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.

Commutes

Well I decided to skip ladies Bible study this morning. It was a tough decision as I had to miss last week (since we were moving), and this study is just 7 weeks long so missing 2 out of 7 is a lot. In addition to the fact that I feel I have other things I need to do this morning, I also haven't done any of the lessons. Hopefully I can get caught up with that by next Tuesday. This study is by Beth Moore (she's my favorite Bible study author) on the Psalms of Ascent. Hopefully I'll be able to make the next 5 sessions. Maybe I'll even put Nadia in the nursery. So far she hasn't been to a nursery, but at some point I'll start putting her in the nursery when I'm at church.

Now that we've lived here a week (has it been that long?) we are starting to get a feel for how long it takes to get to various places. Paul's commute to PSU was 95 minutes (to the parking lot - takes quite a bit longer to get to the bldg) and is now 65 minutes. My commute to work was 15 minutes on average (sometimes as little as 12 minutes) and is now at least 35 minutes. I was hoping the commute to church might be a little less, but it's actually just about exactly the same (25 minutes). At least it's not longer. Our gas bill will go down in the spring when I'll only be driving to campus 2 days a week. I'll still be going 4 days a week for the rest of this semester, and on some days I'll probably go twice in one day. For example this Friday I'll go in the morning and then go back in the afternoon for faculty meeting. My friend Donna will be watching Nadia Friday afternoon. Thanks, Donna! :-) I am tempted to attend a workshop on either Friday morning or Thursday afternoon. Once a year they bring in a nationally known speaker for the faculty, and this year's speaker sounds like he'll be really good. I know though that this is something I need to say "no" to. I'll spend the time with Nadia instead!!! :-) She's 14 weeks old today. Wow.

In terms of our family coming to visit us, we now live farther from Paul's parents. It took Paul's mom 70 minutes to get here yesterday (it took her 30 minutes to get to our last home). I forgot to ask my parents how long it took them to get here. I am guessing it's about 3 1/2 hours. It's probably actually about the same distance for them but the route is a little different.

Last night was the first night in awhile that Nadia woke up for two middle of the night feedings. She went down at 7:30pm and woke up at 11:30pm. I wasn't too pleased especially since I had gone to bed at 10pm (almost half-time). She woke up again at 5:00am and that feeding it took longer than 30 minutes to get her back down. Well hopefully last night was a fluke.

When I went to get Nadia at 7:00am she just BEAMED at me from her crib and also on her changing table while I changed her diaper. I just melted. I have to say seeing those smiles of hers just makes my day!!! She also has gotten to the age where she thinks it's funny when Mommy "eats" her belly. What fun!

Dedication

Life has continued to be SUPER hectic, but hopefully things will calm down soon. On Friday I told Ashley that Nadia wouldn't be there for her to babysit any more. Although I did get the letter from the President on Friday approving my 50% reduced work load from October 1 to May 22, I still didn't tell my students. I was afraid of getting choked up or actually crying in front of them. So I sent them an email over the weekend. I also emailed Angela (the other babysitter). In her reply to me she said she was going to miss Nadia a lot. :-( The babysitters both took really good care of Nadia in my opinion. Paul's mom came up this morning to babysit Nadia as Friday was the last day she was allowed on campus and my leave doesn't begin until Wednesday. Paul left about 11am and I got home about 1:15pm. Wednesday I plan to leave here at 6:40am and get back by 9:30am.

Thankfully we haven't had any additional disasters around the house lately. Paul replaced the outlet for the dryer on Saturday, and the appliance guy came today and for about $70 fixed our dishwasher and the ice machine in our frig. This is the first time I've owned a frig that has an ice machine. Plus we made a LOT of progress with unpacking on Friday and Saturday, and my dad helped hang a lot of pictures and curtains on Saturday. By the time we left for church on Sunday morning the house no longer looked like a disaster area. Of course not all the work is done, but I no longer feel surrounded by chaos. I need to do more unpacking, decorating, and such, but I don't feel the sense of urgency I did before. I also need to do a LOT of work outside as no one had lived here since May. The grass really needs to be mowed, the shrubs need to be trimmed, etc.

My mom and I went shopping at Target on Saturday night after I put Nadia to bed and we bought fun things for the bathrooms. Although the penguin stuff doesn't totally match the colors in the flooring in the 1/2 bath, we got them since they were Paul's favorite. I picked out the monkey theme for Nadia's bathroom upstairs. I think it matches well and is very fun.

Part of the reason for the attempt to get the house fixed up ASAP was that Nadia was being dedicated at church on Sunday. She wore the dress I wore 36 years ago at my dedication. She's the 6th girl to wear it (my sisters and I plus my two nieces). Eleven people came for her special day - my parents, Paul's parents, Paul's brother, Paul's grandmother, my friend (Cheri), and Paul's four nieces and nephews. Nadia was good as gold and just looked up into the Pastor's eyes while he held her and prayed for her. He always does an acronym based on the child's name. I remember that the "n" was for "nice" and the two "a's" were for "attentive" and "attractive, but I don't remember what the other letters were for. I will order a CD of it so I can listen to that part again. I shed a few tears during it all; sometimes I still can't believe that this miracle has finally happened. I am a mother! Since Sunday was "Family Fun Day" lunch was served at church after the service. Seven of those who came for her dedication stayed for the lunch, and then six of them came over to our house after that.

Nadia is doing a great job sleeping. The longest stretch so far was 9 1/2 hours (Thursday night). She is averaging 10 hours total. For example last night she slept from 7:30pm to 2:00am and then 2:30am to 6:30am. Usually she doesn't wake up that early (2:00am), but her arm was stuck between the crib and the wall. I didn't get her a bumper since I had read it's not advised due to SIDS, but she often gets her arm or leg stuck between the slats. Any suggestions? I am tempted to buy a bumper. Would that be unsafe??? She's also doing a great job playing in her gym alone for 30 minutes or more at a time. She loves batting the toys in her gym with her arms and feet and in her bouncer with her arms.

Dr. Manning called on Friday to say the lab had only tested Nadia for an allergy to whey. So we still don't know yet if she's allergic to dairy products yet. She said she'll call us when she gets those results.

Three Months Old!

Yesterday Nadia turned three months old. Wow! I think the photos show how much she has grown! She now sleeps 10 hours total each night with one feeding after she's slept 7-8 hours. If I were going to bed closer to when she went to bed I'd be getting the amount of sleep I used to get before I became a Mommy. So I think once the unpacking is over I shall be able to get my normal amount of sleep even with being up 30-60 minutes at some point in the early morning hours (last night I was up with her from 2:30-3:30am for example). She also is doing much better at playing by herself in the bouncer or gym for extended periods of time so that Mommy can get some work done. I look forward to having more time to play with her in the near future! Unfortunately she is STILL congested. I'd have to look back, but I think it's been 8 weeks now! I called the doctor today, and she is not allergic to dairy products which is a relief to know I don't need to eliminate those from my diet, but it's frustrating not to know how to help her. Since we moved I need to find her a new pediatrician, and I'm hoping the new doctor will be able to clear up her congestion.

I don't have time to go into all the details, but let's just say this has been a VERY rough week. The movers brought the wrong size truck which meant we weren't out on time which meant the real estate agent and buyers were NOT happy with us at all and we almost weren't able to close on our new house because they wouldn't release the check until we were out and the movers only got the last few things out very shortly before our second closing. The problem was that they had to make two trips. This also meant that we had to pay twice as much as they estimated our cost would be as more than half the bill was for their time on the road. They spent more time driving back and forth than unloading and loading. They went back to pick up only a couple of pieces of furniture, but it's not like I wanted to leave our sofa behind as that's the only one we have! They brought the size truck you'd use for an apartment move, and I told them we had seven rooms of furniture to move. We had already moved the boxes ourselves on Monday, but we didn't end up saving any $$ like I was trying to do. Paul and I had gotten up at 3am that morning to finish the packing and we worked like crazy until 9:30am when we left for the first closing. That was SUCH a long day for me as I was teaching until 7:30pm and then had a longer drive home and nursed Nadia before finally crashing in bed. I teach at 8am on Wed so I had to be out the door by 7:00am. So far the only thing I've discovered that was broken during the move was Paul's computer monitor (we moved that ourselves). So I guess he's going to get a new one (his monitor is 10 years old as we didn't get a new one when we got a new computer 4 years ago). I'm sure he'll prefer a larger, flat screen monitor, but we weren't expecting to have that purchase right now.

Since we moved in it seems to be one catastrophe after another. Paul smelled natural gas on Wed

am so we called the gas company and they found a leak. So I left school earlier than usual to be there when the plumber came. Then we tried to run the dishwasher and it flooded water all over the place. This morning we could still smell natural gas so we had the plumber come back. He said he couldn't smell anything. I called the natural gas company and they came back and said yes there is a second leak so the plumber came back for the third time in two days to fix the other leak. Someone is supposed to come on Monday to fix the dishwasher and the ice maker in the refrig (that's the only thing we KNEW was broken before we moved in). We asked the plumber to fix a couple of faucets that were loose and he said it would be VERY expensive to fix them (tear through walls etc).

The movers threw away the duct for the dryer so I couldn't do any laundry. My mom went and bought one this afternoon, and Paul spent 90 minutes getting it hooked up only to find out our dryer cannot plug into the outlet this house has for the dryer. So I cannot do the laundry or run the dishwasher until Monday at the earliest. And the list could go on. It's been very stressful trying to teach this week plus care for sweet Nadia plus unpack millions of boxes plus continue the process of notifying everyone we must notify of our address change (still haven't called for our vehicle registration, car insurance, etc. yet). My mom was a huge help. She came up Monday afternoon and left this afternoon. We wouldn't be nearly as far along if she hadn't helped with unpacking, cleaning, ironing, etc. We also did some grocery shopping yesterday but still the frig, freezer, and pantry are pretty bare. Sometimes I just look around and am not sure what I should do next as I am also very behind in my schoolwork right now.

Tomorrow I am teaching from 8-11 and have meetings from 11-1. It will be Nadia's last day of going to school with me and my next to last day of teaching FT. I must tell the babysitters and students tomorrow that I am going on reduced time parental leave starting Oct 1 although I still haven't received the official word regarding that request. The cable was installed today. It was strange to not have any internet for three days. Well I am sure life will be much calmer one week from now. The to do list will be much smaller by then. Right now it's REALLY long. Speaking of long, I wish the previous owners had mowed the grass. It's really tall. I mowed the lawn for our buyers, but the favor was not returned for me. Thankfully this is a MUCH smaller lawn although we sold our riding mower. Well it's time to put Nadia to bed and do some more unpacking before I hit the sack. Hopefully we won't have any other disasters in the next couple of days.

One More Night

Tonight will be our last night sleeping in this home. We moved here in July 2004, and I was sure we'd live here for decades. I Was Wrong! I know not to think that this time as we could easily be moving again in 4-5 years when Paul finishes his PhD. I remember being sooo tired after that last move. Packing and unpacking a house is Not Fun. However I had it easy then as it was the first (and since then still the only) summer I didn't work since I was a teenager as I was in between two jobs. In contrast with this move I am juggling a FT job and a 2 month old baby in between packing the house and also doing all the paperwork associated with selling/buying homes and also moving (change of address stuff). Honestly, I think the past 13 weeks qualify as the most stressful 13 weeks of my life. It started with the week in the NICU which was definitely stressful for me and while I was in there I was also grading papers to get my grades submitted on time for the summer session. Then within 2 days of coming home our house went under contract and the paperwork madness began. Of course that buyer ended up backing away. Also during this time Paul was writing his entire thesis which was stressful for both of us and then he had his entrance exams the first week of August at PSU. Then I went back to work and since then have needed to make a big decision about whether to keep working FT or not, and the list could go on. The good news is that the end is in sight (I hope!) to when my stress level should come DOWN. By tomorrow afternoon we'll be moved into our new home. Unpacking always goes more quickly than packing does, and my mom is coming up today to help us until Thursday. I will need to tell the babysitters and my students this week about the changes happening next week; so that unpleasantness will be over soon as well. Paul's commute is about to become shorter so hopefully that will decrease his stress level as well.

Yesterday Paul's family came up and we loaded a trailer and his Dad's pickup truck with our boxes and other stuff (like the grill for example). Paul's brother will be driving it to our new home this afternoon, and he and Paul will be unloading it (alone unfortunately for them). Then they'll come back and load the truck with a few pieces of furniture we're giving them. Tomorrow morning the movers will load up the furniture and move it to our new home. We have the closing to sell our home at 10am, to buy our home at 2:30pm, and then I teach tomorrow night. What a day that will be. I am hoping to go grocery shopping in between the two closings as we have VERY little food. I have no idea where the closest grocery store is to our new home. So many things to learn. For starters I need to learn how to GET to our new house, LOL. I truly don't even know how to get there yet. I am teaching this morning and taking a load to Salvation Army and then coming home to finish packing and cleaning while my mom takes care of Nadia.

I am sooo glad she has been sleeping well. It hasn't translated to extra sleep for me since I've been using that time to get more work done for packing, but it does mean once we're settled in the new home that I can get more sleep. She's getting one stretch of 6 1/2 - 8 1/2 hours (only went over 8 hours once and 7 is about the norm) and then nursing 30 minutes and then sleeping another 1 1/2 to 3 hours. Normally she's going back very easily (Saturday morning was the exception when she got up at 4;30 and was up for 2 hours) and normally she's going down very easily at night between 8:00-9:00 (the exception was Friday night when it took forever to get her down but thankfully that's now the exception).

Jealous

Okay, I know it's not good to be jealous, but I admit I am feeling jealous because Paul and Paul's mom have both heard Nadia laugh and I have not. Well I've heard her laugh in her sleep, but I haven't heard a purposeful laugh yet. Paul got her to laugh on Wednesday night while I was at work doing peer observations (a new responsibility since only tenured faculty do them). He said he was imitating the sounds different instruments make. Paul's mom got her to laugh on Thursday while I was at the dentist. She smiles for me a lot and coos, but she hasn't laughed for Mommy yet. She smiles when I kiss her, and that melts my heart. I can't wait til she gives ME kisses too! Hopefully soon I'll get to hear her laugh.

This morning the babysitter was running a little behind so I brought Nadia to my classroom while I was getting set up for class (the babysitter arrived before class began). One of the students asked what the doll was for and then realized this "doll" was my daughter. I do call her my doll baby. :-) I was going to tell the babysitter today that she'll only have one more day to babysit Nadia (29th), but when I came back at 10:50 (and Nadia was sound asleep in the pack n play) she was showing me photos of Nadia on her Blackberry and I just couldn't do it. I am also dreading telling Ashley who will be babysitting her twice next week (not on Wednesday as Grandma Harton will take care of her that day). I think part of the reason leaving is so hard (aside from the fact I'm leaving in the middle of a semester) is because the current arrangement seems fine to me. I keep reminding myself that if I kept teaching FT not only would she be off-campus all the hours I teach but also all the hours she's normally with me on campus. I am sure I wouldn't like that At All.

Nadia's bloodwork is STILL in progress. That's a long test! I told the dr that Nadia had now been congested for 6 weeks, and she said that some c-section babies are congested for up to 6 months.

Way to go, Nadia!!!

Last night Nadia slept from 9:15pm to 5:45am - that's 8 1/2 hours. WOOHOOO!!! I slept 7 of those as from 4:15 on I couldn't sleep as I was in too much pain. I kept thinking if I went to pump then she'd wake up. Hopefully my body will get the message that she's sleeping more at night and chill out some on the milk production during those hours. She also did such a nice job this morning playing in her gym and sleeping in her bouncer so that I could get a shower, do some packing etc. A friend from choir came this morning and we spent 2 1/2 hours packing up Paul's books. Then Paul's mom came about an hour later and brought Nadia several new long sleeve pant outfits (0-3 months) and a new dress also in that size. I plan to have her wear her new dress on Sunday to church. :-) Paul's mom watched Nadia while I had a dentist appt, and then when I got back Nadia was asleep in her arms so I also did some weeding of the flower beds. Then Paul came home so I did some mowing until Paul's mom left as then I needed to care for Nadia so Paul could take a nap as he had been up most of the night doing school work.

At first Paul didn't want me to continue teaching the 8 or 9am classes although I would be home in time for him to leave for his classes. Then this morning he agreed I could just keep teaching the 8am class in Oct/Nov. So I'll cut back to 50% instead of 25%. I'll be teaching Tuesday nights and MWF from 8:00-8:50. The only bad part of this is that I'll be driving about as long as I'll be there since we're moving farther from my school. In the spring I'll also be at 50%, but I'll be teaching two night classes that semester (Monday and Tuesday) so that will be less driving time. Of course I wouldn't have minded being able to get up whenever Nadia gets up, but financially it will be better for me to keep teaching 2 classes, and she'll be with Daddy which is a good place for her to be in my opinion! I'll get home about 9:30am those days. I am still teaching FT until Sept 30. The parental leave begins Oct 1 presuming it's approved. I asked for a 50% reduced time leave from Oct 1 to May 1 as the spring semester ends on May 1.

One funny thing about my dentist appt was that the receptionist asked me about my baby as she remembered I was pg at the last visit. She asked to see a picture of Nadia, and I didn't have one on me. She said she was surprised as new moms always carry around a picture. As I walked to the car it hit me, I am rarely separated from her so that's why I've never been asked for a picture before. Usually she's right there for them to see in person! I guess I should start carrying a picture of her also just for these times when she's not with me. :-)

Only 5 more nights sleeping in this house, and in 6 days Nadia will be 3 months old. WOW! I called the doctor today to check on the b/w results for Nadia, but they said the allergy test is still in progress. Hopefully we can get the results tomorrow. The poor little girl has now been congested for SIX weeks straight! One last bit of news would be that I weighed myself earlier this week and was happy to see I'd lost another pound. That's 22 lbs total of which 5 lbs were lost in the last 4 weeks. I still have a lot to lose, but I'm going in the right direction! :-)

Fall weather

It has been unseasonably warm lately, but today it feels like fall weather. I like spring and fall weather the best so that's fine with me! In the morning (especially at say 7:30am) it's rather cool now so today I had Nadia wear a sweater for the first time. I will take a picture as she looks so cute it in. It's size 3-6 months but it worked just fine (not that she's ready to move into that size in general by any means). It has a hood to keep her head warm also. She slept SO well last night. Three cheers for Nadia!!! She slept almost 7 hours and then after only nursing for 30 minutes she had been sleeping for 3 hours when I had to wake her up to change her diaper and take her to school. I pumped since I wasn't able to nurse her before we left (I didn't have the heart to wake her up to feed her since I just did that on Monday). What I pumped was almost enough for the babysitter. She only had one ounce of formula with Angela. So she slept almost 10 hours last night! Wow! I almost got 8 hours. Well I was in bed 7 1/2 hours but with everything going on it was hard to go back to sleep after I nursed her in the middle of the night. She is definitely in a routine now of at least a 6 hour stretch. What a blessing!!! Everyone was right when they said it would get better around 12 weeks as she hit 12 weeks yesterday. :-) I think the fact her weight has doubled also is helping a lot with sleeping more.

From the way I read the CBA, childrearing leave (after a child is one year old) requires permission but parental leave does not, but the Dean is saying they will let me know their response to my request. The CBA says we must give notification which doesn't seem to imply asking for permission (for parental leave). My dept chair asked if I would be willing to switch one of my daytime classes to an evening class for the rest of the semester if the students could do that, and I said yes. Later when driving home it hit me that since Paul dropped his 9am class I could teach the 8am class as his first class now isn't until 12 something or other. So I sent an email when I got home saying I could keep teaching that class. My dept chair said they had found someone to teach my 10am class. I didn't tell the babysitters or my students yet. I was afraid I'd cry. I figure I should wait until I hear the official word from the Provost & Dean before I tell them. Nadia and I got home about 1pm and then at 4:30 I am heading back to work to do two peer observations. Hopefully Paul will be home by 4:30. Thankfully I don't need to go to work tomorrow. I will be packing and have a dentist appt also.

Two Weeks

Well I received the response from my Dean, and the last day Nadia is allowed on campus at all is Sept 30. Then she's not allowed back on campus until she's 18 years old. So I am asking for 75% reduced time parental leave for the remaining 2/3 of the semester (beginning Oct 1) and 50% reduced time parental leave for the spring semester. I would like to keep teaching my Tues pm class this semester and teach on Monday and Tuesday nights in the spring. I was scheduled to teach one night class and 3 afternoon classes in the spring, but I changed that with my dept chair this morning to two afternoon and two evening classes before I got the letter from the Dean. I feel badly about leaving my students in the middle of the semester, and I find it ironic that I will have worked FT during the time of the move and then PT after we've settled in our new home (as life will be a lot less stressful for me then). I know I won't regret my decision though. My daughter comes first over my job.

Today was a busy day as I had a curriculum meeting with my dept chair and Dean at 9:15 and then a meeting with the psych dept (regarding curriculum changes) at 10:00 and then took Nadia to the doctor for her bloodwork (OUCH for Nadia!), and then Donna came and helped me pack and clean the stove and refrigerator before I went back to work for office hours and teaching (then Nadia was home with Daddy). I am currently the chair of my dept's search and screen committee (chairing four tenure track searches that we are trying to fill by January) and the co-chair of our curriculum committee. I plan to stay on the committees but resign as chair from both of them in light of cutting back to 25%. So my days won't be so hectic starting October 2. I will wait a bit to tell my students. It's going to be hard to tell them without getting emotional. That will be my goal though. I don't want to stand up there crying. I cried enough in my office last Wednesday when I got the first email from the Dean about this. It is wonderful to be able to spend more time with my daughter. We can swing it financially with 50% of my salary plus Paul's stipend. I have no idea who will teach my classes, but I guess that's not my problem. I asked permission for this arrangement in February and was only told in September that it's not allowed.

Last night Nadia had another 6 hour stretch. Unfortunately I was doing school work and then wasn't feeling well (intestinal issues) so I only slept 4 hours of that time, and she got up at 5:30 so I only got 6 hours total. Still I am very pleased that 6 hour stretches are becoming the norm. I don't mean to sound "greedy" but now I'm hoping that might extend to 7 hours. :-)

What a trouper!

I thank you for your prayers - they were answered! First I have to say CONGRATS to Nadia for sleeping 7 hours straight last night so I still got a 6 hour stretch even though I stayed up to watch the first half of the football game. :-) I felt so badly waking her up at 6:30am. I wanted to nurse her again before we left. I had nursed her from 3:45-4:45am and then let her cry a couple of minutes and she fell asleep. I nursed her from 6:30-7:00am and then she cried for about 30 minutes of the first 60 minutes in the car (off and on). She slept the rest of the way. I left early so that I would have time to nurse her again in the parking lot before going in for the mtg. I also planned to nurse her during the lunch break, but unfortunately it ended up being a "working lunch." Nadia slept a few times and was generally very well behaved during the 5 hour meeting. Four people asked to hold her at one point or another. Three held her a very short time as she cried and wanted Mommy, but Cathy put her to sleep once. :-) I planned to nurse her in the parking lot again before driving home, but she was asleep and I didn't have the heart to wake her even though it had been 5 hours since I nursed her and I was in PAIN. She slept 3/4 of the way home and only woke up because of construction. Thankfully she went back to sleep. Out of the 2+ hour drive home she only cried about 10 minutes total (cried 3 different times on the way home). I was sooo impressed!!! I still don't want to go to the wedding in Philly on Saturday though so Paul will go alone. When we got home although I was very hungry and also really had to go to the bathroom I decided the most pressing physical need I had was to nurse her as it had now been over 7 hours. I have never gone anywhere near that long before during the day without nursing her. OUCH! That's also an adjustment at night. I pumped at 2:45am on Saturday night because I was in so much pain (and then she woke up at 3:15). I assume in time my body will adjust to the fact she's sleeping longer and going that long in between won't hurt so much.

Another change with Nadia lately is that she'll play in her gym for longer and longer periods of time. I am glad that I finally can go do something for a few minutes without her crying. Whew... I know she's not purposefully trying to hit the toys that dangle down, but it almost looks like she is doing it on purpose (hands and feet). She enjoys being on her back more than on her tummy. She's growing up! I know to others she still seems small, but I think she now weighs twice as much as she did at her lowest point. :-) This was a very long, tiring day, and I am not wanting to have another day quite like that any time soon. All in all though she did a GREAT job, and the day went better than I expected it would.

Paul's mom had her scans today at the hospital and now has to wait until Sept 30 to get the results. We are praying that the chemo did what it was supposed to do!!!

One last bit of news would be that we found out recently that I80 will NOT become a toll road! WAHOOOO! The federal gov't said NO to the state's plans. :-) After we move both Paul & I will be taking I80 to school - Paul going west and I'll be going east. The cost would have been astronomical for us if we were both paying tolls 4-5 days a week. What a relief!!!