Still Sick But Getting Better (I Hope)

Posted on March 25, 2015 by playinghousewi

My sweet girl was still sick today. She had a fever early this morning and again this afternoon.

However, her temperament was way better. Yesterday she was inconsolable and barely napped… Today, she took three naps, each over an hour, not to mention the fact that there were far less tears.

I’m hopeful that her little nosey will dry up, her fever will break and maybe… Just maybe… She’ll sleep through the night tonight.

the snot-nosed princess

“mommy, I don’t feel well!”

She is such a sweetie pie… even when she doesn’t feel well.

My Name is Melissa and I have a Mom Bob.

Posted on March 24, 2015 by playinghousewi

Since my wedding, I’ve been talking and talking and talking about chopping my hair, but have always chickened out. I’ve had long hair for as long as I can remember and have become weirdly attached to it. Weirdly because 9 days out of 10, I totally hate it. It’s bulky and my ends are dry and splitting into severe 7-part trees… it almost always ends up on top of my head in a messy bun… it’s a pain in the ass to style.

BUT, I just couldn’t imagine getting rid of it.

Any of it.

Since having Charlotte, I’ve thought about it even more. I needed something to simplify my hair life. In fact, a few months after having her, I had a “wave” put into my hair… which is a less embarrasing term for a perm.

The perm was okay. It did it’s job. For a bit, I could leave the house without drying it all the way and it would look pretty good… until I threw it into a pony tail.

Anyway, this past week, I decided I would never be able to get over the idea unless I actually did it. It was time to get over my fear of having a mom haircut and just do it.

So, 2 hours and 7.5 inches later, I have short hair!

BEFORE:

Which on a normal day, looked more like this:

AFTER:

Which on a normal day, looks more like this:

Love it? Hate it?

I still haven’t decided…

My Baby is Sick

Posted on March 24, 2015 by playinghousewi

The poor bunny has been sick since last night when she woke up in the middle of the night crying her little face off (twice).

She literally spent a decent amount of the day crying very hard… Although, we did have some happy times, too.

We took a bath and splashed around, we played… And actually, Charlotte pulled herself up to standing by herself today.

The negative: tiny Charlie has such a runny nose, she’s sneezing, coughing and has had a fever since late afternoon.

If she’s still sick tomorrow, I’m going to bring her to the doc just to be sure she doesn’t have an ear infection.

One thing that was interesting… I was really insecure about whether or not I would be able to tell if Charlotte had a fever by touching her head. All day, I kept touching her head to see if I thought she had a fever. All day I was unsure… Until late this afternoon.

I just knew. The feeling of her face and her whole body.

It felt good to know I had that mom skill. But poor bunny.

Saved by the Big Girl Poop

Posted on March 20, 2015 by playinghousewi

I had two baby poop blunders today. This morning, I’m changing little miss’s diaper with my mom Playing the role of entertainer (have I mentioned that charlotte is a squirmer?). I’m in a spacey zone when all of a sudden my mom starts yelling, “Melissa! She’s not done!!”

I look down to discover more poop… BUT! Unlike what I expected, this was slow and steady, big girl poop. Literally, one week ago, there would have been nasty explosive baby poop all over every wall… But today, nada! It just made it’s pasty way into the diaper that was sitting under her.

Later in the afternoon, I was once again changing a poop diaper and was one again spacing out. I was in a routine, not really paying attention, ready to go home for the day. I slid the poopy diaper out of the way, not noticing how close I was to the edge of the desk (aka my changing table at work). All of a sudden, KERPLUNK!

The damn diaper fell poo-side down on the carpet. Shit!

I finished changing her, plopped her on the floor in front of her toys and made my way back to the fallen dipe.

To my pleasant surprise, it was barely a mess! I was once again saved by Charlie’s big girl poo. So, a few wipes and antibacterial spray later, we were good to go!

As my apology for all the poo talk, here are a couple cutie pie beet face pics for your enjoyment.

Two Years of Wedded Bliss

Posted on March 18, 2015 by playinghousewi

Love this man.

As I mentioned the other day, yesterday was my two year anniversary with the hubs. It’s crazy to think it’s already been two years, but when I think back to all the amazing experiences and memories we’ve shared, it feels like it must be longer than that.

When I think of all the heartache – losing three grandparents in less than a year – and all the joy – welcoming the sweetest little angel into this world – we’ve experienced and grown through, I know that getting married was the best decision of our lives. We really complement eachother so well. We work so well together. Our life is ours. Not his or mine.

I’m very, very grateful for my husband.

Cheers to our beautiful wedding, our amazing love and our lifelong friendship.

And now, enjoy our lovely wedding video (we watch it every year on our anniversary… two years running 🙂 )

Charlotte’s 6 Month Professional Photos… Prepare Yourself…

Posted on March 16, 2015 by playinghousewi

In honor of Charlie’s 8 month birthday today, I will be sharing the CUTEST PHOTOS THAT HAVE EVER EXISTED. I’m exploding inside from the ridiculous amount of cute captured in these photos…

Thanks to Pics by Nic for taking such amazing photos of my sweet baby girl and our little fam.

Charlotte’s Second Sleepover & Our Night in Madison

Posted on March 16, 2015 by playinghousewi

With our 2 year anniversary coming up on Tuesday, Mark and I decided to take a little getaway to Wisconsin’s capitol city, Madison. It was our first official post-baby date (excluding weddings and baby-friendly events) and Charlotte’s second time sleeping away from mom and dad.

Of course, the whole thing gave me anxiety.

While I was confident that Charlotte would be in good hands with my parents, I found myself stressing over Charlotte’s behavior. Would she refuse to go down for naps or bedtime easily? Would she wake up screaming in the middle of the night? What if?

Now, these occurances would be totally out of character for Charlotte, but I still felt worried. I didn’t want Charlie to be a bad house guest because, let’s be honest, it’s much more likely my parents will volunteer to take her for more overnights if she isn’t a total terror.

Anyway, in preparation, I typed up instructions and a packing list for my mom. I did the same thing for the first overnight and it seemed to work really well. This time was actually even better, because Charlotte’s on MUCH more of an actual schedule these days.

Here’s what I sent to (and printed for) my mom…

Babysitting Charlotte Packing List – Take 2

Babysitting Charlotte Guide – Take 2

We definitely overpacked milk. The first time we left her, 40 ounces was perfect… this time, now that she’s eating solids, it was just way too much.

In fact, I think she went on a bit of a milk strike, because she really did not drink much… OR poop for that matter. Literally NO poop while we were gone. We dropped her off around noon on Saturday and met her, my parents and grandpa for brunch around 1 on Sunday. No poop that whole time. BUT, once reunited and back home, the little one pooped… twice. And now she’s pooping like normal.

Anway, all in all, the sleepover was a success and Mark and I had a GREAT time.

Here’s what we did…

Saturday

12 pm: Dropped Charlie at Mom & Dad’s

1:45 pm: Stopped at teh gas station for a GIANT diet pepsi and popcorn… we’re on vacay!

Mmmm!

2:45 pm: Arrived at hotel and checked in. We used name your price using priceline and did 3.5 stars and got the hotel for $100 including all fees! We stayed at the Hilton Monona Terrace. Because hubs called and told them it was our anniversary, they upgraded us to a delux room on the top floor facing the lake and gave us two free drinks at the bar and free breakfast. Not a bad deal at all!

As I was freshening up, I noticed I had baby barf on my shirt. Quick clean up time.

3:10 pm: Time to cash in our drink coupons for some vacay martinis.

Dirty martini… extra dirty, extra olives! Mmmm… it’s 5 o’clock somewhere!

So of course, we’re enjoying a nice adult cocktail, planning our afternoon, when suddenly I notice that my milk machines feel super full. I make a comment to Mark, look down, and realize that I leaked through my shirt. Time to chug my cocktail and return to the room to pump.

You can take the mommy out of the nursery, but… you’re still going to end up with barf on your jacket and a milk-soaked shirt.

4 pm: Time to pump and freshen up again, then it was off to State Street. The weather was gorg, so we walked from our hotel (about 6-10 minutes to the start of state street). It was so fun. We went in and out of little shops, looked around, soaked up the weather.

5:30 pm: Back to the hotel for more pumping and changing for our night activities.

6:15 pm: We headed to Tempest Oyster Bar where we literally had the BEST waiter ever. We are not big oyster people, so he helped us to order appetizers. We got an oyster tower with 6 oysters, 4 gulf shrimp and clams… then we ordered a plate of mussels in the most delicious broth ever. And oy. They had this sourdough bread. Mmmm. Needless to say, I took a break from my Charlotte diet. She’s been doing so well, it was time to test the waters a bit. So after 2.5 hours, seafood galore, a couple glasses of wine for me and a couple of cocktails for hubs… it was off to our next stop!

8:30 pm: We were off to Graze, an awesome locally sourced farm-to-table restaurant. They don’t take reservations and by the time we got there, the wait was 1.5 hours. We put our name in and went to Heritage Tavern, down the street, to get a drink. I had a glass of wine and Mark had some bitters drink with egg whites in it. Weird, but pretty good!

9:20 pm: Our table was ready! We headed back to Graze to get our eat on. Of course, we needed ANOTHER app. We ate a giant pretzel with a cheese dip and three kinds of mustard. Mmm. Then, for dinner, we decided to split two entrees: Artesian Farm Trout with the best coconut curry sauce and the Graze Burger (fresh ground bacon, sirloin, ribeye & short ribs, caramelized onions, Worcestershire-cabernet jus, Swiss Emmental compound butter, SarVecchio sesame brioche, with fries & aioli). We ended up eating the trout and taking the burger to go!

10:25 pm: We scooted off to make it to a local comedy show featuring Robert Kelly. He was definitely not politically correct, but goodness was he funny! We were both in tears. It was so much fun!

SUNDAY

12:30 am: Since we hadn’t eaten enough in the previous 24 hours, we decided to make a stop at the famous Ian’s Pizza for a late-night slice. I ate the most heavenly piece of mac and cheese pizza. Mmm! AND, we ran into my brother-in-law’s brother and his sweet girlfriend there. The four of us had a great time mowing on late night snacks and catching up. Then, it was time to crash.

9:15 am: WAKE UP! I woke up at 7 and was so scared I wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep… I mean, I had to sleep in on my morning off. So, I was super pleased when my eyes woke again at 915.

After our Madison adventure, we headed back to Milwaukee for brunch with my parents and Grandpa where Charlie had her first french fries (oy… she enjoyed them too much). Then, it was naptime for the fam and once we woke up, headed to an anniversary dinner with Mark’s dad and stepmom.

All in all, a GREAT weekend!

Who’s going to give me more french fries??

Stay away from my fry.

Mmm! This time with a little ketchup!

Baby Comparison

Posted on March 12, 2015 by playinghousewi

Before Mark and I got married, I decided to use some crazy software online to see what our babies would look like. Now, before you start judging, this was done for comedic value… not to ensure he would provide me with adorable children.

Anyway, I’ve been going through some old pictures and came across the two baby pics and thought it would be funny to compare them to our sweet Charlie girl.

This fake baby is a little funny looking…

This fake baby kind of has a Charlie vibe… kind of…

And now, the real deal…

The real Miss Charlie Gitel is WAY cuter than her fake counterparts.

PHEW!

Posted on March 11, 2015 by playinghousewi

As of 8:30 this morning, my 48-hour “holy-shit-I-might-be-pregnant” panic was over. On Sunday morning, I woke up feeling really uneasy. Later that afternoon, my nausea was accompanied by a splitting headache… both of which have been desperately trying to ruin my week ever since.

At first, I assumed I had a bug of sorts. Then, on Monday, my mom asked, “You aren’t pregnant.. are you?” Well shit. I don’t know… I mean, probably not. We’re pretty careful, but I’m not on the pill or anything…

As I started to dwell over the idea of being pregnant and panic over the similarities of my current symptoms to those symptoms of early pregnancy, I decided to take a home pregnancy test. The test came back negative, but somehow I felt no relief. That night I literally sat up from around 2:30 until 5 am just freaking out.

Tuesday I was still feeling sick. Super uneasy, headache, sleepy. So, I decided to go to my doctor. “Are you pregnant?” she asked.

My doctor decided to take a blood test to determine whether or not I was with child. The test results would be in Wednesday morning.

I spent the remainder of the day feeling severely anxious.

Obviously I want more babies, but a few things were really throwing me off…

1) Because of my c-section, my doctor told me to wait at least 18 months between deliveries to avoid complications.

2) I’m not ready for Charlie to share the spotlight. The whole idea makes me feel guilty and I want her to have more time with just us.

3) I’m not ready to be pregnant again. As selfish and childish as this is, this was probably my biggest hang up. I’m enjoying this non-pregnant time. We have a trip to New Mexico planned for May and for some strange reason, I really don’t want to be pregnant when I turn 30 this May. I want to throw back some wine and have a carefree celebration. Not to mention the fact that I’d like to have a non-pregnant summer. I want to camp and drink Sangria and enjoy… without being pregs. Selfish? Duh. I’m okay with that.

Anyway, I was very… VERY relieved to hear that I just have some weird virus of sorts. But with my relief came a level of guilt. I mean, I’m sure that after the shock wore off, I’d be really happy and grateful and excited to be having a little babe.

Future baby, know that whenever you arrive, we will be SO happy to welcome you into our family and I will very happily give up wine and sushi and deli meat. But tonight, I’m drinking wine.

Weeks 33 & 34

Posted on March 10, 2015 by playinghousewi

I’m feeling totally behind on my weekly updates. I haven’t been keeping up with taking photos on Wednesdays and I’m all out of whack. But I swear, I’m going to get back on track… and, while I’m at it, tackle the mountain of laundry I’ve been ignoring… but that’s besides the point.

The past two weeks, which have blurred together a bit, have shown more big changes for the little one.

Charlotte is officially rocking 6-9/6-12 month clothing (SUCH a big girl!)
Everything is grounds for a round of applause. Walk into the room… Charlie claps. Smile at Charlie… clap, clap, clap. Charlie crawls 3 feet… big claps. You get the picture… LOTS of adorable clapping going on in this house. And not to be THAT person, but she’s a good clapper. Not any of that sissy, noise-less clapping for our girl… she’s got the sound down pat.
She is a professional crawler. She’s really quick and makes the silliest panting noise (with her mouth in a cartoon-like, excited oval) when she’s crawling towards trouble (ie: outlets, cords, space heaters, computers, danger).
Charlie appreciates the glory in a high five. Well, a high 75. She pretty much always gives you 8-35 high fives in a row, but she does each one with passion behind it… and a smile on her face.
She’s been doing this crazy shaking excited thing where literally her whole body quivers. I’ve done some googling… supposedly this is due to her immature nervous system. It’s pretty cute… and very silly.

SMOOCHES! She’s sooooo stingy with her kisses, but when she gives them, they’re melt-worthy. When she doesn’t give them, it’s embarrassing. Ask for a kiss when she’s not giving them out and she will either a) pull your hair or b) slap you in the face.

She’s been pulling herself up to a kneeling position and has pulled herself to standing (for a short period of time before wiping out) a handful of times.

Oooo, what’s this??

She’s been going down for her naps really well. She coos and has full conversations with her stuffed animals in the sweetest little voice.
She’s been mommy-sessed. If you’re not familiar, that’s a clinical disorder where one is obsessed with their mommy. Charlie’s got it bad. She will literally crawl across the room to get to me and then starts trying to crawl up my leg while whining and/or crying. I secretly love this. I mean, I did carry her inside of me for 43 weeks… I’m okay if she plays favorites once in awhile.
I’m baby-sessed. Nothing new…
She’s been doing SO well with solid food. She now eats sweet potato, peas, apples, applesauce, carrots, rice pasta, chicken, lamb, rice and lentils, grapes (just the meat… no skin), beets, potatoes, oranges (although they were a bit acidic for her), toast (rice flour)… she loves to eat!
As for talking, she’s a total chatterbox. She does a LOT of dadadadada… and some mooommmm. There have been a couple of times I thought she was saying dada to Mark, but I’m not really convinced. Words she does know… although, she does not say them, include “Toby” and “Milk.”
Charlotte takes great pride in CHUGGING her sippy cup. She literally chugs and half the time, pulls away from the cup with serious amounts of water pouring out of her mouth as she gasps for air. So special.
She waves!! I love this. It’s the cutest thing ever. She always has a huge smile on her squishy face and just waves away.
Favorite book: Tiny Puppies or Touch & Feel Farm Animals
Favorite toys: Piglet, Minnie & her Bun Bun… oh! And the orange string my dad swings around in the office. AND… how could I forget? Toby & Ollie, her kitty and puppy.