A Small Sample of Us: July 2014

Claire will be 10 weeks on Thursday. We were pleased to find out that she had gained three pounds between her 1 month appointment and her 2 month appointment and now weighs in at a hefty 13 pounds. She is also continuing to stay on track with her neurological development and we are so happy about that. She's smiling and cooing a lot now. And let me just tell you that her smile is the best thing ever. She is such a happy little girl.
I'm also glad to say that shortly after I wrote my last blog post and expressed my frustrations with breast feeding, we seemed to break through a wall and things have gotten so much better. She is 90% breastfed and has taken feedings down from an hour to about 20-30 mins. She gets a bottle before bed so that Dane can get a chance to feed her and I can get an opportunity to pump to build up a supply for when I go back to work. That first month-6 weeks of breastfeeding is really hard. I'm so glad that Dane kept encouraging me and supported whatever decision I chose to make. I'm thankful for the time I've had off of work to really put the effort into making breastfeeding work and I'm glad that I have given myself the allowance to give her the occasional bottle of formula. If I hadn't had this time off I would have thrown in the towel. My goal now is to try and continue breastfeeding for at least 6 months (longer would be awesome!) but we'll have to see how things will change/adjust when I'm back at work and pumping primarily (I never produce a ton when I pump).
We have found a new sitter for Reed and Claire and a pre-school for Reed. We weren't sure if we should continue with Reed's current sitter in St. Louis or find a new one in Illinois closer to where I work and we would like to be moving (soon, Lord?). In the end the Lord opened up an opportunity for us to switch the kids to a woman in Greenville just minutes from the college. She is a professor's wife and has years of experience working at a local pre-school (in fact, the one Reed will be attending). I brought them to her house today so they could hang out and get to know one another a bit before I go back to work. I left for about an hour and a half to see how it would go without me there. Claire didn't cry (as I had feared she would) and Reed had a blast checking out their lawn equipment (you guys...you don't even know this kids love for lawn equipment....seriously). It was just further confirmation that this is the right choice. For now, they will ride an hour each way with me (not so fun) but we hope this will change when/if we sell our house. It will be so nice to have them just minutes away. I can pop over during my lunch hour and be close if something happens and they need me. In the end, the pros outweighed the cons so we're moving forward with this plan. They will also still stay with Pat one day a week and get that quality time with her and my Pop. So grateful for that.
Our house has been on the market for three weeks now. We had two showings right away but haven't seen any action in almost two weeks now. I keep stressing out about this, but Dane keeps reminding me that it will sell when it's supposed to and that it doesn't matter how many showings we have because all we need is that one buyer to come in and make an offer. So...I'm trying to take his approach and be at peace, trusting in God's plan.
I go back to work next month and am super stressed about creating a new routine. I feel like we just settled into our routine with two kids and now we will have to adjust to another one. But in the end I know we will and all will be well.