5 Months Old: Meeting Daddy

DADDY IS HOME :D Our little family is finally whole.

Baby E got to meet her daddy for the first time July 15th. I had a photographer come out to capture his homecoming, and I am so glad I did. We got some excellent pictures. Here are a few of my favorites.

Baby girl loves her daddy ^_^ I was worried she would be scared of him, but I played recordings of him reading books to her. Knowing his voice helped ease transition immensely. 

Having the hubinator home is such a relief. Major props to single moms, I have no idea how they raise children alone. Caring for baby girl on my own was one of the more difficult things I've had to do in life (I'm pretty sure childbirth wins that title haha). Traveling back home frequently helped since I had my parents' help, but it's not the same as having my husband home. 

Our homecoming wasn't quite what I thought it would be. There were tons of wives, children, and family members waiting for the men to be released, so there was a lot of nervous tension. Baby girl, our photographer, and I showed up around 1530. The guys were supposed to be released around 1600, which I knew would not happen. Not nearly enough "hurry up and wait". They ultimately got released around 1700. 

This massive flood of men collided into a wall of ecstatic women and children, and all the while I'm searching for my husband. Eventually, most of the families reunited and started dispersing to go home. Hubs wasn't there. I cannot explain the complete adrenaline crash that followed this realization. I went back and checked my phone. Sure enough, I had a message saying he couldn't go with the main group and he would be another 15 minutes. 

Suuuuuuuuuuure, haha. 

I felt kind of bad for the photographer. Some of my husbands' friends found me well before he was released. As they would walk up to say hi, I could feel the question of, "Is that him?" That happened about three times. 

It worked out in the end though. Since practically everybody was gone, there aren't a bunch of random strangers in our photos :) Plus, some of our friends got the hubs' gear together for us and put it by the car since he was so delayed, so that saved us some work. 

It's been so amazing to watch the hubs with our daughter. He is so fascinated by everything she does. I love watching him interact with her and talk with her. 

Speaking of little miss, she is 5 months old today! And she is gigantic. I know I say that all the time, but she is. She barely fits in 6 month clothes and is mostly in 9 month clothes now. It all depends on the brand of course. As of the 24th, she weighed 16.8 pounds. Thankfully, most baby clothing brands give a weight range so I can just go off of that rather than what month-size they claim the outfit is. 

I swear she normally is a very smiley baby. She gives me dead face when she sees my phone.
I have to sneak the pictures now to capture a smile.

Look at how much bigger she is!

Baby girl has reached some new mile stones. She's been babbling for months, but now she says mama! She obviously has no idea what mama means, but she says it all the time :) She is also so close to being able to sit up unassisted. She can do it for 5 seconds or so, but ends up keeling over to one side eventually. She's also working on her crawling skills. She's no where near actual crawling yet, but she turns herself around in circles and can push herself backwards.

She also greatly enjoys her walker. I know the powers that be recommend against using them, but whatever. My house has no stairs and I'm watching her anytime she is in it. Plus, she loves to motor around. For awhile she could only push herself backward, but she's figured out forward movement now :)

She also likes to chuck all of her toys as she scoots around and then is highly confused as to where they all went.

The toy graveyard

Growing up, my brother and I each had a child-sized rocking chair that our granddad got us. Dad repainted mine and bought a tiny toy one. He painted it to match for baby girl to use for dolls and such when she gets older.

It is currently the perfect size for her.

Look at the bad mambajamba lookin' so fly. 

We also have a nimble nook pack n' play now. I call it baby jail hahaha. She seems to like it well enough.

Now that I am five months post partum, I feel pretty much back to myself physically. Of course, I'm not nearly as strong as I once was and my lungs are no where near their past capacity. I frequently forget this though.

Bearing that in mind, I did this workout today:

30 sit ups
21 Burpees
21 Dumbbell (DB) swings
30 sit ups
18 Burpees
18 DB swings
30 sit ups
15 Burpees
15 DB swings
30 sit ups
12 Burpees
12 DB swings
30 sit ups
9 Burpees
9 DB swings
30 sit ups
6 Burpees
6 DB swings
30 sit ups
3 Burpees
3 DB swings

I've done it before pre-baby and it took me about 15 minutes. So there I was thinking I would do this workout then go for a run.

27 minutes later, I was finished haha. It is deceptively difficult. Then again, there is a reason nobody likes burpees.