middle of the night ramblings

So it's a little after 11 here and I am the only one awake. Troy and Aubrey have both been asleep for over an hour now and I am not tired at all! In fact, I have a surprising amount of energy right now. While I was changing Aubrey I started to think about how much I like my wipe warmer and thought "I should make a list of all my favorite must-haves for a first time mom." But then I thought, maybe people would think that was boring and annoying. I always thought it was kind of annoying when people tried to impose their own personal ideas and thoughts on me while I was pregnant. But then I thought, duh people can figure out what works and what doesn't work when their babies are here, but what about while they are still pregnant? It's weird, lately I have been wanting to be pregnant again (which is crazy because at least in my earlier stages of pregnancy I really didn't enjoy it much). But the whole idea that you forget all of the pain of childbirth and all of the struggles of pregnancy the second your baby is born is true, or at least it was for me. So now I am enjoying my beautiful baby girl and realizing that I missed out on some of the fun things that I could have (and should have) enjoyed before she even came into our home as a little baby. So I will not impose my views onto you and say that you need to have a wipe warmer and a bouncy seat and a bebe pod and some of those velcro swaddlers because you already know that and if you don't then you'll figure out what works for you. And anyway, what do I know? But I am going to bore you with some new ideas that are dear to me because I wish that I had known then a year ago and I hope that if I happen to forget these things I can look at this and remember them next time. So here is my list of things to do while you're pregnant:

20. Stop trying to fit into booths at around 8 months to avoid embarrasements
19. Enjoy eating hot food while you can because soon you will rarely eat your food before it's cold
18. Figure out a way to stay home and not have to go back to work. (still working on that one)
17. Video tape when the baby kicks. You can see your belly move and you forget how amazing it is
16. Don't get annoyed when you need to keep moving your car seat back to drive.
15. When you are nausious and throwing up remember that it won't last forever.
14. Spend time with your husband because you won't get those date nights back for a while
13. Rub your belly. I remember how fun that was and I miss it
12. Don't let yourself stress out about the baby. Odds are he or she is going to be fine.
11. Take pictures of yourself every month to show your progress. Some months are just "missing"
10. If they don't know 100% boy or girl, don't ask what they think it might be!
9. Plan on being way more in love with your baby than you can imagine
8. SLEEP! SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP!
7. Start a blog :)
6. Eat what you like but remember that your baby doesn't weigh 40 lbs... I could have sworn mine did!
5. Exercise (see #6)
4. Take lots of video and pictures of you and your husband at the hospital
3. Get a cute haircut if you don't already have one. It will help in those last months when you are feeling less that beautiful.
2. Enjoy the attention you get because pretty soon you'll be your baby's accessory
1. Thank God every day for the amazing job He has allowed you to do

So there are my 2 cents for tonight. Like I said, you don't have to take any of my advice and it isn't even applicable to a lot of you. I guess I just wanted to share my thoughts because I am realizing that my love for Aurbrey started a little less than a year ago when I found out I was pregnant and I really am truly blessed to have gone through this journey.



*** Side Note - I have made it so that anyone can leave comments now. Sorry for the confusion earlier I didn't realize I had regulations set for them! Feel free to leave comments! ***

2 month check-up

what a little angel




what a chunker - look at that tummy!



resting with daddy



celebrating Troy's birthday at Ditkas - with Ditka! Daaaaa Bears




"Look Ma, I can sit!"



bath time



"...choo!"



Can you believe she came home in this outfit? Look how big it was on her in previous posts! Now it barely fits!



This used to be the only outfit that fit her little body...

This morning was Aubrey's 2 month check-up and it went great! She is 11lb 13oz, 22 1/2 in long and totally on track as far as her growth is concerned. It was fun to see that she is doing well but if you have ever taken your baby in for his or her 2 month visit you know that it's not very fun - they get the first set of vaccines at this visit. Aubrey did a great job though and only cried when the shots were being given and actually smiled at the nurse when they were done! It was nice to see that she wasn't too upset by all of it. She slept the whole way home and about an hour afterwards in her carseat once we got in and since then she has been napping on and off and in a fairly good mood and so far no fever so that's a relief! The rest of our day looks like getting a lot of laundry done now that our washer is fixed and letting Aubrey recoup from her big day. I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

8 weeks and counting

I can't believe our little baby girl is almost 2 months old already. She has outgrown many of her newborn clothes and is almost out of her 0-3 month clothes already! It is so fun to dress her up pretty! I feel like I am playing house with one of my baby dolls but she is more fun for sure. She is getting really good at her nighttime schedule by sleeping 5 or more hours for her first big stretch of the night. I usually try to put her down at 11 or so and then she will sleep until 4 at least but usually 5. After that she is up every 2 hours or so which is not too bad since I have already gotten a pretty decent chunk of sleep already. What a good daughter to let mommy sleep!

Troy's parents have been visiting us here in Chicago since the beginning of May so we have gotten lots of practice being out with the baby. So far Aubrey is doing pretty well. We have learned that by 5 or so she gets CRANKY but besides that she is good. I think she gets tired but doesn't want to go to sleep so she gets frustrated too - not a good combination. Luckily during the night when she is sleeping she can put herself to sleep so when I'm done feeding her I just burp her and put her back in the bassinet and she lays there quietly until she's asleep - again, what a blessing she is!

This past week I went to my daycare center where I work and discussed my hours for when I will return to work. It looks like I will be working in a 2 year old room for the summer and will work about 7:30-1:00 with a 1/2 hour break in there to go and feed little Aubery. This will work out great because with the warm weather it is easier to get up earlier in the morning and then I will have the whole day out of work and I can also keep Aubrey on a normal breast feeding schedule which was extremely important to me. Come fall I will be back with my little angels in the Kindergarten and after school programs and will be working 11:45-5:45. In the fall I will also be able to keep Aubery on her regular schedule. This makes going back to work much easier for me and her. We were really blessed for me to find this job.

I don't have a ton more to update you on. I don't usually go on and on like this with my writing but I feel like I haven't shared anything with you all in a while. Troy has discovered that Aubrey calms down and actually seems to enjoy sitting on his lap and watching the bright colors of his iTunes visualizer (if you don't have iTunes it is basically psychedelic looking colors that stream across the screen while the song plays). It's a pretty funny sight to see. Troy's sister, Jill, and her boyfriend are coming in to Chicago tonight at midnight so we will get to spend this weekend with them which we are really looking forward to!

I will stop boring you with all of this. Thanks for tuning in!

Picture Time!

We finished up our photo shoot tonight with Aubrey and I thought you might enjoy looking at them! If you are interested you can see them at www.flashportraits.com and look under "My Portraits" then put our last name Bartholomew and then the password is Aubrey. There are 2 sessions so take a look at both!

We're All Smiles!

Happy Mother's Day to all of my family members, friends, and expectant friends as well! I hope you all had as great of a day as I did. This mother's day was of course my first and it was an unexpectedly emotional experience for me. It was so wonderful to be able to spend this day with my family.

Things around here have been changing every day. The biggest two changes are smiling and sleeping (for me they go hand in hand!) You can see in the pictures above that Aubrey has discovered how to smile and is doing it all the time! It is so absolutely adorable to see her little lips form that cute smile and sometimes she even laughs a bit. To hear that little giggle of hers is an especially fun experience. As far as sleep goes it appears that we have reached a new territory of "sleeping through the night"as they call it. For the last 4 or 5 nights Aubrey has been sleeping about 4 hours and then waking up to eat and then sleeping another couple but last night she slept a whole 5 before waking me up! This is so exciting to me because I am finally getting into REM sleep again which means I can feel really rested during the day. It was so weird to notice that since I wasn't sleeping long I was never having any dreams! What a blessing this new sleep pattern is!

Besides smiling and sleeping Aubrey is doing lots of growing up. She is fully into 3 month clothes and honestly probably won't fit in them much longer because they are about maxed out on her as it is. She is also very active, as she always has been. She doesn't like to be held like a baby anymore being cradled in your arms, she always prefers to be sitting up or even standing by her own strength. I am waiting for her to just stand up and walk around one of these days! It's scary how strong she is! She also slept for her first nap in her crib yesterday which is the picture of her in the black dress. It is exciting to see how my little girl is growing and developing so well (and early in many cases) I just hope she stays my baby girl for a little while longer!

She's Growing Fast!

I don't have a ton to report right now. It has been pretty much business as usual for a while here. Aubrey is sleeping 2 1/2 to 3 hours at a time at night so I am up about 2 or 3 times at least each night but the good part is that she goes to sleep immediately after I feed her. In fact, I don't even need to put her to sleep I can just lay her in her bassinet and she puts herself to sleep! Works well for me because I am on a schedule now of waking up at certain times and I can pretty much get the right amounts of sleep to function like a human during the day without having to nap all the time! It feels so good to start feeling normal again!

Aubrey had her one month visit to the doctor this week. I was excited to find out that she has grown from 7lb 4oz at birth to a whopping 10lb 1oz! She has also grown 2 inches in length. I am so happy to see our girl getting bigger and stronger and healthier by the day. She is growing so much that she is outgrowing many of her clothes that she wore when we brought her home from the hospital. In fact, she can fit into some 3 month clothes already! It is both a happy and a bit sad thing to watch her grow up but I keep finding myself feeling the same way - that I don't want her to outgrow the stage that she is in. The funny thing is that I felt like that when she was 1 week then at 2 weeks and so on until now when she is almost 6 weeks old! I realize now that I fall in love with her every day over and over again and I really don't want her to go back to being a day old because then I couldn't be with the baby that she has grown to be now. What a sweet little blessing we have been given. I can't wait to see what she becomes as she continues to grow and mature.

I am very excited to finally spend some time with Troy this weekend. He has been working tons of extra hours at work and works late every day of the week and also works at least one if not both of the weekend days every week. I am fortunate to have a husband that works so hard which has allowed me to take an extra month off of work to stay home and also cut back the amount of hours I will work when I return. I don't mean to look boastful in this entry, I just want to share the wonderful things that are happening in my life with the people I care about. I hope everyone out there reading this is doing well and enjoying the (hopefully) beauty of Spring!