Willow The Parrot and other Musings

So, lately Willow has decided the best place in the world is on my shoulder. Not in a swing, or sling, or bouncer. My shoulder. And if mommy would also sway back and forth near the kitchen window for like, oh, hours on end. Boy, she gives off a lot of heat!!

Meanwhile, Michael is one half day away from finishing third grade...making me feel even older than the lack of sleep does.

Speaking of sleep, she is generally sleeping through the night. Although that will be put to the test when I return to work. Basically, we have two kinds of nights: (1) She goes to bed between 10 - 12 midnight and sleeps for 5 or so hours; or (2) She fusses while we try to get her down between 10 - 12 midnight and sleeps for 2-3 hours; Michael comes into our room and wants to snuggle in our bed, husband takes him back to his room while I feed Willow, and sometime during the night we have all mammals in our bed--Michael, the cat, husband, me and either Willow in her bassinet (or if its like 5 a.m. or later) sleeping in my arms.

This week is almost over. Next week is my last week of maternity leave. It went fast. Next week, I will have both children. I hope I can have some quality time with Michael as well as Willow. Hope to go to the beach or lake one day, maybe a museum, definately some nature walks. I am still trying to find a balance between the two (mainly because I am Milk Lady, which tends to overide everything).

This weekend, in anticipation of her going to daycare, we need to get her used to formula. I hope to express, but I know that I am not very good at that, and with Michael I breastfed him full time while on maternity leave, then morning and night with supplements of formula/expressed milk during the day when I went back to work. I hope to do the same with Willow. Michael had no problems transitioning, but I wonder about Willow..she is going to be younger than he was when we do this...

I want to sum up my maternity leave in another post. I have been able to slowly get into a semblance of routine, and hope that some of the routines can transition into working mode...luckily, I have 4th of July week to ease into it.