Auntie Jill

Hi everyone,

What a week it's been. You always hear about the plight of the working mother, how busy they are, the working mother guilt, all that. I never really gave it much thought. Now I can truly appreciate it because I am one. I know it was only the first week, and eventually we'll get into a routine, but this week it seemed like the second I got home from work I was like, sprinting around doing laundry, making bottles, etc. etc. etc. At the end of the week I realized I hadn't read Willow a story once all week! I'm enjoying this relatively chill Saturday morning, wearing Willow in the sling while I update the blog.

The transition has been made SO much smoother by Josh's aunt Jill, who arrived last Saturday. She'll be taking care of Willow for the next month. She's been doing a great job, and on top of it has been cooking for us and helping keep the place clean too. I keep telling her not to spoil us too much or we'll have a hard time adjusting when she leaves. I certainly won't make our paid nanny cook or clean!

I put an ad in the paper for a nanny and have gotten a ton of calls. I've been pre-screening them over the phone and will hopefully bring in the top 5 or so for an in-person interview soon. With such a large pool I hope we can find someone good!

Jill has been around a ton of babies and tells us that Willow is very "easy" in that she is easily soothed and doesn't fuss much. I haven't been around many babies but I suspected that was the case given some of the horror stories I've heard of in books and magazines of babies who cry for hours. She really is pretty laid-back. She pretty much only cries if she's hungry. The pre-bedtime fussing has more or less stopped. If she does fuss at all during the day and it isn't hunger, the sling is a never-fail solution.



Our crazy feeding schedule has been eased up a little-on Wednesday Willow went to the doctor and she said we can scale back on the every 2-and-a-half-hour feedings. What a relief! Now we can let Willow sleep if she's sleeping, but we're not to let her go more than 3.5 hours. It's been a lot easier this way, especially at night. And it's amazing how much better Willow is at eating when she's actually allowed to get hungry! A few times in the last couple days she's chugged down 90 mLs in 15 minutes flat! In other good news, Willow now only has to see the doctor every 2 weeks instead of every week, and her weight is up to 9 pounds, 11.5 ounces. We've never really followed the weight charts at all but since Willow happened to be at the doctor on her 2-month adjusted birthday, I asked how she compares to other 2-month-olds. Turns out she's in the 35th percentile for weight! Of course, she's probably in the 0 percentile of weight for 5-month-olds (which she turned on Sunday).

Josh's sister Janna sent us some great photos from when they were visiting about a month ago. So these are sort of old now (in the life of a 2-month old, a month makes a big difference), but I wanted to post some anyway because they're such beautiful photos.







Sorry all the photos in this post are so small. I was experimenting since there were so many, but once I did it and realized they were too small, it was too much work to go back and change the size.

Last night Willow was in a great mood before bed and I snapped some pictures. She was staring at the black-and-white picture we put in her bed and then I was telling her about glasses and she was very happy with my narrative:





Jill bought us a Willow tree for our yard and Josh put his landscaping skills to use. The rock under the tree says Willow's name on it- my mom made that for her.



Willow has a few different mobiles and she LOVES them. When we reach up to wind up the music box, she always breaks into a smile. Here she is reacting to her Australian mobile from the other auntie Jill. We were joking that she's going to know "emu" and "wombat" before she knows horsey and cow. She also has an antique mobile with circus characters that plays "toy land". She loves that one too.



Here's a cute pic of Willow and my friend Beth before a walk. Yes, the weather really called for hat and mittens. In mid-July.



Scout is still doing a lot of sighing. And pouting. Poor Scouty.