Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Life continues

First a quick update on my life. Well Gretchen is still trying to walk. She can stand on her own without any support and take about 5 steps and then on her bottom she goes. You can tell when she is taking her time walking and when she gets in a big hurry cause at those times she takes only 2 steps before falling.

Sometimes when I start typing I start preaching and raving about people that have upset me and made me mad. But I stop myself and delete whatever I have typed. I am not going to use this blog to be mean to anyone. However, if anyone out there wants to give me advice on how to deal with a judgemental mother in law please do. I would love your advice.

Gretchen is also going through a hollering stage. Not crying or whinning but hollering. She gets really loud and at times I need to be separated from it to beable to think.

So, now I want to sort of go over my philosophy of parenting. Today lets talk about Clothes and Babies!

I am a big believer in hand me downs, thift shops, and consignment for kids clothes. Yes, I do buy Gretchen new clothes but the majority is used. As fast as she grows I feel I don't get my moneies worth from buying a lot of new clothes. Gretchen plays alot so her clothes need to be something she can get messy in and me not freak out if that stain won't come out. I'm also not one to go to a sale and buy too many cute dresses just cause they are on sale. Think about it. In a months time Gretchen will need to be dressed up about 4 times for church or other events. In a spring and summer season that would be about 24 times. If I want to actually get some use and my money worth out of a dress then she needs to wear it at least 4 times, equaling 6 dresses. I don't know how many dresses Brian's sister sold at a yard sale that still had the tags on them that were never worn. Ok, you got it for a good deal but since it was never worn and you had to sell it at a yard sale for cheap then any idiot would know that you lost money.

Another trick I have found was that I bought clothes a tad bigger so she can grow into then and they can last longer. When Gretchen was around 6 months she needed more winter clothes. It was almost spring so I bought just enough to last the rest of winter. When it came time to buy summer clothes she was in a 9 months. Instead of buying everything in 9 months and then having to buy 12 months later I just bought 12 months. This saved me a lot of money cause she will get more used out of the clothes before she out grows it. So, for a few months her clothes were a tad big but I saved in the long run.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Back to Work I go

So I got a new job and finally get to start it. I'm doing Direct Care work part-time. This will be good cause it fits around my school schedule this fall and I still get to spend alot of time with Gretchen during the day. Its sort of like what I was doing at the group home but with only one client.

Back when Gigi was about 6 weeks old and I was here alone I went to the library often. I would check out books about learning to be a mommy and things to that nature. Two books come to mine now. One was a book about transitioning from working woman to stay at home mom. It really tried to sell the stay at home mom job to you. It made you feel that it was your duty as a parent to stay at home with them. The other book was written by a mother urging parents to go to work to save there sanity. Both books I can totally agree with even though they are complete opposites. Staying at home for most families just makes more sense finacially. When you think about the extra time you spend getting you and baby ready, cost of daycare, cost of gas to and from daycare and work, worry of baby getting sick and having to leave work, it really is worth staying at home. On the other hand being at home all day with a screaming baby, no other human contact most days, and a sense of failure, and financial worry can be depressing.

Despite out finances right now I am grateful that I got to stay at home with Gigi for the first year. Come fall between school and work I will be working full time. However I will still get to spend a lot of time with my girl. Putting her in daycare would have limited her. I went to a daycare and in the babyroom all you saw was crib, crib, crib, swing, swing, swing, bouncer, bouncer. I totally understand the workers needing this stuff however there was no floor space for a baby to get down and explore. At home Gigi is pretty much free. The majority of the day she is on the floor playing and exploring.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Finally to the Present time

I know the past few post have been brief and not in much detail but it is what it is. I felt that I needed to go ahead and get caught up to the present time or I never would.

Now I want to talk about my wonderful baby girl Gretchen. Lets just say that she is AWESOME! I couldn't have asked for a better baby. She wakes up in the morning smiling and kicking ready to go. She loves meeting other people and is already a little dare devil like her daddy.

One of my biggest worries is that Gretchen will be a "brat" when she is away from me or when around new people. So far she has always been an angel. The other day for instance Gretchen and I went to a yard sale at Round Hill Baptist Church. She had never been around any of those ladies but was very well behaved sitting and playing in Miranda and Melissa's lap while I shopped. I even had to walk up the hill to my car and she didn't cry a bit when I was walking away.

She loves to swing, and ride the three wheeler or dirt bike with her daddy, and to swim in the pool. She has gotten so confident on the dirt bike that now she will ride with no hand and wave as she passes by me. It freaks me out and I'm yelling " Hold on Baby"!!

Month 8 and 9

Gretchen at this point is crawling and pulling up and standing alot. She got one new tooth at 8 months and one at 9 months. A total of 8 teeth. Everyone looks at her and is amazed at how many teeth she has. She has more teeth then Gracelynn and she is 4 1/2 months older than her. I pretty much let her eat almost anything at this point. At this point she has taken a told of 6 steps. All that in one day. Since then she stands for a really long time but then eventually sits back down. We bribed her with a cracker to get her to walk but that doesn't work anymore.

Around mid April I quit the group home. Probably not the best decision but.... Gretchen was home sick and I needed to be home with her. I need a job where it isn't an act of Congress to leave work and go home when you have to.

Month 6 and 7

Gretchen is trying to crawl. How she did it would change ever couple of days until she perfected it and it actually looked like a crawl. At one point she looked like she was a catapillar doing an inch worm crawl and then later looked like a frog hopping. She got two more teeth at 6 months and two more at 7 months. Sometime around the end of 7 months Gretchen started standing up. I told Brian that he needed to lower her crib before she started doing this. A week later she pulled up for the first time and did it three other times that day. And I missed it. I was at work and Brian was at home with her. Oh I hate to work and miss my baby.

Month 5

I feel like I don't remember a whole lot, so my blogs are getting shorter. Oh well.

So month 5. At this point Gretchen is sleeping through the night, starting to beable to go to sleep on her own without being rocked, and her two front teeth just popped through. She had her 4 month appointment and will go back at 6 months. She is getting more mobile. Rolling over and scooting and trying to push up on her arms.

Sometime around here or 6 months Brian found a local job. I was so relieved and glad that he was going to be home every evening. It really helped me cause I could leave her with him on the weekends that I had to work at the group home or at least depend on him to get her from my parents and him have her in bed by the time I got home.

However, with Brian being home came a few adjustments. I had to get used to not being alone anymore, sharing the tv, more clutter in the house. Always something.

Month 4

Gretchen turned 4 months on December 17th. Getting ready for her first Christmas wasn't a big deal. I'm waiting for the day when Christmas is exciting to her. She got tons of stuff but I decided to only have "Santa" bring her one big toy. Everything else was from Mommy and Daddy. The reason was that I want her to understand the real reason for Christmas. Also, I don't see the point in going over board and her expect a huge Christmas every year. What if we just can afford a big Christmas? But also, there are kids out there that don't get a whole lot at Christmas. I'm sure those kids wonder why Santa only brought then a few crappy toys while the kid down the street in the mansion got like 20 toys. I will explain to Gretchen someday that I asked Santa to only bring her one toy so that a needy boy or girl can get something nice. She got tons of other stuff from everyone else though. She got clothes, books, bath toys, a huge stuffed sea turtle. So even with out Santa she scored big.

Buying Brian's kids Christmas was alot harder though. With me being out of work I could really only afford to buy Gretchen Christmas. I told Brian over and over when he was home that he needed to go ahead and get Hayley and Jacobs stuff. No, he waits til the day before Christmas when there is nothing left in the stores. We will not make that mistake again.

But really her first Christmas was very special. I just hope I can get better and better at it by the time she starts to get into it.

New Year Brian was back on the road and I was home with Gretchen and babysitting Kaylee. Kaylee was gone by midnight and Gretchen was asleep. I stayed up to see the ball drop but its better to celebrate with someone special.

The rest of the time Gretchen was ill. She was starting to teeth. At this point I have her and Gracelynn teething. Oh Lord!

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Month 3

Month 3 I guess was right around Thanksgiving and before Christmas. Around this time I started putting her in her crib. I started during the day and kept her in there are along as she would stay until finally she would stay the whole length of a regular nap. This was great for me since I had been falling asleep on the couch with her or depending on the baby swing.

For some reason I didn't want to sleep in my bed while Brian was gone. Being at the house alone with Gretchen scared me at night. I kept thinking that I needed to sleep in the living room so I could be closer to her if something happened. After a while my body was really feeling the pain of sleeping on the couch. I ached all the time in my back and neck. Once back in my own bed my pain went away and the fear of something bad happening slowly went away.

At this time she was trying to roll over. She would get half way over and get so mad and just scream. Finally at my friend Chelsey's babyshower she rolled over twice. I called Brian immediately. I was so excited, it was like her first big achievment.