One down...

Two to go!

And yes... that flesh & green blob in the bed? That's Shayla, sleeping with precariously perched pillows ( ohhhh alliteration! ) just above her head. I should have taken a picture of her, placed lovingly amongst the laundry. She slept the entire hour while I folded at a furious pace.

Oh, and I sang while I folded, too. She didn't seem to object too much, other than an omnious rumble from the diaper region. Actually... that might have been an objection.

Things here are really settling down. I took the kids to the park today - twice! They enjoyed the morning visit so much that we went back after dinner. It was really nice weather, and even Shayla got out for some fresh air. I slung her to the park and back, and she slept the entire two hours. The evening visit was a bit much for me, personally, but the kids went down for bed after bathing without a single peep.

As of this morning, I am down 21 lbs from my highest pregnancy weight. I have lots - and lots - and lots to go but I'm not really concerned. I've started tracking, if not actually attempting to stay within, WW points. I'm not eating terribly healthy but there aren't THAT many points over. Today was day 3 and I'm really feeling good about it. The hardest thing to give up will be my nightly pb&j. It helps get me through the night, hunger wise. Nursing makes you REALLY hungry.

I've also started a personal goal of drinking ALL of my water a day in addition to the coffee in the morning. I have two cups of coffee ( 3/4 of each cup, but they are BIG cups ), and then I start ticking off each of the 10 glasses of water I need to be drinking. The first day, I barely hit 10. Today, I'm sitting at 11 and will attempt to drink a bit more before bed ... when I have my hershey kiss. Sends me off to sleep sweetly :-)

Robby is growing like a weed and I cannot stop to blink or he matures even faster. He's really being a great big brother to Mila right now, and she's blossoming with his tutelage. She conquered one of her great fears today - the bridge at the park. It rattles, it moves, it shakes. And today... Mila climbed onto it with Robby and they walked across. Seventeen times. And then she did it by herself, and even went so far as to climb up the rope ladder on the side of the structure! Robby cheered her on and congratulated her when she got to the top...

And then stole her shovel. ( He is, after all, five years old and her brother. Life isn't perfect here :-)

Shayla continues to nurse, pee, poop, and sleep with amazing regularity, if not exactly when desired too. She shifted her awake period from 3am to 6am, and fell back to sleep today with enough time left for me to climb into bed. At 6ish, though, she was WAILING away while I got a glass of water. Down the stairs came protective big brother, squinting in the sunlight.

" Why is our baby crying? " he demanded. " Is she okay?"

I sent him back to bed ( no easy feat with the sunshine pouring into the house... the kids room has blackout curtains but once they've left their darkened den... the house is awfully bright come 6am ) and he actually fell asleep. I followed him up moments later and dropped myself into the bed.

When I woke up two hours later, my house smelled like fresh coffee and dishsoap. One of the best ever smells in the morning - the smell of Hubby having done the dishes and made the coffee. It's the greatest morning routine ever :-)