I'm looking for the baby

So I thought I'd share a funny story.  A few nights ago, in the middle of the night, my poor husband woke up to me searching through his blankets and feeling around him.  "What are you doing?" he asked.  "I'm looking for the baby" I replied.  I continued to look for her and he asked me again.  By this point I woke up to a bewildered husband, looked over to see my baby asleep in her bed where she should be, and realized I had been asleep the whole time.  It was a dream that my husband had been made an unwilling participant in.  I started laughing hysterically at the absurdity of it all.  I don't know if he was quite as amused.

Before I had my daughter, I used to have very vivid dreams of spiders in my bed and would wake my husband up looking for them.  I wouldn't fully wake up until I turned the lights on.  It was really crazy because I would be so convinced that it was real and would have no idea that I was still asleep until I turned the lights on and would finally realize it was just a dream.  Now I look for my daughter in my bed and I have no idea what ends up waking me up because I don't turn the light on.

Luckily I have never left the bedroom, but it is still a little scary to know that I dream so actively.  It runs in the family though.  My mom talks in her sleep.  She would sit up in bed and have conversations with my dad while she was still asleep and then would ask him why he woke her up when he responded to her.  She had no idea she was talking to him.  My sister and her kids sleep walk.  My sister actually left the house once when she was younger and my dad found her outside our neighbor's house.  My husband is worried about our daughter being like me because she already "talks" in her sleep.  I just hope she doesn't sleep walk because that can be dangerous.

Sooooo tired

I wish my baby would stop waking up so much at night.  She used to sleep 8-9 hours and then another 2-3 hours.  I felt great.  Now she wakes after 3-4 hours to eat, 3-4 hours to eat, 2-3 hours.  And that doesn't count the fussing for her pacifier or sometimes her tossing around that can wake me.  I feel like a zombie.  I want my old baby back.  I don't know what's going on with this new one.  Gotta go, she's napping which means I have about 30 min. to rest my eyes.

5 months old

My baby girl, you are 5 months old today.  I know everyone says it, but I can't believe how fast the time is going by.  I remember the day we brought you home from the hospital and you looked so tiny in your carseat.  Now I find my self astonished everyday at how big you are getting.

You love to shriek, squeal, and babble away.  If we go to a restaurant, you want to make sure your voice is heard.  The lady at baby and me nicknamed you the opera singer because your cry reaches quite the loud volume when you are upset.  Although you really are a pretty good baby and that doesn't happen too often.

I think it was last month that you found your feet and you love to hold onto them.  You love to hold onto anything you can get your little hands on.  Mommy's dinner plate, mommy's cup, mommy's hair, etc.  When you're in your carseat, you hold onto the side.  When you're nursing, you pull on mommy's shirt.  You like to be holding something when you sleep, so we started giving you a blanky to hold during your naps.  Here's a picture of you holding your panda toy while taking a nap.

You like scooting around in a circle when on your back and you do it a little bit while on your tummy.  You roll onto your sides, but won't quite make it all the way over.  You can roll from your tummy to your back, but only choose to do so on very rare occasions.  You started rolling from tummy to back when you were 3 months old, but you just don't want to do it.  I think if we had carpet instead of hardwood floors you would move a lot more, you just can't get any traction.  You can sit very briefly unassisted before you fold over and then protest.

You get bored at home and need to go new places.  You let mommy know we've been at home too long by getting very fussy.  You love getting outside and going for walks, especially when mommy puts you in the moby wrap facing out.  You kick your legs with excitement and are very quiet while taking everything in.  You like to go to Trader Joe's and you draw lots of attention, making friends and exchanging smiles.  You also love bath time, you recently learned how to splash.  And you love your kitties.  It's a good thing they love you too because I think it's gonna take awhile for you to learn how to be gentle.

Daddy seems to be the only one who can make you laugh.  You love to play with daddy and you think he is so funny.  Mommy is more of the comforter and source of food. =)

Your sleeping habits seem to be a bit of an issue these days.  You used to take good naps and at night you would sleep 8-9 hours straight, wake up to eat and go back to sleep another 2-3 hours.  Now you usually take 30 minute naps either in the swing or on me and in the early evening I can sometimes get you to take a 1-1 1/2 hour nap on me by rocking or nursing you back to sleep when you wake up.  (Funny side note, you shake your head side to side to rock yourself to sleep when I'm not holding you.)  And night time has gotten out of  control.  You will do a 5-6 hour stretch, eat, sleep 3 hours, eat, sleep 2-3 hours and then wake up for the day.  This is very tiring for mommy because it takes such a long time for me to fall asleep, so I do much better with one feeding instead of two.  I don't know what has been going on with you these past couple of weeks.  But that's my only complaint.  Please, please, please baby go back to your old sleep schedule.

I have to say that my very favorite moments are when you wake up in the morning and are full of smiles for me.  You are so happy to see me and it just melts my heart.  Also when you fall asleep nursing, it is just the sweetest thing.

Well, this has been a very long post, so I will wrap it up.  I love you so much baby girl, and I am so happy I get to be your mom.

Reaching to high?

So I told my mom about my new blog yesterday and she said my goal to blog everyday was a little too ambitious.  She could be right.  Maybe I should be more realistic.  I will definitely have a post every month on the 22nd dedicated to my daughter since she was born February 22nd and she's the whole reason I'm starting this blog.  Beyond that, maybe I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

I don't really know how to organize my thoughts when it comes to this blogging business, so there might be a lot of rambling going on.  Anyway, I'm here to blog about being a mom.  Hopefully more than that, but mostly that's why I'm here.

My daughter will be 5 months old tomorrow and while I feel like I'm doing  a pretty good job of caring for her, that's all I'm doing.  Other than that, I feel like I can barely take care of myself let alone keep the house clean or cook dinner.  I get a shower every other day, which was an upgrade from every three days the first couple of months after she was born, and I get laundry done when I run out of clean clothes. A girl has got to have clean underwear!

I feel like I should have this figured out by now; however, any moment I get to myself I just want to relax because there aren't many of those moments to be had.  I'm tired and I don't know how to find the time or energy to get anything done.  I know a happy baby is better than a clean house, but it's easier to say than actually feel it is true when you are sitting in the messy house.

Well, I have to go get ready for my baby and me group.  Tomorrow's post will be about my daughter and what a true joy it is to be her mother.

Yes, I'm new

I love to read blogs, but never put much thought into having one of my own.  That is until I realized my baby would be 5 months old this week and other than photos and a few videos, I haven't done much to document her many milestones.  Not to mention my part in this crazy new journey I signed myself up for.

So here I am, typing one handed while my baby takes a much needed nap on my lap, hoping this will be a valuable tool in preserving the moments that seem to be passing far  to quickly.

And maybe even a good place to work through the new challenges I face as a first time mom.

I'm not the best when it comes to technology, so this may not be the fanciest blog on the block, but hopefully someone can get some enjoyment out of it.

My goal is to try to blog something everyday, but I will make no promises.

Baby is awake, so I guess that concludes my very first post. =)