Back to Work!

It's officially the end of my first week back at work after 7 weeks of maternity leave! I must say, it went MUCH better than anticipated. This is due in part to the fact that little Stella is almost always in earshot, if not eye sight while I work:) Working from home is HARD without a baby - it is not as glamorous and relaxing as one would imagine. However, the highlight of working from home now is that my lunch break is filled with me getting to see Stella all I want:) While I wish this were a permanent fixture in our lives, it's only temporary:( We have a wonderful nanny who's keeping Stella here at the house for the next 8 weeks, at which time we'll put Stella in daycare. I wish we could keep our nanny forever, but it just isn't cost effective to keep working and pay a nanny - I may as well stay home with her, and for now I like my career. The main reason we're doing this is to let Stella get a bit older before we throw her to the wolves (aka put her in daycare with...duh duh DUH...the 'public', as my mother and grandmother so lovingly refer to it). At that point, she'll almost be 4 months old and I think she'll handle daycare just fine. The daycare we hope to get into is literally right around the corner. I could put her in the stroller and walk her to daycare, it's that close. Fingers crossed they have a spot for us when its time to register!

It's Friday night and I won't spend any more time blogging, but I did want to say that the first week back has been great. I know it may actually get worse, and I'm prepared for that, I am just thankful that we had a good first week to ease into our new life! Stella rocks!

Stella Smiles!

Stella: "OMG I am soo excited I can finally smile!!! You people are hilarious!"

Yes, we caught Stella's first real smile on camera! Doesn't this just brighten up your day!? She's just so stinkin' cute!!!

Life with a Newborn

...so I've read how to care for a newborn and how to feed a newborn and play with a newborn and swaddle a newborn, and I've also read how to do all of these things with an infant a bit older...so now I'm learning what to do with myself! For instance, daily showers are just now coming back into my daily repertoire since all the 'help' has been gone. My helpers made sure I had time to myself to shower or nap whenever I wanted, and boy did I appreciate that! We had it pretty good for those first three weeks, having my mom, then my dad, then Matt's mom and then Mae Mae come stay with us for anywhere from 3 days to a week and a half! Now that its just me and sweet Stella every day, I have to relearn how to create and tweak our daily schedule.

I kept reading how awful those first weeks home can be because both mom and dad are so unaware and unprepared for a new baby that needs to be taken care of 24/7...but for us, that was not the case! The first 2 weeks flew by without any problems. Even the nightly feedings every 2 hours didn't really bother us that much. I must say, prior to giving birth I was preparing myself for an all out breakdown on my part as a new mommy...for those who know me, I'm pretty high strung as it is and so I'd planned on being pretty stressed out and welcomed all the help we could get. I have been so pleasantly surprised with how we've adjusted to life with Stella:)

Things have definitely changed, though. For instance, the highlight of my alone time this week was being able to soak in the tub and read "Happiest Baby on the Block" with a glass of wine - this replaced the usual quick shower, and if I time it right, I may be able to enjoy a glass of wine IN that quick shower...I got this idea from a friend of mine who enjoys coffee in the shower now that she has a newborn, too! My daily pampering ritual has been replaced with making sure I remember to use lanolin after I nurse and trying to slap on a bit of body lotion before Stella cries...and lets not even mention make up. When I left the house pre-Stella, I almost always at least had applied concealer and mascara. These days, when I even venture to leave the house, it's never with make up on:) I was OCD about keeping the house clean, up with laundry, dishes done while pregnant...these days, if the dishes get loaded into the dishwasher once every two days, we are happy! When I get stressed out about the house, I just go over and look at Stella or pick her up and tell myself the time I have with her now is way more important than any load of dirty laundry or dishes that need to be done. Scooping her up and cuddling her close to the side of my head is our fav way to move about the house - she loves this:)

I have about one week left until I'm off of maternity leave and back to work and I honestly do not know how I'll cope. Since I work from home we'll have a nanny come for the first 8 weeks I'm back at work to keep Stella under my watchful eye and adjust to life back at work AND being a new mommy:) Actually, I'll probably be so busy with work I'll have the office door closed - no watching over the shoulder, so I hope our nanny Dawn is good with her! After 8 weeks with the nanny we plan to send her to daycare. Hopefully we will get in to Old Mandeville Preschool which is RIGHT around the corner - Matt's trying to work his magic now on holding a spot for Stella until September:) Please pray for me once I go back to work - I'm not sure how things will play out, but we are hoping for the best! I just hope Matt, Stella and I adjust well to our new way of life!

Stella's First 4th of July - Trip Home to Natchez!

Happy 4th of July! Stella had a lot of firsts this weekend! We celebrated her first 4th of July, her first trip to Natchez and her first trip to the lake!!! Packing for our first road trip was hilarious, I must say. Please keep in mind, we did not take a little 4 door car...we took our Tahoe, so we thought we'd have plenty of room for traveling. WRONG. With our beloved pups, we have to bring our big kennel with us wherever we go, which takes up the ENTIRE trunk space where the third row of seats would have been. Stella goes in one captain's nest seat and I go in the other next to her, with a multitude of bags dispersed between us and our seats. The best part, though, were the looks we got when passing people on the road with my big pram stroller stuffed in the front seat. It looked like we were traveling cross country! I really wish I would have gotten a picture of that!

We had such a good time over the weekend and got to see SO many people!!! We spent most of our time at the lake where Stella was such a good baby. She went to whoever wanted to hold her and barely made a peep. We've got a covered porch at the end of the pier and she was content to stay outside with 2 fans blowing on her for a good while. Of course, she was dressed in her Kelly's Kids bathing suit:)

We had so many visitors this weekend!!! Sarah D and Ryan (who are expecting a little girl of their own in October) were Stella's first Natchez visitors and brought with them the MOST special gift - a handmade quilt made by Ryan's mom, Mrs. Eddie, especially for Stella. It is so beautiful!! We were instructed to USE the quilt and not keep it up on a shelf - so we did! It went to the lake with us and Stella loves it, I just don't have pictures of it right now:)

Tori and Mary Margaret also came to visit - Stella was so excited to meet 2 of her aunts:) We can tell who can sunbath and who stays inside with a newborn, can't we?? I'm 'not so secretly' jealous of your beautiful tans, girls!

Matt, Stella and I got a good family picture at the lake - something I really wanted to do! When we are home  by ourselves, there is no one to take a picture of the three of us, and i'm not about to try using the self timer - that just gives me a headache thinking about the effort!

Stephanie and Andy (soon to be Mr. and Mrs. Andy Guida!!) also came by for a visit! Steph and I, long time friends, were talking about how crazy it is that I have a baby and she is getting married next week and how time FLIES by...wasn't it just yesterday that we were making our own TV food show in my kitchen with do-rags on our heads and aprons on while Bill took silly photos of us??? Didn't we just get through with our Drivers Ed class??? Stephanie, we can't wait to see you next weekend on your Big Day - yay for weddings and babies! By the way, if there were a contest, we'd win the "I Own the Biggest Pair of Sunglasses" Award!

Che Che had all three of her grandgirls together and somehow we got a precious picture with EVERYONE smiling, even though the eldest grandgirls had a big day filled with swimming pool fun, lake swimming, boat and tube riding and splinters:(

We also had a special visit from our friends Holly and Parker - and look at what a wonderful, special gift they made for us - a hand-painted plaque for Stella's room!!! I say "they" because Parker proudly announced he "drilled the holes", so we must give him credit! Holly is one fabulous artist, isn't she?? She's also the graphic designer for Kelly's Kids so I've missed her while on maternity leave! Their beautiful gift is proudly hanging directly over Stella's bed!

We've got more pictures from another camera coming shortly - if I can ever find it!!! We had a wonderful weekend followed up by an even better milestone that occurred today - Stella's first SMILE!!!! Again, if I can find my camera, I'll hopefully get to snap a picture of her smiling for her baby book. Let's hope I didn't leave it in Natchez!

Happy 1 Month Birthday, Estelle Anderson!

Stella is officially 1 month old today! Her birthday was unfortunately commemorated by her one month shot:( in which she cried and so did Mommy. It was heartbreaking - I knew it would not hurt her that badly, about as bad as a shot hurts adults, but it was just so paralyzing hearing her cry and KNOWING what was making her cry and not being able to do anything to stop it. Within 3 minutes of getting the shot she had stopped crying and fell asleep so that was comforting:) Here is a picture of her battle scar - thanks for Bugs Bunny band aids!

This was the easy shot compared to her next few vaccines. They instructed us to bring infant Tylenol to her 2 month appointment because she'll be getting 2 shots which may give her a fever - I've heard these shots are very difficult from baby and Mommy - difficult for baby because it HURTS and you feel pretty rotten afterwards - difficult for Mommy because you are helpless to do anything to avoid the pain...and you know its coming!! I do NOT look forward to this visit!

We are spending her 1 month birthday at home but are looking forward to our weekend in Natchez and at the lake celebrating the 4th with friends and family. We can't wait to see everyone!!! If you'll be at the lake this weekend, feel free to pop over to Mary's Quite Time aka the Foggo-Eidt/Shull/Rinehart/etc... lake house! Lots of love!!!!