She's Putting On Weight!

We had Gracie's follow up appointment today and she has gained 4 oz since last week and.......drum roll please........she weighs 12 pounds!! She's really making great improvements just in the short time she has been home. She had 3 shots and she howled a bit but she did really well. She's such a trooper. She was especially snugly tonight which was fantastic. She gets that I'm her mommy and that I'm her go to person for cuddles and snuggles. I never believed it was possible to love anyone as much as I love this child.

I must say that mother hood has brought about some changes I hadn't quite expected. I thought I would do bit of a count down just to shake things up on the old blog.

1. Before I had Grace, I could not imagine caring about another person's bowel movements. Seriously, I just couldn't fathom that and the second you become a mother you think "Did they poop today? Was it enough? Was it too much? Was it the wrong color?

2. Purses are over rated. I used to love a good purse. Nothing too pricey but the bigger the better. We were home about 24 hours when I discovered that a diaper bag and a baby carrier did not mix with a big ol' purse. I now have a much smaller purse that fits in the diaper bag. High fashion, no, but believe me, less is more.

3. You can pick up the same room 74 times in a day and you will still probably end the day with it being a mess. When it was just me, it was pretty simple to keep the living room neat. Now, as soon as I pick it up it's messy again. I don't understand how this happens.

4. Dishwashers are not just an appliance, they're your best friend. I used to run my dishwasher once a week. I now run it daily and up until last Friday when I bought some more bottles, I was running it twice a day. I don't know how people survive without it.

5. There are two people in our house but it feels like we do laundry for 8. Honestly, I know babies go through a lot of clothes, but now, so do I. If she spits up it inevitably lands on me and sometimes I can go through a couple of shirts. I have never enjoyed doing laundry so I'm sure this is Karma biting me in the back for some bad deed because I feel like all I do is laundry these days.

6. A baby's giggle should be bottled and sold.

7. Having a baby has solved my insomnia. I'm a really bad sleeper. Well, I was a really bad sleeper. If I got 6 hours of sleep a night it was a miracle and those 6 hours were almost never consecutive. Now, I got to bed and man I sleep until I hear her wake up. Last night I went to bed at 11:00 and she didn't wake up until 6:30 and I didn't wake up once in between.

8. There is tremendous joy in Christmas shopping for your baby. I was in the mall last night and I wished I had a name tag that read "I'm a real mom out shopping for her baby's first Christmas." I was in Sears looking for a little sweater to go over her Christmas dress and I was just thrilled when the sales lady asked if she could help me and I got to tell her I was looking for something for my daughter. It really is the little joys in life that make it worth while.

My dad has been complaining that I have not been posting enough pictures so here are some new ones especially for him.

Bliss

There really is nothing better than sitting at your computer, typing blog entry and trying to keep your 8 month old fingers from the keys while she coos delightful, happy baby sounds. This is exactly what I waited for and I have to say it's better than I imagined. I think I won the baby lottery. She sleeps from about 7:30p.m. until 5:00a.m.. wakes for a bottle and then goes back down for 2 more hours. She likes to lay on the blanket her Auntie Dee made for her and play with her toys and coo and giggle. She ADORES her cousins Meghan and Jake and thinks that are the funniest people on the planet. She thinks her Uncle Dennis hung the moon and her Auntie Kate makes the funniest noises. Wait til she meets the rest of the family!

She's really easy going for the most part. Remember my baby who didn't eat much? well she eats every 3 hours now and you best not be one second late with the bottle or the world will know it. We go for a weight check tomorrow so I hope we'll see an improvement. When we went last week she was 11lbs, 12 oz.

She does cry but mostly when she's tired or hungry but she's pretty easily consolable. Every morning when I walk into her room she greets me with a million dollar smile. Like she's just been waiting for her mommy. When I feed her she holds onto my finger and with her other hand she touches my face. Right now as I type her head is on my shoulder and she is patting me on the back. I cherish every moment because I know it won't last forever. For a long time I wondered if I would ever be a mother and now there is a living, breathing, smiling, pooping baby girl in my house. She is more than I could have dreamed of.

I can't remember the last time I was so excited about Christmas. My tree is up, I'm about half way done with shopping and my sister and her family will arrive next Sunday. This year my parents will have all 5 grandchildren together. What a gift for all of us.

This week Grace and I will be making some visits to my current job and my former job, as well as a visit to my dad's office so he can show off the newest grandchild. She really handles things well. She's really becoming very social and is just a delight. Yes, I'm basking in the new motherhood glow, and yup, my bubble will pop soon enough but for now, I can't imagine life getting much better than this.