Twilight for mommy

Dear Mikayla Rose,

This week something very important is happening. Mommy is going to see Eclipse on opening day. She already has tickets and since she loves the book she can't wait to see the movie.

Yes it may be a little silly to you and yes she may be a little old for the Twighlight books and movies, but she really likes them! She loved the books so much that she actually read them all in two weeks. She is also very excited for a girls night which she hasn't had since you were born.

So here's the thing. The movie isn't until 8pm and mommy usually goes to bed pretty early so this is going to be a stretch. Do you think maybe you could

sleep through the night tonight and tomorrow so she can store up her energy to watch the movie? She would really like to see it while awake and alert instead of groggy and grouchy. And as much as she LOVES to see your sweet face at all hours it would help to have a few more hours of deep sleep.

Thanks so much for understanding Mikayla. Your mommy knows this whole sleeping through the night thing isn't always possible and she appreciates any effort you can make. She should probably stop typing now and go to sleep incase you do decide to wake up sometime soon.

I Love YOU! Love Mommy

A New Father

Whenever I thought about my future husband one of the first things that came to mind... would he be a good father? I remember looking at boys thinking... would we make cute children? How would he be as a daddy? Maybe it's just something that's wired in girls to think.

From the beginning of our relationship I knew Dhrumil would make an amazing daddy... I also thought we would probably make cute kids. ;-) Watching Dhrumil these past three months has been so much fun. He has taken the role as a new father incredibly well and it feels like he has always been one. He knows how to comfort Mikayla when she is crying, how to make her laugh, how to change her poopy diapers and how to talk to her in a way that has her cooing up a storm.

What a blessing to have such an amazing man in our life!

The Table

Here's the story...

For the past few weeks Dhrumil has made it his mission to search for a patio set for our backyard. He has been on the computer looking at all the deals he can find and he's even gone to a few stores to scope out the goods. Saturday night he found a table he thought I would like at Lowes and since they do not do free shipping he thought we could take a field trip 40 minutes away to a Lowes.

Sunday morning came and Dhrumil found out that Lowes was open at 7am! How exciting for parents who now wake up around 6:30am EVERY day. He thought if we drove to Lowes at 8am we could make it back in an hour or so and make it to church. So we jumped in the car, found Lowes, decided on a table and though it seemed a bit large we decided it would fit on the roof of our car.

** Quick HISTORY of the roof ** Dhrumil has become a pro at strapping things onto the roof of our car. In order... futon, BIG comfy chair from Ikea, mattress, christmas trees, 5 drawer dresser (all the way from Indiana!!!) **

Because of our history with the roof of the car we thought a flat box would be nothing. WE WERE WRONG. Things that went wrong...

1. Dhrumil realized he didnt have his nifty straps and only had rope and so as he weaved the rope in and out of the car and over the box I sat in the car with Mikayla and nursed her, burped her and changed her poopy diaper... fun times

2. After applying the rope I thought it would be nice to stop at Home Depot and grab the chairs we wanted since we were driving past... BAD idea... the chairs didn't fit in the car so Dhrumil had to return them 5 minutes later... I was again in the car and at this point Mikayla was crying

3. On the highway we heard a big bang, got off and went to a gas station... the front of the box popped open, Dhrumil bought a role of duck tape and proceeded to tape up the box with the WHOLE role... meanwhile Mikayla was crying harder

4. We got back on the highway and after about a mile a truck drove by us honking and yelling while pointing. Looking in the mirror I noticed the box moving back and forth... we got off again at the mall where I then went to eat Chinese food with a happy Mikayla and Dhrumil went in search of something to secure the box on the roof. He found it and while securing the box I ate Hagendas Ice Cream with a happy Mikayla.

5. We all got back into the car with a now secure box on the roof and for the drive home we had unhappy Mikayla with an icky diaper.

Moral of the story? We need an SUV

My Baby

First day done, second day in progress. Yesterday was tough, but I got through it and felt proud. I think all the thoughts and prayers from friends really helped and I felt God’s presence guiding me. Today is tougher and I am waiting for 5pm to get here. Yesterday I felt like I saw Mikayla for a total of 2 minutes though in reality it was more like 4 hours. Since Mikayla isn’t used to taking a bottle all day long she woke up throughout the night wanting to eat and though I cherish the time with her I was exhausted when it came time to get ready for work.

One moment this morning made me think she might be feeling a tiny bit of what I am feeling. She uncharacteristically woke up crying at 6am. It wasn’t time for her to eat so Dhrumil went in and tried to soothe her back to sleep… she kept crying. He brought her into our room after a few more failed attempts to soothe her he handed her to me. Before seeing if she was hungry I decided to rock back and forth and hum a little. After a few seconds she quieted down and within a few minutes was dead asleep. I put her down beside me on our bed and with a start her eyes flew open, she looked at me and gave me the biggest smile before falling back asleep. She proceeded to sleep another hour and I just stared at the sweet smiles she had while sleeping.

Ever since that moment this morning the same thing has continued to play in my mind… “I need my baby and my baby needs me” Right now I feel like I’m missing her moments and will never get them back.

Sadness

Some would say I can be melodramatic when it comes to, well, life. :) Sometimes I look back at things and think to myself... why did I make such a big deal about that? I laugh at my wasted thoughts and effort it took to create them. This time though I don't think I'm over thinking and over feeling.

Tomorrow is going to be one of my toughest days ever I think. I go back to work full time and leave my sweet baby for 9 hours a day. I am so blessed to have my mom to watch her for the summer, but I still have a pit in my stomach. We have been together since last June. We haven't been apart for more than 4 hours in almost a year and yet tomorrow will mark the separation that I have been dreading from the beginning.

I never knew it would be this hard to leave...

The Black Thing

Mikayla has been smiling so much this week. Her smiles illuminate all the way down to her toes and have the amazing power to stop both Dhrumil and I in our tracks. Through her smile I can see her sweet personality start to shine through and am excited to watch her develop into a little person.

Since Mikayla has come into existence Dhrumil and I have become a bit camera happy. That being said the moment she started to smile we couldn't wait to capture it on film. Well we haven't been very successful as demonstrated by exhibit A...

Moments before this was taken Mikayla was smiling and cooing... and then came out the black thing.

Yes I have named the camera... the black thing. The only conclusion I can make is that Mikayla is unsure of the black thing and not a fan. She likes to smile at people and she likes to smile at her toys (maybe she thinks they are alive) but for all she know this black thing could be some alien and she will not grant it the pleasure of her lovely smile. Again you can see exhibit B below... same thing, we were having a fun smiling time and then out came the black thing

So we have come to the conclusion that if we want a smile we have to either do the sneak attack (one of us comes in from the other room with the camera ready while the other one distracts her) OR like you will see in exhibit C we have to hold the camera high above our heads and try to have her look at our faces.

It kinda works... :)

Part of Our Life

As I was drying my hair this morning a realization came over me... we're kinda getting this "having another person in our family" thing down. Of course we have our difficult days with many more to come BUT from the stage of coming home from the hospital up until now we have grown leaps and bounds.

At first Mikayla was our life... meaning we sat in the house trying to figure out what she needed before she needed it. We would jump at every little sound and fall into bed at night not knowing how many times we would be up. Now she is part of our life... we can bring her places and feel comfortable doing it, I can take a shower and know she is napping, Dhrumil and I can have time together and know she is enjoying herself in her bouncy chair and though the whole sleeping through the night thing hasn't happened yet, we are not nearly as exhausted.

It has taken us almost three months to get here, but I'm so glad we've made it this far. I cherish those first two months though and the unknown of it all. My mom always said time flies and I now see it in how fast Mikayla is growing. I'm so excited to watch a little human grow, but I also want her to remain the little bitty baby who I held in my arms in the hospital.