Life as a Working Mom: At the Office

3:00am - I wake up and realize that Emily has not yet been up. Brian stirs as well and I share the news with him.  

3:50am - Jinxed myself. She's up.  I head upstairs to give her a bottle and a little rocking. 

4:13am - I head back to bed. 

4:20am - She starts to fuss again. I sent Brian up to check on her. 

4:30am - He returns. 

4:37am - Fussing again. My turn. 

4:50am - Finally crawling back into bed with the hope of sleep. 

5:00am - Alarm goes off... time to exercise!  Screw that today! 

6:15am - I never hear Brian's alarm go off at 5:50, and finally wake up.  Jump in the shower to rinse off, spray some Dry Shampoo in the hair (Seriously my new favorite thing! I actually get angry when I actually have to shampoo, blow dry, and fix my hair now), make up, and dressed for the day. 

6:40am - Get the girls up.  Usually a bottle for Em first, then we head to Leah's room if she is still sleeping. She seems to wake up in a much better mood if her sister wakes her up. 

6:50am - Get the girls dressed.  I let Leah pick out Em's clothes. She usually wants to match whatever she happens to have been dressed in. 

7:00am - Out the door.  Brian currently takes Em to his parents. 

7:05am - Leah and I are usually a few minutes behind Brian out the door.  Of course last minute Leah always wants something new to take with her.  We are off to school.

7:15am - Entering construction traffic on the highway.  It adds an extra 20 minutes to my commute right now. 

7:50am: 29 miles later, finally get off the highway.

7:58am - quick little walk from the parking garage to my office, across the street from the beautiful St. Louis Union Station. 

8:00am - Finally settled in at my office.  Pull out my breakfast.  Check my emails.  Finally feel like I can catch my breath! Time to get busy.  Query writing, excel doing.... 

10:00am - Typical meeting time.... since I do not actually do any day to day work with a single person in my office, ALL of my meetings are on the phone.

11:15am - If its Tuesday or Thursday, its time for boot camp.  Otherwise its time to munch on Lunch while I work.

1:00pm - Fridays, time to run.  This particular day I ran 4.5 miles, at a 10 minute pace, and walked another 0.25 miles in my warm up and cool down.  Yep, Im awesome! 

2:00pm - Back to my desk. Try my best to cool down. 

2:30pm - Study time!

4:30pm - Time to call it quits.  Ready to end my time as Kim and start back up my job of Mommy/wife.

5:00pm - If I need too, pick up Leah from daycare. 

5:15pm - Home sweet home. 

5:30pm - Time to start dinner while trying to keep the girls entertained and happy. 

6:15pm - Brian usually gets home.  I immediately hand Emily over to him so I can finish up dinner. 

6:35pm - Time to fill our bellies. 

7:00pm - Bedtime for Em. Bath (if its a bath night), PJs, swaddled, rocked. Placed against the far wall of her crib because she is crazy and needs to rub her head/face against something.  Whatever gets her to sleep...  

7:20pm - Leah time.  Sometimes I am spoiled and Brian and Leah continue playing until I ruin the fun with making her get in the bath or get ready for bed.  But sometimes I get some one on one time with my girl by going for a walk outside, watching a show with her, or hanging out in the loft. 

8:00pm - First attempt to get Leah to start going to bed.  It usually fails. 

8:30pm - Second attempt to get Leah ready for bed.  Pjs on and mommy reads a book or two to her. 

8:45pm - Good night hugs and kisses, "I love yous" and a lecture about how we need to stay in our bed until the sun comes up.  I get sent to get daddy who "scares away the monsters" and lays with her.  I head down stairs to clean up, get bottles ready for Em, pack my lunch and clothes for the next day, do a little laundry, and veg out for a new minutes. 

9:15pm - Give Em a dream feed of 4 oz.  Check on Brian and Leah if I havent heard Brian come out of her room yet.  Its becoming pretty common that I find Brian passed out with her.  This particular time he didnt even wake up to my pokes and shakes.... so I let him be. 

9:30pm - In bed, passing out!

Body After Baby: Week 11

3.0 more lbs gone this week!

Whoohoo!

I really did not do anything too differently...

The only thing I can pinpoint is that I talked to the trainer at work about my running and did a few speed/interval runs as he suggested.

I also did reach my goal and ran 4.15 miles on Thursday!

At a 10 min pace too!

I really have started to feel good this week.

I feel stronger and leaner.

My old jeans, from pre-pre baby seem to fit even better than ever before.

Although I still weight more...

I guess the 30 Day Shred really is working to build some muscle!

I probably received way more comments from others regarding my weight loss this past week too.

I signed up for the 5k on the 8th.

I am excited, but nervous.

I also signed up for boot camp at work, which begins tomorrow.

Its all becoming easier. 

Part of my normal routine.

Something I even look forward too.

I hope it stays this way!

Catching Up

• I have been meaning to write more and catch up on so much, but since returning to work every day feels like a marathon.  I hope to write up a day in the life post soon... 
• Leah's potty training is.... going.  We are averaging 1 accident a day.  She does awesome at school where I think she likes to go often simply because that means 1 on 1 attention from the teachers but at home she will start to do her little potty, leg crossed, dance and will not always stop to go.  Or she refuses to poop on the potty.  I know its VERY common, but O-M-G! 
• Emily is sleeping pretty well at night.  Usually up only once in the 2 oclock hour... as long as I give her a dream feed before I head to bed. 
• Speaking of sleep, potty training has ruined Leahs.  She is still in pull ups at night, but she wakes up from the feeling of needing to go, and will just go in her pull up, but will come and get Brian or I to go put her back to bed.  Sometimes its multiple times per night!  And she is waking up really early too for the same reason.  It makes her a crabby little thing!  
• Emily is really starting to love her hands.  They are in her mouth at every chance.  I have started to put pull tab blankies, or little toys on top of her so she can work on grabbing on to them and pulling them in her mouth. She is getting better by the day!   Honestly I cannot wait till she can control those crazy hands & arms.  They are such jerks sometimes! 
• Leah started Soccer Shots at daycare.  She LOVES it.  And according to her teachers she pays attention very well, does everything she is asked to do, and yells at her friends if they are not listening or doing what they are supposed too.   I was also curious if paying to put her in anything so young would be a waste or not.  So often they will just cry and want nothing to do with it.  I am proud to report that Leah is the opposite! SCORE! 
• I have been thinking about Leah's 3rd birthday party lately... because OMG its in like 12 weeks!  I cannot decide between The Little Gym or Chuck E Cheese.  Leah loves Chuck E Cheeses, and its a bit cheaper, but it can get so crowded and then the kids will not even be kept together and they will all go off on their own.  At The Little Gym we will have the place to ourselves and the babies will also be able to participate in the fun. Thoughts?  I want to decide soon so we can get a prime 10:30, before nap, time! 
• My baby sister moved away to college last week. Its very strange.  It has made me think back to the amazingness that is college and how I miss those fun days and nights with my roommates!  I miss Cape! 
• And that's all I got because a certain 2 year old wants me to cuddle with her!  Peace Out!

Not Really Wordless Wednesday...

one of the first smiles I actually caught on camera!

Leah's first bonfire & marshmallow roast

photography fail... Leah in the shade, Em in the sun. I was just trying to click away before Leah dropped Em, or Em started screaming that I did not even pay attention or look at what the pictures were turning out like... of course afterwards when I wanted to try again in the sun, Leah refused to hold Emie again. 

my attempt to correct my error some....put it in my black & white... yep, doesnt help. 

I just love her little lips.  Its totally her daddy.  

love them. 

Body After Baby: Week 10

Only down 1.8  this week.

Although its less than 2 lbs, I know I am doing it the healthy way.

This week I had moments of eating great...

And moments of eating bad.

(work pool party... with cookies... and sangria....and why yes, I did get in a swim suit in front of my coworkers, 10.5 weeks postpartum.)

I returned to work and kept up my workouts.

Still working on 30 day shred.

I got up at 5 am to do it on days I went into the office.

Took my measurements again at the half way point...

Down 6 inches all over my body!

My runs varied from 2.2 miles to 3.2...

At 10 minute mile pace.

I shock myself sometimes.

I plan to sign up for a 5K in 3 weeks here in town.

I admit I mostly agreed to do it because the $25 dollars gets me a dry fit shirt instead of a normal tshirt.

I hate paying to run!

I already decided my goal is to run it in under 32 minutes.

Sept 8th...

Lets see what I can do!

Goal this week: 4 mile run!

Body After Baby: Week 9

2.4 more lbs gone.

Biggest loss I have had in a while...

And all thanks to a stomach bug I had Saturday.

Blah!

The rest of the week I actually slacked with counting my points.

I missed a few runs too.

One night I was just way too tired, another night we hung out at a neighbors house instead, and another night when I went to head out and realized that there was a gas leak in the neighborhood (and power outage) so I stayed home to hear what was going on, chat with neighbors, and ya know... not get super sick from the gas smell.

So yes... I think this is all the result of the stomach bug.

This week I will get back on track...

Because if I do not, I fear I will completely fall off.

I did however begin level 2 on the 30 Day shred.

OMG it hurts!

But it is all movements that I have never tried before so I actually like doing it.

I hurt in places I have never hurt before!!

And I have finished the C25K program!

Whooohoo!

Now I just will be heading out, and running for a set amount of time of time.

...which is hard!  I am pretty bad at judging how far I can go in a set amount of time.

My first time out I tried a new route and my 30 minutes were up WAY earlier than I planned....

I had to keep running home simply because I did not want to walk that far!

I am pretty slow right now... I'm just under a 12 minute mile so for me to reach any sort of goal of running 5+ miles, I need to get faster.

Brian laughed at that.

He pointed out that his ex-cross country runner self once ran 2 miles in 12 minutes!

I told him to shut his mouth unless he went out and ran a mile in less than 10 minutes now...

This week I head back to work too....

I cannot decide when/how I plan to workout on the days that I actually head into the office.

There is a gym at my office... with workout classes at lunch that I can do.

It is also located in downtown St. Louis and could be great entertainment while running.

You see people running all the time....

But you also see alot of bums.

I just cant decide if I want to take my lunch time to work out, work out for a bit before I leave, early in the mornings before I head in, or late at night...

Right now I am thinking workout before I leave the office so that I can keep my lunch open to study...

We will just have to see what I settle into...

It will definitely be a challenge coming up!

The End

Today is my official last day of maternity leave...

Although I actually do not return to work until Wednesday.

My awesome company allows a New Parent's Transition week where the first week back I only have to work 20 hrs, but get paid for 40.

I am sad that this time is over...

I will miss the cuddles with my sweet baby girl.

Hanging out with my big girl on our Mommy & Leah days.

The free time to do laundry, clean the house, cook dinner, exercise, shop, and anything else my heart desires...

But I think I have had enough.

I am anxious to get back.

I honestly LOVE my job.

I miss the people.

I miss feeling important and productive.

I miss spreadsheets.

I miss Excel.

I miss data.

I miss the  "schedule".

I miss studying and progressing on my actuarial designations.

I admit I am slightly terrified of starting my new life as a working/actuarial student, wife and mom of 2.

There will be alot on my plate and I am sure I will have moment of feeling completely overwhelmed...

But I am excited to figure it all out.

I am anxious to figure out the mornings...

Learn my new position on KY cost of care.

Figure out the best times to work out...

Continue to make healthy family dinners.

Treasure the moments with my family of 4 at night and on the weekends.

Begin our new normal.

2 Months

... a few days late.

Two months already...

This all goes by in a blink of an eye.

Emie is becoming such a smiley, happy, talkative little thing.

I absolutely love her little noises.

She has such a gentle little voice.

Compared to Leah I think Em will be a bit more reserved, quiet, calmer...

I was a bit surprised at her check up to find that her stats are pretty close to her big sis'.

Length: 24 inches
Weight: 12lb 14oz

She is slightly shorter than her sister at 2 months and slightly heavier.

Leah was 24.5 inches and 12lb 10oz.

And like her sister, exceptionally strong for her age....

I am pretty shocked by her weight.

She is over 4 lbs over her birth weight!

She is probably eating less than she did in her first month too since she rarely takes more than 2 oz at a time over night.

Which by the way... Emily's sleeping...

Right now she wakes sometime in the midnight hour and then around 4 am, where she might take 1-2 oz.

I didnt think this was too bad...

The Dr. thought she should only be waking up once a night, maybe, and I should leave out this feedings since she obviously is not really hungry.

Our problem is that if we do not time her feedings correctly her last "meal" might be at like 5:30 and she is already asleep once her next feeding might be.  

And eating at 5:30 is a bit too early for her to actually sleep through the night...

Em usually passes out and I put her in her bed around 7pm.

The Dr. suggested giving her a "dream" feeding... wake her up, give her as much as she will eat, before I head to bed.

Hopefully this will keep her from waking up at that midnight hour and hopefully only get up once a night instead.

At this time... Leah was sleeping through the night....

Well that is until she went to daycare and got infected by the germs.

Other points of interest...

Emily has this really annoying habit of always wanting to rub her head/face against something when shes tired....

As in if you are cradling her in your arms, she will be almost asleep and then turn her face into you and rub it back in forth, which knocks out her binkie, and pisses her off...

The Dr. thinks its her form of comfort...

I think she used to do it in utero too...

Remember how I said I used to feel her moving SUPER low and the ultrasound tech said it was just her head turning...

It has resulted in her beginning of rubbing her hair off her head in a complete ring, not just a spot in the back...

Her spot under chin has not gone away...

Nor grown.

We think it might just be a spot that as she gets bigger, it gets smaller, and no biggie.

And for comparison sake...

Time flies when you are having fun and in love! ;)

Wordless Wednesday

a few words... People lately have been telling me that Leah looks just like me. I never really thought it was true until I saw this picture... I can definitely see how she is looking like her momma!

Body After Baby: Week 8

Another week...

And another 2.2 lbs gone.

That marks 33.6 total lost from coming home from the hospital.

Running is still going great.

Brian has assured me that I do not run like an uncoordinated crazy person.

I am always paranoid of that thanks to high school basketball and our love of making fun of each other's running.

But I knew I needed to do something other than just cardio.

Something to force me to do ab exercises and tone up my arms.

I started the 30 Day Shred.

A Jillian Michaels exercise video which consists of 3, 20 minute work outs.

Basically you begin on workout 1 for 10 days, then move to workout 2, and so on.

I had heard about it for a few years...

Heard how you could lose INCHES all over with it.

And at only 20 minutes a day...

The perfect mommy workout!

I was all for trying it.

Let me just say...

That first time...

I probably sweated more than I do when I go run outside for 35 minutes!

It is no walk in the park!

I finished day 7 this morning and am already noticing a change in my shoulders.

I guess the added workout leaves me famished because this week I had a pretty hard time staying with in my daily points allowance.

I was just SO hungry!

But, with my running and the video, I luckily am usually getting an extra 12 points a day.

That is like a whole extra meal.

I did take my own measurements before I began the 30 Day Shred...

I hope to be able to share some big inches lost in a little over 3 weeks!

Potty Chronicles: Day 3

Lets just say it was about 100% better.

I was more relaxed.

Leah was more relaxed.

We stopped using the timer and forcing her to sit on the potty.

I just let Leah go at her speed.

If we were going to have a normal life again she would have to begin to stop and go on her own, without me harassing her or watching the clock.

I would give her a few reminders...

"Lets keep our undies dry!"

"Remember to stop and use the potty if you feel like you need to go."

And she would.

No accidents all morning long, except for one instance of beginning to go before stopping herself.

She even napped and woke up dry!

This kid seriously amazes me.

My previous meltdown from the day before made Brian and I realize that I need a break and desperately need a good night of sleep.

It had been 8+ weeks of getting up with a new born and months of horrible sleep prior.

My parents came to pick Leah up about 330 to take her for the night and were planning on heading out swimming.

(We separated the girls for the night.  We did not want to traumatize any grandparents with worrying about a newly potty trained toddler peeing all over their house while not getting any sleep with Emie)

My mom reported this morning that Miss Leah had only 2 accidents yesterday!!!!!

1 while eating dinner... just too darn busy eating to think about using the potty.  I expect accidents like this and I know they will come.

And another in the middle of the night... because my mom let Leah refuse a pull-up or diaper and let her go to bed in her undies.  Brave Grandma!

But come on! That one was an obvious accident too!

I know there is no real way of knowing if Leah had an accidents while swimming, but only 1 accident during the day is AWESOME!!!

Don't want to jinx anything today but we are currently on zero accidents, and napping in our undies!

We even went out in public (to Chuck E Cheese as Leah's reward for being a big girl) and no accidents!

This girl can seriously hold it together! ;)

I am excited for Leah to go to daycare tomorrow and feel even prouder when she tells them that she no longer needs diaper changes and she "gets to use the potty with her friends" as she says.

I know it will be another huge confidence boost!

But I will still pack 5 changes of clothes with her tomorrow just in case.

Potty Chronicles: Day 1 Continued & Day 2

Leah actually woke up from her nap dry!

But that is where the success pretty much ended.

About the same time she woke up, Brian came home with Emie.

I sent Emie to my mom's so that I could focus fully on potty training Leah.

With the chaos of dinner, putting Emie to bed, and playing with her daddy, Leah ended the day with 3 more accidents.

Total count for day 1: 5 accidents, 2 successes in the potty.

I actually put Leah in a pull up over night.

She refused it at first.

But this momma is already sleep deprived and really did not want to deal with changing the sheets multiple times thru-out the night.

I already know she cannot stay dry over night, there is no reason to make this more miserable on anyone.

But I wanted to stay true to "NO diapers!"

 So...

Pull ups it is.

Day 2.

We were almost off to a great start.

Notice how I said "almost"

As soon as she got up she went straight to sitting on the potty.

I always have to pee as soon as I wake up, I figured she would too!

Um no.... I guess when you freely pee all night long its not the same.

An hour and a half later we had an accident.

Then another 20 minutes later.

And a "threat" of pooping and refusal of the potty.

And Emie needed a bottle.

My mom offered to watch Em again if I felt overwelmed or thought Leah needed more attention.

She did not answer her phone.

So I broke my main rule of "no diapers".

I felt like a huge failure as a mom.

And I had an all out meltdown, anxiety attack.

Somehow I calmed down a bit while feeding Em.

I guess holding babies really does have a calming power.

I went back upstairs to see Leah.

She willing took her diaper off...

Wet, but not poopie.

And sat back on her potty willingly.

She was back to wanting to be a big girl!

My mom called soon after and told me she was coming over and kicking me out.

As soon as we got off the phone Leah successfully used the potty for the first time all day!

I headed out to grab lunch and did a little shopping.

I came home feeling slightly better and heard about 2 accidents, including a poopie failure & bathtime, and 1 success!

The rest of the afternoon has been full of success/failures.

She seems to start going, realize "oh crap! Im peeing!!", stops it, hurries to the potty, and then continues.

I guess this is progress....

We have talked about how we need to work on keeping our undies dry and try to make it to the potty in time.

And she seems to be understanding.

I was in the other room trying to get Em to calm down and all of a sudden Leah yells "Mommy! I peed in the potty!"

I wasnt too hopeful and just replied "lets see..."

Sure enough she had gone and had dry undies!!

Later she went outside to play with Brian for a bit...

As soon as she came in she said "I need to pee!"  and headed right to her potty.

We are getting there....

Hopefully tomorrow is even better....

With alot less tears from all both of us!

Potty Chronicles: Day 1

I mentioned in an early post how frustrated I was with the fact that Leah still was not potty trained...

I knew she could do it.

It was just committing to going cold turkey on diapers.

Daycare is closed tomorrow and today is her usual day with my mom...

I was determined to give the 3 day potty training challenge a try.

I bought all the supplies...

A new little potty for her.

Rewards (candy and small toys)

Activities to be stuck indoors for 3 days straight.

New undies.

New books.

And I was terrified/excited.

This morning started off with showing her all the goodies.

She was most excited about the reward basket for going.

She was eager to take her diaper off and get started.

She did not go to the bathroom until 10:20am!

Even after 4 drinks!

And it was an accident on the carpet.

It discouraged her.

It discouraged me.

She wanted nothing to do with the potty for a while after that...

But at 11 I made her sit on the potty again...

And she went!!!

She was SOOOOOOOOO proud of herself!

She kept saying "I can do it!"

I wanted to cry seeing how proud she was of herself!

From then on she was all about sitting on the potty randomly.

She would try to go more, saying things like "It wont come out!" and pushing on her belly.

At 1 she even stopped what she was doing and ran over to sit on the potty!

Success!

I thought for sure she would go again soon after because she was drinking nonstop.

As soon as she went she would go down for a nap...

Well 3 oclock rolls around and she still had not gone, even after multiple "attempts" from her.

She throws an awesome tantrum...

Runs to the corner to pout...

And pees on the floor.

It was an accident... but only because of the tantrum and lack of nap.

I'm not disappointed at all.

I should have expected that.

Now she is napping in her bed...

With a naked bottom.

She refused a pull up.

I am terrified how this will end...

But she does have some sort of crazy ability to hold it in!

Stay tuned...

Or not...

I'm not sure who all really wants to read about potty training a 2 year old...