Blog is Dead

I think it might be time to shut down this blog as you can see I've hardly had any time to blog on here to give you updates on our family. Really, nothing new but the ordinary has happened and I like it that way. Maybe one day when I finally get to be crafty I'll start blogging again.

Happy 2012!

Classes start Monday!

Wow, this summer sure did fly by! I can't believe Ellie will turn nine months on Sunday!

I'm feeling more nervous about this upcoming school year than my previous years. The university where I work at has decided to change a few things on us. First, students are able to make appointments to see advisors through a calendar system. However, this system was suppose to be up and running yesterday but instead they pushed it back to the first day of school. In the past we've done appointments by having students sign up on a sheet of paper. We've been told by leadership that we can't do any in-house marketing until it has been released. I'm nervous how this will affect things for me since we need to keep notes there and notes in our files. I feel like it's double the work.

Second, the FERPA process has changed. FERPA is a law (in a nutshell) where students have to give permission for a parent to call the university to find out any kind of information about the student. Previously, this permission was given on paper and we then sent the paperwork to the registrar's office and we could see in the system who was granted access. Since Linda could really be Jane, there's now a 4 digit code parents have to give to us to verify that she is indeed Linda and not Jane.

So all summer long parents kept calling us and we had to be very careful on how we disclosed information. Luckily for me, most of my students called me when they had a problem.

Third, this year we were asked to pre-register international students. I, unfortunately, had two transfer international students. You cannot imagine how much more difficult it is to build their schedule. I mean is biophysics our equivalent of Engineering Physics? Let me take a look at the course description...oh it's written in Spanish. *sigh* So needless to say, courses aren't getting articulated and classes are filling up.

We have huge enrollment numbers this year which is really a great thing but not enough seats. Chemistry Lab is completely filled. I have two students that need to get into a lab. There aren't enough Chemistry seats either so we're being allowed to just "push them in." Whether they get a seat in a chair is another story. I say let's just move Chemistry lecture to Chaifetz Arena (our university arena) or open up the Chemistry section for just chemistry majors to all students.

In other news, Ellie is now mobile. Well sort of. She does prefer to sit up but if she's on her tummy she will scoot around. I'm wondering when she'll get to crawling. We have to be super careful with her. All in one week she fell off our bed and while Eric was holding her, she decided to lean back and push away from Eric, startling him and he could not catch her in time. We started nicknaming her "Evel Kni-Ellie."

Feeling Disappointed

I know it's been a while since I have posted on my blog here. This summer flew by. June was consumed with Freshmen Orientation at work and I began an eight week summer course. July was overtaken with the summer course involving intense research. I sighed a huge relief when I turned in my paper on July 29th and rejoiced in early August when I found out that I received an A in the course.

Ellie is now 8 months old, scooting around, displaying signs of separation anxiety (luckily it doesn't last long), and has six teeth! She is Eric's and mine's pride and joy.

Unfortunately, the past couple of weeks I've hit a roadblock. For the past several months I had been proud to be able to provide Ellie with breastmilk. It helps me with the guilt of taking her to daycare. Although I admit I could not be a stay at home mom. I love the idea of working part time to spend more time with her.

However, the past week all of the sudden I've stopped producing as much milk. So I went back to my regime of drinking nursing tea and Fenugreek. I had a couple good days and then back to where my problems began. If I was still in school or if it was freshmen orientation I would understand or have a reason for this. However, at this point I don't. I'm trying my hardest not to be so hard on myself and not to get disappointed that mother nature has a different path for me.

Daycare

It's interesting when you talk to other moms about childcare. One person, not knowing my situation, stated that her mother in law from India was watching her baby and does not trust daycare. Luckily, I'm able to keep my nonjudgemental look that I learned through my counseling days. However, I think a lot about the pros and cons of daycare.

I personally cannot see myself as a stay at home mom. I wish I was a part time stay at home mom with the ability to go to work part time and stay connected to the adult world. Eric and I aren't rich enough for a live in nanny, so we're happy with daycare, even though the amount we pay per week makes us cringe.

I admit I wasn't happy with our daycare in the beginning, mainly due to administrative reasons. First, it took forever for us to get a tour and for someone to call us back. Then, the business manager didn't know how to do math. Third, it took a good two months to get a door code. Eric stated the entire time that the most important thing was Ellie's care. She was in great hands. I cannot rave enough about the teachers that take care of her.

Yesterday, I dropped Ellie off in the playroom. It's a large room where the little kids get together from other rooms to play. It's kind of like recess, but indoors. There was someone that I did not recognize, Ms. Kim. One of Ellie's daycare teachers, Miss Charlene explained to me that Ms. Kim often comes in to hold Ellie and she works with the older kids. Which explains why Ms. Kim's eyes lite up when I brought Ellie in and quickly gave Miss Charlene a boy (the newest infant) she was holding and took Ellie instead. Ellie is clearly Ms. Kim's favorite little girl. It warms my heart that Ellie can brighten the days of so many people, I know Eric and mine's for sure! Even if it's at 4:30 a.m!

He's Not Enrique Iglesias!

Ellie has found her "shrieking" voice. I knew she found it a while back ago but it went away. However, it started resurfacing a few days ago. Friday night, Ellie and I were dancing to Justin Bieber's Baby song and Eric walked in. She got so excited in my arms and she started shrieking like the girls shriek in the concert when the band comes on stage. I said to Ellie, "he's not Enrique Iglesias" and Eric took Ellie and started singing, "I can be your hero, baby. I can kiss away your tears...."

I love these moments.

Six Months Old Already!?!

Where has the time gone? I honestly don't know. Ellie has grown up so much. However, since being in daycare for the past 13 weeks I would say about 2/3 of the time there she has been sick.

I never like to bring her there sick, but, when you spend all of your maternity leave on caring for a tiny baby that doesn't leave much time for me to be away from work taking care of a sick baby. Luckily Eric is able to "work" from home and take care of her a few times.

Last week was pretty rough. On Friday night/Saturday morning she woke up at 2, 4 and 6 a.m. I told Eric that we were definetely going to take her to see the pediatrician in the morning. I called that morning and were luckily able to get a visit in at 11:45. As I suspected, the pediatrician told me there was nothing wrong with her and just to run the humidifier and give saline drops. I had a feeling she had an ear infection and because the long weekend was ahead due to Memorial Day I wanted to be sure that she was checked out.

Then this past Wednesday she had her six month wellness visit with a different pediatrician. Our regular pediatrician is on maternity leave so we welcomed a very socially awkward female pediatrician. She was nice but when she checked Ellie she said that she did in fact have an ear infection. I was so upset because on Saturday night I decided to let Ellie cry it out. I fear that she was indeed in pain and may have wanted to be comforted. Although the pediatrician assured me that there's no telling when it could have started I just felt terrible. I also wondered if we did not have a wellness exam that day, how many more days would she be suffering? So 10 days of antibiotics and another check up in two weeks.

Ellie is 26 3/4 inches long, 16 pounds and 11 ounces at her six month check up. She is in the 97% percentile in length and 75% in weight.

Eric and I debated for a while in regards to solids. We did a lot of research and there were a lot of conflicting reports in regards to this topic. Actually, there's a lot of conflicting report about everything (i.e. Baby 411 says put the child to bed earlier, they wake up later while What to Expect the First Year states put the child to bed later, they'll wake up later). We noticed at 4 months she was definitely not ready for solids because she would use her tongue to block things (i.e. a toy) which we learned was a sign she was not ready.

In regards to breastfeeding I read a lot of material that stated that once I started feeding solids my supply would decrease. Naturally with working I did not want that to happen so we decided to hold off. However, this past Saturday we gave her a serving of rice cereal which she found interesting. It was fun but now the real challenge begins tomorrow when Eric and I will make baby food for the first time.

I have been fortunate to have a boss that allows me to pump 3 times a day. I also have a wonderful coworker that helps dodge the question of "Where's Nancy?" when students can't read my sign that says "I'm currently unavailable, please return in 20 minutes." Trust me, engineering male students just don't have the maturity to know what's really going on in those 20 minutes. I've done so well so far that I have a huge freezer stash and only a few bags left to store frozen milk. Just yesterday I had to freeze 12 ounces of milk because Ellie wasn't going to get to them within seven days.

Along with food, I kind of made an executive decision to begin putting Ellie to bed earlier. We used to put her to bed at 8, but then it became 7 and now it's become 6:30. Unfortunately, this means Eric has less time to play with Ellie at night because he usually gets home around 6. Then we read a few books and I nurse then she either cries or goes to sleep since she's awake when I put her down to bed. I really hate her crying to sleep but I hear from many people that it's the best way. So I'm trying it.

At this point, we still haven't evicted Ellie out of our room. We plan to do it this weekend but I admit I'm a little nervous. We've done a lot of straightening and just need to buy black out curtains, install the doors, and curtain rods before we can move her. It'll be a challenge for all of us but we also want to let her cry it out in the middle of the night instead of having to get up and sticking a pacifier in her mouth.

I can't believe Ellie is six months old and can already do so much. I oftentimes want time to stop so I can treasure this moment a little longer.

New Milestones

Ellie turns five months in one week. I've noticed that we've blogged less and have taken less photos. We should probably fix that.

I hope once I get my ten page paper finished I'll have more time to focus on getting other things done. I'd like to start cleaning but shopping is always more interesting. I can't wait until the weather is nice but not hot. Walks around the Central West End sounds great.

I also want to start seeing more of my friends. I've been sheltered lately, trying to focus on spending as much time with Ellie as I can. She's getting so big and as of last night she slept with both arms out of her swaddle. She does a 360 in the crib and is still getting up once or twice in the middle of the night. I hope that will end soon.

The memories of the early days together as a family are becoming faint. I sit and try to think how did we survive that first month? Where did all the time go? Time is flying by so fast yet so much has happened.

Ellie loves to laugh for strangers. She loves daycare and I know this because she refuses to look at me when I drop her off. She also loves us and I know this because she smiles and laughs when we pick her up from daycare. I know she's having a good time.

Eric and I are in love with Ellie. We can't get enough of her and we can't stop snuggling and kissing her.