Little Houdini

If it weren't for the fact that I value my sleep more than my curiosity, I would love to watch Nadia sleep some night. She always ends up in a totally different position than where I put her down (a full 180 degrees different). At least her arms don't get stuck any more thanks to the mesh bumper. Well last night I put her in a pair of hand me down pjs someone at church gave me. The pjs had four pieces - top, bottom, and two booties for her feet. I didn't expect the booties to stay on, but I knew she'd still be warm as I put her in a sleep sack at night. Well I was very surprised when I unzipped her sleep sack this morning to discover the only thing she had on from the waist down was a diaper! Her pants and booties were in her sack but not on her body. These pants had cuffs that were fairly tight around her ankles. I have NO idea how she got her pants off while in a sleep sack! As an adult I'd struggle to get my pants off without using my arms (while sleeping no less). So no more multiple piece pjs for Nadia! We will stick with one piece sleepers from now on as I think she needs to wear more than a diaper even if she does have the sleep blanket on. Unfortunately her room is the coldest in the house. I even get cold when I nurse her during the night in there.

Last night Nadia slept 6 hours and then after nursing for 30 minutes slept 3 more hours. So she got up an hour earlier than normal (5:30am). I had a feeling it would be hopeless to get her back down when she greeted me with a beaming face (I have yet to capture that on camera but I sure hope I do someday), but I still nursed her in the dark hoping to convince her it wasn't time to get up yet. I gave up at 6:15 since I needed to get ready for school. I said to Paul let's make sure she takes two naps in the crib this morning. I actually had that idea yesterday as she fell asleep in my arms while I was picking out which pose to order at Walmart and she then slept in the car and while I was grocery shopping in her infant carrier. I had said last night let's start putting her down again 2 hours after she gets up from her first 45 minute nap. I was definite about this plan after she got up so early. So Paul put her down at 7:00 and she slept for only 30 minutes, but then he put her down again at 9:10am and DRUM ROLL PLEASE she slept until 10:20am. WAHOOOO! That's more like it, Nadia! It was great to break the 45 minute nap barrier. :-) Let's hope this becomes a trend and not a one time occurrence.

We should have taken the photos today as she's been SUPER smiley and laughing so much today. Even Mommy kissing her on her cheeks brought on laughter today. Oh well hopefully we'll have more success the next time.She has started to find "eskimo kisses" (nose brushing nose) to be humorous as well. What fun! :-)

I weighed Nadia today, and she's now 12 pounds 9 ounces with clothes on (and a dry diaper). After her 2 month visit I guessed she'd weigh 13 lbs at her 4 month visit, and I think that prediction will prove to be accurate. I am curious to see how many inches long she is. She's not going to last much longer in the 3-6 month sleepers - on to 6-9 month for her pretty soon! I need to buy some more dresses for her. I'll just force myself to do that, LOL. She only has one dress in size 3-6 month so far and the 0-3 month ones are getting too short. Of course the sleeves are going to be too long, but we'll just roll them up.

Paul has another midterm exam this evening from 6:30-9:30. He thought the one on Wed was harder than he was expecting so I can only imagine what he'll think about the one tonight as he is finding thermodynamics harder than quantum mechanics. If you think of him tonight please pray he'll be able to do his very best! :-)

I have one more decorating question. I received four handmade quilts for Nadia of varying sizes. The largest was made by my handbell director (Carol), two from Paul's paternal aunts, and my friend Cheri bought one from her niece who makes and sells various baby items. How do people use quilts???? I don't want to just store them all in the closet all the time. The last week or so I had the one Carol made on the floor of Nadia's room. I think it looks nice on the neutral berber carpet. We never wear shoes around the house so it's not like we're walking on it with shoes on. Is this "rude" though? I don't know if that's an inappropriate use for a quilt.

No Smiles

Last night was a great night. Nadia slept 7 1/2 hours straight and then after nursing for 30 minutes she slept another 2 1/2 hours. She is very consistent in that the total number of hours slept is usually ten, and since I went to bed within an hour of when Nadia went down, I got a decent amount of sleep even though she got up for the day at 6:15am. True to form her morning nap was almost exactly 45 minutes long (7:55-8:40). I left her for 10+ minutes and she just cooed during that time and then started crying so I really don't think she was going to go back to sleep. I fed her and got her dressed in her pretty purple Winnie the Pooh dress that her Grandma gave her awhile back. Well it's almost too short already although the sleeves are still a bit too long. My girl has short arms and legs! Yesterday she was wearing a dress size 3-6 month that was a hand me down, and it was already too short (except the sleeves of course)! She is wearing size 3-6 month sleepers exclusively now, but many 0-3 month size pants are still too big. Go figure!

Anyhow after she was fed and dressed we departed for Walmart, and I picked up a few things before our 10:30 appt (such as a padlock for our shed as there isn't a lock on it now). I also got a pack of size 2 diapers as I am finding the size 1 ones that I bought on Monday are a bit on the small size even though they're supposed to be for up to 14 lbs and she's definitely not there yet. I had her in the infant carrier in the shopping cart and she was smiling and cooing away at Mommy so I thought everything would go well for her photos. Nope. She didn't smile one single time no matter all Mommy did that usually works like eating her belly. She didn't cry (at least not for 15 minutes) but she would NOT smile. In reflecting back the times I am most certain to get Nadia to smile are when she hasn't seen me for awhile (and "awhile" can be say 10 minutes). So when I first got her out of the car she was happy to see me and all smiles. So the next time we get photos I will not do anything in between getting her out of the car and arriving at the photo session as I really, really want her next photos to be ones of her SMILING as she has such a beautiful smile. She didn't like being posed on her belly (although we did get one photo of her in the process of rolling over, LOL), but she was fine on her back and sitting up. It was easy to pick which pose to buy as not many were taken, and in most of them she had her tongue sticking out. Hopefully she'll smile for the Christmas photos! I am thinking we'll try the Sears up here for those. At least the salesperson didn't really try to convince me to buy more than I did as she knew I really wanted a smiling pose.

Aside from caring for Nadia my accomplishments for the day were to clean the 3 bathrooms and kitchen (minus the floors which I didn't get to yet), finish putting away the stuff that was on the floor of the spare bedroom (still unpacking!), go grocery shopping, write an annual performance evaluation for a probationary faculty member, etc. I'd be able to get more done if Nadia would sleep more than 45 minutes a day in her crib, but of course I also enjoy her napping on the boppy on my lap. I usually enjoy seeing her learn new skills, but there is one new skill I am not too fond of - pulling Mommy's hair. Ouch! And it's not like you can tell a 3 month old "no" and expect her to understand what that means. :-) Over the next 3 days the two projects I would like to accomplish around the house would be to put up the wallpaper border in Nadia's room (that I received as a shower gift in April) and mow the lawn. If Paul wants to start putting away the books in his office (all still in boxes), I would be happy to help him with that also. As for school projects, I'd like to select which textbooks I will use for each class in the spring semester (as those are due to the bookstore soon) and edit the 26 book reviews my graduate students wrote ten days ago before I send them on the editor of the column in Childhood Education where hopefully many will be published in the coming months.

Gorgeous!

Well for the last week we have had absolutely GORGEOUS weather. Yesterday it even got up into the 80's! Wow! I haven't been outside tooo much as unfortunately that doesn't bode well for my allergies, but when I have been outside, it's been a pleasure! That is one definite perk of this house. Having central air has definitely been a blessing for my allergies (compared to having the windows open at our other houses). The other thing that has been GORGEOUS lately are the trees. I try to take notice of them during my commute on I-80 as the longer commute doesn't exactly thrill me. There is one stretch in particular that I wish I could take a picture of as the colors (orange, yellow, etc.) are so vibrant and such a beautiful combination, but I don't think I can safely take a pic while driving, LOL!

Paul's parents put Nadia to bed at 6:15pm last night. That was good for Paul as far as studying last night, but it meant she got up EARLY this morning and since I didn't go to bed until 9:30pm I am one tired Momma. So I plan to go to bed very early tonight as I'm pooped. The sleep book I have recomends a bedtime between 6-8pm for ages 5-12 months, getting up at 7am, first nap at 9am, second nap at 1pm, and 3rd nap possibly around 3pm or so. Nadia seems to get up about 11 hours after she goes down which means on average she's getting at least 10 hours of sleep a night. Anyhow I have been aiming for bedtime to be between 7-8pm so that she doesn't get up earlier than 6am. I'd say the latest she's gone to bed the last few weeks would be 9pm. She often gets up around 7am and then goes down for her nap around 8:30am. Does this seem about right as far as a bedtime at this age (7-8pm)?

Tomorrow she's having her pictures taken at Walmart. I hope she SMILES, and we get some good photos! Well considering we're getting 30 pictures for $4.99 I can't be too picky. I also want to go grocery shopping tomorrow and do some cleaning around the house. I did a little spackling and painting today and then decided it was better if I leave those tasks for Paul to do later. It won't be too time consuming (just doing touch up painting), and he'll do a much better job than I am able to do. I also want to mow the lawn sometime in the next few days. It really needs mowed again surprisingly. I also want to finish weeding before I mow. My arms aren't too itchy any more thankfully.

Paul is taking his quantum mechanics exam as I type. I suggested that he spend the night with his friend Kirk since he would only be home from 10:45pm to 6:45am. I figured it would be better to save that 2 1/2 hours of travel time for studying or sleeping than driving. I was surprised that he was hesitant at first. He didn't like the idea of being away from his peanut! :-) I said well even if he came home he doesn't usually see her at all during those hours (I've done all the middle of the night feedings for several weeks). It was very sweet how he didn't want to be away from his girl. He kept coming back in the kitchen and kissing her goodbye before he left at 10:45 this morning. Awwww.... I will admit there was a little part of me that thought wait a minute I only got ONE kiss goodbye and he didn't seem bothered at the thought of being apart from me for the night, but then I was just so moved at how much he loves Nadia that I decided it was very sweet and didn't bother me that she got more goodbye kisses than I did. I am soooo thrilled that Paul is such a devoted Daddy!!!!!

At one point while spackling in the kitchen, I put Nadia in the high chair so she would be close to me while I was working. She smiled at first, but my timing wasn't as good with the camera today. So even though it's not a smiling pose I need to commemorate the first time Nadia sat in a high chair. Of course it will be a bigger deal when she's actually eating solid foods. :-) Speaking of which, I know some start rice cereal at 4 months and others wait until 6 months. Anyone want to share their thoughts on when to start rice cereal? I won't start it until the pediatrician gives the green light. She will see her new doctor towards the end of the month. Can you believe next week she'll be FOUR months old. Wow.

Auburn?

When I first saw Nadia I called her hair dark brown. Well that was partially due to the fact that they hadn't bathed her yet (which I didn't know at that time). Over the past couple of months I would say that every time we are out and about (shopping, church, etc) there is at least one person who comments about her hair being red. It partially depends on the lighting. In certain lighting her hair definitely has a reddish cast to it especially on the top. In the very back where it's the thickest and longest, it still looks brown to me. Yesterday it happened again (at church) of someone saying her hair looks red. Paul said to me that maybe her hair is auburn (reddish brown)? Time will tell once it fills in more. Those of you that only see blog pictures probably don't believe she even has hair since it doesn't show up in most photos as it doesn't come down on her forehead yet. Well I am open to suggestions as to what color you would say her hair is.
Speaking of hair, I gave up on the idea of going to a beauty salon this week and just trimmed my bangs myself on Saturday night. The sides really need trimmed also, but I am not skilled enough to do that so I have resorted to just pulling them up in a barrette. Hopefully a few weeks from now I can find a new salon and also work it out so Paul can watch her while I go get it cut. Maybe the week of Thanksgiving would work as he gets that whole week off (I have class Mon/Tues that week). The hair stylist I've gone to the last four years has been my favorite one - EVER. She charged a reasonable fee, was a really nice person to chat with, and she did a really great job cutting my hair. Well hopefully in time I'll have a new favorite beautician.

I pumped this morning before I left for work and thought she wouldn't need any formula as I left 5 ounces of milk for her, but that wasn't enough for my growing girl! She drank 3 ounces of formula on top of the 5 ounces I had pumped. One thing I don't like about leaving for work early in the morning is I miss seeing her smile when I come get her. That is often my favorite moment of the day. During the night if she wakes up she cries, but when she wakes up and is ready to get up for the day, she doesn't cry and when she sees me she just BEAMS. It is just the most precious thing to me!!!! I think part of the reason she was so hungry this morning was because she only got up once last night (4:15am). She slept almost 7 hours and 45 minutes the first stretch!! That was great since the previous two nights the longest stretch was only 5 hours and that is tougher on Mommy especially on nights like Friday night when I stayed up 90 minutes later than when I put her down so that meant the longest stretch for me was only 3 1/2 hours.

She and I just got back from running errands, and it's the first time we've gone a few places and she didn't cry At All! Usually me getting gasoline guarantees tears.  I took her in the car seat and put that in the shopping cart at Walmart, and it worked great! My left arm is so very grateful! While I was at Walmart I signed her up to have her pictures taken on Thursday. It will have been 11 weeks since we had them taken at Sears; I hope I can get her to smile when they're taking her picture on Thursday (which certainly wasn't possible the last time as she was only 5 weeks old then!).

Missed My Girl!!!

Well let me start by saying yesterday was just a really good day. The weather was gorgeous (and will stay that way the next few days - what a blessing!), I had fun with my sweet girl, and I got LOTS of work done such as two loads of laundry, one load of dishes, graded papers, finished thank you notes, did some more unpacking and decorating, etc. It felt great!!! Last night wasn't nearly as great in terms of Nadia sleeping. She slept 2 hours then nursed and then slept 5 hours and then nursed and then slept 3 hours.

I left the house at 7:30am and picked up another prof along the way and headed to the University of Scranton where I had a 4 hour mtg. During our brief lunch break I wanted to pump. I asked the prof from U of S who was hosting the mtg if there was an office or conference room or something I could use for 15 minutes to pump. She suggested the bathroom. I should have found the batteries for the pump. It was a challenge. If I left the pump in the middle between the wall where the sinks were (and the only outlet) and the stall then the cords to the parts I needed to use reached just under the stall door with like two inches to spare. So I had to kneel on the floor of the stall (in a skirt) and get myself as close to the stall door as possible and as close to the floor as possible to be able to use the pump. Also this was the first stall closest to the door (the closest one to the outlet) so women coming in to use the bathroom had to step over my pump which was making it's lovely pumping sounds. Needless to say I pumped for as few minutes as I thought I could get away with. I think I got 3 ounces in 5 minutes and said that's it for now! I was ever so glad when we were reunited at 4pm (that's the longest I have ever been separated from her during the day and I sure hope it doesn't happen again any time soon!!!). I missed the gal something fierce, and boy did I want to nurse her!!! She gladly obliged being fed and snuggled, and she even waited til Mommy came home to have a big poopy diaper. Wasn't that nice of her to not make Grandma change an icky diaper? Paul watched her til 10:30 and then Grandma took over from 10:30 til I got home. Thanks, Grandma!!! On the way home I made a quick stop at BRU and purchased three items for Nadia: a mesh bumper so her arms won't get stuck any more, another valance as there are two windows and it looked funny to have one valance stretched across the two windows, and another sleep sack so that if she has an accident I have a spare one. It was my first trip to BRU since she was born.

As an aside, Nadia didn't have any formula on Wed or Thurs and that's probably the first time in her life she went two full days w/o any. I pumped Wed morning and Paul used that, and since I was with her all day on Thurs I didn't need to use any bottles. Of course today she had a fair amount of formula since I was away from her so long, but now there are 3 ounces in the freezer for Monday since I pumped today. I brought ice packs with me to keep it chilled til I got home. Thursday the only time I left the house was to go grocery shopping, and I went to the same one last week. It's nice to have a nice store only 5 minutes away! Well I planned to buy one can of formula just to have as back up for when she's being babysat in case I didn't have enough pumped milk for her.
Since the weather is supposed to be really pretty the next couple of days, I really, really want to do yardwork this weekend. That's the highest thing on my to do list right now along with getting the cross-stitch that my sister made for Nadia's room framed as well as one more of my Grandma's paintings framed. One other thing I'd like to accomplish soon would be a haircut. Boy do I need one, but I am not sure if that will happen. Of course as always there is more grading to do, but if that doesn't happen until Monday then so be it! Paul and I worked on hanging a couple more pictures this evening, and this weekend I also want to hang the valance I purchased today. I am having dinner guests for the first time on Saturday night so it's my goal to having the house as close to finished by then as possible. I don't care what the basement looks like or the closet in the spare bedroom so the boxes that are yet to be unpacked will probably be hidden there. It would be nice though to unpack Paul's books before then though. None of his boxes have been opened yet, and there are quite a few!!! Well it's off to bed for me as Nadia has been down for an hour, and I always try to go to bed within an hour of when she goes down. Have a lovely weekend!

Good News!

I have to report that last night I put Nadia down a little before 8pm. Usually I nurse her to sleep, but this time I actually put her down while she was drowsy but not asleep. She cried (whimpered would be a better word) for about 30 minutes. Normally I don't let her cry that long, but since it was a quiet, tired sounding cry (not an "angry" sounding one) I thought she might drift off to sleep on her own. And she did! She then slept until 4:45am (which means she slept 8 hours and 15 minutes straight!) and after nursing for 40 minutes she then slept for three more hours!!! So actually not including the one feeding she was in bed for 12 1/2 hours and she slept for a little over 11 hours! How wonderful!!! This meant that Mommy "slept in" (as compared to when I get up on MWF), got showered, ate breakfast, graded some papers, and had one load of laundry in the dryer and another in the washer all before Nadia woke up! What a great feeling!!! I should add that she wakes up in such a pleasant mood these days. I can tell by her sounds that she's awake although she is not crying. She is usually looking at her mobile. She's really been enjoying that the last few weeks, and then when she sees Mommy's face then she just lights up! Her smiles are soooo beautiful!!!

Adjusting Expectations

I keep making my to do list of what I hope to accomplish in the day smaller, but it seems I still haven't adjusted down to what I can actually accomplish as a Mommy. Yesterday I went from having a goal to do yardwork + grade papers + thank you notes to just grading + thank you notes to just grading, and then I actually went to bed before even the grading was completely done. I think in light of the move and the extra work with getting unpacked and settled as well as the extra time driving (80 minutes a day instead of 30), it is a blessing that I am working less (particularly if I can figure out more ways to reduce my work load closer to 50%). Hopefully I'll still feel that way when I get my first 50% paycheck! :-)

Well today is Thursday and Thursdays are the one day of the week I don't go to school. So hopefully I can at least get the grading and thank you notes that I hoped to finish yesterday done today. I guess I'll save the yard work for this weekend. I also need to run to the grocery store for a few things as well. That will be a quick trip though so I will be home ALMOST the whole day which will be nice (and it means I don't have to get dressed up today which is also a treat). And maybe just maybe Nadia will take a nap or two in her crib rather than on the boppy on my lap. I love snuggling with my sweetheart, but then I am limited to working on the computer. Another project for today is to find where the battery charger is for my camera as I can't take any more pics til I find it. The joys of moving and not knowing where stuff is. Ugh!!!

It's great fun to play with Nadia. She seems to have Harton blood in her as she loves to be bounced, spun, etc so I think she's going to like amusement parks (which is something that runs in my family). I can't wait to take her on her first ride!!! Actually the shopping mall that I shop at now has a large carousel in the middle of it and so maybe that will be her first ride. For now she just enjoys watching it as the music plays. I have been reading to her every day for five days now, and I love it! It's a dream come true to have a daughter to read to!!! I am getting good use of the bouncer these days as well. For example while I take a shower I bring her into the bathroom in the bouncer and she stays entertained as long as I keep singing to her and don't take TOO long of a shower. The same goes for the gym, as long as she knows she's not alone she's okay. :-) Isn't she just soooooo cute? Who could resist kissing those cheeks and eating her (bulging) belly? :-) I weighed her yesterday and she's now up to 11 lbs 9 1/2 oz with her clothes on. The sleeper she wore last night was actually size 3-6 month, and it was only a smidge on the big side. However there are still some 0-3 month size clothes that are on the big side still. There is such a variation between clothes that are supposedly the same size!

Reflections

I saw this on a friend's blog a couple of weeks ago and decided to do it myself. I'm to give an account of what I was doing 20 years ago, 10 years ago, 5 years ago, 3 years ago, etc.

20 years ago: I was 16 years old in my junior year of high school at Capitol Christian Academy in MD. This was my last year of HS as I started college the next fall. Aside from school I was taking piano and flute lessons (maybe also guitar lessons...I don't remember exactly when I took those although I do remember it was the next year that I took organ lessons), babysitting a LOT (especially my youth pastor's children who are now college students), and involved with my church youth group. I was also a serious bookworm.

10 years ago: I was 26 years old and starting my 3rd year as the principal of Cressona Christian School. I lived alone in a 2 bedroom apartment. Paul and I had been dating for about 18 months, and he was in his second semester at PSU working on his bachelor's degree. I had just started working on my doctorate.

5 years ago: I had just finished my 7th year as principal and begun my 2nd semester teaching in the Elementary Education department at Kutztown University. Paul and I had been married for 2 years and ttc for over a year. I had tried various fertility meds with my Gyn that summer and had just switched to my first RE. We were living in a house I had purchased 18 months earlier. Paul was working for his dad while taking classes PT to finish his Bachelor's degree in math.

3 years ago: In July 2005 I had my first miscarriage. That pregnancy was from inj/iui. I had another inj/iui which was unsuccessful and at this time in 2005 I was gearing up for inj #6 and iui #4 which I had in November 2005. We had also been pursuing domestic newborn adoption for almost a year as we began that in November 2004. I was starting my 2nd year teaching at the university where I am now. We had been living in our second home for 15 months. I also was singing in the church choir, a member of ladies Bible study, and playing in the church's handbell choir. Paul was working FT for his dad's company.

1 year ago: In July 2007 our dossier expired in Ukraine before it was submitted to the SDA, and we decided not to update it. We also only had a few months left of our 3 year contract with Lifetime Adoption. So we had signed a contract with Adoption Consultants and began the ivf process. In October 2007 I was having daily shots to get ready for a frozen embryo transfer of one blastocyst (Nadia!) because we had lost the other 6 embryos in August. I was also busy applying for tenure and promotion at my university. Paul was in his second year of his Master's degree program in chemistry.

Yesterday: I left for school at 6:45am and returned at 9:45 then I took care of Nadia and worked on my Bible study lessons and replied to seemingly 5 million work emails before heading to church for handbell rehearsal. I went to bed shortly after I got home as I was exhausted from not getting much sleep the previous night.

Today: Nadia and I went to ladies Bible study this morning (left around 8:30am and got home at about noon). It was my first time attending since I had her, and when I walked in the leader announced that a miracle had just come in the room. Yes, Nadia, who is 15 weeks old today, is a little miracle! Around 3:00 I will leave for work and will get home around 8:00 and will probably go to bed at 9:00.

Tomorrow: I'll teach tomorrow morning, but then I'll be home the rest of the day (yippee!). I would like to get caught up on writing thank you notes, and if Nadia takes a nap in her crib at some point during the day then I'd like to get some work done outside as far as trimming shrubs, pulling weeds, etc. I also need to cook something for dinner as tonight Paul will finish up the beef stew I made on Sunday.

Apple Tree!

Over the past 10 days that we've lived in this house I've discovered things I like and don't like about the house. Today I learned something new as I was moving stuff from the garage to the shed, trying to make room so Paul can start pulling his car into the garage. We have an apple tree! How cool is that! :-) I saw apples on the ground and looked up and a couple are still on the tree. I'll enjoy eating those next year. It will save me a few $$ at the grocery store which is always a good thing too. A few things I don't like are how slippery the kitchen floor is, the location of the silverware drawer, and that only one of the four bedrooms has a light in the ceiling. A few things I like (which are all new things I've never had before) are:

• the fact that some of the kitchen cabinets open on both sides which will be nice when setting the table


• that there's a shed and swing set/slide in the backyard
• how many closets there are upstairs (including my first walk-in closet!)
• how many cabinets are in the kitchen AND I have my first pantry!
  
  
• the deck in the backyard (we need to buy a picnic table and chairs next spring!)
  
  
• ice maker


• jacuzzi tub (haven't had time to use it yet! and Paul calls it "Nadia's indoor swimming pool, LOL)


• fireplace
  
• central air


• an appliance hutch in the kitchen which has a rolling door (we put the toaster oven there)


• a cabinet in the kitchen that has a glass door so you can see the pretty things inside
  

I haven't taken pics of every room yet, but here are a few. Can you tell that a child lives in this house? She might only weigh 11 lbs but her presence is seen throughout the house

To respond to the comments - yes Nadia is still congested although it's not quite as bad. It would be awesome if she cleared up when she gets off the formula. She gets about 6 ounces of formula a day on average. We tried soy formula for awhile but that didn't seem to make a difference. Once life calms down (post moving) my goal is to start pumping so hopefully I won't have to buy formula (just been using the free samples thus far). As far as multitasking....I have always been one to do a couple of things at once. Even if Paul and I are watching a movie I'm usually doing something else also. What struck me yesterday was doing THREE things at once. That was not easy IMHO. Ironing while singing to Nadia to keep her entertained while she was in her bouncer was "normal." What felt too much was ironing with my right hand while holding my cell phone in my left hand talking about work stuff. For one thing I couldn't keep singing to Nadia and so she started crying. Almost every blog post the past 3 months has been written while nursing. I am used to doing two things at once. I realize life will still be busy as a wife/mother/homemaker, but I do think life will calm down some once the moving tasks are done (still unpacking!) as well as my workload is cut down at the university. For example I planned to type a midterm exam while Nadia napped on my lap yesterday afternoon after I got home from the grocery store, but the file wasn't on the computer, and I didn't want to disturb her nap. So I had to stay up after she went to bed to finish writing the midterm exam.

The discovery I made yesterday which ranks right up there with the apple tree today was that I found a grocery store I like that's only about 5 mintues away! I don't think of myself as a really picky person, but I didn't like the appearance of the first two I tried or the prices at the second one. Also both were missing items I ususally buy like the first one didn't sell any rye bread and the second didn't sell frozen carrots (not like those are exactly gourmet or strange items IMHO). Plus this one is the closest of the three! It's not a HUGE one, but I think it will work out fine. Now to find a hairdresser I like as I need a haircut. I am tempted to go back to Karen, but I know that would be a waste of gas $$ and time.

Here are some notes regarding the photos:

The penguin themed bathroom (Paul picked out) is in the downstairs half-bath. Aren't Nadia's coats so cute on the hooks? :-)

• The bookshelf is in the living room and aside from the top shelf which has my cookbooks, all the other shelves are filled with Nadia's books and puzzles. The bottom shelves are the ones we'll use first (board books and simple puzzles). I plan to start reading to her every day in the VERY near future. What fun! My mom said I shouldn't buy her any more books for the next 2-3 years. Hmmm I doubt that will happen, LOL.


• The monkey themed bathroom is the upstairs hall bathroom (I picked it out).


• The floral one is our master bathroom. I bought that shower curtain in 1994 and used it in Annapolis & Port Carbon but haven't used it since 2000 so it seems new.


• The bedspread in our room was a wedding present that we hadn't ever used so it also seems new.
  

Over the next few days I'll take pics of the other rooms in the house such as of course Nadia's room! :-)

P.S. I just thought of a funny thing in terms of multitasking. When I was in college I rarely took notes. I am a very auditory learner and remember what I have heard very well so I didn't have to study for exams that were lecture based (did have to study for the ones based on the textbook). During classes it probably looked like I was taking notes but I was actually writing letters to my mom. Well I didn't do that in chemistry class but in the ones I thought were easy I did. The irony now is that I deduct points from my students if I see them text messaging during class and really is that any different than writing a letter? I guess what goes around comes around! It's just that their actions are more blatant I guess whereas my letter writing was easier to disguise (not that some students aren't very adept at trying to hide what they are doing by keeping their hand in their bag or under their desk). Truly that takes talent! I've never sent a text message, but I would find it a challenge even if I was looking at the keys. I am amazed they can do it without looking!!

Multi-tasking Mommy

There was one point today when I was performing a task for three different "jobs" at once. I was ironing (housemaker), watching Nadia who was in her bouncer next to the ironing board in the basement (mother), and talking on the phone with my department chair who called me with a curricular question (professor). So far I haven't really noticed the decrease in stress that hopefully working PT will bring about. I still feel like I'm juggling a lot and therefore not really able to do my best with any of my "jobs." Hopefully in time that will change. I feel like so much of the time I am trying to get Nadia to sleep on her own or play on her own so that I can get other work done (cooking, cleaning, unpacking, schoolwork, etc.), and I don't like that at all! I want to enjoy as many moments with her as possible rather than feeling like she's getting in the way of me getting other stuff done. I'm going to try to keep saying "no" to more stuff at work. When someone asked me to do something recently I did try to nicely remind this person that my pay had just been cut in half so my workload also needs to go down accordingly. Plus of course there is a fourth "job" (wife) but I wasn't doing any tasks for Paul at that given moment although he does want me to proofread one of his papers this afternoon. I should add that of all the tasks I have done today the one I have the least skill with is ironing. My mom does a MUCH better job than I do. :-)

The picture shown today was taken by Angela a couple of weeks ago in my office. Tuesday she came in to see me and said how much she misses Nadia and to please give her a kiss from her. I have to say I miss Nadia too when I go to school. The number of hours she & I are separated has not decreased because now we are apart during the driving time and also my office hours. She used to be with a babysitter 9 hours a week while I taught and even though I'm only teaching 3 hours a week during that time span now, she's with Paul those 9 hours instead plus she's also with him for 5 hours on Tuesday nights. I am glad though that she's either with Daddy or Mommy rather than in daycare.

Last night was a rough night. Tuesday night was great. She slept from 8:45pm to 4:30am and then 5:00-7:30am. Last night she woke up at 12:30am because her arm was again stuck between the crib and the wall. I am going to order a mesh bumper today. Thanks for suggesting that, Regina! Until that arrives I am going to use the pack n play instead of her crib. Thanks for suggesting that, Mom! Last night I nursed her and rocked her and such until 2:30am and then I just had enough and let her cry. Thankfully she didn't cry too long before she fell asleep.

I was reading Jo's schedule in her blog and thought we don't have a routine At All. I think though that next week I can start trying to get Nadia into a routine. I have no idea how easy or hard that will be, but I am going to try to get her into a schedule during the day as far as naps and such. I know that part of my routine needs to be to pump in the morning before I leave (MWF) as I realized on Wed I didn't allow time for that and should have. I want to stop using formula soon as my free samples from the hospital are about to run out, and I need to leave bottles for Paul to use while he watches her. The fact that she's not going to school any more will hopefully make it easier to get her into a routine. The only morning I plan to take her anywhere would be Tuesday mornings to Bible study.