Grooves

We seem to be constantly falling in and out of them, and it feels like we've been "out" of our groove for quite some time now. I will say though, that I think we are turning a corner this week and finding our "new" groove.

Merrill's transition from infant to mobile baby/*almost* toddler certainly threw us off for a bit along with the acquisition of her bottom teeth. I think all the developmental and physical changes were just taking their toll on her making her need a little more mommy time and making sleeping a little more difficult. Add in the natural habit of babies to change their schedules/routines/habits every time you think you have them figured out, and well we were just due for a little chaos as we worked to get back in the groove.

And of course, we aren't just dealing with one little person here, but two! Millie has been working hard on her own developmental milestones -- using the potty and sleeping more independently. Ultimately, I think we pushed a little too hard too soon on the sleeping and now that we've pulled back a bit and are (willingly) giving her a little more help in this area again things are going better for everyone. She's even demonstrating some great independent sleeping when I'm not here. AND She is doing great on the potty :).

Wait, what? When I'm not here? When is THAT?! Oh yeah, not to be outdone by my daughters in the realm of creating chaos, I started a job at the beginning of March. It wasn't really a planned thing, but something that kind of fell in my lap at the right time. The way it all came about just gave me one of those "meant to be" feelings that I couldn't ignore. I have been getting job postings from "hotjobs" and "monster.com" since we moved here, but I almost never look at them anymore because the jobs are rarely relevant. But, one day in February I decided to look at one and there was actually a listing that looked interesting. Scott and I went out the weekend before Valentine's Day to talk about whether or not this was something I wanted to pursue and what that would mean for our family.

We had been talking about maybe sending Millie to preschool soon, but knew that we would need more income in order to do that, so that was one "pro" to getting a job. The job was listed as a full or part-time position, so it looked like there would be the possibility of me "easing" back into the work-force -- also a "pro." The details in the listing suggested that the position was one that would give me some really good experience in a clinic setting with a variety of populations to serve -- "pro." Some questions we had to ask ourselves, how did we think this would impact the girls, and did we think we would be having another child soon (I didn't want to re-enter the workforce and then turn around and leave it again because of having another child...). We agreed that we thought the girls would be able to handle the change, that Millie would benefit from and probably really enjoy school, and that a third child isn't in the plan right now. Everything seemed to be lining up. What we didn't know is who would be taking care of Merrill and (on some level) if I was really ready to leave the girls. We agreed that I would send in my resume and we'd just see what happened.

Well, I sent in my resume and about a week and a half later I had a job offer -- one DEFINITE benefit to working in my field, jobs never seem to be hard to find -- so, we went for it. The original plan was for me to take over the part-time caseload of a woman who was leaving (her husband just graduated from FBI school! How crazy is that?! I think I actually asked her if she was going to have to go undercover ;) ). The plan was to start VERY part-time -- Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3-6 pm. Not bad at all. The plan was to then gradually build my time and eventually go full-time. All of that is still the plan, it just wasn't quite as gradual as I originally thought it would be. My first couple of weeks were just observation and training and by the time March 22 came along when I was taking over the caseload and actually doing therapy, my hours were already up to Monday through Thursday 12-6 pm! The idea now is that I will build my caseload and look at going full time in June.

Adding in hours that quickly meant we had to scramble to figure out daycare for the girls. My mom had been watching them for the 2 day-a-week afternoons, but we needed to find something more permanent. We had been talking to my sister about the possibility of her becoming our nantie, and now was the time to see if she was really serious about that. Lucky for us she was! As of today (April 1), Lauren is part-time at her job at Maritz and a part-time nantie (auntie/nanny) for the girls! Just for the sake of simplicity, she isn't going to actually start until Monday.

My mom had the girls for four afternoons this week and I think we all started to find our groove with all of this newness. The girls and I have a pretty good morning routine down, my mom has the afternoon down (including naps!) and Scott has the evenings covered. There are of course a few things that I'd like to see happen more often (like workouts for Scott and me and "grown-up" time for just the two of us), but I have faith that as we continue to find this new groove those things will fall into place too. I'm hoping we have a smooth transition from my mom to my sister next week. Lauren has been coming at lunch/nap time everyday, so I think that will help. She has done an awesome job getting Merrill to sleep! I must say that leaving your child to go to work isn't any easier at 8 months than it is at 8 weeks, but leaving them with family instead of a stranger or at a center absolutely does make a difference and we are so blessed to have family here who can do that for us.

It has taken me about three days to write this ... apparently computer time hasn't quite found its way back in the picture yet :). But that's the general picture of our life these days -- happily searching for our groove!