Evie's 31stWeek

This week, Evie's been getting back into the normal routine along with her Mama and Daddy.  Mama's been going to work and Daddy's gone back to school, so Evie's staying at home with Nanny Aunt Syd.  She's quite enjoying her independent sitting and all of her toys.  She's doing better on digesting food now that we are making it a bit thicker.  This week I attempted to feed her some mashed up fresh banana, but that didn't go so well.  She also tried peach yogurt for the first time, and you can tell by this video that it didn't make such a great first impression.  But she did eventually warm up to it.

We're still working on sleeping habits.  She now quite prefers to be on her tummy to sleep, so if she wakes up in the middle of the night I'm able to rub or pat her back and get her back to sleep.  She has been consistently sleeping from 10:00pm-4:00am with only a couple of stirrings (when the back-patting comes in), so it's nice for me to get a 6 hour stretch.  I'm hoping that soon she'll skip over that 4am waking time.  The transition to the crib is not happening at all, even though we'd planned to start it this week.  I think we'll give it a while longer, since she doesn't really seem ready yet. 

One of the things I'm trying to remember is that babies are all different and they all move at their own pace.  She may have teethed early, but she's just not ready for much solid food.  I know of younger babies who are sleeping through the night now, and Evie's not, but that's okay.  I'm trying to remind myself that there's no reason to be concerned or to try to rush her through to the next stage.  She'll develop in her own time, and she's doing great.  She'll sleep through the night when she's ready to, and until then, this mommy will just have to be patient and caffeinated.

Another thing I'm working on as I adjust to motherhood is trying to not sweat the small stuff and not worry so much about appearances.  My house is a wreck, and has been for months.  And I'm trying not to care.  I do at least one load of dishes and one load of laundry every day.  And for now, that's going to have to be good enough, even if the piles are high.  I work full-time, and I want to spend time with my husband and my daughter when I come home, not run around worrying about folding and putting away clothes or scrubbing pots and pans or vacuuming the bonus room.  So, if any of you come over and see the state of disarray that is my living room (or the rest of my house), you can just know in advance that I'm choosing to have completely different (and, I think, better) priorities this year.  Better for me to feel like a good mother and loving wife than be a good but grumpy housekeeper.