Sleep Deprivation and the Full-Time Workin' Mom Treadmill

Started daycare this week.  Now I get the gist of what being sleep deprived really is...  The new schedule has Tag and I partnering up to limit the hours that Evey spends in the daycare. 

I get out of bed at 5am, walk and feed the dogs, get myself showered and dressed (which is no simple task...the clothes that I set out the night before, in an effort to be efficient, quite often don't work.  With these nursing boobs and pregnancy hips, it's slim pickin's in the closet these days), gather up the stuff to pump and store milk at the office, feed Evey and get out the door by 6:15 so I can make it to work before 7 so I can beat rush hour and leave the office by 4 to pick up my darling little one from daycare before 5pm.  So far so good.  The morning walk is balmy and the sun starts to rise so it's not so bad.  Winter will be a test of my mettle...dark and cold do not a happy early morning Heidi make.  Of course it's all completely worth it to be able to spend that extra hour with my sweetpea in the evening.  I just wish I didn't have to miss the smiley playful baby that she is in the mornings - she always wakes up so happy.  Which leads me to Tag's schedule.

Tag wakes up at 5am and/or 6am to help Evey settle back into sleep once I've left, and then snoozes until about 7 and takes care of changing, dressing, sometimes feeding, and then packing up Evey and her daycare essentials, dropping her by the daycare around the corner and starting his workday by 8:30.

Evelyn seems to have adjusted pretty well -- she likes the caretakers and they adore her.  We just have a teeny tiny problem napping during the day....  It's a small collection of 20 minute cat naps, and it's just not doing the trick.  By the time I pick her up in the late afternoon she's got blue shadows for eyelids and she crashes into full-on sleep when I get her home.  Which breaks my heart because of course all I want to do is interact with her and get my dose of Evey smiles for the day.  Good thing we're still co-sleeping or I'd have to find a way to crawl in next to her in the crib for the night (!).

It will get better, I know that.  For Week One it really was quite successful.  I didn't even cry at work!  And now we're starting a decadent 3 day holiday weekend with lots of time for play and cuddling.  And sleep.  Amen!!

Sharing a Milestone

On May 18th, Evey turned 6 months (24 weeks) and Keagan turned 21 years (1,092 weeks).  Quite a big day for Poppa Tag (!). 

To honor the milestone for Keagan, he received a very fine accoustic guitar that should serve him well for decades to come -- Tag was so proud to give it to him.  Keagan is quite the guitar player already, so he starting strumming and picking the instant he got it into his hands (big happy grin spread across his face). 

To honor the milestone for Evey, she received her 6 month shots.  Poor baby girl.  I assured her that her 21st birthday would be more fun.  She actually endured the event like a real trooper -- screamed in shock and pain during the shots, but quickly recovered when I took her into my arms.  It was only when the nurse tried to give her back her pacifier that she started screaming again.  I made that mean nurse go away and then Evey was fine   =;-)

Little Miss Personality is starting to appreciate her siblings more and more.  Even the furry ones are starting to fall under her spell....

Tag, of course, has his own special ways of bonding with Evelyn. 

Some of them Mamma Heidi approves of (way to go Ergo-Dad!!)

 

and some, she does not....

 

23 weeks

Best Darn 23 weeks ever.  Personality is really coming out now. 

We took her to the Memphis Symphony Orchestra "Picnic in the Park" performance on Saturday evening.  Everybody sets up picnics on the lawn at the Dixon Gardens and enjoys the musical performance of our fabulous symphony.  Everybody, that is, except those circling the Graham picnic -- they were all engaged with our flirty little show-off who would roll across the blanket and arch backwards to charm her "fans" on the right, and then roll back the other way to giggle at the fans on her left.  All eyes were on her and she ate it right up.  Boy, are we in for it.

Katelyn, who's been taking such great care of her, leaves town in early June, and daycare is looming right around the corner.  These two are really going to miss each other.  They have quite a happy bond.  I believe Evey's well adjusted personality is due in part to Katelyn's gentle, humored care.  She will make a tremendous mom someday.

We've started tasting Rice Cereal -- I say tasting because I'm not sure any of it actually made it to her stomach to be considered "eating" rice cereal.  Evey stares at us while we eat, and especially wants to drink out of any cup/mug/glass that she sees us raise to our lips.  So I said, "fine," and decided to let her try cereal before her 6th month (it was my goal to wait until 6 months).  At least she had fun taste testing...

I look back at her early photos and can't believe the dramatic changes in her size.  She's quite a chunkster these days (wow, really, you should see her calves...we're talking herculean).  Cuter than anything I can think of.  I am madly in love with this child.