Can you believe that Alice is 23 weeks old already? She is chattering up a storm, rolling over when she feels like it, reading books, standing upright, grabbing whatever she can get her hands on (neck folds are not excluded), and putting everything she can into her mouth (neck folds are not excluded). Her favorite game is blowing raspberries on my shoulder while I'm holding her. She also started daycare, and that is going...let's just saying it's happening and I am keeping my options open.
She's small like her brother: 10-20th percentile in weight, 50-75th in height. She nurses 5-6 times a day, goes to bed around 6:30pm, and generally sleeps until at least 5:30am. Sometimes she wakes up for a little dream feed around 10:00pm, but you never can predict these things. She's so sweet and so cute, and sometimes it feels like my eyes are going crossed because I'm staring at her so much.
I will say that things have to be a lot more structured now that Alice is getting older. She doesn't really sleep through things anymore, so taking a trip to Hobby Lobby with a sleeping baby is no longer in the cards. That baby needs her 3-4 solid naps a day, or evenings are rough. Outings with the nap schedule are easiest when we venture out first thing in the morning during her first nap because she sleeps best during that one. For now.
All things considered, life has been good. Maternity leave was a dream, just as it was with Everett. This time around was a bit more challenging because I had a toddler ruining the baby bliss on a regular basis. He is the best big brother around, but man does he push our buttons sometimes. And I get it, parents are controlling tyrants. I remember pushing limits at that age, too. What I cannot empathize with him on is becoming an older sibling, as I am the youngest of 5. He must feel so scared and alone, and honestly his behavior began to take a turn for the better when I started making more of an effort to acknowledge him on his level - more often than not this means me getting on the floor and playing trucks with him. I've been planning activities for just the two of us, and that has been good for everyone. We leave our little one-on-one dates when he asks, "Can we go get baby sister now?" Does it get any cuter than that?
We have had many devastating things happen in the last few months, and I guess I've not written here in a while because it was just one more thing. I was saving a lot of content from when I was pregnant to post here, then I lost it ALL. Once the baby was born I had to focus on our wonderful family, and taking out a computer to write seemed like it was getting in the way of that.
But here we are now! I have many projects up my sleeve that I want to share in detail here (we will see if that happens), and there were a few I posted about on Instagram (baby bonnets, quilts, doggie bandanas, etc.). Hopefully I can muster up the energy to start sharing on this space again. Keeping all the fingers crossed!
So...here's my life from the former side of maternity leave. Take me back to those days!
