Where is Chloe??

Sometimes I like to put Chloe into unexpected things! She loves it and I think it makes for great photos! Tomorrow I am going to put her in my stock pot and also her dresser draw! She will appreciate this humiliation one day!



I love her so much!

Is it harder now?

I often get the question if it is hard to have a baby? What is my life like now? And, is it harder when she was a newborn or now at 7 months?

When Chloe was first born we seemed to have a never ending line of visitors. In fact, it got so busy around here I had to keep a chart of who was coming when, by the hour. It was awesome, exhausting and overwhelming to be so loved and have all our friends and family be so excited for the new addition. Mostly we sat around and stared at the baby and sometimes dinner arrived. Family was here to help with the laundry, dishes, cleaning etc and it was nice to get a break from it all. I got to sit (c section only allowed me to sit) and nurse Chloe all day long. My Mom made me my favorite foods and friends pitched in here and there.

Well, after thinking about this for a week or so I can honestly say that it is harder now. MUCH HARDER!!! Chloe is more awake, needs more attention than ever, and no one is coming around anymore with the dinner cart. It is all on Russ and I now. I take care of Chloe all day, socialize her which involves packing up a car, hauling her around, carrying 20 things at once!), I clean all the time, I make EVERY meal, vacuum every other day, the dishwasher is run every night (sometimes twice in one day), nurse every 2-3 hours...the list goes on. There is always something that needs doing. When I used to "work" the laundry could wait till the weekend, I could stop at the store on the way home and it took 5 min to run in and out, you can pick up take out without having to change a diaper in the restaurant, you can answer the phone at anytime of day, complete a task from start to finish, sleep in if you feel like it...etc, etc. Life was much easier. I know the grass is always greener on the other side, but now having done both, the grass was greener, BUT I was never this much in love! I feel more complete as a person, more happy than ever and absolutly love the hard work. I LOVE my family!!!!!!! Crazy I know, but it is true.

I feel more busy than ever and seem to only sit down for one hour a night (which also involves me folding laundry...there is a pile with my name on it to the right of me at this very second!) I know that this is my life now and I am not complaining, I love it...but for anyone out there who has not had a baby yet. Enjoy the first two months! The first two month are easy!!! You can watch TV when nursing, read when nursing, talk on the phone, lay the baby down while you take a shower, sleep in every morning. Yes, you get up every 3-4 hours, but breakfast is made when you get up (because your family is there to help).

So yes, it is harder now! Everything has changed. But life is way more fun!

Body Aches

My body hurts! Still! When will it stop????

During pregnancy my back hurt, my feet swelled up to a size 12 (Russ mentioned just now they were like circles! How nice) and then two weeks before labor my belly started to hurt! Chloe's head was pushing on my pubic symphysis!

Now...after having Chloe my body still hurts. It has been 7 months already and I am still in pain. First it was my c section pain, then my back again and now my shoulder feels like I tore the muscle hard core! Lets see why??

Lifting Chloe
Bending into very weird places with and without holding Chloe
Carrying the car seat with a 17lb baby in it
Loading the car with stroller, diaper bags, groceries, etc
Nursing
Sleeping...I still can not sleep on my belly!

I know that is only a small list, but when you do each one of those items all day, over and over, it hurts!!!!!!!!!!!!

Advil, here I come!

Colorado Visit June 2010

Andrew and Lyndsay say "I do"


First "real" dress I have worn in a year and a half


Eat up before the wedding!!!


The dude ranch!



Last week we took our first plane ride to CO. As we were boarding it occurred to me that Chloe's 1st time on a plane was at 6 MONTHS, and mine was when I was 8 YEARS old! Wow!

Both flights went really well and Russ and I were complimented by lots of people on how good Chloe was! Thank you so much little girl!! I even got to read part of a magazine on the way back...could this be the start of many great flights to come?? or the one and only time I get to relax??? We will see. We leave for Florida in a few weeks:)

Colorado was very fun and it was awesome to see Chloe interacting with her grandparents. She is at a perfect age for smiling, laughing and enjoying life with her family. We spent the first two nights at Grandma's and the next four at Nonna and Poppies. I thought sleep would be a nightmare, but to all of our surprise, she did great. Went down at normal time and woke up most mornings at 6am. It was great! Russ and I even got to sleep in till 9am because we took advantage of the grandparents morning babysitting offer!

Our main reason for traveling was to go to Andrew and Lyndsay's wedding. We took Chloe and it was so nice to be a guest, not the caterer behind the scenes. I was impressed by the venue and the wedding itself was very fun. Lots of good old faces to see and Chloe was a rock star. She slept when she was supposed to sleep, ate dinner with us, smiled, laughed and fell asleep all the way home down the mountain road. Super good time had by all!

Losing it!

I have recently found that mommy hood can bring out the best and worst in me. For instance, I am less stressed out than I have ever been. I am able to take a moment to look at the flowers about to bloom in my garden and I feel the most content I ever have. I love my life right now and would not change anything about it! As a family we are doing really well. So why tonight was it so easy for me to just yell at my husband, right in front of my brother-in-law and just loose it. I felt like a spark on a fuse...and I went off!!!!! Lack of sleep? Me hungry? Hormones? Long day? Of course those all have an affect, yet it was more than those things. I consider myself a fairly relaxed mother, who is able to go with the flow. I take Chloe out everyday and for the most part I just go with it. I want Chloe to be able to adapt to life, be strong and to know that sometimes days do not go according to plan. BUT when it comes to certain routines that really seem to be working and routines that I have worked so hard on making work, it frustrates me very quickly when others do not seem to care about the importance of them, or seem to forget what works and does not work. It was OK that we were home late...but I wanted the routine to be fast and easy. Easy it was not.

So what happened?? Tonight we came home later than normal and knew putting Chloe to bed could be harder than other nights. We had a great day...a long day! Chloe was very stimulated all day and seemed to love all the attention...yet that can back fire too! Chloe's normal bed time routine consists of dinner at around 5:15pm, bath around 6pm and in bed by 7pm. Well, we did not arrive home till 7pm...so things were out of whack, plus we had a guest with us! There is also a magic formula to nursing her to sleep. It involves me sitting in the rocking chair in the living room and the house being very quite. If I speak she gets distracted, if anyone else speaks she gets distracted, and if other people are in the house she gets distracted. So tonight, all those thing were off. I thought Russ was aware of that and I thought I would be able to handle it better. I wanted to be the cool Mom who could adapt and not let people talking in the background faze me. However, after nursing for 40 min, listening to the boys talk loudly in the kitchen, and having a baby who was not falling asleep...I got frustrated! It was now 8:15pm and I was not getting anywhere with Chloe. I could have moved "my routine" upstairs to the bedroom, but the chair up there is so uncomfortable and I was also being stubborn. So, after 40 min of nursing (normally takes 10-15min), I decided she was tired enough, had enough food and needed to go to bed...so I swaddled her and lay her in the crib (she was super sleepy). Of course she cried. Any Mom out there can tell you how much it makes your boobs ache and how awful you feel when your baby cries. It is not fun! I came downstairs only to realize that Mr Meowzers was not downstairs...he was in the bedroom, with Chloe! Not OK with me. So...I did something I never do. I opened the door, got the cat out and Chloe lost it even more. I left the room and I lost it too. I lost it bad, in front of Chris, my brother-in-law and I just let Russ have it. Looking back now I am sorry I did that...but I just was so frustrated. While he was casually chatting to his brother about beer and how great it was so visit DC, I was getting my nipples sucked off for 40 min, dealing with a cranky baby and the cat in the bedroom was just the last straw (it is "his job" to make sure both kittys are out).

So I guess I can look at the experience two ways. One, I love Russ and Chris so much that I am comfortable enough to loose it...we are family. Or two, I cant think of a second one. It just comes down to being tired, not communicating and learning that next time we make sure the cat is out of the room! Looks like we may be moving the rocking chair upstairs sooner than later!

PS> after 15 min of Chloe crying, with me going in once and comforting her, she fell asleep and we ate dinner in peace...laughing and apologizing to each other. Isn't family great!

Can I have some BACON please??

If you cant cook the BACON with the homemade butternut squash baby food, then you can at least give Chloe the BACON Chip bag while eating the veg!



Chloe wishes the squash had some BACON in it! Maybe she would like it better!!!!

How to get over a cold!

For a week now the Rockne family has been sick. First Chloe, then me and then Daddy. Not sure who had it the worst. Chloe had the runny nose and fever, I had the soar throat and lack of voice and then Russ got a man cold. So how did I get through the past 5 days??

A huge pan of Chocolate Glazed Brownies! Yum, Yum!