Christmas Card

I had two snow days this week.  And first thing Monday morning my fan club (ha!) gave me an assignment to post something.  I started brainstorming and crafting a post in my head.  Never got around to it because my almost one year old (OH MY GOSH!) has developed quite an independent streak in the past week.  A post on the snow days was just not happening.  Sorry fans.  But I did kind of like the idea that started floating around my head, and I hope I get at least partial credit for completing my assignment.

So, it's Christmas time.  I've always been that person who DOESN'T send out Christmas cards.  I think about it every year.  I look at cards every year after Christmas, when they are like 75% off.  I have bought great Christmas cards at these sales because "next year I will do Christmas cards."  I honestly can't tell you for how many years I have had these boxes of cards sitting in my bins of Christmas decorations.

This year I feel like we have no excuse to not send Christmas cards.  We have an adorable kid, and who doesn't love a photo card at Christmas?  PLUS I have endured basically 30 years worth of Christmas Card photo shoots, and it's time to continue the tradition with my own kid.

What's the best Christmas picture I've ever had to participate in, you ask?  I'm so glad you were wondering.  It would be this one, circa 1988.  The only problem with this picture is that my youngest brother, Charlie, wasn't around yet to be in it.  Please note the sweatshirts, turtlenecks, and ROARING fire directly behind me.  

Last weekend seemed the perfect time to take pictures.  Evelyn was in a great mood, my mom was requesting a picture of her in her Christmas onesie, and it was snowing so we couldn't really go anywhere.  This was going to be easy.  I practically take a picture of her everyday because she's so darn photogenic.  Let the photo shoot begin.

First I went for the religious tone and decided to set her up with the nativity set, which she loves.

That wasn't really going anywhere, so I decided to just go with the lovely snowy scene going on out the window.  

And while we're at it, Steve thought we should stick her hands outside in the snow so she can feel it for the first time!  Great idea!

I wasn't really digging any of those pictures, so I decided to give the popular baby-with-Christmas-lights a go.  

  

Well that wasn't working.  The lighting was off at first, so we decided to hold off until later in the afternoon.  At that point we couldn't use the flash, which caused blurry pictures.  What a mess.  Steve thought, hey, let's light a fire to add to the Christmas mood.    

  

When all was said and done, I had about 3 pictures that were in any way usable for a Christmas card.  So I logged onto my Shutterfly and started to play around with formats, phrasing, and the like.  Once I finally had something put together that I kind of liked, I started going through all of our lists of people we would want to send cards to and as the number started to increase, I started to realize how expensive it is to order these photo cards.  Then you throw in stamps and this turns into quite the expense.  For a card that I only kind of liked.  I said forget it and ditched the photo card.  Instead, I would like you all to consider this post The Lane Family Christmas card.  

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Steve, Betsy, and Evelyn

Single Parenting

I would like to start this blog by giving a shout out to all of the single parents out there.  I am amazed by you all.  Steve has been gone since Wednesday night and I am just about ready to throw in the towel.

Let's recount the past 24 hours...

Yesterday evening started out totally normal.  Evelyn had a good dinner, she made Kaylee, Charlie, and I laugh and laugh with all the funny stuff she's doing these days.  When it was time for tubby, we went up and played and played.  Then she started doing this adorable thing where she flopped down on her belly in the water and stuck her cute little tush up in the air.  And that's when things took a turn.

Suddenly out of that cute, little tush came some cute, little bubbles.  I laughed, she laughed, and kept on playing.  I reached for the towel and when I turned back, there was a brand new toy floating in the water.  And that's literally what I thought.  What on earth is that toy, and where did it come from??

I panicked.  I managed to realize that I had to get her out of there quickly.  I grabbed her and yelled for Charlie.  Thank goodness he was here because he took Evelyn to play while I dealt with cleaning the tub.

We managed to recover, get dressed, bottled, and tried to get to bed.  I think Evelyn realizes Steve is gone at bed time because she's been very difficult to put down for the past few nights.  The bottle and putting to bed is usually Steve's job, and she normally goes down with no fuss.  The past few nights have been rough.  And between that and the 4 teeth that are ready to pop through her gums, she's been waking up at various points during the night and fussing for minute or two and then falling back asleep.

It was no different last night, or so I thought.  When I went in finally this morning to give her a bottle and get ready for the day the first thing I noticed was the scent.  I swear it smelled like licorice.  I picked her up, started feeding her, and at some point began patting her belly, which I realized was damp.  When I unzipped the jammies and felt her belly, it was soaked.  Her diaper was absolutely saturated, inside and out.  Suddenly an early morning tubby was a necessity.  I did a quick tub, got her dressed, stripped her crib, threw in the laundry, and managed to get out of the house.

It wasn't until I was on my way to work, about the same time that I realized I forgot my lunch, that it dawned on me that I didn't even think to change my outfit, which was most likely covered with pee.  Awesome.

The First Few Weeks

One of my best friends had her first baby today.  Steve, Evelyn, and I are so excited for our friends Amy, Chad, and baby Anya!  For the past few weeks while waiting for this new sweet girl to arrive I have been thinking a lot about how I survived the first few weeks of new mommy-hood.  I've been meaning to post these thoughts, but it just never happened.  So today, on the birthday of a very special girl, I give the new mommy a few tips for making it through the best/hardest/craziest time of your life!

1. Take a shower every day.  I missed a few days here and there right at the beginning.  I thought I was doing myself a favor by saving the time of showering, dressing, combing my hair.  The truth was I just felt gross if I didn't, and it's amazing what a shower will do to make you feel like a real person.  If possible, take it at a time when you can actually enjoy 5 minutes alone.  Which leads me to...
2. Let ANYONE who wants to come over to "help."  Ok, not anyone.  But anyone who you would trust with holding your baby while you go take a shower.  Or pump.  Or take a nap.  Or...gasp...read a magazine!  You don't need to entertain.  They really don't want to see you.  They will listen patiently while you tell the birth story, but just hand over that baby and go do something!
3. About that magazine, subscribe to one.  Books seem daunting at the beginning, but a magazine article that you can skim or even just look at the pictures is great for feeling like yourself again.  
4. Set a goal for yourself everyday.  For the first few days, it might just brush your teeth.  Full confession, I had to make that my goal one or two days right at the beginning.  Soon you will be able to set bigger goals: do a load of laundry, write a few thank you notes, boil some pasta for dinner.  If you have a doctor's appointment, make that the day's goal.  Just don't put too much pressure on yourself on the days you don't meet your goal.  Unless it's the doctor's appointment, you really need to go to that.  
5. Get out of the house.  By yourself!  Feed the baby, and then go to the grocery store, Target, Starbucks, wherever.  Even if it's just 20 minutes, you will feel like a new person when you get back.
6. If you breastfeed, start pumping as soon as you can.  It will only make life easier later.  We STILL have frozen breastmilk and I stopped breastfeeding a month and a half ago.  
7. Get that baby used to a bottle!  It makes getting out of the house for a bit that much easier.  Plus, nothing is better than one feeding a day being Daddy's responsibility.  Good for Dad, good for baby, good for you!  
8. As soon as possible, start a bedtime "routine".  We started at 3 weeks: bath, jammies, book, bottle, bed.  The routine has had to be adjusted as Evelyn has gotten older, but she is the easiest baby to put to bed because of the routine.  
9. Follow Baby Sideburns and Mommy Shorts on Facebook.  They are hilarious and say the things you think deep down but are a little bit afraid to say outloud!  
10. Take all advice, especially mine, with a grain of salt!  Instinct kicks in and you will know what to do.  Don't be afraid to ask questions, but do what works for your new family!  

Look at that!  Made it to a top 10 list!  I could probably keep going, but it's really late and the morning bottle still comes pretty early these days!  We couldn't be happier for our friends, and can't wait to meet baby Anya soon!  

Teething, virus, and impetigo, oh my!

Just can't get into the swing of parenting, working, and blogging.  In my last post I mentioned Evelyn's first real sickness.  We've been to the pediatrician more in the past month than in her whole 10 months.  And you go to the pediatrician a lot in the beginning.  Everyone said it would happen once she started daycare, but you always hope it will be different for your kid!

I can't even really remember how it all started.  I think it was a fever.  Probably teething related.  But it spiked pretty high for the first time right after her teeth broke through, and between that and the lingering gunky nose, we took her in.  It was a "virus" because according to all of the nurses and doctors at the pediatrician's office, teething doesn't cause fevers or runny noses.  Talk to any parent and they'll tell you otherwise.

Unfortunately with the fever spike we couldn't send her to school the next day, naturally.  She had a fun day at home with Daddy for part of the day and Aunt Kelly the other part.  The fever went up and down a bit, but nothing crazy so we sent her back to school and things were kind of back to normal, with the exception of a little cough that came out of nowhere.  We made it through the weekend, and through Monday and Tuesday with Mommom Lane and Aunt Nan, Wednesday at daycare, and then Thursday rolled back around.  And in our short time needing childcare, we have discovered that when things go wrong, they always go wrong on our daycare days, not when she's with family.

My Thursday went fine, but when I checked in with my mom toward the end of the day to make sure she would be picking up Evelyn like she usually does, she told me I better check my phone.  It was exploding with texts and phone calls from Steve about having to pick up Evelyn and take her to the doctor, where she saw my former childhood pediatrician and was diagnosed with some kind of infection.  He prescribed some amoxicillin and called it a day.  I was so impressed with how Steve handled everything!  He made the appointment, took her in, picked up the prescription, and got our sick girl home.  Because she truly was sick this time.

I got to cuddle with her the next morning, and then she had another afternoon with Aunt Kelly.  Poor thing really wasn't feeling well.  Saturday and Sunday rolled around and she seemed to be turning the corner, and then we noticed a little rash developing.  She didn't seem itchy or anything, but it seemed a little strange, so once again Steve took her in to get checked out.  It was one of two things, a rash caused by whatever infection she had or a reaction to the amoxicillin.  The doctor seemed to think it was from the fever, said keep an eye on it.  By Thursday the rash was everywhere, and so I made the phone call again.  Talked to a great nurse, who said if her fever wasn't back and she wasn't irritated by the rash, then we should just keep an eye on it some more, but it was probably a reaction to the amoxicillin rather than the fever rash.

So the rash started to fade over the weekend, Evelyn's mood was improving, her nose even cleared up for a day or two!

Then a week ago she woke up with what I thought was a pimple right above her lip.  By Sunday evening her whole mouth seemed a little red and splotchy and she had a really bad diaper rash.  Mommom came on Monday and tried to treat the diaper rash with some A&D, but that just made her scream.  Some nice, warm tubbies were all that made her poor little bottom feel better.  Another call to the doctor by Steve, and the recommendation was given to use some hydrocortizone on her rash on her bottom, but that didn't help her mouth.

Sunday morning - just a little red bump!

Monday evening - ugh!  

 Tuesday was Evelyn and Aunt Kelly day, and Nurse Kelly was not happy with how the rash wasn't healing at all and decided that calling the doctor wasn't going to cut it and that a visit needed to be made.  I rushed out of work right at 3:45 and managed to make it to the doctor by 4:30, where we waited forever, and she was finally diagnosed with a yeast infection (apparently very common about a week after taking an antibiotic) and impetigo.  Awesome.  The treatment?  Another antibiotic and a cream for the rash.  And impetigo is contagious and apparently very common in daycares, so no school for Evelyn this week!  We probably could have sent her a day after being on the antibiotic, but her rash was just gross and if I were another parent and saw her in my kid's class, I would have been a little concerned.

But one week later and the rash caused by the yeast infection is clearing up well and the impetigo sores around her mouth are healing well, even though they still look a little red (which apparently could last for quite a while).  The good news is she's back to her normal, happy self.  Hopefully she's going to stay that way for a while, although Steve and I both think we see her top teeth starting to move down.  :)

It really looks worse than it is at this point!  

I'm still here!

So many ideas for blogging about, so little time!!  Or perhaps I need to make better use of my time, which is why I am blogging at 6:07 AM.

A while back you may recall that most of my blogs centered around sleep.  At the moment, knock, knock (that was me knocking on wood for those of you who didn't get it) sleeping is going fine.  Whatever couple months long phase she was in seems to have passed.  Now Evelyn makes it until generally 5:15 or so.  In anticipation of this, I have begun waking up at 4:45.  You know, in case I miss her screaming right across the hall or through the monitor my body makes sure I'm alert and ready.

She always falls back asleep after.  So the question is what do I do in the meantime.  Do I get back in bed, where I won't fall asleep because now I'm anticipating needing to get up in 20 minutes or do I just get in the shower and start my day?  Up until this morning, the answer has been get back in bed.  And instead of lying there for 20 minutes until my alarm goes off, that turns into 30 minutes.  Or 35 minutes, just in case I manage to fall back asleep for the last 10 minutes.

Today I made a change.  I was wide awake at 5:30 after feeding her, so I decided to just get in the shower.  It is now 45 minutes later, and I'm dragging.  Time to make the first cup of coffee I think.  Should of done this before I sat down to write.

Being up early today was not meant to be the focus of this post, but I'm starting to run out of time.  So here are some teasers about what I am hoping to blog about in the next week or so:

1. Evelyn's first REAL sickness.  (This is probably not going to be that interesting, I just feel like I should document it in case she ever really does read this someday!)
2. I went to a baby shower for a friend and started to compile a list of my advice for a new mom.
3. My thoughts on switching Evelyn's summer clothes out for her fall clothes.
4. How I gave up breastfeeding comletely.  

Happy Friday morning everyone!  :)

My name is Betsy...

And it's been 7 days since I last pumped.  And it feels GREAT!!

I quit cold turkey.  It just started to get harder and harder and take longer and longer to get a few ounces to make Evelyn's cereal in the morning.  It just made no sense anymore.

Of course, with the split decision to stop pumping, and then suddenly needing to use the few ounces that were thawed in the fridge to actually feed Evelyn, Steve and I found ourselves about an hour away from a kid who was going to need some cereal and nothing to make it with.  I absolutely refuse to thaw a whole bag of milk to just use a few ounces to make some cereal.  We made a split decision.  It was time to get some formula.

We found ourselves at Target at 8:00 am on Sunday morning.  Would you be surprised to hear that the only other people at Target as the doors unlocked were parents with a few kids in tow?

So there I was, in the formula aisle.  I had done no research, had no plan.  Sent a few frantic texts to some parents I know who use formula (they all answered basically immediately, no surprise there!).  We spent about 10 minutes reading labels, and then just basically went eenie-meanie-miney-mo to pick one.

And with that, I am free of the pump.  It has been so awesome to not have to clean all the parts every day and to not have to ask Steve to repeat himself five times over the noise of the pump.  It was also really nice last night when Steve opened a bottle of wine to go with the amazing dinner he made to not have to worry about having a glass.

And as we fly through our frozen breastmilk, I realize it's good to start to get her used to the formula little by little now.  Based on the smell, I'm sure it tastes different, and that frozen milk is quickly being depleted.  I'm sure we will have to switch to formula for just a bit to make it to her first birthday.

One downside to not pumping...it was always a good excuse for Facebook time or blogging time or Candy Crush time!

Daycare Thoughts

Ok, ok.  I know it.  I'm a bad blogger.  For those of you on my back about how it's been MONTHS since my last post, I counted.  It's been exactly 25 days.  So there.

I've had quite a few moments where I have thought, that would be a great idea for a post!  But then I get sucked back up into the task at hand, whether it is parent or school related, and I forget completely.  I'm going to start trying to keep a list.  You know I love lists.  I'm queen of post it notes at work, so I always have some handy to jot down ideas.  I'm going to try to get back into the at least one post a week mode.  Promise.

So, here are some thoughts about our first three weeks in day care!

1. Perhaps having Steve do drop off wasn't the best plan.  She LOVES getting there in the morning.  Crawls right in, goes to the teacher, plays.  Loves it.  She is often the first one there (but also the first one picked up!), and has a little one on one time with the teacher.  I like this because it gave her some time at the beginning to feel comfortable with her.

The problem is pick up.  Evelyn SCREAMS when she sees me.  It isn't that she doesn't like it there.  I know this because I peek in the door at her when I get there and she is loving life until the moment she sees me.  I can see the thoughts she is having.  "MOMMY!  You are so mean!  I didn't even REALIZE you were gone and how much I missed you until just now!"

2. The boys are making Evelyn quite daring.  We have gotten multiple "incident reports" for falls and bumps already.  It's because she is trying to stand up like the big boys do.  She climbs up to stand on the shelves.  She went from crawling to standing in days, and now is even moving between the couch and coffee table.

3. I don't want to talk about the day I forgot to put a nipple in her bag for the afternoon bottle...

4. The best part about daycare was when she immediately started sleeping through the night because she was so exhausted from all the playing and crawling and climbing she does all day.  Unfortunately that only lasted about a week and a half because then teething started (we have two bottoms!!).  On her first day she was completely passed out basically before I could strap her in the carseat:

5. A negative, her napping has gone seriously downhill.  Evelyn had just gotten into a great napping routine about a week before we started, and that has gone out the window.  She just can't get used to sleeping when all the other stuff is going on.  It makes for very short evenings with her.  :(

6. One of the best parts of being a working mom is that I am so darn tired when I do go to bed that I have become a great sleeper myself.  In general, I'm asleep within minutes of putting my head on the pillow and if she does wake up, most nights I fall back asleep relatively quickly.

6.  Finally, and the reason I knew it was time for a blog post, you know daycare has become a big part of your life when it enters your dreams.  Last night I dreamed that there were suddenly eight kids in her class (the maximum number of infants allowed) and also a bunch of toddlers there "visiting" some of the other kids.  Evelyn was in her crib trying desperately to take a nap.  There were the regular teachers there, but also a bunch of other adults there (some were people I work with) chatting and just hanging out.  I was furious because she was trying so hard to sleep.  So I guess the lack of naps thing is really on my mind.  

More to come.  Probably in about three weeks...