathroom before she started whimpering. I waited. The whimper turned to crying. I went to her crib, picked her up and rocked her for 5 minutes. She went right to sleep. Laid her back down in her crib. About 10 minutes later she was fussing again. I can't stand to let her fuss, so I rocked her again, this time for about 10 minutes. When I laid her down this time, she stayed down (and asleep!) until 7:00 this morning!

Tonight is the second night in her sleep sac. So far, she hasn't woken up.
Keeping my fingers crossed on my way to bed.......

America's Got Talent....and we've seen it!

Sunday night we took Chloe to her first live music experience.

My boss' (well, ex-boss) partner, Dwayne, is a pianist. He has a band and they were going to be playing outside at Bobby's Custard in Maryville.

If you've been watching American's Got Talent, you may have seen a man who wears a hat, singing opera. We saw him in person Sunday night. He's the original singer for Dwayne's band! (you can see him in the picture on the right)

Pretty cool.

Olympic Gold

My husband used to train a high school track star named Dawn Harper. Some of you may know her as the Gold Medalist for the women's 100M hurdles!

How exciting is that?!?

What a Weekend

This has been an unusual week for us, weather-wise. Its been mild and sunny, in other words, perfect.
We took advantage of the day and went to Forest Park.



Like I've said before, I love the weekends.

It's the small things.....

Ok, I'm embarrassed to even admit this.

Notice my new "picture" in the about me section. I just now figured out how to upload a picture to that spot.

I've been blogging for almost 2 years and I finally figured it out. I haven't been wasting hours a day on this task or anything, but still.....

Its just a picture of a sculpture from an exhibit at the Botanical Garden because all the pictures of me have been moved to our external hard drive and I don't want to hook it up right now....

So, for those of you who have never seen me in real life, I am not a yellow mosiac woman.

Time Flies.....

Chloe is 10 weeks old today!

10 WEEKS!

Can you believe it? I can't.

We are trying so hard to cherish and enjoy every second with her. I live for the weekends, when the three of us get our time together. The weather has been beautiful lately, so we've been able to get outside.


Chloe is gonna be an outdoor girl, I can tell. She loves to go outside. I'm so glad! Hopefully soon we will have our own yard to play in.

She had her pediatrician visit today. I have been dreading this day for over a month. She got 4 shots today and had to take an oral vaccine. Keith had to leave work early to meet me at the doctor's office. I told him I couldn't do it alone. I had to turn my back while they administered the shots. I couldn't bear to watch my little girl get stuck with needles. Keith held her and rubbed her head during the awful experience. Chloe was a trooper though. I kept telling her how brave she was and how proud we are of her.
Here are a couple of after pics (see her band aids).


She has grown so much. She is now 24 inches long and weighs 13 lbs 2oz!!! Doctor says she is in the 95th percentile for height and weight. She's grown over an inch and a half and gained almost 3 lbs since her one month visit! She's gonna take after her 6 foot 5 inch Daddy!

10 weeks... I still cannot believe it.

House Update

After praying, looking at more houses and many, many conversations, my husband and I decided to make an offer on the first home we looked at.

Keith called the owners, made them an offer a few thousand dollars under what they are asking. They said they would consider it and call us back. About an hour later, they called. They said they would meet us halfaway between our offer and their asking price. The halfway amount is exactly what Keith and I both felt we would pay for the house.

So, we are on our way to becoming homeowners.

We have to discuss things with the owners, get the paperwork and loan info lined up, get a home inspection... all the things that go with purchasing a house.
It's very exciting and scary all at once.

I dread the thought of moving. We haven't even lived in our apartment for a year. We decided that we are hiring movers this time. It will be totally worth the cost. Plus, I'm pretty sure our family and friends are not going to help us move again. We've moved a combination of 10 times over the last 10 years.

I can already picture Keith and I sitting on our front porch this fall, after Chloe has gone to bed, watching the stars, sipping a cup of coffee (still decaf for me).... I can hardly wait.

There's No Place Like Home....

We are house hunting.

After 12 years of renting, we are ready to purchase a home.
It'll have to be small and inexpensive, but I'm actually excited about that. I want our first home to leave us with something to look forward to in our next home. Does that make sense? I really want a cute lil starter home, not my dream home right off the bat.

We looked at 5 homes on Wednesday. I liked one. I am the picky one of the two of us. Keith liked the same house, which is amazing. He said he could "see our family" in this house.
But, how could we possibly have found "the" house for us on the first try, right?
Its a good lil house- perfect for us right now. And, the price is perfect for us right now.

We're praying about it. Praying that God give us wisdom in making such a big decision. Praying that we make the decision based on His will for us and our family, not just our wants and desires. Praying that we find the house He has planned for us and that the price is right. Praying that once we do have a house, we use it for His glory. Praying that we have peace and know in our hearts that this is the house we are going to start raising our little girl in.

It's a big, scary decision. But exciting.