Live Laugh Love...with The Souza's: Back to Work

I have wrote about my Mother before…and most of you that read this blog know that she is SUPER special to me and seriously one of the most amazing people on this planet. I’m not just saying that because she’s my mom…MANY MANY peeps would totally agree with me! My mother is awesome. She has seriously made my transition of being back at work sooo much easier than I could have imagined.

When the alarm went off Monday morning my body was in shock…and my brain was tired AND my heart was worried. Ella still wasn’t taking a bottle! My Mom knew she was going to have a few rough days with her…so we sent Owen to Martha’s for the whole week! That way Mom could dedicate all her attention to the lil lady without neglecting His Lordship! I’m not going to lie…I was super worried when I was driving to work. I knew that I shouldn’t be worrying since if there was a total issue, my work is only a mile away from the house and Mom could always bring Ella to me to be fed. I knew Bernie was a bit nervous as well…she hadn’t slept a wink on Sunday night!

But the pictures and texted started coming in from my Mom (she knows her daughter too well…keeping me updated to ease my stress).

When Ella woke in a great mood….her refusing the first bottle and falling asleep…I started to get NERVOUS!

<----and even pictures to prove that Nana WAS putting her down in her crib and not holding/spoiling her all day!

She woke again and the bottles started flowing!…Yes Ella put up a fight but eventually gave in and took the bottle from Mom. Bottle #1 was nothing to me though…we had gotten Ella to take a few bottles the first time…

BUT after Bottle #2 I was a bit more optimistic! STILL nervous about Day 2 though…BUT she proved to actually be cooperating! THANK GOD…all week…she took the bottles from Bernie…and by today (Friday) there were NO tears even. She willingly took the bottle and all in one sitting!

Thank the Lord…my stress level DROPPED tenfold! So as my body got used to working thankfully my sweet daughter was being so nice to Mama…and was actually sleeping most of the night! She’s been waking once but doing some GREAT sleeping, like last night she slept from 9-5am! awesomeness right?!? But with all this sleeping at night I’m starting to worry myself about my milk supply! Its so different to be pumping and bottle feeding you can see exactly HOW much she is drinking. ps. pumping sucks…and DOUBLE sucks having to do it multiple times at work during the day!!! I’ve been doing the block feeding (meaning only offering 1 boob per feeding) when nursing…but obviously I pump both boobs and only get 2 oz max out of each one. So you would think she’d be drinking 2oz bottles…but NO…my girl is drinking 4oz bottles!!! So I’m starting to worry that maybe I’m not producing or nursing her enough or something?!?!? I asked on fb today if I should be waking at night to pump since she’s been sleeping through the night lately…consensuses says no…my body will know the supply and demand. She’s gaining weight, happy most of the time and so its ANOTHER thing I’m going to try NOT to stress about! Does the Mommy stress ever end….NO!

But My mother is my savior…she was patient with Ella…got her drinking bottles AND cleaning my house while I’m at work! Coming home everyday to my bed being made, Owen’s bed being made, laundry done, folded AND put away, a happy baby, picking up an excited 4 year old AND a tidy house…. siiiigh…..GOSh its like heaven! Mom is amazing. I’m so lucky to have her…lucky to have her be ABLE To help us for the rest of this school year (I think she’s busier now as a retiree than she was when she was working full time!) haha

And now its Friday…I’m EXHAUSTED…was a LONG week…

…a long week for both of us!!! Tonight, Mom cooked us dinner and made me a birthday cake for an early celebration!.