The Minneapolis McCues: 3 Months old, back to work and Christmas....

Well, it's been quite some time since I last blogged - I guess time is slipping by too quickly. Since my last entry Meredith has turned 3 months old, I had a very busy last week of maternity leave, I've had my first week back to work, Meredith's had her first week at daycare and we celebrated our first Christmas together as a family. So here are some of the highlights.

My last week of maternity leave was a very busy one. I had two lunches with friends, an evening with a friend and some other mothers, a happy hour with friends, a visit to my daycare, a visit to a dear friend to meet her new little baby boy and a trip down to Blue Earth. The business definitely kept me from having too much time to think about my upcoming return to work. I'm certainly going to miss my lazy days with my daughter and my weekly lunches with friends!

I've actually been back to Blue Earth twice in the past 2 and a half weeks. The first time was Thurs. Dec 17th through Saturday the 19th and Jon and I (and Meri, of course) went back for Christmas, left Christmas day and returned today. Every time I leave Blue Earth, I find myself very emotional. I think I enjoy the comfort of my own parents helping me, as well as constantly being surrounded by my family (siblings, parents, grandma). There is always something going on, someone to talk to, someone to help me out and someone - more experienced than myself, to tell me that I'm doing a good job. Now, I won't be back to Blue Earth for a whole month, which is a very long time considering the fact that I've been back there at least every other week, if not every week, since Meredith was born. I'm sure Jon and I will manage - but I am already counting down the days until my return....

We've celebrated about 4 Christmases this year. The first one was at my father's in Fairmont on Dec. 19th. My siblings, step-bro and his family, dad, step-mom and Gma Pfaffinger were all in attendance. It was very nice. We had a traditional holiday meal, followed by Meredith's first present opening. Unfortunately, we had the worst breastfeeding experience to date as everyone else was opening presents. Meredith didn't really stop crying longer than a few seconds. I think she was overtired and overstimulated from all the kids and the commotion. I should've just given her a bottle and now I will always do so when we're somewhere that isn't quiet and serene. I think both of us will be happier. Other than that, I really enjoyed helping Meredith open Christmas presents and my father and step-mother were very generous. She got a lot of great toys, as well as a few outfits. Jon and I got giftcards and gift certificate to the Chanhassen Dinner Theater. I look forward to using them for an evening out with my hubby!

The second Christmas was just Jon, myself and Meredith at home on Christmas Eve. I did work that day, but Jon was able to stay home and get us ready to go to Blue Earth the next day as well as get something put together for a nice dinner. We had a great evening opening the few presents for each other and for Meredith... eating ribs and roasted potatoes and watching my favorite Christmas movie, "Love Actually"!

Then we headed down to Blue Earth on Christmas day, and yes the roads were not that excellent. It was snowing wet snow and there were areas with quite a bit of slush, but Jon drove slowly and carefully and we made it to Blue Earth in 40 more minutes than the usual. I'm glad we went because as you can probably tell, my family is very important to me. That evening we celebrated with my siblings, mom, step-dad, Gma Wickersham and we step-dad's two daughters and their families. It was the first time all of my mom and step-dad's children and families have been together at Christmas (because my step-sister Kara and her family live in Texas!). So it was very special. We had appetizers and libations, the "older" kids played nicely together in the basement, while the adults visited upstairs. Meredith received a nice activity table from my parents and cute outfits from my sister. And we even experimented with Meri's bedtime, keeping her up with us until midnight - so we could play "Catch Phrase" with the whole family. She ended up sleeping and eating during her usual hours with no problem... we had a great time!

Then the next morning we had our final Christmas at my Gma Wickersham's. It was everyone from the night before plus my my mom's only brother and his family - a total of 23 people! We had egg bake and mimosas, as well as sweet breads and pastries. It hit the spot. Then there were more presents. Meredith got an Exersaucer from my Gma Wick, as well as clothes and some money we can put into her College Fund (something Jon and I started for her as a gift!) We all needed naps that afternoon, but it was a great way to start the day!

Now a little bit on Miss Meredith. She is still growing, slowly, but surely. I still worry about her getting enough to eat, but I'm keeping track of her weight weekly just to make sure we're going in the right direction. She still has her fussy spells, but I think Jon and I are figuring out what they mean. Usually if she fusses, she's either hungry or tired. Lately we can predict that after being awake for about an hour to an hour and a half, she gets tired and needs a nap. And lately that means we swaddle her, put her in her crib, turn on her mobile and some white noise, give her her pacifier and she's out for about 45 minutes. We have had a few episodes in the evening when she didn't get a nap and she gets so overtired that she cries and cries and it takes a good half hour to calm her down to go to bed (one episode was last night, it was awful, plus we couldn't get her to eat much and she has a cold so she can't breathe that well - I felt SO bad for her!) But we do both think that her fussiness is decreasing gradually. She smiles a lot more and can be happy and awake, which we cherish. I think we've even got her to giggle a little bit. She is definitely starting to reach and grab and she is very interested in what's going on around her! I hope this pattern continues and I look forward to her being awake more along with being happy while being awake!

Now: work and daycare. So far, so good. I had been apprehensive about going back to work - as all mother's are, but I have to say I really love my job. A week before my return to work, I was able to go out for some drinks with some friends and coworkers and I started feeling better about going back to work (I also had fun having my third night out without the babe, while Jon graciously watched her, fed her twice and got her off to sleep before I returned at 11pm). I worked 3 days last week and I can't believe how quickly things came back to me and how much I enjoyed seeing my coworkers and just doing my job. It's almost a welcome break to my constant worry about Meredith. Plus I feel really good about the daycare that Meredith is at. It's a New Horizon's center in downtown Minneapolis. I had visited a couple of times before going back to work and spent time talking with her teacher's. And while at work I call a couple times a day to check in and they claim she isn't fussy at all and have no problems with her. She takes her bottles and is more or less content. It's hard for me to believe, but it makes me feel happy that is going so well for her. And pumping at work is actually enjoyable and almost relaxing.

The only unenjoyable thing is how much less sleep I get. I really can't complain too much because Meri still sleeps from about 10:30 or 11pm until 4:30am, but if I didn't have to go to work, we'd go back to sleep until about 10am (waking up one other time to feed her at about 8am). So I'm getting about 5 hours of sleep, though her restlessness does rouse me a few times during the night, so it really isn't uninterrupted. But I'm trying to take naps with her in the evening, so far unsuccessfully because I just can't seem to fall asleep, and I drink a bit more caffeine then I did before. I know this is what all parents have to do, but I wish my job didn't start so darn early in the morning. Meri seems to have my ability to sleep, so I can only hope to get more sleep in the future. Plus on my days off so far, she's gone right back to her old sleep routine, allowing me to catch up. We'll see how long this lasts!

So, all is basically well. Meri's doing great in daycare. She takes her bottles well. I still love my job. Her fussiness may be getting a bit better. But there is a few bits of bad news.... she currently has her first cold and it's making feeding a bit harder and she seems super tired all the time and we still have a fair amount of difficulty breastfeeding - sometimes I just stop and we get a bottle, but we're coping with both of these issues. I have a bunch of pictures to upload and it's about time to feed Meredith, so I must get going. I hope to post again soon and I hope everyone else had a great holiday season!