One More Week

This week is my last week of maternity leave before I go back to work.  Before Maddy was born, I was addicted to work.  I am the Director of Admissions at a private, four-year college here in Washington.  Before Maddy came along, I would work my regular hours, usually coming in early and going home late.  Then, when I went home, I would be on my laptop responding to emails.  I was a workaholic.  I was convinced that everything would stay the same after Maddy came along, but I think I am changed! 

I am not looking forward to returning to work.  Yes, I love what I do.  I work with high school students helping them get to college.  I am what they call in the college admissions world as a "lifer."  Most people that start in college admissions do not stay very long because it is a draining job.  Every Fall, admissions professionals are on the road for three plus months.  Once they are back in the office, it's all about getting students to apply and commit to attending the university.  It can be draining, but also very rewarding.  Most of us don't last... but I have.  I've been in the profession for six years now and have moved up from an entry-level Admissions Counselor to the Director of Admissions. 

I thought it was going to be easy to go back to work.  But, it's going to be so hard to leave my Maddy.  I wish I could be a stay at home mom.  And, I probably could, but I just started this job a year ago and I need to put in a little more time.  Plus, I have a directors position - I can't leave that behind (yet).

So, I'm going to go back to work even though it is going to make me so sad.  I'm going to push my way through and see how it works out.  However, maybe in a little while I will become a stay at home mom... only time will tell. 

Winning the lottery would definitely help to make the stay at home mom thing a reality!  I probably need to start playing though... maybe we'll pick up a ticket today.  Wish me luck :)

Body After Baby

Babble.com posted some pictures of Celebrity Moms In Bikinis.  I know that it has only been seven and a half weeks since giving birth to my little bundle of joy, but I don't know if I'll ever look like any of these moms in bikinis. 

1. I admit, I was a little overweight when I first got pregnant. Even though I was little overweight, I still weigh ten pounds more now than I did when I first found out I was pregnant.  It seems like no matter what I do, I can't lose the last ten pounds.   And, the unfortunate thing is that I've lost a lot of my muscle and now those extra pounds are pure fat :-(  Yes, I know that because I'm breastfeeding I might be carrying a little more weight in my chest area, but everything else is a little bigger (and more jiggly) than before too.  
2. Stretch marks!  Will they ever go away?  Throughout my whole pregnancy I religiously put coco butter on my stomach and did not see any stretch marks at all.  However, they started appearing the last month of my pregnancy and they just kept growing.  Seven and a half weeks after giving birth my stretch marks are still visible and seem like they are not fading at all even those I've been putting on Mederma religiously. 

I know that I need to just give myself more time.  Again, it has only been seven and a half weeks since I gave birth.  Maybe in a few more months I'll feel a little better about myself and maybe, just maybe, I'll feel comfortable being in a bathing suit again.  I don't need to look like all of the women in the story from Babble.com.  I know that I will never look like most of them because I am realistic... I'm curvy.  I'm hoping that my body will start looking like the picture below of Britney Spears.  I think that she looks great even though she takes a lot of flack in the media for now being curvy.  I think she looks amazing for having kids! 

Photo from Babble.com story on Celebrity Moms in Bikinis!

After writing what I did above about Britney Spears, I must put it out there.  I am not a Britney Spears fan at all.  I only put her up as an example because she was the only curvy woman that the Babble website had as an example of a good looking mom in a bikini. 

Anyway, here's to getting back to my pre-pregnancy weight and fitting into my pre-pregnancy clothing.  Although the maternity pants are comfortable, I really need to start wearing regular clothes again!  Any tips?

Happy Father's Day!

Today is my husband's first Father's Day.  We didn't do anything too big, but I think he had a good day.  First, we got our little girl ready to go out - look at how big she already looks.  Can you believe she is only 7.5 weeks old?

For lunch we went to a Pho restaurant, something that my husband has been craving for a while. We haven't had Pho since before Maddy was born, so I knew that is something that he would want... and he loved it!  And, surprisingly, I liked it a lot too.

Other than going out to lunch, we didn't do much else.  However, what made the day great for my husband were the funny things that happened to me today.

1. After Maddy ate, I had her sitting on my stomach and leaning up against my legs.  She loves sitting in this position while looking at me.  I then started hearing and feeling many loud and long farts... I knew that it was more than just air... she was pooping.  After she was done, I noticed that she had soiled her little onesie.  Yep... there was poop, so it was time to change her.  After changing her and she was happy again, I noticed both my sweater and shirt had poop stains. Her poop was so strong that it got all over me! My husband couldn't help put laugh at me.  
2. After changing her, Maddy was getting a little fussy.  One thing that usually always calms her down is lifting her above my head.  She always smiles when I'm looking up at her.  My husband always tells me not to do it because one of these days she will spit-up on me.  Well... this time around he was right!  As I lifted her up the first time, I saw it coming out of her mouth and down at me.  I was able to move my head to avoid getting it on my face, but it all landed in my ear!  Yuck!  Again, my husband got such a great laugh out of seeing this happen.

So, since we weren't able to do much for Father's Day since Maddy is so small, I still think my husband had a great day... especially at my expense :)  That's okay - anything to make him happy :)

Relaxing Day

Today was a relaxing day for the whole family.  We decided to stay in and not do anything in particular because it was a rainy day - what else is new in the Seattle area?

The day started by us waking up at 8:30 a.m.  The reason why this was so great is because Maddy slept nine straight hours last night. She is only only seven weeks old and she is already sleeping through the night, which makes me so happy! It looks like I'll be able to return to work in about a week without being exhausted.  It will be great to not be exhausted at work (not being at work - I'm not looking forward to it because I'm going to miss my baby so much!)

We stayed in bed for a little longer after waking up and watched a movie.  All three of us fell asleep again for about a hour after watching the movie.  I guess we all needed to catch up on our sleep.

When we finally got out of bed, we still didn't do anything productive.  We just sat around, watched a little more television and played with Maddy.  It was a wonderful day and I hope we have many more like this.  We are always so busy and I'm afraid we're going to miss out on Maddy growing up... days like today will always be welcome because it allows us to spend precious time with her.

Now time for bed... we have church in the morning and will then be celebrating Father's Days - Maverick's first father's day as a daddy!

The 5 S's

When I was pregnant and since it was our first child, we went to a few of the child birth classes.  I didn't use much of the information we learned in the classes because 1) I was admitted to the hospital before I went into labor, 2) I didn't have much pain before going into labor and 3) I had an emergency C-Section and never had to push.  However, there is one thing that I took from the classes - we should check out the book The Happiest Baby on the Block by Harvey Karp, M.D. 

I got the book and read it slowly.  It actually has a lot of great information, especially the "5 S's."  The 5 S's is a technique that Dr. Karp suggests to calm a baby.  At first I didn't think that it would work, but it has amazed me.  Every time, no matter how crank the baby is, she calms down and eventually falls asleep.  Who would have thought that these things would calm a baby?

1. Swaddling - wrap her up tight in a receiving blanket.
2. Side or Stomach - place her on her side or stomach (while holding her)
3. Shhh...  Shhh in her ear.  And, no quiet shh'es, loud shhh.
4. Swinging - swing her (constant motion)
5. Suck - let her suck on something.  We use a pacifier.

Tonight Maddy was in an extra cranky mood.  I breastfed her and she just did not want to unlatch, although I know she was not hungry any more.  This went on for over a hour.  She just wanted to be on the breast and as soon as I would take her away, she would cry.  I couldn't continue holding her, so I finally put the 5 S's in place and right away she calmed down and drifted off to sleep.

I have found one more piece of advice in the book that has been a lifesaver:
No matter how hot you think it might be, swaddle the baby when you put her to sleep.  This will make the baby sleep much better.  As soon as we started swaddling Maddy at night, she has slept 7+ straight hours a night.  We started swaddling her regularly at night at 5.5 weeks and since then we have been getting great sleep at night!

So, for any parents that are new, The Happiest Baby on the Block is a book that I would highly recommend that you check out!

Hemangiomas Check-up

Yesterday we had our appointment with the eye doctor for Maddy.  The doctor was going to check on her hemangiomas under her right eye.  I was so afraid that they were going to tell us that they would have to do some sort of surgery or laser work on her to remove it, but it looks as though everything is okay... at least for now.

The doctor did some checking and right now the hemangiomas is not affecting her vision or tear duct.  This is great news!  The doctor did prescribe some eye drops to put on her hemangiomas.  The eye drops are normally used to treat glaucoma, but the doctor said that it can also be used to prevent the birthmark from growing any bigger.  Because it is so close to her eye, it is imperative that it doesn't get any bigger because we do not want it to effect her vision or the tear duct.  I have but the drop on her skin three times now and it may be wishful thinking, but I think her hemangiomas already looks a little less red and I think it looks a little flatter.  Again, it may be wishful thinking, but I really think that these drops are helping her!

Here is a picture of her hemangiomas today after three treatments of the eye drop:

I'll try to take pictures occasionally to see if there is any change.  But, so far it's looking better! 

Champions!

Congratulations to the Dallas Mavericks for becoming the 2011 NBA Champions!  Usually I wouldn't write anything about sports, but the Dallas Mavericks have been my husband's favorite NBA team since the 80s when they were founded!  Most people think it's because he shares his name with the Mavericks, but that's not it.  It has been the players of the team since the beginning, and the humbleness of this year's team has shown me that they're a great team... on and off the court!

So, congratulations to the Mavericks!  Here is the t-shirt that I got for husband two years ago for Christmas.  I think their championship calls for me to get my husband another Mavericks shirt! I kept thinking about what I could get him for Father's Day - what perfect timing!