So here's our life over the past month...
Looks: Brock is growing like a little bean; long and lean. He is around 11 pounds 10 ounces. His hair looks more red at times and blonder at times so who knows what color it will end up. His eyes have started to lighten up a beautiful bright blue color like his mommies. Overall his looks are looking more and more like his daddy but with his mommies coloring.
my spiky hair...
Personality: We have good days and we have fussy days. I wouldn't say Brock is a super easy or super difficult baby. He wants constant attention, never too content in any of his gadgets for too long. He likes to stay busy ( go figure!). He actually really enjoys moving around a ton so taking him out for errands actually makes him happy. He like to see new people and things. He has a sweet little laid back personality at times then he gets super fiery and starts screaming his head off, all in about one minute. It makes for a busy day that breezes by.
Schedule: I started Brock on the babywise schedule around 3 weeks old and he really adjusted very well. I know know everyone is a huge fan of it but it really works for us. It makes me much happier knowing we have a plan for the day and a feeding schedule. I adjust it as I need to but we stay on a feed- walk/play- nap , 2.5 hour schedule all day. Brock adjusted well and seems to know when it is nap time and defiantly when it is time to eat! It was really important to me to put him on some form of schedule before I went back to work and we are doing a good job on it. I am also so happy to report that starting at 7 weeks he is now sleeping in his crib in his room and sleeping for longer periods of time so I am hoping by the time I go back to work, he will be sleeping for a steady 6-7 hours straight. And I guess that brings me to work...
Work: Starting a couple weeks ago I started to get super anxious about work. I wasn't ready to leave Brock and I felt very uneasy about the whole thing. Matt and I talked about it and decided that after I met with my boss, if I still felt the same way I would take another 4 weeks off since thats the maximum I could still take, even if it was unpaid and then see how I felt at that point. Well, from that point I schedule a meeting with my boss, who happens to be a new person that just took over right when I went on maternity leave ( perfect timing, hun?). I met with John this week and we had a great meeting, he reorganized our entire sales team and I have a fantastic territory basically from North Carolina up through DC and part the North East. I feel very good about it and he is always VERY much wanting me to come back to work. He thought I was coming in to tell him I wasn't coming back so he was really happy to know I wanted to and said that I could have a flexible schedule when I wanted it, basically meaning when I want to go home and hang out with Brock for a couple hours, just because, I can. I like knowing that I have this flexibility, regardless of how much I actually use it. It felt really good to see everyone at the office. Brock totally was pulling heart strings all around and everyone loved him. So since everyone is now wondering... what about Brock? ... so since they won't let me bring him to work everyday...
Matt and I were pretty adamant about not wanting to put Brock in daycare so young. I know that it works great for people but we just feel like he is too young and really want to him to have 1:1 attention right now. If we didn't have a choice, I know he would be fine in daycare but we had already decided that if we couldn't find the right nanny for him, one of us would just have to stay home until he turned a year old. From the time Brock was born we have been so extremely blessed with so many people loving on him and so many people have offered to watch him but finding the right person full time is completely different. We have a wonderful friend, neighbor and someone we consider family that lives in the same neighborhood as us over the past 6 years that we have gotten so close to. She is a wonderful woman, retired nurse, that has traveled the world with the military, spent a large portion of her childhood in Japan and now has retired in Gainesville. Mrs Teri has been telling us from the day Brock was born that she wanted to watch him full time. After my meeting with work, our next stop was 'Grandma Teri's' house. We had a great lunch and discussed her being Brock's nanny. She was so incredibly excited about. She talked about how she wanted to take him to the park, walk's, library etc. She had done a lot of thinking about it and we couldn't be happier about the situation. We know Brock will be extremely loved and well cared for when we aren't there. Plus, there are quite a few neighbors that are retired that are so excited to see Brock during the week while we are gone. I have also looked into joining a preschool program that has Art, Music, etc classes that Teri and Brock can go to during the week together. It will be a great way for him to learn and interact with other kids. We really couldn't feel any better about leaving him than we do. It will be an adjustment but we are defiantly setting up a village to raise him!
Grandma Teri
On top of Grandma Teri, my mom, aka GiGi, has spent the better part of the past 8 weeks with us, has gotten extremely attached to Brock and he just loves her so she has decided that she will be planning to come and watch Brock one week out of every month. This will give Teri a break and time to do other things and will give Brock special time with his GiGi. We don't think she will actually get through 3 weeks without him, we expect to see her popping in all the time!
Couple time: While we haven't had a ton of time to ourselves, we have done a good job of having date nights and making time to get out. Brock has spent some time with his GiGi while we have gone to dinner and some time with his Grandma Teri while we have went to special events. We went to the Heart Ball a couple weeks ago and had a wonderful time seeing our friends. Tonight we have a dinner party planned with some friends and Brock is getting some special time with his Auntie Holly and Uncle Frank.
First date night
Trips: While we have enjoyed spending a lot of time around Gainesville, as everyone know, we LOVE to travel so we are ready for Brock to get his vaccinations, passport etc so we can hop on a plane.We have made two overnight trips with Brock since he was born, one to the beach at Anna Maria and one to the farm to visit my parents. We have some trips planned this year, some with Brock and some without. In April we are taking him to California with our parents. I know people think we are crazy to do this but we are so excited. Its been over a year since we have been in wine country and we are ready to be back!
Anna Maria Island...
Hello everyone!
In May we have a wedding in St Augustine to go to. Brock will most likely stay with one of his grandparents then in May, Matt and I are going to Vegas for a President Club ( so proud of him!) trip he won. We are really excited about it and Brock will be staying with his GiGi and Poppy while we are gone. Matt and I are also planning to do some trip for our wedding anniversary in September. We have talked about South America, Paris and Turks and Caicos so who knows yet!
So as you can see, we have had a lot going on the past month. Some days with an infant are rough and some are great but thats how it goes. Regardless of the no sleep, I am not ready for Brock to grow. I want him to stay a baby forever. Oh well.
Next week brings a lot of change for all of us, I know its not going to be super easy, regardless of how nice it sounds on paper but our little hiatus from the real world has ended and its time for us to get on with our life. Its going to be difficult to balance our career's, babyhood, travel, exercise, Zeke, etc but I think we are up for the challenge. TBD
Thanks for reading,
Christy
