Hanging with the Hockenberrys: It's the Final Countdown (Again)

One week left. That's all that remains of my 12 weeks of maternity leave. I can't believe Greyden will be 11 weeks on Monday! It feels like it flew by, but when I stop to think about the first few weeks of living with a newborn it also feels like it was so long ago. He's changed so much in the last few weeks. He's slept 8 1/2 - 9 hours every night for the last week. He's also started rolling from his tummy to his back. And he loves to stand up. I'll pull him up by his hands from his back into a sitting position and he'll tuck his legs under him and push up the rest of the way. For being such a small little peanut (10 lbs, 8.5 ounces last Monday) he's crazy strong. He's going to be walking before we know it which is highly scary. I have no idea how to baby-proof a house. I can barely keep it dog-proofed. The only reason I know to keep candles off the coffee table is because Harley has a habit of lighting up his tail whenever he walks by. I am the kind of person that learns by experience. Once something bad happens, I know to change it so it doesn't happen again. Although it's probably not the greatest idea to use Junior as my baby-proofing Guinea Pig and learn by trial and error.

With my maternity leave coming to a close the start of daycare is right around the corner. I feel like such a horrible mother because although I dread leaving him, I am actually looking forward to going back to work. (Margarita lunches here I come! Damn. Is my boss reading this? I meant iced tea lunches.) It's SO hard to be home with him all the time. Most of the time I spend wondering what to do with him. He's only just becoming interested in toys so you can only do so much playing with him. Plus, there is always laundry to be done or dinner to be cooked. Of course I feel guilty for doing those things instead of interacting with him, even though they have to be done. Although I do try to entertain him while I work. The poor kid has had everything waved in his face from Daddy's underwear while I'm folding laundry to bags of shredded cheese and frying pans when I'm cooking. And god forbid mommy starts dancing with the green peppers again. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the daycare staff have 100% of their time and energy to him every day and that makes me at least feel a little better about the whole situation.

Another thing that is helping me feel better about daycare is getting a housekeeper. We're only going to have about 2 hours to spend with Greyden each night between me picking him up from daycare and us getting him ready for bed, so the last thing I want to do is spend it cleaning. Ever since my old housekeeper (Kevin) up and quit on me without notice, the house has been a wreck. Apparently he felt that I should be helping with the cleaning or something since I was home all day anyway. Ha! Like I have time to dust or vacuum while I'm trying to feed and entertain a baby. Not to mention I'd feel guilty doing it when Greyden is awake because of course I should be playing with him. So I put in a few calls last week, found one who speaks really good English (which is essential to me, since I can hardly understand Southern accents, let alone a whole different language), and had her start yesterday. It's already a godsend. She did more in 3 hours than Kevin and I both can do in a day. Now I'll be able to spend those 2 hours with Junior in the evenings instead of trying to clean the house. Not that I spent those hours cleaning the house before either, but that's obviously not the point.

Checking In!

Weeks Post Partum: 10.5 Weeks!

Total weight gain/loss: 10 more pounds lost! Which is a miracle being as the pounds came off somewhere between Christmas and New Year's while we were in Michigan. And anyone who knows my family knows that we don't skimp on the food. We did nothing but eat and drink the entire time. I fully expected to come back at least 5 pounds heavier. (Yes, I was still using the "this is the one time in my life that I can do this without guilt" line.) That being said I am still 8 pounds over where I started when I got pregnant. Both Kevin and I have been getting back at the gym for the last couple of weeks (Kevin for the first time since last April - yes I checked at the front desk) so hopefully the pounds will come off soon. Like, next week.
Maternity Clothes: Yes, I'm still in them. I can fit into a couple of pairs of my pre-pregnancy jeans but have a mega-muffin top when I button them up. It's not pretty. Elastic-waist pants are still my friends for now. Although I desperately need to try on my work clothes, being as I start work again in a week. It would probably be helpful to know if I am going to have clothes to wear come Monday morning, right? I'm thinking I will do it this evening (just like I thought I'd do it last weekend.)
Sleep: Yup! As I said above, Grey is sleeping 8 1/2 to 9 hours a night. He usually wakes up around 4 or 5 am, eats, and is back down for another 3 - 4 hours. It's been heavenly. But I'm not counting my chickens just yet. I've heard the horror stories about how you'll just start to think that the baby is sleeping through the night and then BAM! They're back to waking every few hours. I'm sure that me waking him up in the morning to take him to daycare won't help the situation either. So I'm enjoying it while it lasts. Especially since it means that mommy can have a glass of wine in the evening after he goes to bed and it will be well out of my system by the time he wakes up.
Best moment this week: Greyden rolling over! The first time I figured it was just a fluke. Mostly because he's so young, but also because he looked so shocked when he ended up on his back that it was obvious he had no intention of doing it. (The second time he cried. It was hilarious.) But he's done it quite a few times since then. He even did it once for Grandma and Grandpa Shagene via Skype. Show off.
What I miss: Stress free visits to restaurants. Greyden did really well for a while. The loud noise of the restaurants knocked him out just about as soon as we walked through the door so we could just hang out for a couple of hours and relax. Now that he's starting to see more things, he is preferring to stay awake instead. And of course that means he gets bored sitting in his car seat the entire time and starts to get fussy and cry. The last few times we've ended up having to ~~pound our beers~~ ask for our dinner to go so that we could get out before the total meltdown. He's fine by the time we get to the car of course.
What I am looking forward to: Going back to work (sort of) although I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune by the time the day actually comes.

Milestones: Rolling from his tummy to his back and pushing himself into a standing position. He's started to smile in reaction to mommy and daddy (I'm sure dancing with vegetables had nothing to do with that) and likes to talk non-stop. And I use the term talk very loosely. But when you have a baby that can suddenly make more noises than just high-pitched wails to make his point, you'll take what you can get. Oh, and he's discovered his fist. As you can see in the first minute or so of the video below.

Greyden also took his first trip to the Houston Boat Show this past weekend. Daddy got him dressed (and I'd be crying too if Daddy put me in this outfit - just because it's all camouflage doesn't mean that it matches, Daddy):