It's been a good week!

Despite my being stressed over "The Child," this past week was really quite enjoyable. Brett was able to be home several mornings to watch the kiddo while I went to do a few errands and other fun things just for me. He's the best husband/dad ever (I know, I'm biased).

Waaaay back in July, Brett found a coupon on KSL for a massage at a chiropractic office up in Salt Lake for a pretty awesome deal. It was around our anniversary, and I hinted that I've always kinda wanted to get a professional massage, but thought it might be too "weird." But he bought it for me anyway. I finally redeemed it last Tuesday. Indeed it was a little "weird," but after chatting with my massage therapist for a bit, and relaxing on a toasty heated bed with fresh-from-the-dryer warm sheets, it was actually very nice. My neck hurt pretty badly during the massage, but it was my back afterwards that ended up completely sore from being worked on. That I became sore afterwards just helped solidify in my mind that the massage actually was doing something, working all those knots out!

(This is where I went)

This is not my bag of stuff, but you get the idea...

Then on Wednesday I had the chance to hop over to a "Busy Bag" exchange that my friend, Kristin another former teacher at Fort Herriman Middle, set up. I made 27 sets of 2 different activities and then got 25 additional activities from other people. I didn't know anyone else but Kristin, but it was still fun to get out and see her and her baby boy for a minute and then get a bunch of fun activities. I'm excited for when Lindy is big enough to actually use them.

This was back in high school... my hair is not that cute, and I'm not that skinny at the moment.

Thursday night I auditioned for the Timpanogos Symphony Orchestra, a local orchestra that's getting some very nice reviews. I contacted the conductor a few weeks ago, just wondering if they happened to have any French horn openings, which they happened to have. They have 4 horns, but one can't come every other week because of work, and they want to have 5 just to alternate parts here and there. So I practiced pretty hard for 2 weeks. My face is still out of shape (I last played the tenor horn for UPB 2 years ago, and haven't played the French horn seriously for a few years before that), and my fingers were slow and confused (tenor horn and French horn have different fingerings). But I picked some songs that I remembered and got them sounding passable. The slow song was sounding pretty good at home, but the fast one was needing work right up until the audition. But lo and behold, auditions always go the exact opposite of what you expect. The adrenaline apparently helped me on the fast one, which I thought sounded better than any time I had practiced it. But my nervous lip did not help the long soft notes on the other song sound very good, and it made me hit all sorts of other notes while slurring... oh well... apparently it was good enough! I got in! I'll start going to rehearsals in December for their concert in February. I'm excited to be playing again, and with such a great sounding group (although I admit it will not be as fun as playing with Sonja, Dave, or my high school pals Sylvia, Wendy, Ryan, Holly, Andrea, Jared, Jason, Brendi, etc.).

Friday I got to go out to lunch with another teacher friend, Amy which was fun as usual. I miss teaching. There's something I miss about hanging out at school with my buddies, molding young minds (I'm a biologist, so take that how you want to), and learning something new about how to teach or about science. I'm glad that we were able to get together.




On Saturday, my Mom watched Lindy while Brett and I went to the temple. We haven't been much since she's been born, so it was a welcome reprieve.

Sunday was Stake Conference which means one less hour at church! Don't get me wrong, I love church, but it's nice to have a little break once in a while, especially when you're trying to get a baby to nap at the right times.

My brother is the cool one... Molar Man!

Then Monday we went up to the special bakery store that we go to in order to get the best "dipping chocolate" that my family uses for our homemade candies at this "most wonderful time of the year." And then came home via the "Dontist" - my brother Don is our dentist... and we came away without any cavities! He works at a technically "pediatric" dentist office, but makes exceptions for family :) Even Lindy had a good time, and got a cool infant toothbrush thing (maybe it will be an incentive for her to actually pop out some teeth).

And during all this busyness, Lindy learned how to roll from front to back - something we've been working on for a month or so now - yay!!! (Sorry the movie is so grainy... apparently I don't know how to export clips.)

Lindy's Compilation Movie

Most people have seen this movie on Google + or Facebook, but here it is on the blog, so that I can find it easier:

I've determined that Lindy is a pretty "touchy" child, meaning that if I throw off one of her naps by going shopping, or jogging with her, etc. she has a hard time with life. Which then means that I have a hard time with life - I get very stressed when she doesn't sleep well. But I'm trying to remember that she's going to be ok, even if she cries for an hour instead of napping one day... right... she will be ok... right?

No ZZZZZs for Katie

I need help... I can't sleep...

I've always had sleep issues, but now I feel like I can't do anything about it (I used to take half an OTC sleep aid, and that seemed to kind of work). I don't know if there's a medication I can take that won't hurt the baby and won't knock me out so soundly that I don't wake for her to eat (she still wakes up somewhere between midnight and 3am). I used to be able to fall asleep, but couldn't stay asleep... now I'm not sleeping either way. (By the by... I'm pretty sleep deprived, and if my sentences don't make sense, it's to be expected).

Lindy is sleeping much better (she's been sleeping about 12 hours with one feeding in there somewhere), but by the time I get to sleep, 6 or 7am seems much too early for her to be waking up. I'm afraid I'm turning into an eternally grumpy mom and wife.

I feel tired and try to go to sleep, but can't. Then if I do manage to nod off, I wake up at every sound - the baby whining in her sleep, Brett rolling over... etc. and then I'm stuck awake again. And then the next night, I'm scared to death of a repeat, and end up with a self-fulfilled prophesy - I CAN'T SLEEP!

Any advice? Thoughts? Prescription medication?

Driving me a little crazy!

I realized we haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd put a quick update on life.

First, to all my teacher friends... I'm sorry your summer has come to an end, but may you have a wonderful year full of crazy kids and crazier administrators :)

Brett is still loving his job at UVRMC, but we would both be loving it a little more if it were a day shift. Maybe someday [sigh].

We had Lindy's baby blessing on August 7th. It was great! Brett's Mom made Lindy's dress - it turned out soooo cute. I was very pleased with how it turned out - she did a great job. Mostly we loved the day because almost every member of our family was there (including Lindy's Great Aunt Lindy who she's named after).

We were missing the Nelsons, and my sister Sarah's husband Brent, but everyone else was there, which really is saying something. My mom decided to go for broke and we took a family picture outside on the play set - we'll have to photoshop 3 people in (Brent, Matt, and Abbey who had to be gone for the picture day for their new jobs). We even got the dog in.

Me and my sisters (can you tell...) and our babies in Hawaiian garb from Grandma Reesa and Papa Phil

While she was here for the blessing, my sister Ali and I ran our first 5K. Everybody who knows us Borens, knows that we're not so great at the cardio thing, but are probably some of the people who need it the most given our genetic background. So we "trained" for a few months and ran the Highland Fling 5K. I'm pretty proud of us for doing it, and hope that we can keep it up. Brigham helped me train and I really appreciate his advice and coaching - it was a great motivator.

I'm mostly loving my new job as a Mommy, but I'm going a little crazy these days with Lindy's sleep schedule. She used to sleep 7-8 hours at least in a stretch at night, but she's regressed to about 3-5 hours. I wouldn't complain too much except that I have a really hard time getting myself back to sleep (and so does she sometimes). I figure if she could do it before, then she should still be able to do it, so I'm a little frustrated. She also seems to be more cranky during the day, almost right from the moment she wakes up. It's been a little better these last couple of days, but it's definitely a work in progress. I've been trying to utilize the Weissbluth method in "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" but any other advice from the masses would be appreciated. She actually took a binki today for the first time for her morning nap, but that's unusual, and I don't feel like she has a very good self-soothing method. Brett's work schedule makes it a little harder as well, since he's gone a few nights a week and by the time he's home, we're both exhausted from staying up all night. My Mom saved my bacon 2 nights ago and took care of her all night (although that happened to be her best night in the last week or so... lucky Grandma). But she's still super cute, even though she's super frustrating...

Looks like?

Katie

+

Brett

=

Lindy

Who do you think she looks like?

Lindy's Blessing Invitation

I know I keep using the same picture of her over and over, but it's my current favorite... I think I need to get to the mall for a photo shoot. For anyone who wants to come... here's the invite!

Invitation card personalized with Smilebox

Lindy 2 Month Stats

Our girlie girl, is a little over 2 months now - crazy! She sure is growing - as evidenced by her latest stats.

This is probably one of those weird things, that only Mom's care about... but here it is anyway.

Length: 23.0in (90% percentile)

Weight: 10lbs 9oz (75%)

Head Circ.: 38cm (75%)

Cuteness: Like a button  

I brought Lindy and Brett with me to the last Friday of school for our district, and had a good time saying hi and goodbye to my kiddos. I hope it's only a temporary goodbye for my teacher friends. I miss chatting with my "teams." Here are a few photos of my last day at FHMS - I'm sad I didn't get more with the other teachers.

I love being a mommy, but there are definitely some things I will miss about teaching - especially my friends. When I had a great lesson, or even better - a fun lab, I really did enjoy myself. There were only a few truly hard days when things fell flat on their behinds, or when the students were completely insane. I think teaching is kind of like childbirth... it doesn't seem like it was all that hard when I look back on it (selective amnesia, I guess). I definitely hope to go back when my own kids are all grow'd up. 

It's definitely harder to have "grown up" conversation when I'm mostly hanging out at home with a 2 month old. But... Mom and Dad are coming home this Saturday! Ah!!!! So hopefully Mom won't mind my running around the house behind her, chatting non-stop... just like the good ol' days.