Two Feet Long

Enjoy the pictures below! I can't believe January is already done and Morgan is 3 1/2 months old. Some highlights include:

• Morgan is now 24.5" long according to our home measurements with the tape measure. That's an inch in one month! She's officially over 2 feet long. That's my growing weed!
• Morgan got to enjoy her exersaucer for the first time today. Initially we thought the lowest setting was too low for her, but after putting her on the next highest setting and watching her dangle a little bit, we put it back down, put her feet under her where they belong (not behind her so she's flying) and she loved it. Yet another thing to keep her occupied and happy when I need to get something done real fast...yay!
• I think we can officially say that Morgan now gets up only once a night for feeding (I'm so going to kick myself later when she's up twice tonight). It varies between 2-4:30am, but either way it's awesome. She's been getting up 2-5 other times needing her nuk put back in her mouth but that can be done when one is half asleep. :) SOOOOO much better than 2-3 and sometimes 4x a night like when she was super tiny.
  
• Morgan is no longer changed (diaper) in the middle of the night. We just double up on her inserts and she's set. The diaper weighs 10#s when we wake up in the morning, but the awesome thing about cloth diapers (specifically our bum genious ones, can't speak for the other ones out there) is that they keep the moisture away from her skin so she doesn't get diaper rash from this. Woop woop!
• Morgan now takes less feedings and more per feeding than she used to. She takes about 4oz per bottle and only eats every 3-4 hours instead of every 2 hours like she used to. Today she actually couldn't eat everything I knew I had going on in there. I keep feeling like I'm just on the verge of when she is going to outpace me and far surpass my supply. Each week something seems to happen where I have an extra pumping session, or she misses a feeding at daycare (some days she just doesn't eat them all) and we have enough. She still gets some formula at home (ie. 1-2 oz at night for her night feeding, usually with breastmilk but sometimes not) or like Saturday when she was taking a long nap, I quick pumped a bit b/c it had been a while since she ate, and then she knew what I was doing and woke up. Instead of giving her some of the milk I had pumped, she got 2oz of formula.
  
• Morgan is really starting to enjoy and rock tummy time. She holds her head up high, looks at books (or Jessie, see below), and has a good time. FINALLY. That was a long transition from hate to love.
  
• Morgan loves books. I was hoping she'd get to this point b/c when she was super little, we'd read to her and she'd start screaming. Great, an SLP with a daughter who hates books from the beginning of life...but not so much. She sits on our laps and looks at the pictures rather intently. She (ok me) really likes her Belly Button book by Sandra Boynton (one of my favorite children's authors). Good times!
• Morgan's coordination with grabbing toys and bringing them to her mouth is improving. She still misses and sometimes her toys go flying instead of getting to their intended target (ie. mouth) but there have been some improvements. Since she kept hitting herself in the face and making herself cry with her harder plastic toys, I bought her a soft love bug toy yesterday and she loves it.
  
• Last one - Morgan has really done well at church the past few Sundays. The only time she got upset was when too many little old ladies "peaced" her at church last week and she freaked. As in screaming bloody murder and we had to step out for a bit. :) But now she likes to look at all the people, listen to the music, drool all over, etc. Good times.

So things have just been really great lately at home. Work has been another story but again, I am still not ready to blog about it. I've had such a good day and I don't want to think about it until 7:30am tomorrow morning. Enjoy the pictures of our little bear....she's getting sweeter by the day and we're so proud of her.

Look Daddy! I can pet the puppy (and then have a fistful of hair - ick!)!!

Morgan's first go at the exersaucer - she did great once we put her feet where they belonged and she stopped "flying in her seat."

I love my exersaucer!! (thanks D&S!)

Mommy & Morgan

Adam sleepin' on the job...yikes!

Adam teaching Morgan early that Channel 33 is ESPN. Oh dear.

Jessie giving Morgan encouragement (and maybe a few kisses) during tummy time (which Morgan now rather enjoys).

Morgan's first birthday hat/party at daycare for her friend, Saxby, who turned 2.

Adam & Morgan doing their "balancing act" which Morgan finds hilarious and I find scary as all get out sometimes...but then do it myself later and it's quite fun!

How. Cute. Is. This.
Morgan wearing one of Daddy's winter hats.
:-D

Yay! Hands a' workin'! Boo...hands a grabbin'...

We're so excited that Morgan is using her hands more and more each day...but that also means she'll grab whatever comes within arms' reach...including our faces, necks, anything really. So while we're really happy to see her improving her motor coordination, it can be a little painful at times! It's also funny that she's sucking on them rather loudly at times to the point where I can hear her sucking on them from the next room sometimes.

Morgan is also enjoying tummy time much more...and is getting close to on her way to rolling over! What I have found that gets her more accepting of tummy time is to start her on her back, get her all excited and happy, and then move off to her side so she's looking at me. Then I get her legs started for her and eventually she overcomes that darn arm that's in the way and is on her tummy. She no longer lets her head go down either - her head is up high and sometimes she does the "swimming baby" motion with arms and legs in the air. Then I let her get her arms out on her own and have a book up and ready for her to look at and she's usually set! The thing is, she's a big step towards doing this on her own b/c she pulls her legs up to her belly and next thing she is on her side - all by herself! Adam and I get all excited, hold our breaths, and wait to see what will happen...and then she returns to her back and smiles b/c we get all excited for the good job she's doing. It's truly amazing to see such a little person make such gains in what seems like such a short amount of time. Just think, 14 weeks ago she was a little wet noodle baby who screamed for no reason (as far as we knew) and ate constantly. Now she can hold her own head up, use her hands (albeit not perfectly yet, but huge improvements here), smile, recognize us, go to daycare like a big girl...the list goes on. It's awesome.

Speaking of daycare, Mary informed me Monday (yesterday) that Morgan needs to bring 9 valentines to daycare for her friends in a few weeks. How. Cute. Is. That. My daughter needs valentines. I can't wait to write them out and send them with her. I teared up a little when Mary told me that. She must think I'm nuts. :)

Morgan is now outpacing me with what she eats vs. what I can produce. :-( Big boo. Yesterday I made 10.25 oz but she ate 12 at daycare. So last night I was convinced that she'd have to dip into her frozen daycare stash today but then when Morgan ate last night, she only ate on one side so I pumped the other and had enough for her feedings today and dream feeding tonight. However, she did the same thing again today - ate 12 while I only produced 10oz. I'm not going to make it a habit of pumping at 3am or whenever she decides to get up. So while we're only off by about 2oz, it was a hard realization that Morgan is finally surpassing me and will need formula supplements when the frozen stash runs out. The plan is to keep going with bfing and pumping so she gets what she needs at least a bit.

Also, it's safe to say now that my friend from work, Abbie, is preggo with #2!! We are really excited for them and Cammie who will be a big sister. Very exciting time! I suddenly know several preggo people (some close, some not) and we're hoping it doesn't rub off anytime in the immediate future...no irish twins in the Schmidt family please!

Ok, off to bed. Life sure is great when there's a baby to come home to. Work's been nuts but I don't want to talk about it right now. Too many good baby/family thoughts running through my head. :)

Grow Much?

Here's Morgan during her first week of life (don't mind the hat falling over her eyes)...


And here's Morgan today, 3 months; 5 days old. Grow much, baby? Wow!!


Here's Morgan just grabbing her rattle...


And here's what happens when she can grab everything. :)


Here's Adam's favorite of the flying baby pose...


And here's my favorite. :) She really is adorable, right? It's ok, it's hard to deny.

3 Months Old

My baby is three months old today. Three months! 13 weeks, one day, 1 hour, and 50 minutes as of this sentence. What a long but fast road it's been! I have to say after she hit 6-8 weeks or so, things have been all downhill from here. Here are some highlights of what our little girl is up to...I'm so proud of her and just keep hoping that I'm doing enough or that I'm doing things the right way to give her all the tools she needs to be a smart, healthy, and happy young girl. Enjoy the highlights!

• She knows me. She knows me so well in fact (and Adam too) that when I come get her from daycare, she blinks a time or two, I say hi, and then she's grinning something huge. If she could talk, she'd totally be saying, "MOM!!! Oh my gosh it's really you!! Awesome!" She also does this with Adam who gets her up in the mornings. He slowly wakes her up and after about 8 hard blinks, smiles like there's no tomorrow and it's awesome to watch.
  
• Morgan has a death grip. She's getting so strong now with her hands and is grabbing (unintentionally) everything. Today she was laying on her play mat and continued to grab at the crinkly butterfly so perhaps she's more intentional than first reported. Either way, she's getting pretty grabby. :)
• Last night could be considered her first sleep-through-the-night night. She slept from 7:30pm-4:19am. I *might* have gone up once to replace her nuk but it was definitely in my sleep if I did, therefore I don't think I did. Then she went right back down which was typical until late last week when she would be out cold...put in her crib...eyes pop open and smiling at whomever would look at her.
  
• The other night when the previous bullet was happening, I put her nuk in at the head of her crib. She watched me walk away. She then moved her head around a bit and then looked back where I had been to try to see me again...kids don't have object permanence that early...but it was interesting to wonder...
• Morgan is "talking" up a STORM. She told me all about daycare all the way home today (a 15 second drive). We "talk" back and forth which basically entails lots of vowel sounds with an occasional gurgly /g/ sound. I'm not hearing as many of the other consonants she had been playing with but the more talking is awesome. Plus, it's so great for Adam to be able to hear her say "hi" to him over the phone while he's traveling (he's in Winnepeg, Canada this week).

Pumping session over, therefore posting over. Off to get ready for tomorrow even though there's an outside chance we might be staying home for an ice storm. 3 months...wow.

Hands...baby hands

Morgan loves her hands. She now uses them as quite the little soothing devices and has gained even more control over them than she had at last post. Her movements towards objects are just that much more purposeful...to the naked eye (ie. not one of her parents) it might look like she's just flailing about but we know - we know that she's trying to reach for things here and there. Pretty neat...

Tummy time update - Mary, our sitter, is some sort of amazing. I haven't talked to her about this yet but she must be working some sort of magic with Morgan and tummy time. We try to get her on her tummy several times at night but we're not super parents and some nights it only happens once or not at all. Well, the other night before Adam got home from class, I put her on her tummy to find her head up so high without initially touching her face to the floor and it was great! She didn't immediately start fussing and she actually held her head up and studied the pattern on the burp cloth that was under her face. Today Adam put her down on her tummy and she sort of tucked her hands/arms under her chest to help hold herself up. It was amazing especially considering that less than 2 weeks ago she kept bouncing her face (softly) off the floor and almost instantly screaming her head off. Proud parents!!

Ok, I just got the cue that it's adult bedtime. Morgan only got up ONCE for feeding last night and 2x for nuk plugging. :) We had to wake her up at 6:15am for our normal morning routine and didn't have to get up an hour before hand to feed her. I'm hoping this behavior continues but not if it means she's coming down with something. When she had a cold about a month ago, she slept like this at night. I'm just going to go with the fact that she's older and maybe getting into a better nighttime routine. I'll let you know after we see what tonight brings. :) G'Night!!

Hands to midline make for a tasty treat

Morgan is phenomenal. How did we ever get so lucky as to have such a beautiful little baby sleeping upstairs in our house? You know, that baby who sees me when I pick her up from daycare, looks at me for a second, and then breaks out in the biggest baby grin that spreads right across her entire adorable little face. Yup, that one. There is much to catch up on, yet again, as we were without internet for a while and I couldn't get anything written!!

Last week I started back to work. I worked 1/2 days Monday-Wednesday with the intention of working full days Th/F. The heavens were looking out for this working mommy though, and I was lucky to get a 2-hr early out on Thursday due to weather and a 2-hr late start Friday for the same reason. Woo hoo! So I hadn't really had a full day until today, Monday.

Before I forget - Happy Birthday to my brother, Travis! He's now 26 years old...

As I was saying, today was my first real, full day back to work. It went well. Adam's taking a week-long MBA class this week in an effort to get his classes done asap (I think spring 2011 is looking good for graduation) so I had to drop Morgan off this morning. It went fine. Believe it or not, picking her up was the hard part. I was so excited to see her that after I got that HUGE baby grin when she saw me, my heart started to really hurt knowing that she was without me all day long. Who knows if she had a reason to smile that big all day? What if the other kids were bugging her? What if she missed me and cried about it at some point? I became rather upset about it and poor Mary (sitter) got to see me shed tears yet again. It's so hard going through a whole day not knowing what I'm missing until she's right there in front of me showing me. Sigh. Just when I think I love her as much as I possibly could, I go ahead and love her that much more all over again.

On a less sad-for-me note, Morgan has really gained some control over her hand movements. She can now bring her hands to midline and routinely does this to suck on one or both of her fists. Sometimes she even gets a little noisy...we now have to make sure to wash her hands on occasion b/c they start to get a little "spit stinky" and we don't want that. I don't mind kids playing in the dirt, but we don't need stinky spit hands. That's just gross. ;-)

She's 12 weeks old today. Where has the time gone? I sometimes can't believe my body went through that only 12 weeks ago and today I am able to do any and everything I did before I got pregnant. I still seem stuck at this 14 extra pounds. I started the 30-day shred last week and stuck with it but fell off the bandwagon. Fatigue is an awful enemy. I am hoping that after some R&R tonight that I'll be able to get back on the bandwagon tomorrow night. However, if I don't go to bed at least a little early tonight, that Tuesday shred is not going to happen. G'night...

Morgan's First Shots

Morgan had her first shots today. I was really excited for the doctor's visit to see how much she'd grown and to find out her percentiles for head circumference, weight, and height, but completely dreading the shots that were to follow. Here's her stats:

• Head circumference: 31.5cm? We forgot b/c we were more focused on percentiles. She was in the 54th percentile here. Right on average.
  
• Weight: 12.0 lbs. What a big girl! That's a hair under a 3lbs gain since birth (was 9lbs, 0.4oz at birth). 63rd percentile here.
  
• Height: 23.5"! That put her in the 74th percentile for her height. Yay! We both agree and think it would be great, should she be an athlete, for her to have a little height advantage, so we were pleased to hear about that.
  

I'm more happy that she's growing and that my supply apparently is good enough for now since she's right on track. Her appointment overall went alright.

(I'm posting this now...just found it and hadn't finished it...)

30-Day Shred

I will bring you down, 30-day shred! I just finished day #2 of Jillian Michael's (Biggest Loser trainer) 30-day Shred and to be honest, I'm feeling a little light-headed at the moment. That's embarrassing to admit as that sort of thing should in NO way shape or form make me feel that way, especially since I didn't feel that way after my first workout yesterday...hmm. :-/ Adam is doing it with me as we both have "baby weight" to get rid of and I really enjoy working out with him. We used to work out and do strength training all through college for track and I didn't realize how much I missed that time with him. Fun fun! I'm sore and getting more sore by the hour, especially in my quads, so we'll see how I feel tomorrow. Hopefully tonight I will be ok to carry my sorry rear up the stairs to feed the baby without crying the whole way up. :)

Speaking of baby, Morgan is really starting to move and shake a bit. :) She has this new "move" which involves digging her heels into the ground (especially when changing her diaper and I'm trying to get a new one on her) and pushing herself backward. This has resulted in a few head bonks on the basket that holds her diapers but nothing serious. She just looks a little startled and we pull her away and chat her up before she gets upset. She's also occasionally pairing this movement with turns to the side...oh boy. This kid's going to be rolling before we know it. Scary.

Bathtime is much more fun. No tears today except AFTER she'd been dressed and realized she was hungry. I don't have to remind her how to splash as she now tries her best to make sure that I'm clean, too.

Tomorrow is Morgan's first round of shots. We're only 3 weeks late, but that's what happens when you leave the state for a week and then the pediatrician also leaves town for the week after you return. I was told it wasn't a huge deal so we're rolling with it. It's also my last half day of work before returning to full time. :-(

Morgan is doing some odd things at daycare in terms of eating...I feed her last thing before I leave for work, sometime b/w 6:30-7am. When I've picked her up around noon, she's JUST finishing her first bottle. Keep in mind this is the kid who does NOT wait to be fed. With me, she feeds every two hours like clockwork, although we've been extending those times to 2.25hrs or longer whenever possible to see how she does. I hope it's just part of the transition and she'll get the hang of it.

Ok, off to give the baby a quick "dreamfeed" and then off to bed. For those of you that don't know, dreamfeeding is when you give a baby a short feeding while they're sleeping to extend the amount of time until their next one. In Morgan's case, we give her 1oz of formula (makes her a little more full than breastmilk) during these dreamfeeds so that I can get a little more sleep and almost ensure that she wakes up for feeding only 2x/night instead of the occasional 3x. Three times is killer and would make for a very unproductive Liss at work the next day. So off I go and then BED. Adios, amigos.

New Year, New Life!

Happy New Year!! We have so much to be thankful for in 2009 that it's going to be hard to top it in 2010...but with Morgan around, growing and changing so fast, I'm sure we'll manage. :) I finally found some "me" time (baby's in bed (hopefully for the night...I hear noises...) and Adam's at poker down the street) so I wanted to catch up on some new Morgan info. Hopefully she allows for this to happen in one smooth post. Enjoy the Christmas pictures posted if I get that far... ;-)


New things in the life of Morgan:

TV - At 10 weeks of age, we now have to limit the amount of time the TV is on, much to Adam's chagrin. The kid will sit and watch it for quite some time since she enjoys sitting facing away from us now the best, which works well for Adam when watching football games and ESPN. Morgan's personal favorite is football which means she is in some sort of heaven right now b/c football is constantly on if Adam's home...unless mom says to turn off the TV and try to teach her something...like arm control. :) Maybe she'll be a famous football announcer on ESPN someday. That would make for one proud Daddy and Uncle Tommy, I'm sure. (Ok, me too, but don't tell anyone.)


Today was a fun milestone for me as I finally found some time and had the determination to do it - I packed away 98% of my maternity clothes. Unlike several of my friends, I only fit into my very fattest pants pre-pregnancy. Boo. BIG boo. I haven't weighed myself since getting back from Christmas/WI and at that point I was still sitting at my "regular" +14lbs prepregnancy. (Which really is only +11 b/c I was working towards the other number when I got pregnant so we're going for gold here people.) I'm starting the 30-day shred by Jillian Michaels (Biggest Loser trainer) next week so hopefully that will help. I have heard of several people swearing by it so I think it's my turn. :) I don't want to actually end up on her show so we'll start now when it's just 14#s I want to lose, not 114. So my clothes are put away, save for some very early pregnancy pants to hold me over until I fit into my other ones (which hopefully actually happens after my elasticity comes back...which it better!).


Morgan splashed in the bathtub for the first time yesterday! She has now had 4 baths in the "big girl tub" (regular bathtub - she outgrew the little one she was borrowing from her cousins) and she finally got it that when I moved her legs up and down, this fun thing called splashing happens...so all of a sudden she just started doing it on her own and got pretty excited! I finally had to take the little prune out of the tub (crying) b/c the water was starting to get cold. So cute!


Along with watching TV, Morgan has a renewed love of watching the dogs. She especially likes it when they are making a ruckus or playing with Adam on the floor. She's still ok with them getting up close and in her face to sniff until we shoo them away. Really, who wants a cold nose touching their face? Not me, and I'm assuming not Morgan as well. :) BTW, the picture below is of Ellie stealing Morgan's nuk...ha!


We've had some serious family time (the 5 of us; 3 humans and 2 dogs who think they're human) in the past few weeks. It's been fantastic. I've loved every minute of it. I think it makes me love Morgan even more and appreciate her even when she's fussy b/c I have to "share" her to get more things done around the house and allow her to have daddy/daughter time (which each enjoys). Today, for example, she slept a TON (we're hoping she's not coming down with something again) and I actually missed her (scary for when I return to work). I was so excited for 4pm when I was going to wake her up (she doesn't get to sleep more than 3 hours in the afternoon so she sleeps at night) but she woke up at 3:55pm instead...happy mommy. I skipped up the stairs to get her and was greeted by a stretching, happy baby. Speaking of sleeping baby Morgan, she's been getting *slightly* better at putting herself to sleep (knocking on wood after typing). We've really been practicing putting her down when she's not all the way asleep so she can practice putting herself to sleep the rest of the way. It worked beautifully today for her nap - I watched her go from almost wide awake to sleeping in about 4 minutes - and then tonight for her last feeding she was out COLD until I took her up to her room...and then eyes open. But I laid her down anyway and haven't heard much except for some sleepy noises since about 8:30pm when she went up there. :) Hoping that sticks a little...although that's an unpredictable one. :)


Ok, last two topics to post about. They're doosies, so hang tight people. First up. Trial run at daycare. I decided we better get this done asap since I am likely heading back to work this next week (more on that later...procrastinated just a little too much on pinpointing a date...stupid me, but nothing I can do about it now). I called Mary (our sitter, she lives 2 doors down and runs a great ship there) and set it up for Wednesday. It was Adam's last day of work this week and we were going to run a trial morning anyway, so why not top it off and actually SEND Morgan to the sitter's? So it was all set up, she sent the paperwork down to fill out Tuesday night, and we were ready to go and learn from our mistakes. ;-) So Wednesday morning comes and everything goes almost smoothly, except neither of us got breakfast and we were tight on time. Lesson #1 - Get up earlier. Lesson #2 - have 100% of things ready to go in the morning, not 90%. So we're in such a huge rush that I was pretty sure I'd be too worried about punctuality and getting Adam to work on time (we both dropped her off) that I wouldn't be upset about leaving her. The plan was for an hour, but while there, we decided that she'd stay for 2-2.5 hours depending on how things went. So we drive there, scurry in the house (it was snowing a bit), and give Mary the LD on where Morgan was at in terms of feeding, diapers, how to manage M's cloth diapers, etc. Then it happened. There was nothing left to do but leave, especially since another family was arriving and it was about to get busy there. That's when the dam broke and I got upset at leaving her. She just looked like such a big girl, staring up at me from her car seat, leaving her at daycare. Aren't they supposed to be 5 y/o or something when they first go to daycare?? Not 10 weeks? No? So I managed to make my way outside and bawled my eyes out my entire walk home. When I got back to pick Morgan up, she had been crying and Mary asked how much tummy time she was getting. I said not enough and that we had been working on it this week as top priority. Mary said that it would really help with Morgan's gassy/fussy issues so she now gets lots of tummy time in small intervals before the serious screaming starts. It seemed to really help on Wednesday as she was super happy the whole day. Th/F? Not so much...hopefully it's not b/c she's getting sick. See tummy time trial below...not sure if you can see she's screaming. :-/

So anyway, I'd consider her first trial run at daycare a success even though she likely screamed for a 1/2 hour while she was there. Oh, she also took an hour nap while there too. I'm super confident that this sitter/daycare is going to work out. Morgan has a new friend, Chase, who is about a month older than her to be friends with along with some of the other kids. I'm hoping that since I was upset her first trial run day there that her first real day of daycare will leave me less weepy. Right...I doubt it, too.


Last order of business. My breastmilk supply and Morgan starting daycare. Here's the current scoop - when I pump, I routinely get about 3 oz. of milk. It can easily be assumed that Morgan, when nursing, gets 3-3.5 oz each time. Since she eats about 8-9x/day, that accounts for her eating about 24-27 oz of milk each day. That's about right for her age and breastfeeding. Here's the problem - there is NO way I can pump every other hour while at work like she nurses when I'm at home. It's just not possible. When I go 3 hours b/w pumping/nursing, I still get 3-3.5oz. That said, she's quickly going to "outeat" my supply and dip into our small frozen stash. As I'm sure you've figured it out already, that leaves me with the only conclusion - there is no way I'm going to be able to keep up with exclusively breastfeeding (EBF) Morgan after I return to work. I was really hoping to do this for several reasons but having finally come to the conclusion that it likely will happen that I'm going to have to supplement her with formula. :( This was really hard to realize but after talking with Mary on Wednesday, I'm more at ease with it. I'm still going to pump and do the best I can feeding her with breastmilk but the kid's gotta eat. Bummer. If you know me at all, I like to (and usually strive to) be the best at everything. I know this isn't always a good thing, but to me being an EBFer was the best I could do for Morgan. Realizing that I likely won't be able to do that was hard...but like I said, we're going to roll with it and who knows. Maybe the magic supply fairy will finally come "knocking" and I will have enough for Morgan even though everyone I talked to said their supplies tanked or dipped upon their return to work.

So I'm pretty sure this is the longest post in the history of posts, so thanks for bearing with me. Time is a hot commodity these days and now that I had some, this is just how it's going to be. I've had such a great time with Adam and Morgan these past few days especially b/c I haven't had to share them with anyone. They've been all mine. And I've loved it. Sigh. How does one make time stand still so as to avoid returning to work, Adam traveling, and honestly, real life? I've enjoyed being home with Morgan so much that I'm already getting thisclose to counting down the days until June 9th (my last scheduled day of work this school year). Last summer I kept my birth-3 caseload over the summer which resulted in roughly 7-8 work days (I can't remember). Adam asked me if I was doing that again this summer to which I said NO. But the thought of the extra cash to do something fun with, or put away in her savings/college fund is also very enticing. We shall see. For now, let's just concentrate on going back to work like a big girl and get back into the swing of things...I'm so lucky. I love my family. So much...