Can't Stand It!!

Sometimes I can't stand looking at my daughter.....she is so freakin' cute I could just eat her up and squeeze her cheeks constantly!! 

Swaddle Transition

This week I have attempted to nap Evelina without being completely swaddled.  Up until now, she has been swaddled during all naps and night time sleep.  She loves it and I think she has begun to associate swaddling with sleeping.  But, she will eventually not be able to be swaddled and it will be good for her motor development to be free of her straight jacket.  So we are taking baby steps by starting with one arm out.  So far, she hasn't taken as long of naps with the one arm out but we will keep trying. 

Maternity Leave

This has officially been the best Summer of my life!!  I got to have my favorite season off from work and got to spend everyday with my favorite new person, Evelina Bambina.  Before Lina's birth I thought that I would be bored and lonely during my maternity leave but I have been anything but.  Weeks have been filled with visits from friends, attending mommy and me groups, running lots of errands, going on walks, getting things done around the house, taking the occasional nap...all in addition to feeding, changing, playing and getting to know the newest addition to the Ciano family.  

I knew the day would come for which I would need to go back to work but I didn't think it would come so quickly.  I have 3 more weeks of freedom to spend with our dear daughter and I wish I could stop time for a little bit since I know I won't ever get it back.  

Of course, being a stay-at-home-mom would make me nutty so a part of me is looking forward to going back to work but if I could just be there 3 days a week that would be perfect.   Luckily, MedVentive is being supportive and allowing me to work a 4 day work week so hopefully it works out.  It will be an adjustment but this whole new world of parenthood is and so far we seem to be adapting pretty well.  

In the meantime, I just have to take it day by day and enjoy every second without tearing up each night when I lay her down to sleep. 

Cute Butt

I just couldn't resist putting Lina in these cute pair of bloomers.  Tummy time wasn't very successful but at least she got to practice some future crawling moves. 

Tough Life

Play gym fun time can be exhausting

Filling Out

Evelina is definitely filling out!! The first photo was taken when she was a little shy of 4 weeks old and the second photograph was taken at 10 weeks.  

Continuous Shooting

The continuous shooting setting couldn't have captured Evelina any better!! 

I'm hungry mom but still smiling

Play Gym Fun Time

Violet Cuteness of the Week

Last week Violet was playing with a new puppy friend at daycare and got a corneal scratch.  Our dog is THE BEST customer at the Ashland Animal Hospital that's for certain.  Her eye will be okay but while it healed she had to wear an Elizabethan collar.  She is already cute but adding the collar made her even more pathetically cute.  


Click Here for video Violet attempting to sleep with the collar on.  Make sure you put the volume up to hear her funny snores.  Gotta love Pugs!!

Ouch!

Miss Evelina made it through her 2 month appointment with flying colors. As of Thursday, she was 9lbs 6.5oz and 22.5” long.   She is still teetering between newborn (those she isn’t too long for) and 0-3 month clothes and we hope she will be able to get some use out of all of the summer 0-3 outfits before the fall temperatures roll in.   Summers always go by fast but this one has seriously zoomed by!!  We have also been experiencing an abundance of blow outs lately which isn’t very pleasant.  Newborn diapers are just too tight and size 1s are a little loose and can’t hold in her business.  It is a pain in the arse to say the least.  Maybe the potential transition to cloth diapers will happen sooner rather than later. 

Lina was a trooper during her 2 month vaccines.  One minute she was smiling while gazing at the Stegosaurus poster in the exam room and the next she was screaming bloody murder.  The day was then filled with lots of snoozing and snacking.  Our fear was that she would do the same during the night but instead she had a great sleep from 10-4 and 5-8, I could get use to that!! 

Seriously...

We have the strangest dog!!

Hawk

Since being on maternity leave I have seen lots of wildlife around the yard.  Groundhogs, turkeys (not in the yard, but close by), turtles, endless song birds, deer grazing and the highlight of the street, and a family of broad-winged hawks. 

These hawks glide above and rest on our trees on the lookout for their next meal.  No wonder we don't have many squirrels and chipmunks around.  Their unmistakable shriek can be quite a nuisance when we have our windows open.

The other day, Chris and I were doing some weeding and when I came in to make lunch I looked out on the deck and there was one of the hawks munching on something.  It was crazy to see him/her close up!!  I called Chris in quick and whipped out the super zoom lens.  The picture above is from our neighbor who is a photographer and the one below is the one I took of the hawk on the deck.   

Nap Time

Late afternoon nap time at 19 BHL

2 Months!!

I know 8 weeks isn't officially 2 months but..

Could it be that Evelina is actually 2 months old today?  Time flies when you are a growing baby and mom is on maternity leave.  She has already changed so much, from becoming more alert, staying awake longer during the day, interacting more with us, smiling and especially making us smile.  We just could look at her all day long to admire her face, arms and legs, fingers and toes, cute tummy.... 

She is such a peach and we look forward to seeing what new discoveries she will make each day as she absorbs the world around her.  

Her 2 month appointment is coming up next week and she will get her first shots.  It pains me to see tears in her eyes each day so I am hoping I don't get them in my eyes during the painful shots :-(  Poor little thing.  

We love you Evelina Bambina!! 

You lookin' for a fight?

Watch out...she's gonna get you with her cuteness!!

Zzzzzzzz........

Evelina is one day shy of 2 months and of course we are looking forward to the night when she actually sleeps through the night.  Now, many sources consider sleeping through the night to be a 5 hour stretch but my definition is 8 hours....although I would take 5 hours.  When she was about 3 weeks old she teased us with a 6 hour stretch and a few times since she has blessed us with a couple of 4 hours stretches but 5 hours seem like a pipe dream when most nights she can't even go more than 3 hours. I understand she is still tiny, needs to eat, only 2 months, that some babies aren't as good of sleepers, yadda, yadda, yadda but we all know how impatient I am!!  

I find it amazing that before Evelina arrived I required about 8-10 hours a sleep at night and I never thought I would be able to function with less, but I have adapted and I'm pretty happy with my 6 or so hours I get each night.  Ask me again if I will survive on 6 hours when I go back to work but I'm trying not to think about that just yet.  

In the meantime, I am still quite happy that she had a 5 1/2 hour stretch last night.  I don't know what we did to deserve it or what caused it to happen but I am sure it was just a fluke and she will be back to waking every 3 hours, if not less, tonight!!  


Trying to stay positive and think about her cute baby smiles :-) 


And PS:  Not sure if anyone else is seeing a weird photobucket message when viewing the blog but I am and don't know how to get rid of it.