Our growing girl

Look how much Allie has changed and grown in just two months!

Allie has grown a ton in her first two months of life! She now weighs 11 pounds 12 ounces and is 23 inches tall with a 40 inch head circumfrance. She's in the 50th percentile for everything. Her height was in the 30th percentile at two weeks, so she's really put on some height!

We had her two-month checkup today, which included three shots and an oral vaccine. It really did break our hearts to see her get poked! But the nurse was very efficient and it was over quickly. Allie has been more sleepy than usual and was a bit more cranky, but otherwise is reacting fine. I'm glad she hasn't been miserable.

At two months, Allie is way more aware of her surroundings. She can focus on things including mommy and daddy! She smiles and lifts head during tummy time. She doesn't really like tummy time, however. She's very impatient.

And the stockings were hung by the chimney with care

We're ready for Santa to come!

I want to send a big thank you to my mom for assembling Allie's stocking! It turned out so great! I love it and I'm sure she does too.

Allie, meet Santa

Allie met Santa today, but she had no idea because slept through it. I suppose a picture of her sleeping is better than one of her crying.

But since she was sleeping, she didn't tell Santa what she wanted. I'm not sure she wants anything... Doug and I went to buy her a Christmas present today and there's not much that she can use yet that she doesn't already have! Not that she uses anything she has anyway. We ended up using some gift cards to buy her a playtime gym set. But shhh! Its a surprise!

We had a nice family day today. We went to lunch at Pizza Hut and had the buffet. Thats become a Durso family tradition the last few years. Then we went to Toys 'R' Us, then the mall where Allie met the man in red. It was nice to get out of the house together and, honestly, nice that she slept all day because she was really cranky yesterday and we needed a breather!

Christmas photo shoot

We dressed Allie in her Christmas dress this morning for a little photo shoot. Isn't she adorable? Enjoy!

Its finished!

Not a moment too soon, I have finished cross stitching Allie's Christmas stocking!

Now I have a week to make this into a stocking. I'm determined to have this ready for Allie's first Christmas. I've only been working on it since the moment I found out I was pregnant!

In other news, here's our favorite Christmas present. We got it a little early, but that was fine with us.

And some more pictures of Allie since I haven't been posting much lately.

This weekend we're going to my community band's Christmas concert and buying some presents for Allie. We might even take her to meet Santa. Even though she doesn't know whats going on yet, we really want to make her first Christmas special.

Speaking of sleep...

It seems like I've figured out how to put Allie to bed at night! Up to the last few days, its been a two-hour process. But the last two nights, its only taken a half hour. This is a huge accomplishment for me. The only thing left to figure out is how to get her to bed earlier than 11 p.m.

Ahhh, sleep

For the first time since well before Allie's birth, I slept 10 hours last night!

How did this feat happen? Doug gave Allie a bottle in the middle of the night so I didn't have to get up. But the stranger part is that Allie went to bed at 10 and after a brief feeding at midnight, she slept nearly SEVEN hours! So Doug fed her at 7 and I slept until 10, and happened to get up right when she was asking for her next feeding.

The only issue coming from last night? I now know what engorgement feels like. Ouch!

Allie's smiling now!

Allie smiles at us now and its getting easier to catch the smiles and all her other cute faces with the camera.

Let it snow

Winter is here! Of anything I wanted for my birthday, this blizzard was not on the list.

I ran today!!!

It was only five minutes and super slow, but it still counts!!

I hurried to the gym this morning after feeding Allie and started walking. I was feeling great and wanting to go faster. I kept trying to tell myself it was too soon, but the urge took over and I let myself go to see if I could do it! I walked 20 minutes and then ran for 5, and walked 10 more. I was going to see if I could run some more, but my body was done.

After a rough start working out this week, I'm really feeling better. I think my fitness really is on its way back. I am thrilled.

My legs felt pretty heavy during the run. I don't know if it was my extra weight or just the fact I had been walking 20 minutes already. But my lungs felt good and my feet didn't hurt. I has been holding myself back because I need new running shoes, but I think I should be OK with a little running until I can get new shoes. I am so excited!

Feeling refreshed

After a decent night of sleep and then an hour and a half nap this morning, I'm feeling pretty refreshed! Its nice after several days of feeling frazzled.

Beyond the sleep, I'm feeling more optimistic about my outlook on some big parts of my life: exercise and my job search. Though I've been a bit frustrated by my workout efforts, I am starting to feel like I'm on my way back. I feel like I could even try to run a bit, but I need to wait until I save enough money to buy a new pair of shoes. But I'm glad I at least feel like I could.

My big news of the day, however, is that I have a job interview next Tuesday, which also happens to be my birthday. Surely that will be a good luck day, right?

Its a clerical position for the state, ironically enough with the unemployment office. I remember when applying for it that the job description and desired skills really seemed to fit me. And if I remember correctly there were multiple positions to be filled. Hopefully that all means good things for me and that maybe after nearly 11 months of unemployment, I can finally work again.

I feel good about this despite my poor interview record. I'm not pregnant anymore, so that won't count against me! So I'll try harder at this interview too. I didn't care much for the interview I had in September because I was sure I wouldn't get the job and I was right.

But even if I don't get this job, I'm feeling more encouraged in general. I retooled my general resume last week and wished I had done that six months ago. I'm also getting ready to put together my CNA resume and start applying for CNA jobs. I'm confident I should be able to get a CNA job quickly.

Allie at one month

I can't believe Allie is already one month old! Well now one month and two days. She's already so big. Yesterday she weighed 9 pounds 15.5 ounces.

We're running into some sleep issues now. Allie is still sleeping whenever she wants... which unfortunately is not always when mommy wants to. Getting her to bed for the night has become an enormous challenge and just when I think we've got it figured out, she changes her mind.

She focuses her gaze more now and is generally awake longer each day too. She's also getting better at lifting her head! Breastfeeding is great too. Its so neat to see how she grows and changes each day. We are truly blessed. Mommy just needs to remember that when Allie doesn't want to sleep at night.