Blake's Being Baptized!

I just registered Blake for her baptism at the Catholic Church here in Lake Wales on March 13th!  I am so excited!!!!!  It is going to be such a great day for our family and friends to celebrate!  Her GodFather, Cody Moyer, and GodMother, Cori Murphy, will be part of the ceremony.  It is going to be beautiful and Blake is going to look beautiful. She already has her christening gown all set that my mom got her a few weeks ago.  We are looking forward to this special day!  God is great!!!!!

Finally some videos from the beginning

Tomorrow is D-Day

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, there is no possible way my baby is already 10 weeks old and my maternity leave is over!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I cannot believe that tomorrow I go back to work.  I cannot even think about it, it makes me so sad.  I love spending time with Blake and don't want to miss anything.  I just thought this day would never come :(  But, time to put my big girl panties on and get back to real life.  Today is going to be used to spend time with Blake and prepare for work tomorrow.  Well, the up side, is that I only have to work 3 days this week!
 

Milestones

Blake has had several milestones and I cannot believe how fast she is growing up!  It really does seem like yesterday that we had her :(  Blake had her first "real" smile at about 6 weeks.  She is now a smiling machine!  She loves it when you run your fingers down her face and touch her nose.  She also smiles when we play peek a boo with her burp cloth :)  Her little smile melts my heart.  She has the most precious smile I have ever seen and it really does make my day!  She also is beginning to laugh.  She had her first laugh at about 8 weeks.  She makes this huffing noise when she is smiling and you can tell she wants to laugh, but she has not quite figured that out yet...I know that will be very soon!

Blake has also found her hand and thumb.  She wants to suck her thumb so bad, but cannot quite figure out how to get just the thumb in the mouth.  She will suck on her hand and slobber everywhere!  It is so cute, in the mornings when we wake her up, there is drool all over her crib sheet and she is sucking her hand.  I cannot wait for the day that she figured out the thumb :)

Blake has also started cooing and making noises at things.  She will be watching TV, getting her diaper changed, or just being held, and she will make all kinds of noises.  She is going to be a talker like her momma :)

We are also starting to drool and blow bubbles :)  I get wet kisses now and anything that you are wearing gets wet!  Of course, I think it is cute :)

I wish that I could say that another milestone was liking the car seat and stroller, but we are not there yet...SOON!!!!!

Oh, one more!  She has started actually watching TV!  She LOVES Baby Einstein Baby Mozart!  I can put her in her bouncy seat and she will just stare and coo and "laugh."  This is great and I love Baby Einstein because it allows me to get things done around the house!

Well, we are off to Babies R Us to get some much needed things for daycare.  We are also going to look at the high chairs, because it about a month and a half it will be time to start rice cereal and then baby food!!!  You know me, I am always prepared :)

Back to work

Man, that dreaded day has finally come.  I have to go back to work on Wednesday, January 26th.  I know that I have to go back to work and I am a little excited to have some adult interaction, but at the same time I don't won't to miss a step in Blake's life.  I know that she is going to be great at daycare and we are so excited and love where she is going, but it is going to be so hard dropping her off that first day and leaving her.  I honestly have not been away from her for more than 2 hours and that is rare when I leave her.  You do what you have to do to provide the best life for your baby and I want to be able to provide for her and get her everything that she needs (and maybe wants!).  I know that it will make me even more thankful and excited to see her when I get home.  I think that daycare will be good for her.  She will be able to interact with other kids, learn that she will be okay without mommy.

We started, about 2 weeks ago, introducing formula to Blake.  I wanted to continue breastfeeding and then pumping and storing, but it did not work out that I was able to pump (I didn't get enough for one feeding pumping!).  I felt more comfortable giving her formula and knowing that she would not run out while I was not with her and I wanted her to be comfortable with formula before she went, because I would be thinking about that all day and her not eating.  It took us a little while to get use to the formula.  I started off by doing half and half (formula and breastmilk) and that really worked.  I also go some Breastflow bottles that resemble breastfeeding and she responded great to those bottles.  Because, the Avent ones, she kept spitting the formula out.  Now, after a good 2 weeks she will drink a whole bottle with just formula out of any bottle.  I am really sad that the breastfeeding is almost over, but I know that I gave her a great start (10 weeks).  I am still breastfeeding her after 5 pm until morning until she starts sleeping through the entire night.

Blake is sleeping from about 9:30ish to about 3:30 or 4:00 AM and then she will eat and go back to sleep until somewhere around 7ish.  Which is really great!  She is in her crib in her room and has been there since she was 5 weeks.  She is a good night time sleeper, not so much a napper.  She actually will cat nap all day, but nothing ever longer than 30 minutes...it allows me to get nothing done!  But, that is fine by me, I enjoy holding and kissing on her all day long!  This sleep pattern at night is going really well and will help getting back to work.  Blake loves her bedtime routine.  If she misses the bath or something is thrown off, she is not a happy camper.  We start off with a bath about 8ish, then we read a book and eat, and then we rock her until she is sleeping.  The other night, we had friends over and we were just going to skip the bath and put her down, but she was not having that!  She was fussy until we put her in the bath and did the routine and then she passed out!  She is like her mommy and loves having a schedule.

Please pray for me and Blake on Wednesday!!!