Christmas 2010

Christmas this year was a whirlwind of events, it was fun, but we are glad it's over. Between all the celebrations and our Christmas Flu we had a busy time. Here is a run down and a few pictures
Thursday December 23rd:
We had some friends over for our Monthly Couples dinner - we just did appetizers to make it light since we would be eating TONS for the next few days. It was a really good time! We had a rough night sleeping, but we made it through.

Friday December 24th: We hosted Christmas Eve at our place for the Flipp side of my family. We had an awesome time. My parents came over, as well as Claire & Don and Kim & Craig. Mike made his awesome Ham (City Ham on Food Network), it was truly wonderful. Everyone spoiled Gabby, way more than they should have. My Cousin Kim gave Gabby an old rocking chair that her and I used to use at my Grandmothers house. She even made a seat pad and back pad for it. Such a great gift! Thanks Kim!!

And the most exciting part is that Gabby rolled over for the first time!! (see previous post for the video). I was so excited! I yelled for Mike, who thought something was wrong..and she did it about 4 or so more times before getting frustrated with me.

Saturday December 25th - Christmas Day!
Mike and I have a tradition on Christmas Day, it's just for us (our immediate family) and we make Pancakes and open presents. This year was no different except that we had our little peanut pie to open presents with. Mike and I didn't have any gifts to open because we had bought our Dishwasher and a microwave, so those were our Christmas presents to each other.

We had another rough night of sleeping, so Gabby and I took a nap around 11 and then after we got up we drove to Mike's parents place for the Christmas evening celebration. We had another great celebration and Gabby got a lot of good stuff. Mike helped Barrett and Grandpa Dick put together the Trampoline that Alyssa got, she had a great time jumping on it!

Sunday, December 26th:

We had one last get together this weekend...With the Meyer side of the family. We have gotten so large that we had to have it at a Restaurant this year. It was a super good time. It was good to see all the family and Gabby did pretty well. By Sunday she was a little tired out and was refusing a bottle from Mike and I and only wanted to breastfeed. In fact the only time that she will take a bottle now is if I am not around. Which is fine with me.



 
Sunday night started our fun Christmas Flu however.Mike got super sick that night. We thought it was food poisoning. But when I got it on Tuesday we knew it wasn't food poisoning and that it was the Flu. I am better a day later, thank goodness and we are hoping and praying that Gabriella doesn't get it. She had a slight fever this morning (Wednesday Dec 29th), but it might be from teething at least that's what I am hoping it's from.

I rolled over!!

My Little Artist

Gabby has been a little artist at daycare lately! Miss Erika one of her teachers, has been leading these art projects and this last one they even took a picture of Gabriella doing the painting. Which I find just adorable. She is only 4 months old and I am already hanging stuff on my fridge from her :)

Gabby's little feet - This we got at her Christmas Party last week

Creating a masterpiece. a Snowman Card

4 Months

Happy 4 Months to my Gabby Girl!! Where did the time go??

Dear Gabriella - You are four months today and mommy can't believe it. I know I say that every month, but every month (week and day) that goes by you are growing up so fast. It's amazing how long I waited for you to come here and how long it seemed like it took and now that you are here time is going by so so fast.

You had your 4 month appointment on Monday and you are doing really well. You weighed 13lbs and 13oz (50th Percentile) and measured 25.5 inches long (90th Percentile) and your head was 16 1/4 inches (50th Percentile).

* You are starting to really show your personality. They are loving you at Daycare. In fact at the Christmas Party this week Erika carried you around for awhile and showed you off to her family.

*You are really holding your head up when on your tummy and you LOVE tummy time.

* We found a new game you like. You love it when Mom or Dad blow small puffs of air in your face. You get so excited and laugh.

* Lately you have been getting a bit distracted while eating. You tend to eat for a little bit, pull off and smile or gurgle at me and then go back to eating. You repeat this about 10 times before you get down to business and focus.

* You love people watching. At the Mall of America last night when Dad was trying to burp you all you wanted to do was look at the people walking by.

* You are getting closer to rolling over, but not quite there yet, I know it will be soon.

* You are chomping on your fingers and other things more and more lately as well as drooling. The dr thinks that you have a few teeth coming in soon. Mommy bought you a teething toy today.

* You aren't sleeping well lately, but Mom is okay with that, you are only waking up when you need to eat, so I know you need to let me know.

*You are grabbing more and more things lately, especially when you are eating, you like to hold your blanket with you.

Daddy and I are so excited to spend Christmas with you. We have a lot of places to go, but it should be a great time!

Love Always
Mom and Dad

2010 in Review

I have seen a few other of my blog friends do this and I thought it was an awesome idea! Below are the 1st sentence of the first post for each of the 12 months.

January - Well it's 9 weeks....Hard to believe I think we are going to have the big reveal with everyone next week. 

February - Not much has changed in the past week, except the fact that I am now officially into my 2nd Trimester.

March - I can't believe that it's only two weeks until we find out if we are having a baby boy or a baby girl! 

April - My dad was lucky enough to get 4 tickets to one of the exhibition games for the Twins in the new stadium.

May - After a month of searching - which doesn't seem like that long now that I say it outloud, but it sure felt like it was - we decided on a day care.

June - On Friday (if you saw my earlier post) I found out from my Midwife that I have Gestational Diabetes.

July - That's right 5 weeks to go, give or take a few.I had a great appointment today with my Midwife.

August - Yep, you read that correctly, 39 weeks, that means 1 week until the due date and up to 3 weeks until the little one is here in our arms.

September - We have survived and reached 3 weeks!

October - You are 7 weeks today.

November - Well I did it, I made it through her first day at day care.

December - All throughout my life I always thought that I would be okay with working and having a family

Is this right?

I was thinking tonight as I as struggling to get Gabriella to sleep tonight, how do I know what I am doing is right? I realized that I am literally flying by the seat of my pants and have absolutely no clue what I am doing.

How do I know when to stop swaddling her, when I need to up the diaper size, when do I up the nipple size on her bottles. How do I know that I am providing her with the right environment, how do I know she has enough tummy time. I am feeling all this pressure to be the perfect parent. I know that she thinks I am an awesome parent. She "tells" me every time she smiles at me and giggles and talks to me. And I know that I need to relax a bit but I want to make sure that I give her the best life.

The joys of parenting.

My Talkative Little Girl

Staying at Home Vs. Working

I want to note before I get into this blog post that no matter what people choose to do it's what works for them, neither way is wrong/better etc.

All throughout my life I always thought that I would be okay with working and having a family. I grew up with a working mother and she showed me that it can be done. She went to school, worked, took care of her mother, myself and my dad and the house. I honestly don't know how she did it (Thanks mom! You were great!!), but she did it. She was a great role model. My grandmother also worked outside the home as well and raised 7 children. 

Throughout my college career I never thought that I would want to be a Stay at Home Mom. Why would I want to stay home with my kids when I could have a career as well. However now that I am in the actual place of having to decide if I want to be a SAHM (Stay at home mom) or a working mother, I am starting to resent the fact that I HAVE to work. I hate the fact that I have to drop her off at daycare and leave her in someone else's hands all day long. I hate the fact that they get to see her smile all day and all I have is pictures. I know that I truly couldn't be a full time SAHM, but I just wish I could do it part time. I know that daycare helps her socialize and learn some news skills that she wouldn't learn while home with me, however I really wish I could be with her.

How do women balance keeping up the house, taking care of their children, maintaining a healthy relationship with their partner and finding time for themselves. Something has to give and I have been finding that for me what's giving in is the time for myself and also the time with my husband. An example of that is Wednesday night we were both home. I was spending time with the little one, while trying to clean up the house, decorate the house (so I could put the xmas boxes away). Mike was also cleaning upstairs the entire time and we kept crossing paths. When we got her down to sleep we finally had time for each other, but by then we were both totally exhausted that we just crashed out on the couch and watched TV. 


Don't get me wrong I LOVE LOVE being a mother, but to balance all this is just crazy. It wouldn't be so bad if there were another 5 hours or so in the day, but to try to get a good nights sleep, and get all this other stuff done is so difficult. I applaud all the SAHM's and the Working Mom's because I know that each of them have their own set of challenges, they are just different challenges. and who knows maybe I would be feeling the same thing if I was a SAHM. They do say the grass is always greener on the other side - or at least that's our perception of things, when I know in reality it isn't that way.  I think I just need to get more efficient with the time that I do have, so that when Mike and I are alone together or I am with Gabby I can enjoy the time with them, rather than having to focus on other things.

For all the BTDT (Been there, Done that) Mom's and Dad's out there reading this if you have any tips I would sure appreciate them.