Slacker blogger

Well, I really do intend to blog more often, but by the time I get Caroline to sleep, fix and/or clean up from dinner, get my school work done for the night, I'm too tired to even think about blogging....but enough complaining.

Caroline is growing up so fast! She now has two teeth and I'm pretty sure she's cutting more due to the extra fussiness the past few days.

She is trying to be too old by standing up all on her own...and I mean she doesn't hold on to anything. She is constantly trying to do this all day, every day...in her crib, on the floor... I think I might get her a helmet...and I'm not kidding. She wants to walk so badly and she just isn't ready quite yet. She is super fast in her walker - watch out for your feet!

She is still a tiny girl. I believe she is taking after my mother-in-law's side of the family (the petite side that is). At 6 months she's only 13 and 1/2 lbs. She's so active, she is not a chubby baby that most breastfed babies are, and she was a normal size baby when she was born.

She's been battling us during naptimes because she just wants to stand up! It has gotten better though, because now we lay her on her back....complete reverse from before. She's still a great night sleeper, waking once to eat around 3 am. The only thing that I look forward to her getting older is losing that night waking because she'll be able to go all night without eating.

Its been a rough first few weeks of school. School, in general, is probably my best semester yet with great classes, great outlook with a new principal. But balancing work, family, house, and myself is rough. I was doing well keeping up with exercising the first two weeks, but then the pure exhaustion really set in.

I mean...EXHAUSTION.

So, I diagnosed myself with low iron/anemia and put myself back on iron. I'm feeling better and more energized during the days. I realized the nursing and lifting was not beneficial to my health when I dropped all my baby weight and now weigh less than what I did prior to pregnancy. I have still been taking it easy because my last experience caused debilitating cramping even after the freaking ton of water I drank during the day. (side note: I have this massive water bottle I lug to school each day) I still go to bed thirsty. Between the iron supplement and the nursing/pumping, I suppose I'll never be hydrated again.

So now B and I are just trying to balance spending time with baby, chores, my schoolwork, and his schoolwork. Needless to say, we haven't seen 11 o'clock or a movie for that matter in awhile. Our earliest bedtime usually falls on Friday nights too. We consider 7 am sleeping in and cherish any time we have for napping on the weekends. Our yard is a jungle as the grass continues to grow. We're glad its green again, but we just can't seem to find the time to cut it. Our conversations are about Caroline's behavior at the babysitter, whether she had a bowel movement or not, or how she hit her head when she was trying to stand up. We've really been a good team on splitting the responsibilities (except B still kills on the spiders, stink bugs, and earwigs). Sadly enough, our goal bedtime is 9pm, but we never reach our goal.

I wouldn't change it for a second. Caroline is the best thing to have ever happened and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I cherish the time I spend with her and feel so blessed to have a happy, healthy baby girl.

And so, it is 58 minutes passed my goal bedtime, ensuring another "early" morning.