Back to Work!

So much has happened since the last blog. Daniel is almost 4 and a half months old! I returned to work this past week and thank God, Daniel did great without me - better than I did without him the first day for sure! :-) There were some changes in Daniel's day care arrangements. After really considering all the work I have to get done each week, Jonny and I decided that I should have 3 full days of work instead of half days. So Daniel is now being taken care of by Kalida, a Pakistani woman who has a family day care and who had been highly recommended by a friend (thanks for being so understanding Justyna about this change, you're wonderful!).

Kalida is great! She is so calm and experienced, has 4 adorable children, and most importantly, Daniel is having a great time there. Every time we have picked him up after work he's been happy. Kalida's children love to play with him and so he's getting lots of interaction and just seems to be enjoying himself so much! Apparently he laughs a lot more with them than with us and they have promised to get it on video next week! The first day was a little hard because he didn't want to take the bottle but by the afternoon he ate and has been eating well since then. He's also been napping their more than he does at home (still 30 minutes at home!) so that's amazing to me too.

Kalida with her 3 daughters

Kalida with Daniel: Her calm presence gives me much peace!

This is Daniel after his second day with Kalida as I put him in the car seat to come home - Happy!

And for me, though I still think about Daniel a lot during the day and worry about him, it's been good to get back to work. Since I'm an official telecommuter and can work from home (the commute to DC is far too long), we decided it would be best for me to get out of the house and have some adult interaction. So I've actually been working from Jonny's lab (his boss said it was fine for me to work from his desk!), and it's been great! We can get to spend a lot more time together this way and I'm not alone at home all day.

So all in all I just have to praise God about how wonderful the transition has been this past week. It hasn't been easy, but it couldn't have gone smoother than it has. I have continued to battle with insomnia and anxiety but it is getting better and now that this big step in going back to work has occurred, I think I will continue to get better. Please do continue to pray for me. Having a baby has been a much greater adjustment than I had ever imagined!

Big developmental advances and changes in the last couple of weeks:

- Daniel is grabbing things more and more and now even his legs and feet! (It amazes me how he doesn't seem to realize how exciting this is, he just does these new things as if he always has!)

- He's laughing more and more - though still quite short laughs.

- He is cooing so loudly that you can hear him from a long distance - and his voice even went a bit hoarse for a few days!

- He's stopped turning from his tummy to his back but is threatening to move onto his side when on his back.

- He needs to wear a bib all the time now because he's drooling so much - we go through 3-4 bibs a day!

- He's been sleeping now without a swaddle for about 2 weeks and is doing great - it surprised us that it didn't affect his sleeping at all, the time was just right! This was something I was anxious about too, but like most things, I didn't have to be!