Tag Archives: Hannah

Hannah is Ten Months Old!

In her tenth month, Hannah went through some major developmental milestones and has come out the other side officially as a mover! Now that she’s finally mostly healthy after a brutal cold/flu season she’s becoming an independent, on-the-go baby who is showing signs she is getting ready to turn into a toddler.

Hannah’s stats:

Weight: heavy!
Length: not sure!
Clothing size: 6-12 month or 12-18 month
Number of teeth: 0, though I can see at least two on their way up
Eye color: bluish turquoise – it totally depends on the light and her surroundings
Words: dada
Favorite foods: cheese, strawberries, smoothies, ham, bananas, bread
Least favorite foods: jalepeno

Hannah had a rough bout of all of the viruses this cold and flu season and has a fresh runny nose right now. I noticed during the last two months how much that was affecting her sleep and her disposition and now I’m happy to report she’s back to her normal chipper self, even with the runny nose! It also seemed like her health was working against her interest or ability to hit some developmental milestones.

Within the first two days of finally not being sick, last week she figured out crawling and pulling herself up to stand and both of those days she slept through the night for the first time in a while. These little babes sure do have a lot going on in their little bodies.

Hannah has been mobile for quite a while, she just wasn’t formally crawling. Now that she has figured out she can crawl all over the house and get Ben’s toys or come climb all over Jackson she is enamored with life. This last week has been nuts chasing her around but it’s been SO fun. She’s having a blast with this newfound skill of hers.

Last week we transitioned Hannah to a big kid car seat. It can also be used for infants, so it’s really not a big deal, it’s just significantly more plush and comfy. I’m not sure if the timing of this happened to coincide with her feeling better or if she’s just that much happier in the new car seat but I saw a significant difference in her disposition in the car after the switch.

{These two in their big car seats!!!!}

Hannah is extremely loud! She has an opinion and she’s not afraid to share it – her squeals of excitement or the enthusiastic full body wiggles when she sees food she likes are a day brightener, and then there’s the times when I swear she’s going to make me go deaf by expressing her displeasure in something, usually getting a non-baby toy taken away from her or getting laid down on the changing table. Or any time in the car {before her new car seat}.

This girl has a very big personality – and she has to in order to keep herself in the spotlight with her big brother. That said, she is very calm and easy-going. Hannah is becoming more independent and has been enjoying exploring on the floor on her own lately.

We’ve had some big changes this last month relating to sleep and eating. Hannah is really starting to transition to getting more calories from solid food as opposed to breast milk. We are down to nursing only 3 or maybe 4 times a day now and she really is showing less interest in nursing to sleep.

Speaking of sleep – Hannah had been pretty under the weather for a solid two months or so and her sleep was significantly impacted as a result. Since feeling better, her brother has moved into his own room and she’s been sleeping so well again! Hurrah! Our next mission is to get her to put herself to sleep… please wish us luck!

There are a lot of things that Hannah loves to do. Here are a few of her favorite things:

Eating!
Taking her brothers toys
Grabbing Jackson’s tail
Exploring
Reading books
The song Skina marinka dink
Bath time
Being included
When her big brother does anything even remotely funny

We are rounding the corner to this sweet baby’s first birthday in two short months. I’m so enjoying these days with Hannah Maxine. She has been the happiest, most content baby I’ve known. I adore her personality and her spunk. I can’t wait to see how she changes in her eleventh month.

Ben as a ten month old

Hannah is Nine Months Old!

What a big month for baby Hannah this has been! Hannah has hit so many fun developmental milestones during this last month. She loves playtime, especially if her brother or her dog shows an interest in her.

Hannah’s stats:

Weight: 20 pounds 9 ounces {84th percentile}
Length: 27.5 inches {40th percentile}
Clothing size: 6-12 month or 12-18 month
Number of teeth: 0
Eye color: bluish turquoise – they’re pretty striking. Her doctor said they’ll stay!
Words: dada
Favorite foods: mac & cheese!, banana, smoothies, cheese, broccoli!, carrots, raspberries!, pancakes… basically anything we give her….
Least favorite foods: jalepeno

One of my favorite things that happened during the last month has been that Hannah has started to feed herself. Watching a baby learn how to feed herself is one of my favorite parts of parenting an infant.

Hannah loves to eat whatever we’re eating and I love to share with her. I can tell she’s really proud of herself too. She has been working on her fine motor skills with picking up little bits of food I put on the tray of her high chair. Her accuracy rate is pretty high for getting the food in her mouth, though holy cow, we have to deep clean the high chair almost daily right now!

In big body movements Hannah has made tremendous growth over the last month. She is rolling and scooting and pivoting all over the house – part of me thinks she’ll skip crawling and go right to walking. I feel like she can get to whatever she wants so she doesn’t really think about a more efficient movement? We’ll see!

Just last week she started pulling herself up to kneel, all by herself, and she’s started pushing herself up into a sit, all by herself. I love watching the day-to-day progressions she’s making. It’s remarkable how much strength she can gain in a day.

Over the last month or six weeks I have been saying Hannah had been at the age of frustration. She just couldn’t quite get to what she wanted or do what she wanted. I sort of think that’s over {at least for now!}. She seems more content and while she hasn’t figured out crawling she can get herself across a room just fine.

One of Hannah’s favorite activities is reading books. I feel like I’m constantly reading to her and if she’s ever upset all I need to do is pull out a book. She especially likes the touch & feel books that are more interactive for babies.

One of Hannah’s least favorite activities is being in her car seat. There are some days during the week where I feel like we’re constantly on-the-go and those are her least favorite days, understandably. I try to balance the car time with lots of floor playtime for Hannah whenever I can during those days.

{I can’t believe HOW BIG she is in her car seat! And obviously I buckle her in…}

We’re in a funky sleep pattern right now. The only predictable part of Hannah’s sleep is that it’s unpredictable. I’d say at least 6 out of 7 nights a week she stays asleep during the times I am asleep; however, it’s been common lately for her to wake up several times between when I put her down and when I go to sleep. I have a feeling all of the major development going on with her {plus the fact that she’s been sick for more than 5 weeks} is just messing with her sleep. Is cold and flu season over yet!?

Hannah is still nursing to sleep at night and for most naps that happen in her crib. Until recently I haven’t cared much to change that habit – we’ve both really enjoyed our run with nursing. Now that Hannah is older she is getting SO distracted while eating and it’s become really difficult to fall asleep at night while nursing. Not to mention it makes it ~~hard~~ impossible for anyone else to put her to sleep. So that’s on the docket for the nearish future to work on changing.

One of my favorite parts about nine month-old Hannah is how LOUD she is! Her brother has always been noisy and it seems like Hannah tries to go a little louder to keep up with him. She squeals and shrieks and screams in the best way. Her smiles are full body wiggles from her toes all the way up to her head. She’s just the sweetest.

A couple weeks ago Hannah and I started attending a music class together. She has a BLAST. Not only does she love the music, she loves seeing the big kids. It’s so fun to have a mama and Hannah activity we can do together. She also loves attending co-op with Ben – they do music at co-op once a month, too, and it’s a hit with Miss Hannah.

Some other fun facts about Hannah are: she can wave, she gets SO excited when she figures out it’s bath time, she can bang two blocks or drumsticks together, and she adores her dog!

I’m so excited to see what is up ahead in the next month for Hannah. We’ll see if she ever starts crawling or just jumps ahead to walking.

Ben as a nine month old

The Happenings

Gosh – it’s late March. Spring is here. We’ve been super sick. Our life is in four and three-day increments as we’re sharing our time between The Lodge. Ok – you’re caught up! Here are some photos to better tell the story…

{We’ve been loving sitting out on the stairs on our deck while we watch Ben play in the yard/driveway at The Lodge. He is such an outdoor kid!}

{Our friends Carrie and Patrick and their daughter Roslyn joined us up at The Lodge a few weeks ago. We loved seeing the two tots play together and sharing our home with our friends.}

{I didn’t get a single day of downhill skiing in this year, unfortunately. It feels less disappointing since we’ve been able to get so much cross county skiing in. I have really, really grown to love it! This is Ben and Roslyn.}

{The days have been sunny and glorious lately! My big helper is an expert at watering our new plants.}

{Time to pull out the picnic blankets! I am dreaming of summer right now and of all the fun things I can do with my littles. We’re going to have a blast!}

{These two! Loving life in Leavenworth.}

{Ben just jumped up to size 3T clothes! Loving his new dinosaur jammies!}

{Thanks for the ice cream cone, Nana! It was delicious!}

{We’ve had a rough March with illnesses plaguing our household. While Alex was out of town Ben got croup. He’s had it twice before and it wasn’t a big deal. This time it was and we ended up having a 911 call and a hospital visit because Ben was gasping for breath. It was a scary experience and we’re glad it’s behind us.}

{Once Ben seemed on the mend from Croup we all came down with the flu. Thank you, Emergency Room, for spreading your germs!}

{I’m not used to having Ben nap anymore but he’d go and climb into my bed and curl up with his choice of stuffed animal and fall asleep!}

{Sweet Hannah has entered the age of frustration. She wants to do so much more than she’s physically ready to do. I’m sure it’s especially hard having an older brother. She wants to do everything he is doing.}

{The Lodge is finally DONE. We have received the certificate of occupancy and it’s done!! Check out the new deck railings. I think they complete the look of the house so well. We have been up here basically every weekend and are really feeling settled.}

Hannah is Eight Months Old

Miss Hannah is eight months old and full of joy, squeals and smiles. She is getting more animated and excited about everything by the day. It’s hard to keep up with her frequent changes!

Hannah’s stats:

Weight: not sure – heavy! 20-22 pounds??
Length: not sure – getting tall!!
Clothing size: mostly 6-12 months – inching towards 12-18 in certain brands
Number of teeth: 0
Eye color: still blue!
Words: I’m pretty positive she’s saying “dada” and it is so dang cute!
Favorite foods: BANANAS, cottage cheese, smoothies, hummus… anything!
Least favorite foods: avocado

Over the last month or so Hannah has been working very hard on moving. She is doing barrel rolls like it’s her job, she loves scooting around the room and can do pivots on her back or tummy. No crawling yet – I thought she was closer than she actually is. She still needs to get up on all fours so I think she has a little ways to go before she starts crawling.

Hannah is making her opinions known and shares them loudly! Hannah is so noisy. She squeals with excitement and screams out of frustration. Sometimes to an untrained ear it’s probably hard to tell the difference.

Our sweet girl loves to be a part of the action. She loves attention and will most certainly let you know if you’re not giving her enough. She shrieks and squeals and makes all sorts of wild animal noises to communicate what she wants.

Lately Hannah has really become a dada’s girl. She has been saying “dada” or “dadadada” and gets super smiley and squealy when Alex comes near her. It is adorable.

Ben is Hannah’s first love, though. Anything and everything he does can get a giggle out of her. Ben loves to roar like a dinosaur to try to make Hannah laugh – he has a 99% success rate I think!

Oh my – eating is Hannah’s favorite pastime! For her first seven months I could say she would nurse all day and all night if I let her – now, she would eat solid food all day and all night if I let her. In the last month I’ve noticed a big shift from her milk consumption to solid foods. She has made a big change in her calories and the amount she is taking in from breastfeeding.

It’s really hard to narrow down Hannah’s favorite foods. The only thing I’ve given her that she doesn’t like is avocado, otherwise she’s loved it all. She can eat a tremendous amount of solid food, too. She has been known to down a pouch and a half in one sitting before {that’s a lot for a 7-month old!}.

I have started feeding Hannah the Once Upon a Farm pouches – in my limited research these seem to be the real deal and Hannah LOVES them. She quickly figured out how to eat straight from the pouch, as opposed to from a spoon – this is much faster and far less messy. Once recently, Hannah got frustrated with me spoon feeding her from a pouch and grabbed the pouch, put it in her mouth and fed herself. This girl knows what she wants!

Hannah has been playing very independently lately. She is very much in the stick-everything-in-her-mouth phase, so she loves teething toys. She also loves our activity cube, a toy we got when Ben was a little older than she was. This is our tried and true attention holder toy – it is so wonderful and Hannah is so into it.

Anything that Ben has is of tremendous interest to Hannah. She is so curious about everything her big brother does and has and this is a great source of frustration for them both.

Since she was about 10 weeks old, Hannah has been sleeping through the night. The last five weeks or so have been more hit-or-miss, I think with the changing environments since we’ve been back and forth to The Lodge a bit more. More often than not she is sleeping through the night – sometimes she just wakes herself up and, really, I probably go in there too soon out of fear that she’ll wake up her brother.

One of the biggest challenges of having two young kiddos is managing the logistics. Hannah’s naps have been so inconsistent. When given the opportunity, she’s a great napper, and when being carted around from here to there she finds the chance to take cat naps and then falls asleep a little earlier at night. These days she’ll either take two or three naps during the day, depending on what we’re up to and how mobile she is. She is such a trooper with sleep, though I do wish I could consistently allow her at least one long nap every day.

This sweet little girl continues to light up the room and our little house. We adore her so very much!

Ben at eight months old – they had so much in common!

Hannah is Seven Months Old!

Our sweet baby girl is rounding the corner and headed straight for age one. I know it’ll be here before we know it. Just like most months, this last one was a blur – especially blurry in fact.

Hannah’s stats:

Weight: not sure – 19 or 20 pounds maybe?
Length: not sure
Clothing size: mostly 6-12 months, though she is starting to outgrow a few things already!
Number of teeth: 0
Eye color: still blue!
Words: we swear she’s working on saying “dada” – it’s the absolute sweetest Hannah is SO LOUD. She squeals and shrieks with excitement {or exhaustion} and loves to be part of the conversation. She’s a chatterbox!
Favorite foods: bananas, applesauce, CHILI
Least favorite foods: avocado

Hannah continues to bring our family so much joy – lately in the form of whole body smiles that include exasperated leg kicks, cackles, squeals and giant ear-to-ear grins on her face.

She loves playing and being included in whatever is going on. Alex likes to have her chase Ben around the house – everyone gets a good laugh, especially Hannah.

Over the last month Hannah has become more comfortable eating solid foods. With all of the craziness we’ve had going on I really haven’t made as much of a point in trying new foods with her as I should. Once things settled down I got a little more creative and offered her new tastes. She absolutely loves to eat!

One of my favorite recent memories was one of our first dinners at home as a family of four after our families left and after our au pair left. We had chili for dinner and Hannah devoured it! She loved eating the soupy part as well as very small chunks of meat and beans – her first experience with that consistency and also that much flavor. Chili is one of my favorite winter meals to make and eat and it brought so much enjoyment to be able to share it with both of my kids and have them love it.

Developmentally Hannah has been working on getting stronger and stronger with sitting up. She’s at the point where we can really plop her down anywhere and she will be okay for the most part.

Hannah is putting eeeverythingg in her mouth right now. Her favorite teething toys are these and these. She is a major pacifier lover, which at this point I love. She adores her lamb wubbanub pacifier.

As a new 7-month old, Hannah is just starting to be on-the-move! While she’s definitely not crawling yet, she is scooting and rolling and figuring out how to get where she wants to go. She has quite a bit of figuring out to do, still, before crawling comes, but she’s a mover, that’s for sure.

Hannah absolutely adores her brother. She loves getting attention from him and enjoys sitting and watching him be goofy. Her sweet squeals and wide open-mouth smiles light up the room and Ben gets the best show from her.

One major change for Hannah this last month was moving into her brother’s room – now dubbed the “kids room.” The transition has been so much smoother than I could have expected. Hannah is sleeping well and she and her brother rarely wake each other up. I think they both like to be nearby each other. I have a few things I found to spruce up the decor in here so stay tuned for an updated photo.

Thankfully Hannah has been a great sleeper and that continued to be the case during her transition to sleeping on her stomach. She typically sleeps through the night and is transitioning to a new self-led nap schedule. She’s been taking one very long nap during the day, usually in the morning, and then a shorter nap in the afternoon. Of course this all depends on the rhythm of the day – if we’re just hanging out at home she’ll take longer naps, while if we bounce around town during the day she’ll get a few cat naps in and be ready for bed a little earlier in the evening. She’s pretty darn flexible.

It’s going to be so much fun seeing what happens with Hannah in her eighth month now. I’m excited to see what she’s up to and what her favorite things are. Now that I’ll be home with Hannah 100% of the time I just absolutely can’t wait to experience the little things that happen during the day with her. We’re going to have a blast!

Ben at seven months old

Hannah is Six Months Old!

Sweet Hannah Max has been with our family for half a year now and it feels like she’s always been here. Hannah continues to be an absolute delight. Her smile brightens up anyone who looks at her. I get so many compliments when I’m out with her about how happy she is.

Hannah’s stats:

Weight: 17 pounds 15 ounces {80th percentile}
Length: 26.1″ {60th percentile}
Clothing size: 6-12 months
Number of teeth: 0
Eye color: still blue!

As a six-month old Hannah is mostly still sleeping through the night and takes about 3 naps per day. Usually two cat naps and a longer snooze. Her schedule is somewhat predictable and driven by a combination of the day and Hannah – for the most part she goes with the flow.

We’ve had a tremendous amount of change in the last month or so and Hannah has dealt with it okay. I’ve noticed that she has been rather opposed to spending the day, or really any amount of time, with a stranger or any new person. She had a rather lengthy adjustment period when Anna, our new au pair, arrived.

In the last month we started introducing solid foods to Hannah. It has been so much fun watching her get used to the idea of eating foods and seeing the look on her face when she tries something new. So far, we haven’t found anything she doesn’t like.

We knew Hannah was ready for solid foods a while ago when she’d start reaching out and grabbing the food on my plate and bringing it to her mouth. She’s been so curious about the concept of eating for quite some time.

I’ve had a very laid-back and stress-free approach to feeding Hannah. At this point my goal is merely to get her used to the idea of eating. A few foods we’ve tried with her include: bananas {her first food!}, avocado, sweet potato, cucumber, red pepper, pear, yogurt, cheese and oatmeal. Over the weekend we checked “peanuts” off the list. Fingers crossed for no allergies!

Just a few days ago we made the call to say that Hannah is officially sitting up! She loves being able to have a different outlook on her surroundings. I think she really enjoys watching her big brother play nearby, too.

Hannah is SO CHATTY! She’ll interrupt a conversation or dinner to tell us a story or just start talking out of nowhere. She loves being included in what’s going on. Once she has the words I have a feeling she’s going to figure out how to use them rather quickly! Right now she just sounds like a typical 6-month old baby: a pterodactyl!

Ben is still pretty much the only one who can get a laugh out of Hannah. It is really sweet. Usually Hannah cracks up at Ben being a goofball – sometimes Alex will involve Hannah in Ben’s evening rumpus and she loves it.

Another fun milestone for Hannah in the last month is that she’s been able to ride in the stroller seat and the shopping cart. I have really enjoyed this as a way to interact with her a little more.

Our sweet Hannah girl is all smiles these days. She is the happiest, most content baby I know.

Hannah is Five Months Old!

Our sweet little baby girl is five months old and has been so interactive, active and smiley. We are having so much fun with our Happy Hannah.

Hannah’s stats:

Weight: she was 15 pounds 10 ounces at her 4-month checkup (75th percentile)
Length: she was 25″ at her 4-month checkup (50th percentile!!)
Clothing size: 6-9 months

Hannah continues to be the sweetest baby I’ve ever met. She is always smiling and so, so happy. Her smile lights up the room.

Recently, Hannah started rolling over from her back to her tummy! She had been doing a lot of rolling onto her side for a while and then one day figured out that she could get all the way over. By the second time she rolled over it was already a graceful, swift move. Now she’s working on sitting up!

We pulled out Ben’s old high chair {he’s been in a booster seat for around 9 months now} and brought it up to the table. Hannah loves to be in the action and we thought it would be fun for her to be seated in the high chair for dinner so she can see everyone eating.

We got the green light from the pediatrician to go ahead and start trying some solid foods, so we’re planning on doing that around Christmas. I’m thinking we’ll start maybe with avocado or banana? Honestly, I haven’t given it much thought other than the fact that I’m really excited for her to start eating solid foods. I can’t wait to share my love of food with her!

Hannah has been a great sleeper since day two. She continues to sleep through the night, though this last week she woke up a couple times needing some love in the middle of the night due to a bad cold. Despite the cold and clearly feeling miserable she is still all smiles and somehow is powering right through.

There were a few weeks right around the turn from three months to four where Hannah hated being in her car seat in the car. That seems to mostly be a thing of the past at this point. I’m sure we’ll have a few more of these periods as she gets older, though now she mostly tolerates it just fine.

{I think she’d prefer to ride up front with me! – obviously she doesn’t ride in the front seat ;)}

Christmas came a few days early for Hannah – I gave her a couple of new teething toys and she absolutely LOVES them. These are probably the best teething/baby toys I’ve ever encountered, aside from or on par with the Wubbanub pacifiers.

Hannah has had the dexterity to put things into her mouth for several weeks now – maybe since 3 or 3.5 months and these new toys are so fun for her to hold onto, pass between her hands or chew on. The shape of them is perfect for her to actually be able to get into her mouth. These were recommended by my mom’s group leader who is an occupational therapist.

These days Hannah spends a lot of time playing on the floor. We’ve expanded her baby gym onto one of Ben’s quilts so that she has more space to roll over. I actually think I’m going to get rid of her official baby gym {any takers!?} because it takes up so much space.

Hannah has been so interactive lately with toys and people and is all smiles. She is smitten with her big brother and love, love, loves getting attention from him. He’ll often come over and give her a big hug or try to climb in her rock & play with her. Ben is so tolerant when Hannah grabs his hair out of excitement.

We are so excited for Hannah’s first Christmas in just a few days. We already got her out cross country skiing this week and I hope to do so again in the next few days. We have so, so much to look forward to this holiday season and new year.

Hannah is Three Months Old!

And just like that our baby girl is a quarter of a year old! Hannah is growing and changing at a rapid pace and it’s hard to keep up with all of her new developments. While I’ve thought Hannah was fun and sweet from day one, I remember Ben starting to really be more fun and engaging around four months, so I have a feeling our sweet girl is only going to get sweeter and more interactive as the days go on.

As a three month old, Hannah weighs 13 pounds 9 ounces and is in the 68th percentile for her weight. We’ll get an updated length at her four month check up.

The biggest update in the last month is that Hannah started sleeping through the night! I think this happened around 10 weeks or so. It’s kept up for a while so we’re hoping it’s a sign of good sleep to come.

A lot of people {mostly strangers!} ask how she sleeps during the day if she sleep through the night already. Usually she takes a short morning nap and is awake and interactive most of the morning, then around 1:00 she typically takes a longer afternoon nap, usually about 2 hours or so, and is awake most of the evening with a cat nap somewhere along the line.

Hannah loves to eat! Usually she grazes {or non-stop eats} from about 6-9 p.m., which seems to fill up her little belly with enough calories to keep her going through the night.

While I haven’t ever taken the time to get Hannah on any sort of a routine, she decided to take matters into her own hands and get herself on one. She really is fairly consistent day-to-day and it has absolutely nothing to do with my intentions or plans. I really wanted her to be flexible – her big brother rules the roost, after all. Hannah is proving she is quite adaptable and happy to give her mama the wonderful gift of sleep.

Typically Hannah falls asleep around 9 in the evening – usually while eating – and sleeps until 6:30 or 7 a.m. I’m sure someday soon we’ll try to get her to have a real bedtime and an evening routine, but for now it’s working so I don’t really want to rock the boat.

Hannah loves to read and look at pictures. She gets so happy and engaged when we look at books together. Her favorite toy {let’s be real – the only toy she has any interest in} is her crinkle paper. She responds really well to a pacifier, which is nice. She doesn’t *have* to have it but she’ll very happily take it if she’s upset or needing comfort.

Developmentally, Hannah is still rolling from tummy to back {I think just one way} and is able to prop herself up more and more each day, it seems. She loves laying on her back on her play mat and batting the toys above her. She has been cooing so so much lately and sometimes I swear she’s actually talking to me.

Hannah continues to be such a dream baby. We are so over the moon with our baby girl!

Maternity Leave

I’m savoring the last bits of my maternity leave as I’m slowly easing back into my job. I officially go back to work on October 22nd. Before I left I promised I’d facilitate some trainings in mid-October, so I’ve already dipped my toes back into the working world.

This maternity leave has been oh so very different from my leave with Ben. Hannah’s leave started right away with a beautiful baby girl coming home from the hospital as a one-day old. Alex took two wonderful weeks off of work to spend with us as we adjusted to life with two. Then, I was on my own with Hannah and Stacey maintained her regular schedule with Ben.

It was so special to have this bonding time with Hannah. She and I have become extremely connected – so much so that she often refuses to be held by anyone else. I will always remember this time so fondly and with tremendous gratitude that I had the opportunity to spend so much time with my baby girl.

We enjoyed our long walks in the late summer sun and savoring those first few crisp and sunny fall days with pumpkin lattes at our daily stop at the coffee shop, we trekked over the mountains to The Lodge four whole times, we made new friends with other mamas and babies and we enjoyed going to a variety of exercise classes together. I’ve been able to read NINE books while on maternity leave! It has been so much fun to get lost in good books. I have a Kindle Paperwhite with a soft back light that makes it so I can read during the middle-of-the-night feedings.

There were challenges, too. Mostly with me being home and around while Ben was there. As time has gone on he has become more and more sweet with wanting to just be with Hannah and me instead of with Stacey. I think it’s hard for him to understand and it’s a sticky dynamic with Stacey. During the day I found I needed to be out of the house if Ben was home, which really complicated my days and my schedule and required me to be quite flexible.

My going back to work is the beginning of several major changes for our family. I’m not feeling super settled right now with our childcare arrangements since we pulled Ben out of preschool. That is making it a little harder on me to go back to work. We’re throwing a huge challenge at our au pair, Stacey, giving her a very hands-on Benjamin, as well as a hands-on newborn. We are working on getting Ben into another preschool {more to come on that in another post} so that Stacey’s primary focus can be on Hannah, at least for part of the day, and Ben can be with other kids his age.

It’s very bittersweet to be leaving Hannah, grabbing my work bag and throwing on a non-mom-on-the-go outfit as I head back to adult life as a mom of two. I’m looking forward to some more adult time, having more opportunities to use both of my hands at the same time, drink coffee while it’s hot, stimulate my brain a bit, have conversations that have nothing to do with negotiating with a toddler and making a difference to people outside of my house. Here’s to a the start of a new chapter!

One-on-One Time

One of the biggest challenges of now having a second child is making sure Alex and I are spending one-on-one time with both kiddos. Naturally I am spending oodles of time with Hannah, thus defaulting to more Alex-Ben time. It’s the reverse that gets trickier.

Lately, Alex and I have been going out of our way to make sure I am able to spend quality time with Ben, just the two of us. Even if it’s ten minutes here or there, like giving him a bath or putting him to bed. We’ve been a little lax on our “green light” wake up rule and have allowed Ben to get up earlier to spend time with me in the morning before Hannah wakes up. It’s important that we have that time together.

Sweet Ben has started requesting cuddle time at 4:30 in the morning. As much as Alex and I would both love to snuggle him for the rest of the night in bed with us we know that’s a slippery slope and don’t want to have to undo that down the road. So, our days have been starting around 4:30 {or earlier for those of us who wake up to feed baby Hannah, usually from 3-4} while we work to get Ben to stay in his bed for the rest of the night. It’s hard to be too upset about this since all Ben wants is to come and cuddle with us, buttttt we really like to sleep in later than 4:30.

Ben and I have had a few mama/Ben dates, most recently with a run down to Madison Park with a pit stop at the coffee shop, park and beach. It was such a special morning with Ben.

Alex is also trying to find ways to spend time with Hannah. He’ll often bring her with him in the mornings when he walks Jackson and that’s not only a great start to the day but a great way for him to connect with her and enjoy cuddle time.

We’re still figuring out how to balance our two kiddos who both have very different needs, demands and schedules, and I think we’re doing okay. Maybe someday things will slow down and normalize? Probably not!