Catching Up!

Well, my intentions are good.....but I just never have enough time.  I just uploaded all of our December photos to the Shutterfly site. That includes all of our Santa photos, playing in the snow, Maddyn's 3rd birthday party and Christmas.  I have a few videos- and as long as they aren't too big, I"ll put them below.

Today Halas is 6 months old. I made it to my EBF (Exclusivly Breast Feeding) goal.  I've already started weaning, but am targeting to be completely weaned by mid-end Feb. We'll see. I am glad I have such a huge stash built up, so it makes our transition easier.  Today we also started solids. Halas had her first few spoonfulls of cereal.  She liked it more than Maddyn did, but still wasn't really gung-ho. That's fine with me. I forgot how messy that stuff is! LOL. I had to bring the highchair back up too- and I forgot how big it was. There goes my kitchen for the next year ;)

Maddyn and Halas had been pretty sick earlier in the month. Both were on nebulizers and breathing treatments and things were chaotic. We're finally all healthy now, so that is making things a little easier. My travel for work is a little crazy- so we're trying to just get ourselves into a routine to keep things simpler around here. 

Since Halas is 6 months old now, I'm making myself get back into shape. I have been putting off dieting b/c of the nursing, but I really don't have an excuse any longer. I need to lose these last 25 lbs- nothing fits! So let's hope that WW and some good exercise will work for me again. Fingers crossed.

I will be taking Halas's 6 month "Pro" photos next weekend, but I did have a little mini-shoot with the girls in some Bears gear. While our  beloved Bears lost, I did get some cute takes. Here's a sample, I'll put the rest on Shutterfly once I can edit them!!

Those videos I promised:

Maddyn's 3rd birthday party:

Christmas morning at the Wags house:

proof halas was there ;)

Maddyn is 3!!

Well, going back to work made me much busier than I had anticipated ;) The travel, holidays, birthday and chaos made December fly by!  But, I wanted to get this post in before I forgot. It's hard to believe my little snowflake is 3 already.  I remember days where time stood still as we dealt with her many medical issues, and yet somehow- the 3 years has flown by. 

At her 3 year appt, Maddyn was still off the charts in height. She's 40 inches tall, and 35lbs 8 oz. Her asthma is the biggest problem as of late- otherwise, she got a clean bill of health!

Her birthday party was a princess themed one. Our friend Elysia made a cake that was beyond incredible!! It was a 12 tower castle cake, which was completely nut-free for Maddyn! It was accompanied by "Belle" and crown cookies for party favors :) Everyone loved the cake!! It tasted as good as it looked.



We had her birthday at Kids Play World in St Charles. I can't say enough great things about it. It's a creative play facility and the owner is wonderful. All we had to do was show up and she took care of the rest. We've been there for a few GTGs with friends, and it was a perfect place for a party as well!  Thanks to everyone that came and celebrated with us!!

I know I have to upload tons of photos to the Shutterfly site from Christmas, Parties, and Maddyn's birthday. I had hoped to do that last week while I was off, but the week was a little crazy. So I will try to do a little each night this week in order to get caught up. I will post about our Holidays once I get those photos uploaded!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and Happy New Year!! 



Moments like these....

So tomorrow marks my first work trip since Halas has been born. I know it won't be bad once I get back into my travel routine. This week I'm off to Dallas and next week it's back in Jersey.  I'm a little nervous about pumping/traveling since it's been so long.  I'm also feeling guilty leaving Halas since she's so young. That, and leaving Dave with his hands full.  If only Halas was back to sleeping through the night, it would be a bit easier. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Sleep right now is so hit or miss. Last night we got about 3.5 hours. Yawn! It sure makes the days tough. At least this trip is short, but I won't mind getting one night of uninterrupted sleep (sorry Dave!). That just means I'll have nighttime shift when I get back though, lol.

I wanted to post about a moment Maddyn and I had tonight. It's no secret that she's the biggest daddy's girl ever. If I had a penny for every time I tried to do something and heard "I want Daddy" or "I don't want you, I want Daddy" (you get the idea), I'd be rich!  So tonight, Dave was doing Halle's bath and I asked Maddyn if she wanted to do Pilates/Yoga with me. She was full of energy, so thought it might be better than puzzles or coloring.  She said yes. 

We had an absolute blast doing downward dog, the 100, the Seal, Cat/Cow....she thought the moves were hysterical and kept pushing me over (playfully) and we just had a blast.  It was nice to have a good time like that, since things have been a little rough on her since I've been back at work. Her time is split with Halas, and with me nursing, that time is even less. It felt great to really spend time with her where she wasn't telling me she'd rather be with Dave. If only every night was like that, right?  Well, I'll take what I can get. I'm glad it happened the night before I travel too.

So we'll see how this week goes. I'll report back in once I make it through the week. Here's hoping for friendly skies, warm and great weather in TX (no snow/ice storms) and a pleasant trip!

4 Months Old

So my return to work is a little rockier this time, mostly b/c work is so busy.  There wasn't as much of a transition period as there was last time.  In some ways, that's probably good- but it has made it harder to adjust.  But, I'm on week 3 now and feel like we're starting to get into a routine. The hardest part was that Halas stopped sleeping through the night, the day I went back to work. What timing! Ugh. It's made for some very long and exhausting days for both Dave and I.

Last week Halas turned 4 months old. We had her doctor appt and her stats were as follows:
Length: 26 inches
Weight: 15lbs, 4 oz
HC: 41cm
We have another tall one on our hands, it appears!!

They are going to keep her on the Prevacid, though we don't feel it's working great. We have an appt with the Pediatric GI doc later this month, so we'll see what she says. We also have an appt with the Pediatric Opthamologist on Thursday to check out her eye. The blocked tear duct appears to not be getting any better, and she favors her left eye now. We've noticed she doesn't open her right eye all of the time b/c of the goop- and the pediatrician wants to check it out and make sure there's nothing else wrong with the eye.

Other than that, Halle is still such a happy and cuddly baby. We love hugging and just cuddling with her. She's cooing a lot and starting to roll more.  It looks like her teeth are getting ready to make an appearance soon as well. I'm sure it will happen when I'm traveling this week or next, like it did with Maddyn. That would be my luck!!

It's over....

This is my highly dramatic, emotional post about my maternity leave ending. I know I am going to be fine, that Halas will be fine, and that I'll actually be happier once I'm back working again (in the long run). But the first few days back are so hard. Getting myself on a schedule, working on little sleep, pumping, and only seeing the girls for a few hours.  I'm not worried about Maddyn- since she did preschool this year, she hasn't been home every day and she LOVES being in daycare/preschool. With Halas- it's just hard b/c she's still so little. I just want to pick her up and give her all kinds of hugs.

We went out this morning and saw Santa Claus. Once I go back, our weekends are all booked and it is just too crowded to deal with hour long lines on the weekends and evenings. So we thought, why not do it now quick? It was great- we walked right up and weren't rushed at all.  Maddyn did great this year, and didn't have any crying tantrums. She did have to sit on Dave's lap- but we were much improved from past years! She even talked to Santa a little bit.

I got some photos of the girls in their cute outfits as well. I'll post those in a bit!
Here's the photo of Santa & the girls at the mall:

And here is one of the two of them before we left- I'll post the rest on Shutterfly!

Sick kid makes for fun night...

I only wish! So today was my last official weekday off of Leave. I'm sad about it, but planned to do lunch with a friend and just snuggle Halas all day.  What Maddyn didn't realize is that her getting sick at 2 am put a slight damper on those plans. (snort)  I awoke to her crying for Dave and I, and getting sick out of the blue. Poor thing.  She got sick a few times, and Dave stayed in there while I disinfected the entire house. I was terrified that Halas was gonna get whatever Maddyn had. I'm sure it was quite the funny site seeing me scrubbing everything down with bleach and water at 3 am.  Yawn!

But, the good news is that she didn't have a fever, and woke up feeling fine. I was worried b/c of the cases of Norovirus going around- but she luckily didn't have any of the symptoms.  She was healthy all day today and so far- no one else feels sick (praying it stays that way). So now I'm wondering if it was something she ate. I'm so glad she's doing better.  In the end, she stayed home from Preschool and just got to lounge around with Halas and I, so it was a great last weekday together for us. I'm gonna miss these little muchkins.

Now, if only I could have gotten to any of those 8 things on my To Do list today.  Ouch. I'm going to try to get to it this weekend, but I really do wish there were about 28 hours in a day vs 24 so I could get it all done!!  If anyone can make that happen, that'd be great ;)

Roll on over....

That's right, we have rolling!! Today Erica and the boys were over, and I set Halas on her playmat for a moment while I was in the laundry room. I look over and realize that she was rolling from back to stomach. I started getting excited and cheering her on- and it scared her- she pushed herself over to her back again!! So exciting! So 3.5 months old. Holy cow! She did it a few more times randomly, and that was it. I'll try to get a video to throw up here (though, I realize this is exciting for Dave & I and probably no one else, LOL).
That's all for now, but I wanted to journal it so I don't forget!!