First Week Back

I'm back! So far so good. Things seem to have been handled well while I was gone (Thanks to my temp Christine who covered for me), and I feel like I'm about 50% caught up already. The pumping schedule is pretty good and I'm bringing home about 14 oz each day (Abby is only consuming 9 oz during the day with Diane.) What I'm most excited about is that she seems to be totally content to switch between nursing and the bottle, which was the problem that Aurora had. My production tanked with Aurora after I went back to work and she started preferring the bottle, so it pleases me to hope that I'll make it to a full year of breastmilk for Abby. And she is happy with Diane; either she gets worn out or more milk with the bottle or both because every day that she has been with Diane she has slept through the night until at least 5am.

I can also see the light at the end of the tunnel; Never again will I have to go through maternity leave, which means for the first time in 5 years, all of my vacation time will again be just that - for vacations!And instead of saving sick time for ML, it will continue to be banked for retirement credit. Double bonus!!! Between the tantrums, trips to the park and poopy diapers, Ryan and I are already dreaming of all the worldly trips we are going to take and planning next year's vacations. (So far the plan is for a big road/camping trip to North Cal in the next year with the girls then a backpacking trip alone to Patagonia for the following year).

Last week we got the new carpet in, and its AMAZING. So soft and plush, and it is actually really nice to have a dark color down; it really adds something to the whole house I think. That went in on Wed, and on Sunday we went to Ikea and got Aurora's bunk bed. The bottom "bunk" is on the floor, making the whole thing much shorter, so we feel comfortable with her being on the top. We also got a tent top to it which she loves, and also keeps her from jumping too high on the mattress. lol. And instead of buying a mattress for the bottom (since we don't need it yet) we just left it open as a play area for Aurora. She is sleeping just fine in it, so we seem to have timed the switch just perfectly!

Last week for my final time going to breastfeeding group Abby weighed in at 8 lbs 12 oz which is still REALLY small. It's like < 3rd percentile. But she is really happy, content and eats all the time (she's just more of a snacker; 2-3 oz every ~2 hours). What can I say, my girls are just small! :0) We have also figured out that she just needs to be held for the entire evening until about 7 pm when she is ok to be put to bed after a top off. Our evenings with her have been MUCH better since we figured that out and we just put her in one of the carriers or hold her for that time. I'm sure she was pissed at us before for not getting it; "I stop crying when you pick me up, then you put me right back down. I try to tell you and cry then you get it and pick me up so I stop, then you put me right back down again. WTF is wrong with you idiots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" lol. Well honey, we got it now, so you are good to go!

And it's fall baby! It's in the air too; today there is a 100% chance of rain. In San Diego. That's saying something. The weather is cooling down and it makes a great clean break with the summer off I had. I think if I had to go back in the middle of summer it would have been depressing but to go back right into fall sort of feels right. And Halloween will be so awesome; Ryan, I and Abby are going to be the three bears (Papa, Mama and Baby Bear) with Aurora as Goldilocks. How cute is that going to be????