TansEmpire

April 08

April 30th, 2008

The month started with Andrew flying to Colorado Springs unfortunately without Mackenzie and I as the flight times with a reasonable price tage were at ridiculous hours. I was upset that I couldn’t get to see Michelle again and that she couldn’t see how Mackenzie had grown. It also felt strange being alone with Mackenzie for the first time and doing all that was required to look after here alone. But I coped (as I knew I would but it still felt stressful) and we had a great week together. I had the Moms Support Group (whom is now named the Fabulous First Time Mommies - FFTM) over as per usual on the Thursday and I spent another of the days at one of the moms house so I could spend some adult time with someone and Mackenzie was able to play with her friend Ellen.

The next week Andrew and I went on our first date night, leaving Mackenzie with a friend of mine and her 2 year old daughter. Turns out we had a great time but Mackenzie was upset the whole time we were gone and cried and cried. I wasn’t sure whether it was being away from us or the constant attention a 2 year old can give a baby so I wanted to try again with another friend (one of the moms from the FFTM) as Mackenzie knows her better. Around a week later I left Mackenzie with Rebecca whilst I had a massage and she was fine. So I realised that as long as she was around someone she was comfortable with we could leave her for date nights.

The Mackenzie update for the month is as follows:

• She is now laughing and giggling constantly. She first giggled on april 2nd which Andrew missed and can now sit but falls over after a few minutes.
• She attempts to roll over but gets quite frustrated and gives up very quickly.
• Her 4 month check up went well - she weighed 16.7 pounds which is in the 95% percentile, and her height was 24 3/4 inches which is in the 75% percentile. The doctor wasn’t concerned with the lack of rolling over due to her size and said it will happen when it happens.
• After her 4 month shots she developed a cold which hung around for a while so we lived on nasal decongestants for her and the occassional Tylenol for her sore throat.
• We bought her a mirror which attaches to the headrest in the car so that we can see her in the rear vision mirror. It also has animals around it which light up and play music to entertain her.

Andrew had a Monday off work due to some excess overtime so we decided to head to Washington DC for the day to see the cherry blossoms. Unfortunately we were 2 days too late (they are very fickle and known to appear one day unexpectently and then disappear) so we wandered around the Lincoln Monument and the World War II Monument. We soon learnt that with baby in tow things take longer than expected given the amount of times we need to stop and feed her and allow her to sleep. So our plan of visiting the Air & Space Museum has been put on hold until a day off in July.

Our FFTM group held a weekend brunch at Bethany’s place so that all of the working moms could catch up with the rest of us and the men could all meet each other also. It was a nice day to see how everyone had grown and also to meet the men so that we could all feel comfortable in group situations in the future.

In April I attempted to try and meet many of the stay at home moms in the apartment complex I often see around and about. I put a flier together to meet at the club house as a once off event so that we could then arrange to meet at people’s houses that would be convenient. I was quite disappointed with the turn out of 3 moms, all of whom had toddlers so it would be hard for us to have anything in common as our children would be looking to do different things at this stage. The only good thing to come out of it was meeting Maggie who lives in the apartment behind me. She has a son Grayson who is only 6 weeks younger than Mackenzie. She decided to join the FFTM’s which is great. Since then she and I have become great friends and call on each other most days to hang out with each other. I am looking forward to developing our friendship and for Mackenzie and Grayson to be able to play together.

Entry Filed under: January 07