A Day In the Life...

First, Jen from Three Shades of Blue wanted me to mention that her blog is out of commission temporarily. For whatever reason, it's a blank page. She's contacted Blogger, and is still waiting for a response. Hopefully the situation will be remedied soon!! I don't know about you all, but I miss her posts about the adventures of Miles and Logan! Thinking of you, Jen!

Secondly, my prayers go out to all who are mourning the loss of Pope John Paul II. The world has lost a great leader, but I am grateful that he is no longer suffering. I also pray that the Cardinals will have divine guidance in choosing the next Pope.
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Things are going well in my life. Due to lack of sleep, I'm having a difficult time coming up with witty posts for this blog. And I don't want to bore you all with the day-to-day poop (yes, that's meant literally!). But I've had a request, so poop it is!

Maura slept 5 hours last night! It may have been more, but I had to nurse. I was a bit engorged. She usually wakes every 3 hours like clockwork. Well, she doesn't completely wake up. I usually hear her fussing in her sleep, so I get her up and feed her. After rereading one of my books, I realize that she might be just fussing in her sleep, and not needing to feed. Does that make sense? Babies fuss in their sleep while learning to go from one sleep cycle to the next. Anyway, I moved her Pack-n-Play a little further away from my bed, thinking that if I didn't hear her every breath, we both might sleep better and longer. And so, it seemed to work! She slept and slept! I rolled over at 5 hours, and ouch! My boobs hurt!! I heard her making some noises in her bed, and even though she wasn't awake or crying, I fed her. I don't think that I could have slept very well if I hadn't. Then we both blissfully went back to sleep until morning! Yay!

It may have all been a fluke, but I'll take what I can get!!

Dh been working a lot. He's on call this weekend, and he ended up working all day yesterday and this morning. He's home now, and he and Maura are napping together. It breaks my heart that he is away from her so much. I wish that he had more time to spend with her. She's changing so much everyday, and I hate that he might miss something. So we must try to make the most of his time off. He needs to spend time with her, rather than with meaningless tasks that can be hired out or skipped all together. WE are blessed that we have the opportunity to do this, now I just have to convince dh to take advantage of it.

She's smiling more and more. She has about an hour every morning when she is awake, alert, and just happy as can be. We talk and giggle together. She occasionally has another happy time later in the afternoon, if she's had a good nap. She doesn't really cry very much. She just fusses and lets us know that something wrong. Her cries are now stuck in between little snorts. The snorts are pretty funny, although I feel just a little bad about laughing at her when she's crying.

She seems to be getting on a schedule, although I've been to tired to notice. I'm going to start writing down what we do and when we do it everyday to see if I can see a pattern. I think that it will help me realize how much I do everyday, too. It's just so amazing how, by the end of the day, I fell so exhausted, and yet, it seems that I've accomplished nothing more than getting us both fed and bathed! And I think that the little log will be a cool thing to save in her baby stuff, too.

This past week, Maura and I went out on our first trips together. We made it to WalMart, we met with the landscaper at the new house, and we went to Border's for coffee and books. I love going out for coffee and books. I've made a goal for myself, by the way. Once a week, Maura and I are going to get out for nothing but pure enjoyment for Mommy--like coffee and books. I need that. Oh, and this morning, we went to church.

I've been on a mission for a while now. I'm determined that Maura be exposed to plenty of Italian language and culture. I would love for her to be bilingual, but since I can't personally teach her another language, I'm going to do what I can to expose her to it. So I've started a library for her of Italian story books. I really want to find the books that parents in Italy read to their children, not just American stories translated into Italian. I've had some difficulty finding such books, so I asked a guy at Borders if he could help (he happened to be the guy who orders books for the children's department). Sure enough, he has found many for me. So far, I've bought four. I have no idea what they are, but they look cute. They are board books, so perfect for the next couple of years. So I will read to Maura from her English library, and dh can read to her from her Italian one. I love books...I have restrain myself, or this little girl will end up with a library that will require a separate room!! I hope that she learns to love reading as much as I have.

This week, I have my follow up appointment with my OB, and I'm getting my hair cut. I'm bringing Maura with me to the hair salon--her first visit! So wish me luck! I hope that she continues to sleep on all of our outings. For now, it's pretty convenient!!