Delaney is turning the corner from being a baby to a mini-person. She is starting to get really frustrated that she can’t move, is getting very tall, is even more aware of her surroundings and getting people’s attention (read: making sure she ALWAYS has mine:)), is teething big time, still sleeps pretty terribly at night, and still doesn’t really eat. I feel like we’re approaching a big shift in her personality and the things she’s able to do. Part of this makes me sad, but I think she’s ready to be mobile and ready to take on the world a little more independently. She wants to badly to do things herself but she’s just not able to pick up little stuff or move to get something far away etc. so while it makes me sad she’s growing so fast, I’m excited for her as she starts to see even more of the world from different views (like her highchair and the front facing Ergo).

New developments:

– She rolls onto her side when she sleeps

– Bats your hand away when you try to give her a paci and she doesn’t want it

– VERY strong

– Playing with food more, but still not really eating it

– LOVES LOVES LOVES to stand with support and stomp her feet all day long

– Loves warmer weather and the breeze in her hair

– Picks up and shakes everything she sees

As I continue to settle into motherhood and getting to know Delaney with every single minute that passes, I can safely say I love this thing called life with Jordan and Delaney. This month has been a big turning point for me as a Mom and Delaney as a baby.

I have officially started working again. One year ago, the future of my career was a big FAT unknown (more on that another day) but I really can’t imagine what my life would be like had things not gone the way they did. For so many reasons, it was horrible. I was petrified for what the future held for me and my future baby and of course, Jordan and my lifestyle. I’ve had the pleasure of staying home with Delaney full time much longer than any maternity leave would allow for and now I’m working part time in consulting and it’s going great so far!

Delaney has also officially started working…on moving! She still doesn’t roll over but the girl moves more while sitting than anyone I’ve ever met, she pulls herself up and will take steps with her hands held. She is starting to get frustrated that she can’t just get up and move with her baby friends. I love seeing how determined she is, despite it being pretty exhausting.

On the other hand, I’ve been exhausted. After months and months of poor sleep, it’s starting to wear on me. I am snippy with people, I walk around like a zombie much of the time, I’m forgetful, and I find that I can’t be totally in the moment with Delaney because I can hardly function. I will dedicate a whole post to the sleep stuff, but we’ve tried almost everything and it’s getting overwhelmingly bleak. But, I know she will eventually sleep — RIGHT!?

This week, we leave for a 2.5 week trip (it’s not vacation anymore…it’s just not) and Jordan isn’t coming with us. I’m flying out to Park City to meet my family for 5 days, then back to Maryland for one of my best friend’s wedding, and then to the beach for a week with my Mom and the rest of the family for 4th of July! I’m scared to be on my own with Delaney in so many new places since I know the sleeping will only get worse, but I’m empowered knowing that I can take her anywhere. I feel lucky to have these experiences with her and my family and can’t wait to see everyone.

I’ll miss Jordan and most of all, his helpful ways. It’ll be sad to see Delaney do new things without Jordan there but I’m excited for him that he’ll get some real, uninterrupted sleep for the first time since March.

Delaney is just the cutest. Over the past month, she’s started doing some really cute, human-like things and is becoming less and less of “just a baby.” One of my very favorite things she does recently is looking up and making eye contact while she’s eating or playing or in the bjorn.

She looks up with a face of disbelief that I’m here and is starting to focus in on the features of my face and Jordan’s. She looks up, gives a sly smile, and will bring her hands to my nose, eyes or mouth.

We’ve gotten in a pretty good sleep routine around here during the day and 90% of the time, she takes naps in the crib at home or on the stroller on the go. She’s still sleeping KIND OF in the bjorn but every once in a while, usually around her late afternoon nap ~5pm, I don’t really want her sleeping too, too long. Therefore, I let her lay down with me like she is in this pic and she takes a quick snooze.

She’s a really busy baby but when she’s tired, she’s really snuggly and it just makes me want to squeeze her…so I do.

At 4.5 weeks old, we took Delaney on a 2 week adventure to Maryland and Florida. Leading up to my due date, we made travel plans and assumed Delaney would be at least 7 weeks, maybe older (since I was SURE I’d been in early labor for two months) but as everyone knows, she was late. This complicated a lot of things, mostly her vaccinations and my comfort level with basically everything having to do with motherhood.

I’m writing this post a few months out and looking back, I am so proud of what Jordan and I did as brand new parents. I had a brutal infection that nobody will ever ever ever understand unless they experience it. I had a combination of Thrush (google it, I’m sure we have sensitive readers on this here blog) and what could only be described by doctors as “refill pain” from nursing (again, not going into detail because people get freaked out). Needless to say, I’d deliver 25 more babies before going through this stuff again all while navigating the brand new days of motherhood, trying to accommodate lots of people’s wishes to see and hold our sweet little baby (as they should!), being away from home for the first time with Delaney, and the overarching realities of recovering from 10 months of pregnancy.

No matter what anyone could say or do, this trip was really really hard for me. I wasn’t able to express my needs and wants to others because I just flat out didn’t know what would be helpful. All that being said, it was a great trip and I’m so happy that we could share the holidays with our families and that Jordan could take a full week off from work for this travel.

Here are some highlights!

Delaney’s first ride on the T. It was 35 degrees, pouring down raining, and we were traveling with 2 weeks worth of baby stuff and our stuff for winter weather and Florida weather. BUT WE DID IT.

Delaney in Mimi’s Nap Nanny…a saving grace for sleepless nights

Her first Christmas pajamas

A very Merry Christmas…and a pale, sickly looking Mom

She was still working on her camera smile

Meeting Grandpa on Christmas Day…in matching outfits! (Not planned)

Delaney, her cousin Kennedy (6 weeks older), and Grandpa. Tears all around:)

Love this pic.

Delaney slept for 8 hours straight on Christmas Eve (this never happened again). She already knew the Santa Claus rules!

Very tuckered out on Christmas

Meeting Jack Attack

Uncle Bebbers

Her first documented smile

With her gal pal cousin Louisa watching the Winter Classic

A trip to the MD docs for round one of her vaccines. She was a CHAMP!

She loved Kristin…just not in this pic

Twinsies resting

Out to dinner for Steven’s 25th Birthday

Her first faux fur vest (thanks to her auntie Claudia!)

She not only looks like Jordan but has the same “I’m watching hockey” face as him. She’s just the cutest.

I can’t believe how little she was — it was such a great week!

When Delaney wakes up from her naps or for the day in the morning, she wiggles around and giggles in her swaddle. She has been sleeping really great for the most part, only waking up once in the middle of the night to eat. Because of this, she’s been so much more rested than before and is so much fun when she wakes.

I love seeing her personality start to come out and can’t wait to see what she’s like.

Delaney’s been through a LOT in her second month of life. We traveled home to Maryland for 2.5 weeks for the holidays and down to Florida for Meemaw’s 80th Birthday. The travel was much scarier in theory than it actually was. She did GREAT!

Stats at 2 month appointment: 11.2 lbs and 23.5 inches

Things I want to remember:

• We took our first T ride with Delaney to the airport on December 23rd using a rain cover over her car seat
• She flew for the first time on the same day and did great! We were delayed more than an hour so we walked her around the terminal for a while as she looked at all the lights and somehow stayed awake
• She ate and slept the entire flight – wahoo!
• She met most of our cousins, grandparents, and close by friends while we were home
• We celebrated Xmas at my parents and both grandparent homes. Delaney dressed for the occasion in the sweetest little dress.
• Jordan and I left Delaney for the first time for the Winter Classic while my parents watched her. She slept most of the day and the Caps won – it was just about as good as could have gotten.
• We traveled to Florida with 22 cousins/aunts/uncles and it was the best. Jordan came to Boston to work so met us down there.

Delaney Quirks

• Still snorts when she eats
• Getting great at taking her Nystatin medicine that she had to be on for 4 weeks while I battled the BULLET PROOF infection
• Can be propped up a little on pillows
• Makes great eye contact
• Rolls over from front to back at 5 weeks!
• She will smile and wiggle when we go to get her from her crib in the morning
• Loves having her hands clapped for her or any arm movements
• Started to sleep “through the night” with fairly consistent stretches of 5 hours (this did not last so…there’s that…)
• Got her two month shots and cried both times but slept and didn’t react badly with a fever or anything
• Went to Stephentown with our friends and spent a day in lodge, passed between me and Jordan

It was a great month! These updates will likely get shorter because it’s probably boring and from now on, I’ll try to post more interesting things about our lives!

We traveled home to Maryland for Christmas. Delaney was just five weeks old on the holiday, but she did an amazing job with all the stimulation. And she looked super cute. Christmas was extra special with her this year as it was the first time she met pretty much everyone in the family. She met new cousins and her Maryland great grandparents and we feel so lucky to have been able to make the trip down there with her for the holiday.

Here are some more favorites from her first day with Santa.

When Jordan and I decided we wanted to have a baby, we were pretty particular about when we wanted to become parents. Ok, so maybe it was more me. Whatever.

I figured out when I’d be pregnant, how pregnant I’d be during certain times of year, what trips we’d have to miss, what we needed to do before I was pregnant, and most importantly of all, how I could make sure I didn’t have a baby too close to a holiday.

Well, serves me right. Delaney was due November 8th. It was PERFECT. Not too close to Halloween as long as I wasn’t early (which would be rare on number 1) and not too close to the BIG holiday season for this interfaith babe. Lucky for us, November 22nd is the earliest Thanksgiving can ever be so we are JUST in the clear with Delaney having to share her bday with a major holiday.

So anyway, Thanksgiving came exactly one week after Delaney was born. My family was scheduled to come in for the holiday and assuming I’d be 3 weeks out from birth, I figured we’d made dinner on our own, have everyone over, etc. Even though the timeline changed, I was still determined to do some of the cooking. I ended up really only being able to make the potatoes and bread.

Thanks to Jordan, who cooked the turkey and a lot of the sides, and my Mom, we had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner as a family for the first time!

Looking back, I cannot believe I did this. Hosting dinner for people is insane by itself when you aren’t a brand new parent but I’m really, really proud of how well Jordan and I did this early on. Not having family local makes things a little different for us and it was really important to me to be with family and have a homemade Thanksgiving. It may not have seemed like a lot of work, but it was! And it was delicious.

And of course, this year we were EXTRA thankful for our sweet, healthy girl.

Hello!

Before you say anything…yes, I’m starting a family blog. Perhaps one would even call it a Mommy Blog. But, I don’t actually care because I’m a writer and I’m a mom now and I have a yearning to get this thing back up and running. The only difference now is that I’m using WordPress instead of Blogger, I’m including pictures and stories of my favorite little gal pal Delaney, and my plan is that I’ll also be writing much more frequently (you can’t actually get much less frequent than my last blog, so it’s only up from here!).

I fully intend on covering my life’s passions of family, marketing, health, fitness and food like I always did. More importantly, I want this place to become somewhere that my distant family and friends can stay up to date with us because the old cliche of motherhood is true, I hardly have time to take a shower let alone call everyone I’m related to.

I’m going to spend a little time catching up on the last year of our lives in my first few posts and from there, hopefully you’ll be entertained and you can follow me along the journey of figuring out how to be a Mom, what the heck I’m going to do about getting a job, and if I ever figure out how to get back into shape without hiring child care to do so.

I hope you’ll read more!