Mommy Confessions

This is my first Mommy Confession since starting my BLOG so it is going to be long (sorry!).

I confess that some times I just want to scream "Calgon Take Me Away!".

I am a first time mom (still trying to figure out how to balance being mom, wife and myself) to a beautiful 6 month old little girl that takes every minute of my day when I am not at work and still does not sleep through the night.

This sounds terrible but sometimes I consider myself a single parent with a husband.

My morning consists of getting up at 5:00 so that I can shower, make breakfast and lunch for my husband and I, get dressed for work, get the baby up and dressed for the day and feed the dogs (and sometimes change my outfit a second or third time because baby spit up on me) all so that I can leave at 6:45 for work at 7:30. In the mean time my husband gets up around 6:00 showers and dresses for work and then asks me if I have taken out the garbage or some other task (excuse me, what have you done so far?). I get off work at 4:00, drive home, pick baby up from day care at 5:00, go home and nurse her, make dinner for us, clean up and attempt to feed her solid food for the evening. I say attempt because I usually end up wearing most of it and she screams bloody murder and cries those huge heart breaking crocodile tears after the 3rd or 4th bite. I am not sure what I am doing wrong here but this does not seem right. All while, my husband is sitting on the couch making suggestions on how I should do it, asking if I warmed the food to the right temperature and telling me I should get something to cover the floor so that the food does not stain the carpet. Then it is play time. I have to play with her every minute because she is in that stage where if I get more than 2 feet away, she screams. About 8:00 we start our bedtime routine and go into her room with our bottle and rock in the glider and I sing to her. I usually get her to be around 8:30 (on a good day), leaving me 1 hour of me time (that is usually spent doing the chorse I did not get done earlier) before I pump for the night and go to bed at 10:00.

She was sleeping well, not sleeping through the night, only getting up once around 3:00 for a feeding and then going right back to sleep. She has been sleeping in her own room since about 6 weeks old and before that was in the pack-n-play in the living room. She never slept in our room. The good sleeping pattern all changed this week. It is hot so maybe that is a factor but these past 2 nights she does not want to sleep alone. Last night she went to bed about 8:30 and woke up around 10:30, just as I was getting to bed. She fed and I tried to put her back in bed. She was having none of that and screamed until I picked her up and rocked her for a bit, attempt 2 at bed. Still a no go! I have a spare bed in her room so I tried laying there with her next to me, nope still not happening. Then we tried tummy time (where she lays on her tummy on my chest). This worked and she settled down. After an hour, I put her in her crib. Nope, she wanted mommy so back to tummy time we went. I can lightly sleep during tummy time but wake up with every movement for fear that she is going to roll off or something. Needless to say I am not getting the sleep I need. About 2:00 she is sound asleep enough for me to slip her into her bed and slink off to my bed (where hubby is happily snoring away!) . At 3:00 she is up for food and does not want to be alone again so back to tummy time we go, before I know it, I hear my alarm go off in the bedroom. How can it be 5:00 already, I did not get any sleep.

What did hubby suggest? Getting an alarm for her room for the nights I have to sleep in there so that I can turn mine off since he is still sleeping! Seriously!

YAWN!!!!!! Wow, that felt really good! I guess it is more of a vent than a confession.

Our First Swimming Adventure

While visiting my Husband's family in Wyoming, we took our daughter to the local community center to have her first swimming experience. We were very diligent about our sunscreen application and followed the directions on the bottle, applying the lotion 30 minutes before we went out in the sun.

My husband is very adamant about her not wearing a bikini (they are cute!) because he does not think they are "appropriate" for her (or he is being the over protective daddy already!). So his mom purchased a really cute pink one piece. It is quite possibly the most adorable thing (ok, I say that about most everything she wears).

We put on our hat and Baby Banz Sunglasses for added sun protection and into the pool we went. BURRRRR!!! The sun was out and the temperature was not bad but the water was a bit chilly and as anyone that has visited Wyoming can attest to, the wind was blowing (as always!). We let her sit in the water and splash for a few minutes before Mommy and Daddy decided that it was time to move to the indoor pool.

Once inside it was quickly evident that our little girl was part fish. She loved being in the water. Watching her try to swim was so adorable (when you could see through the water that she splashed in your face). It looked like she was actually trying to swim. She would do the butterfly stroke with her arms while doing a froggy with her legs. If you flipped her on her back she would do the backstroke away.

We laughed and played in the pool for hours. She was so happy. I can not wait to get back home so I can take her swimming again.

Beginning Solid Foods

We recently started solid foods. I researched all over the web about what foods to start with and everything said that I should start with vegetables before fruits so that she does not develop a preference for the sweet fruits and shun the vegetables. So I began the search for what vegetables are best and set off to make batches of food.

I am currently making all of her food from organic produce that we have delivered to our house every other week from a great company called Organics To You out of Portland, OR. Making your baby food is easier than I thought it would be. I spent about two hours making food one Sunday but I ended up with a big batch of Apples, a medium size batch of Sweet Potatoes and a small batch of Carrots. My next attempt will be Peas and squash, YUM!

For her first food I made the mistake of starting with Sweet Potatoes. If I could do it over again, I would start with something white or clear! I had orange smears everywhere, how it got on the ceiling fan eludes me!

About me and my family

I wanted to say hi and introduce myself to everyone.

My name is Carrie. I am an over 30 mother of a beautiful little girl.

My husband and I wanted time to grow as a couple before we settled down the have a family and time just slipped away from us. We were married 9 1/2 years before we welcomed our daughter into our family. We loved being a couple but look forward now to being a family.

As a couple we enjoyed traveling to Jamaica where we met some really great people from all over the world. As a family we look forward to going on "family" vacations.

I have always been a lover of shopping with a special passion for shoes and purses.  I am ecstatic that my daughter has followed in my footsteps and loves purses, shoes and clothing.  She now has 5 purses and got her first Coach purse at 11 months.  She loves putting things in her purses and carrying them around while we are out and about.

Her closet and dressers (yep she has two!) are over flowing with clothes and her shoe boxes are piled full of fashionable shoes, boots and sandals.  While I adore that she has taken such a shining to my shopping loves, it is cutting into my disposable spending for my own shopping needs.  It makes it all worth it though when she gets compliments on how cute her outfit is and how well coordinated her accessories are.

I had the great joy of getting to spend nine months home with her after I was laid off from my job in July 2010.  It was the best, we go to spend our days playing and learning together.  It is amazing how fast she picks up on things and how much she has learned in the few short months that was home with her.  It seems something changed everyday.  She is running, jumping and basically causing havoc where ever possible. 

Sadly my time as a stay at home mom ended in April 2011 when I was given a great opportunity to return to the HR field at a large technology company. 

Upon returning to work, my daughter also got to experience a new environment and started at a local care center (until now, she had only experienced home based child care).  We had a couple rough weeks but she has blossomed and made so many new friends.  It has been wonderful for her.

We were recently informed from the director of her care facility that at the young age of only 2 1/2, they think she is ready to move up to the Young Preschool class.  So we are experiencing our first days of "school" now.  She is ecstatic and loves going to "The big kid class", I on the other hand am having a harder time with my baby being in Preschool.  I am so happy for her but sad as a mommy that she is growing up so fast.

Being a mom is such a wonderful experience, I sometimes can not believe I waited so long before making this life changing step.

First Post: tips welcome!

So this is my first post to my new Blog, Over Thirty Mommy. I am so excited!

I am not exactly sure where this Blog will take me but look forward to the experience of meeting fellow bloggers and just having fun. I am fairly new to the whole blog thing. Sure I have heard of blogging but never thought much about it. I figured it was a thing for the “younger” crowd.

Then I found a contest offered by Barefoot Mommies on Online-Sweepstakes.com. I entered the contest in January 2009 (did not win, but that is ok) and have been reading her blog on a regular basis ever since. From there, I started following more and more blogs with my favorite being the “mommy” blogs.

I favor these, but read many non-mommy related blogs, because in January I had my first child. I am bound and determined to provide the best for my little girl. I really enjoy reading posts about parenting tips and tricks. I soak up all ideas on ways to shop wise and save money on all the items I purchase for my daughter. I also love reading about new products on the market and seeing the reviews about anything baby and family related.

I hope to become great friends with fellow Mommy Bloggers and Mommy Blog readers.

I welcome any tips you have to becoming a blogger. Please be kind and remember I am new so if I make a mistake, I truly am sorry. Please feel free to let me know my mistakes (privately would be great) and I promise to learn from them.

Carrie