Highlights

How to sum up the two month since my last post?

Some highlights:

March 22nd, 2012 - The saddest day of my life. I return to work, thankfully on a Thursday so I only had to endure 2 days before the weekend. Now that I look back on this, we really are lucky to have such an amazing babysitter to watch her in her home. Our brother-in-law's mother, she is practically family, and the price couldn't be any better. We are so very lucky to have our day care set up! The most stressful yet enjoyable part of my day is getting Johanna up and ready to go. She is always so happy in the mornings! I love her huge smile when I lean over her crib in the morning and she first sees my face. Her whole face lights up and her toothless mouth looks so big as she kicks her legs in excitement. From there it's a challenge to make sure she eats and I can get everything ready to go in the allotted time frame (which also occasionally has to include a shower for me). With Berto leaving at 5:30am to teach weight lifting before school, it's just me and her in the mornings and sometimes she likes to eat a leisurely breakfast when we HAVE to get out the door! Not to mention the stress of packing "the bag" All you parents know it. And by using cloth diapers (which is my choice to save money and I know we could do disposables but just let me rant) I feel that it's extra stressful to ensure she has enough clean inserts, covers, and dry bags to get her through the day at the babysitters. Beyond her bag, and even more frustrating is the love/hate relationship I have with my breast pump. It would be amazing if I could leave it at work and nurse Johanna at home, but since I am exclusively pumping, it must go everywhere with me. The first three weeks back at work I was a constant nervous wreck that I was forgetting some component, a wire, a bottle, the charger, ice packs, etc during the back and forth. But, I feel that I've got a system down now and have made it thus far without any major mishaps or meltdowns. Just one 3am car pumping incident when I left the regular charger at work and had to work with only my car charger. It was about 14 degrees outside that night. But otherwise, I've been able to make it work. And I do feel more like a real person now that I get up and take a shower every day (or every other day) and have somewhere to be.

April 8th - Johanna's first Easter! This is a special date for me as it was the first night that she slept through the night. There are different definitions of sleeping through the night for parents. Some call 6-7 hours of sleep sleeping through the night. I define it as, I wake up on my own before the baby wakes me up. Johanna slept (at the time) a record 8 hours the night before Easter. Maybe it was the different location as we were staying the night at my aunt's house. Or maybe it was the "death spa" incident the night before which was trying to bath her in my aunt's oddly shaped kitchen sink while lighting candles for a sensory journey and playing Yani. Johanna wasn't having it and flayed insanely in the bathtub to the point where she was doing full back bends nearly banging her head on the granite counters and slipping out of my hands. Or maybe it was just time, but those first 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep were amazing!

April 14th - Cain & Carmen's wedding. Berto was the Best Man and we enjoyed a night away from parental duties with our friends while Johanna spent time with my Aunt and cousins.

May 13th - My first mother's day! We go out to brunch with Berto's family. I get to get a manicure and then we welcome Berto's grandma back from Mexico for her annual summer visit.

May 14th - Johanna's 4 month doctor's appointment. She weighed in at a tiny but healthy 12lbs 2 oz, and is it bad that I can't remember how many inches? I do remember that she was 25th percentile in length.

May 15th - Berto & I's 2 year wedding anniversary. This fell on a Tuesday, but the weekend before we left her with Berto's mom so we could have a night out. We ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and it was scrumdiddlyumptious!!

May 21st - Johanna rolls over! Berto is the only one to see her. I'm on my way home from work and he sends me a text that she "flipped", as he calls it. She does it again a few minutes later, and he's able to get it on video. From that point on she is a rolling machine. She's great at going from back to tummy, but not as good at going from tummy to back yet, so sometimes she gets stuck on her tummy and gets frustrated. Even in her cries of frustration, it's very cute!

May 26th - I run the Soldier Field 10 mile. I also did a half marathon earlier in the month, which was not as successful. I walked about 3-4miles. But I felt great at this race yesterday, running the whole time and feeling more like my former running self.

Overall, Johanna is a much happier baby now. She smiles regularly at us and at occasionally at other faces. She's usually only crabby around dinner time for an hour or two, and she has become a champion sleeper since I went back to work, regularly sleeping from 9-10pm until 5-6am.

Next up on the horizon, baby's first road trip! This coming weekend we will pack up shop and head to Nashville for Mario and Liz's wedding. And now some of my favorite pics from the past couple of months: