A new reality

The final countdown is here. I return to work on Monday and it's all I can think about. Because who would want to leave this snuggle bug at home? 

 

 She's grown up so much in the past few weeks. 

 

She routinely is finding her thumb

 

 

That is, when the other fingers don't get in the way

 

The milk drunk face never gets old to me

 

Neither do her bright wide eyes when she is awake though:

 We were visit by Dylan and Jenica Conley (Tom's co-worker from the firm in Providence he worked for) who brought us the CUTEST hat!

 It's an elephant but almost looks like a mouse...either way, it's ADORABLE. And she's still young enough that we can dress her in all sorts of crazy things and she is unaware :)

 I did a "trial run" so to speak, of a day back to work last weekend where I went in for basically 1/2 day (about 8 hours) to see how it was going to go. Addie and Daddy had a whole Saturday morning together!

 

Daddy successfully kept her happy with bottles at home and I was able to just glance at the new reality that I had coming towards me. 

 

Needless to say, my new work life is going to be quite different than my pre-pregnancy work-life. Let's just say, I now have to figure out how to extract Adler's nutrition from my body at  regular intervals throughout the work day despite the fact that prior to pregnancy I barely would squeeze in time at regular intervals to take care of my own biological functions (you know....peeing, eating, hydrating). only one major blow out for Adler while I was at work...There's going to be a LOT more of those in our future I think...

So, in an effort to keep my belly full at all times (I have to eat if Adler's going to eat!) I stocked my work room with all kinds of snacks. I managed to snag a hospital-grade pump for pumping breast milk (again, I'll spare you the details of how glamorous a process that is).

But, I guess one nice thing is, I now fit back into my normal scrub sizes without having to tug the top down to fit over the belly!

Thankfully, Nanna and Pappa arrived back from Bonaire to help distract me from the anxiety of going back to work and helping me to get the last items on my checklist checked off before "d day".

We have changed our own routines around Adler's schedule multiple times since she eats in 2.5-3 hour intervals we tend to go for errands in those kinds of intervals as well. We've definitely had time for a "spot of tea" (or cup of joe in their cases) multiple times. We tried out a little cupcake shop called Sweet Indulgence by our house and it was one word: cute!

 

Pinky fingers out!

 

We also tried out another adorable stop in Providence that I adore, called the Duck and Bunny. A place that advertises itself as a "snuggery." We had tea and scones and massive quantities of french toast, even one called the "full elvis" that was Portuguese sweet bread with peanut butter, bacon, a fried egg and marshmallow fluff! It sounds a little gross but trust me it was good.

 

We also tried to find a bakery in the Cranston neighborhood with lobster tails for Pappa, but sadly all we could find was a coronet which was a poor replacement

 We've also spent a lot of time on the couch binge-watching the olympics. What better time to have a baby and lots of snuggle time?! I'm so grateful for that.  Our little Valentine is pretty stinkin' cute!

 

We're coordinating the details for Adler to be at day care. Thankfully we only have about 1.5 days of care that she truly needs to have no matter what in the next month or so, because after 2/27 Tom will be able to take his paternity leave and have tons of  time with this little one