Preparations

A big ole pile of outgrown newborn clothes.

This means two things: 1. My boy is growing FAST!

                                   2. My maternity leave is almost over

It's hard to think about going back to work, but it's inevitable. Over the past couple of months we've talked and talked about this decision till we are blue in the face and have reinvented the wheel. We've made some progress and believe that we have a plan in mind that will serve us best, but more about that later. Right now, I've decided that I need to start making some preparations for going back to work. I'm very thankful that Dave will be able to take three weeks off after I go back to stay  home with Calvin. He has enough personal days and obtained permission from the administration to make this happen. The district has a policy that an employee cannot use more than 5 personal days in a row without it being classified as some kind of "leave". Luckily his principal is so very understanding and granted his request. This will allow me to have an adjustment period for going back. Not only will I be at peace knowing that Calvin is with daddy, but it will make it easy getting just one person out the door by 7:30, and not three!  I've been trying to think ahead about the things that will be different when Calvin is home with daddy all day versus mom. Feedings will be different...more bottle feedings and the introduction of formula. Comfort will be different....mom smells and feels different then daddy does, so I'm sure it will be different for Calvin in that sense. In an effort to make the adjustment easier, we're starting early.

Yesterday we had our first try at formula. I've heard that some babies can have aversions to different types of formula, so I wanted to start testing different kinds early. I can just picture Dave's first day home with Calvin, giving him formula, and it giving him an upset tummy or him not liking it and then not having enough to eat. Plus, I've been off dairy for almost two weeks now, and most formula has some milk, so I wanted to test that out. We had our formula bottle around three yesterday afternoon, and he was pretty fussy in the evening. but...yesterday was an odd day in general...he slept differently so I'm not sure if the fussiness was the milk in the formula or from being a bit "off schedule." We're going to try again today to see what happens before I declare it a success. We also split the day between bottle feedings and nursing, which requires me to be more disciplined about some, eh hem, activities that make that possible. This is hard as it requires lots of time and it's not something I particularly enjoy. But I want Calvin to have what's best for him, so if that means I need to buckle down, then I will.

The other preparation has to do with me. I need to start getting out of bed at a consistent time. So....this week I'm starting with an alarm at 8 a.m. Regardless of the night, I'm going to get up at 8. I know this isn't super early, but I've gotten really bad about going back to bed after Calvin's morning feeding and sleeping till he wakes up again (usually around 10:30). It's going to be quite the shock to get up at 6, if not earlier, when I go back to work. So, I figure if I start this week at 8, next week switch it earlier to 7:30 and keep bumping it up bit by bit till I go back to work, it won't be as hard. I'm also trying to not take a nap during the day, or at least a shorter one. If I can get by with 30 minutes of rest in the afternoon, rather the the 1.5 hours I had been taking, then this will make my long days easier come back to work time.

So...not the most exciting post, but an update on how we are doing none-the-less. To close, here are some pics of the boy, cause he is oh so cute!