Big Day!

I just realized that we missed Cottage 13's 1st birthday! My very first post was on July 27th, 2010. I had no idea that it had already been a year. I guess we have been a bit distracted over here and all the gifts must have gotten lost in the mail. No rush. I also realized I have written over 200 posts. Mouthy Smurf (timely reference).

And speaking of birthdays, today is Dan Hagemann's 35th birthday! Since we are pretty much out of the running for night time celebrations these days, we volunteered to provide the celebratory birthday donuts. Nothing like starting the day with a caffeine and sugar rush!

Donut Tower

Today is also a big day for Miss Annie. She has graduated from her bassinet into her crib. We started to realize that she had about 1 inch clearance on either end in the bassinet and it was time to make the move.

Annie Cam photo. Yes, it is slightly creepy, however I am solidly addicted to watching her on this thing.

So you might be impressed that we moved her to her crib and I am not freaking out or crying about it. I should mention here that we moved her crib into our room. So this is really just a minor step. I am currently using the logic that we cannot regulate the temperature in her room to justify why we moved the crib into our room. I have a few months to come up with another excuse.

Dreaded Milestone

Being a novice to all things baby related, it took my sister Chaney to point out to me that Annie didn't produce tears when she cried. This discussion took place on Annie's first night home from the hospital. Since then, I have been dreading the day when she produced real tears, because that's some real deal crying there. The tears indicate that she means business and without them, I could rationalize that somehow she wasn't that upset.

Well, she got that upset yesterday. It happened on the drive home from GB's house and I guess the combination of cutting it too close to mealtime and a hot car = infant meltdown with real baby tears...And real Mommy heartbreak.

This, of course, was not taken during the meltdown. I am not that cruel. I just wanted to give you a visual on how sweet she looks even when she is being fussy.

I knew this would happen eventually, however I had been secretly hoping it would happen on someone else's watch. I tried to console myself with the logic that at least she was with me and I could soothe her out of this waterworks display....but then I realized that I am not that kind of "glass half full" person and would 100% prefer that she be with someone else for the first teardrop.

2 Months!

Dear Annie,
How is it that you are two months old already? This past month really flew by! You are getting LOTS of sleep at night, and as a result, so are your Mommy and Daddy! Just last night you slept for 10.5 hours straight! I didn't know what to do with myself! We have settled into a bit of a routine and you go to bed every night around 8. Your Dad gives you a bottle and holds you until you get sleepy and you are a very easy baby. You still sleep in some sort of swaddle, with the most intense swaddle being your "pink swaddle", which is commercially known as The Miracle Blanket and is used only at night in our house. Miracle indeed. Though it is not for the weak (infant or parent) as it takes a strong commitment to restraining your child to use this device as it also takes a strong armed baby to break out of it. So far you have only broken one arm out. During the day we are a bit more relaxed about the swaddling and you are usually wrapped with one arm out (or two if you are being swaddled by GB; she's very relaxed on the subject, though I secretly suspect she wants you to wake up so she can talk to you). When only one arm is out, you wave that thing around like an epileptic rodeo rider until you wear yourself out. It is very cute. We are a bit anxious for the end of the swaddling days since it does seem to help you sleep for longer periods. If your Dad and I had our way, you would be swaddled and in the crib in our room until you are 16. We'll try to work out some sort of non-child protective services worthy compromise there.

You did very well for your first week with me back to work. You were watched over at GB's with Liza/Shisha coming over in the afternoons. I cried a bit every day when I left you but I knew you were in good hands. Thankfully my days at work went by quickly and I was able to get home to feed you so I only missed two feedings during the day. Hopefully I will be able to keep this up. This week you will go to stay with a nanny for three days. I fight a lot of anxiety about this but I know you will be fine. It's me I am worried about.

You have started "talking" more and more in the last few weeks, and you LOVE to hear yourself. On Saturday night you started squawking and it made me laugh every time you did it. Then you saw me smile and you smiled back. Then squawked again. This little game could go on for hours. You are a very smiley baby and love to be talked to. As previously mentioned, you love laying on any changing pad and will kick around for as long as we will let you. You are still not a HUGE binkie user, though you will take it from time to time and it helps soothe you when you are fussy. You had a touch of baby acne for a few weeks but that is clearing up now. Our little family is settling into a wonderful routine and we love our new life with you in it. I can't remember what it was like before you were here.

Perspective

A large part of my job used to be overseeing field work, and part of that was being on a job site with whatever consultant was performing the work. I don't know exactly why it happens, but inevitably the consultant ends up sharing WAY to much about their life to me. I used to think this was just because I was such a warm person and easy to talk to. Now I am hearing stories that are told to my employees and I realize that most people are just very uncomfortable with the silence and need to fill it somehow, even if it is talking about how you are a single male and have three cats and visit geology conventions on the weekend.

As I am not in the field too much these days, I haven't heard many stories. But one of my ladies was recently told a story of a admin person for a consultant that had been put on some sort of drug to treat a psychological disorder, which resulted in her passing out at her desk for the better part of the day. And this is in a small 3 person office.

I have had some bad days at work, and it's hard to drag myself in some days, but I have never had to have my boss call my shrink. Suddenly my 9:00 arrival time doesn't seem so bad.

8 Weeks/Day of Doom and Gloom

It is finally upon us; the day I have been dreading for 8 weeks. I am typing this from my work computer. I will keep this short to avoid getting fired for slacking off on day one. My heart is just a little bit broken and I am trying to not think about the fact that the person that has been within wailing distance (and much closer than that for 10 months) for the better part of the past 11 months is now 9 miles away. I am comforted by the fact that she is in the capable hands of GB and Shisha and I trust they will notify me IF THEY NEED ANYTHING. Of course, they are too busy watching my child to read pesky blogs (RIGHT?, put down your iPhone Shisha!), so hounding them here won't do much good.

It is very strange to be away from Annie and I think watching her has brought on some temporary ADD. I get a sense of panic about every 20 minutes or so that I need to be doing something, so focusing is a bit of a problem. I am sure that will fade. I am also resisting the urge to call and check in every 10 minutes. It has now been four hours and I have only called once. I find that kind of restraint very impressive if I do say so mahself (to quote Lynnie's voice).

Here are some pics from the past week:

Daddy T-shirt and jean shorts. Classic.

And she really does love her Dad. Currently she loves to hear him whistle and watch concert videos on his iPad.

Turns out she loves her a good changing pad. We are thinking of scrapping the crib and just buying another changing pad for her to sleep on. She is instantly happy no matter if she's on the pad at our house or the one at GB and Big Daddy's. And there's good light at their house on the changing pad as well. This will likely result in 99% of the pictures of her as an infant will be of her on a changing pad. Is that strange? Better than of her screaming her head off, I guess.

I took this picture right before I left her at Mom's this morning. I am shocked I actually got her face as it was hard to focus through the tears. Don't let that smiling face fool you, I am sure she's crying on the inside.

7 Weeks!

I remember my last day of work before maternity leave and thinking that 8 weeks seemed like an eternity. Um...not so much. I cannot believe I am at the last week of my leave. The thought makes me miserable so I try not to think about it too much. We have been busy in the past week.

Annie went to the doctor. She now weighs 9 lbs, 11 oz (32nd percentile), she is now 22 inches long (up two inches since birth, 57th percentile) and her head circumference is 15 inches (up from around 13.5 inches at birth, 67th percentile). According to Dr. Eaton, she is perfect, which we knew already. And since she is gaining weight steadily, we were told we could let her sleep through the night if she doesn't wake up. Up until that appointment, we had been waking her around 2-3 in the morning for a feeding. Of course, since that green light, it has only happened once, though we are still getting good stretches of sleep from around 9-3 and then 3-6 or 7. No complaints there! The low point of the appointment was the Hepatitis B shot she received. The nurse made me hold her, administered the shot, and then was out of the room so fast I hardly realized it had happened. I then focused on my daughter's face silently turning a shade of deep purple as she opened her mouth in a (temporarily) silent scream. Poor thing. She and I sobbed in the room together for a bit, then regained our composure enough to leave the room. Rick promised he would come to the next appointment so she can think that both of us are torturing her.

On Saturday we were spectators at Tour de Donut. We have participated in this event the past two years but thanks to Annie (and my concern that Rick may spontaneously develop diabetes if he did this again) we just got to hang out this year. Part of the ride goes through downtown Staunton, Il, where they are holding their annual Rib Fest. Rick and I always talked about how good it smelled when we would ride through, so we figured we were obligated to stop by since we don't often end up in Staunton.

To say it was disappointing would be an understatement. Rick and I will now be calling anything that totally sucks and results in you being miserable a "Rib Fest". You would think you could obtain ribs at this event where there are people lining the streets with bbq grills and smokers. Oh noooo! Those are the contestants. All guests to the rib fest must choose between 3-4 tents with random food stuffs (mexican, chinese, and fish were the ones I remembered). All of which had long lines. Did I mention it was 1 bazillion degrees and we had a baby with us? Total Rib Fest. Thankfully we were able to get out of there without wasting any money and giving Annie a heat stroke.

This happened to be the highlight of Rib Fest. These free thinkers brought their own hot tub! I try hard not to think about what is going on in that water. Annie was wearing jean shorts and as she has no teeth, she fit right in!

Water, water, everywhere and not a drop to drink.

Aunt Shisha seen here practicing her Annie skillz in preparation of next week's babysitting venture while I return to work. She managed to remain stone still for an hour so Annie got in a good nap.

And here is your pic from ye ole changing pad. For the record, this is the only place in the house that has enough natural light where I don't have to use a flash. I hate using the flash.

Annie and I will spend the next week lunching with friends and relaxing. You can count on there being many naps and snuggling marathons. I will probably buy some lottery tickets so we can hit it big and I won't have to go back to work. You can't win if you don't play!

Warning

If you are ever watching Annie and she makes this face...

....Do NOT remove her diaper. Ride that storm out for 5 minutes, minimum.

Trust me.

6 weeks/what day is it???

Silly holiday weekend almost made me miss my Monday update! I am praying you all have better things to do than check our blog on the 4th of July, so I am going to keep it brief.

I didn't want to jinx it when it first happened on Thursday night of last week, so I didn't mention it here, but our gal has been sleeping 6-8 hours at a time! In a cruel twist of irony, we are so freaked out when she does this that we have trouble sleeping. There's also the fear that it is not medically advisable for a child that is 5 weeks old to sleep for that long (it makes her miss at least one feeding session) that's lingering in my head. We will know if we have been starving her when she gets weighed in on Friday at the doctor. Until then, we are living under the old adage "never wake a sleeping baby".

Here are some pics from the last week. She doesn't appear to be wasting away....