New Pictures!

You've asked for them...here ya go! These are all from the last week or two (15 weeks old - ish).

Having a meal


Superbaby!


Wha?


Wearing my Valentine's outfit with my first Valentine


Standing up on the floor like a big girl


Out to brunch with Mommy, Daddy and some friends. The staff were very impressed with how good I was.


Being this cute is a full time job.


Daddy's thumb is delicious




I'll chew on just about anything these days...even my burp cloth


My new toy Sophie the Giraffe


She is just the right size for chewing. She also squeeks like a doggie toy...Daphne and Trixie would love to get their paws on Sophie.


Mommy's camera was doing fun and weird things the other day


Looking cute in my hoody


Sitting on the couch chewing on my caterpillar this morning...notice I'm losing my hair!!!

Week 15

Can you believe Cleo is 15 weeks old already? Everytime I see someone new at work they are like "you are back already?". Everyone thinks I took a short maternity leave.

Cleo seems to be settling in nicely to daycare. We have a nice little routine going and it seems to be working at the moment. I get up at 6am and get ready for work...I get 30 minutes. Jeff gets up at 6:30am and gets ready for work while I get Cleo dressed, change her and prepare her bottle. Then Jeff feeds her while I pump and get her bottles ready for daycare. I leave at 7am and am at work by 8am. Jeff drops Cleo at daycare between 7:15 and 7:45 and then heads in to work himself. I leave work at 4pm and if everything is running smoothly, am at daycare to pick her up a little after 5pm. We are home by 5:30...sometimes she is sleeping, sometimes not. We usually just hang out for a little while and Jeff arrives home by 6pm. Typically by 6 she is all done for the day and the cranky comes out. I give her a bath, then we put on her jammies and she gets a bottle. We try to have her in bed by 7pm. Then we make dinner, I get her bottles ready for the next day, etc. She usually wakes up a few times and we have to go upstairs and put the binky in her mouth or give her more bottle or rock her a bit. Sometimes we put her down and she doesn't wake up until she wants to be fed again (typically between 10 and 11pm). I usually go to bed around 10...she always wakes up when I go to bed. Then she is up again between 2 and 3am. Sometimes this is a quick bottle and back to bed. Other times, like last night, she is up for a while. Then we start the whole thing over again at 6am. Whew!

She is such a cutey though! She is always smiling in the morning when she wakes up and is typically very talkative first thing. I guess she is telling us about her dreams. She is definitely at her best in the morning.

She is getting so strong! She still loves to stand up and is now doing stomach "crunches" if she is reclined. One of her teachers says that this could indicate she'll be an early crawler. She does not like to be lying down unless she is getting a bottle. She likes to sit up and look around. During tummy time she can already lift her chest up off the mat too. She is super interactive and loves looking around. She notices the dogs now too, but doesn't seem to know what they are or seem interested in touching them or anything. She can reach and grasp objects that are hanging on her swing or chair. She will be able to sit up in a high chair soon I think as well. She loves chewing on things and is able to bring an object to her mouth. I think I need to invest in a new vacuum cleaner now because she'll be trying to eat dog hair dust bunnies soon enough! I'll have to vacuum everyday. In fact, I'm in the market for one of these little numbers:
http://www.amazon.com/Dirt-Devil-M083424-AccuCharge-STAR-Approved/dp/B0014A89OY/ref=pd_sbs_k_3

Early Christmas present, anyone??? :)

She is also losing her hair. She has about half the hair she once did and it is all patchy. I think she has another layer underneath that is growing in at the same time though so I don't think she'll end up bald.

I took some pictures of her playing with her Daddy last night but forgot to bring my camera to work today. I'll post some pics over the weekend if I can.

First week back in the real world

So this was our first week back in the real world. I spent all day Sunday preparing everything for Cleo, Jeff and myself, so that our week would get off to a good start. Because I am not a morning person, I knew that the more I did on Sunday, the better off we would all be. Jeff was recovering from a 3-day stomach bug, so he basically watched Cleo while I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off all day.

Monday started out well enough. I was up on time. Got myself ready to go. I got Cleo up and dressed, packed her bottles and handed her over to Daddy so I could be out the door on time. Perfection! I even arrived to work 5 minutes early! I started in on the coffee and had 3 cups before my first meeting at 10am. I ate a bit of oatmeal as well. During my second meeting at 11am I started to feel a bit queasy. I chalked it up to too much coffee and not enough breakfast. Lunchtime rolled around and I stared blankly at the salad I had so lovingly prepared for myself the day before thinking, "Am I really supposed to eat this?". Odd. Something wasn't right. I got about halfway through the salad, which I was forcing down and realized...I am getting sick. Oh no. Almost immediately I knew that salad wasn't staying down for long! Needless to say, Jeff had to come pick me up early from work because I was too scared that I'd get sick on the T. By the time he came to get me I could barely make it to the bathroom in time. Gross. So I spent the last 2 days back in bed. Lovely timing, no? What a triumphant way to return to work.

Although when I returned to work today I found these waiting for me, sent by Daddy and Cleo...


So pretty!!!

So anyway, things got off to a bit of a rocky start for us, but they can only go up from here! Cleo seems to be doing well at daycare. Her caregivers have no complaints. She eats every 3 hours like clockwork and has been fitting in a couple of 30 minute naps and one longer nap. They say she isn't fussy unless she is hungry or tired...so I guess she is saving the crankiness for when she gets home! Boy is she grumpy at night!

Last night I put her down about an hour after she came home and it seemed to work out great. She went to bed without a fight and slept well for most of the night.

I don't have any super-recent pictures right now, but I'll be sure to take some this weekend and post them here asap.