Back to work

Sadly, my maternity leave has come to an end : ( Monday was my first day back to work. At first, I felt like a fish out of water, but quickly got back into the swing of things. I missed my Isabelle like crazy, but knew she was in great hands with Jeremy. It's going to take a little while for all three of us to get into this new routine, but soon enough it will be like second nature. Fortunately, both of our jobs agreed to give us set schedules so we could coordinate Jeremy having his days off on the days I work. As of now, I'll be working every Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Jeremy's days off will be Monday and Thursday. On Saturdays when I'm working he'll be with the baby most of the day and we'll arrange for someone to watch her just from 5:30 when he has to go into work until 7:00 when I get off. My sister said she could watch her, and we also have Jeremy's brother and his wife, and friends who could watch her that short time as well. We are so blessed to not have to send our baby to daycare, and even though they are long days I'm glad I only work three days a week. Jeremy and Isabelle's first long day together went pretty well. She's taking bottles better for him. However, she's going through a phase where she will only take naps of 20-30 minutes sometimes. When she doesn't nap well she gets pretty cranky, so we're praying this phase is over! I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful husband that happens to also be an amazing daddy. Please pray for us in these next couple of weeks as we adjust to our new schedules! The picture above is my sweet Isabelle and her cute grin that I can't wait to see when I get home from work!

Snow at the beach

Last Tuesday, January 20th, we got a little dusting of snow in Myrtle Beach. I've lived here almost six years and this is the first time I've seen any sign of snow since I've moved here. I'm from New York and Jeremy's from Erie, PA so we're no strangers to snow. Although neither of us miss the frigid temperatures and seemingly endless winters of one snow storm after the next, it was exciting to see the snow flurries coming from the sky. Needless to say, we couldn't even call it a dusting of snow and it melted within an hour of falling. We got a kick out of it nevertheless!

MLK weekend 2009

Ben and Jesse catching some shut eye



This picture is so hilarious because all 3 babies were crying at the same time! Just a little practice for Heather!



Isabelle and Marisa looking cute in their matching outfits!


This past weekend we traveled to the Virginia Beach area for our annual Martin Luther King long weekend with our good friends from Liberty. We were a little nervous about making the 6 hour trip with Isabelle, but she did really great. She slept most of the car ride. We had really frigid temperatures that weekend, so it made it pretty interesting trying to feed and change her in the car at the rest areas because we didn't want to take her out into the cold! We had a really good time hanging out and catching up with our friends. Our visits are so different now because there are 3 babies in attendance and one on the way! We had so much fun though, it's so neat to see us all in the role of parents now! We are so proud of Isabelle for being such a good girl all weekend. It was fun to see her, Marisa and Miller together...I think they'll all grow up to be great friends (along with baby Asimos and all future babies as well!). We are so thankful for such great friends and look forward to many more get togethers with our "growing" group!

Girly Nursery

Since we didn't know the sex of our baby, we made the nursery pretty gender neutral. When we had a baby girl I couldn't wait to make her nursery girly. I decided purple and pink accents would go well with the green. We put her name over her crib and added a border that reads "sweet dreams little princess" (thanks to mom and dad who helped put it up!) I plan to add some more detail as I find it, but this is a good start to feminizing our little girl's room : )

Isabelle - 2 months old

Our smiley baby girl


All ready for church!



The day of Isabelle's shots, I was changing her diaper and I turned around for a second. I looked back and this is what I saw...she ripped off her bandaid and was holding it in her hand!




Isabelle's 2009 New Year's resolution is to grow more hair!



Isabelle in her new pink pea coat she got for Christmas


On New Year's Day, Isabelle turned 2 months old and this past Monday she had her 2 month check up. The doctor said she looks great and is doing very well. She weighs 10lbs 6 oz. and is 21 1/2 inches long. She's in the 30th percentile for weight and 25th for height. She's still little, but since she started out so tiny the doctor said she's right on track. She seems so big to us, but probably because she's gained a little over 4 lbs. since she was born and grew 3 1/2 inches. I think she's just gonna be a petite little girl! Unfortunately, the 2 month appointment included 3 vaccines : ( It just broke our hearts to watch our little girl go through those shots. It's so sad because she was lying there smiling and had no idea what was coming, and within seconds she's bawling in pain and doesn't know what's going on! I felt so bad for her and she was sore and cranky all day. She's been doing great sleeping lately, she's had several nights now where she's slept 5 hours at a time! I've got her on the 90-minute baby sleep program and it seems to be doing well for her. On this program I put her down for a nap every 90 minutes. I find she shows sleepy signals at almost 90 min. to the dot and goes to sleep pretty easy at that time. She's been getting a lot better daytime sleep because of it and is a much happier baby. It also results in the better nighttime sleep as well. She continues to eat pretty well, and she smiles and coos all the time now. I have to go back to work Jan 26 so I'm really trying to cherish these last couple of weeks I have with her. I still will only be working 3 days a week, but they're 12 hour work days and I'll miss her like crazy!! The days I work Jeremy will be with her during the day before he goes to work so we're trying to practice bottle feeding. So far she's not thrilled about it, but I think she'll get used to it. In any case, we continue to enjoy our little girl so much. We're so thankful for her and pray the Lord's blessings, protection and health as we enter 2009. Happy New Year!