My Baby Pictures

My mom recently pulled out some cute baby pictures of me to compare how much Hayley looks like me. Here are some:

Me and Jacob - I am nine months and Jacob is 3

Me at 4 months

Not sure how old I am here, but under a year

Again at 4 months, the back of the picture says, but I am sitting up!

I am 8 days old here

So, whatdya think? I think she looks so much like me, just not in the eyes. She's got Dave's eyes.

Baby Mama Group Photo Session

Today my Baby Mama group, all 8 of us, went to get the babies' pictures taken together. It was so insane and quite a site with all those strollers! It sure was fun though! Unfortunately, my child was the one that cried the ENTIRE time! :( Poor thing - not sure what her deal was, but she was not happy. Here are some highlights...

Starting at Hayley and going left: Hayley, Miles, Gretchen, Graysen, Olivia, Dylan, Alexa, Cole.

The only way she wouldn't cry was with the pacifier in her mouth. :(

GoodBye TopCoder

Today is a day of mixed feelings. I got laid off. I have never been laid off before. I don't think I know what to feel.

I wasn't near my phone and missed 2 calls from the office. I called back assuming it was Jessie, to have her instead tell me that TopCoder was doing a mass of lay-offs. I said I saw you called me twice and she said, nope, I didn't call you. So we both knew I was one to go. Not 15 minutes later my phone rang again and it was the president calling to give me the news. I think he was surprised at how well I took it, but I am not surprised. I also know it is not me and I did nothing wrong. I was one of almost 30 people. I am so sad to leave TopCoder because they were such a great company to work for. They treated their employees so well and gave me so much flexibility with Hayley, like working from home and making flexible hours. It will be almost impossible to find another company who will give me those perks. I will miss the TCO in Vegas this June. I will miss Jessie. Talking to her everyday is like free therapy. I will miss that the most.

On the other side of the coin, I wanted to stay home with Hayley anyway and had to go back for financial reasons. Now that I no longer can, I get to be home with my daughter for this very crucial time in her life. I found the silver lining. It was not too hard. I am also lucky to have an amazing husband with a great, stable job.

I am sure I will go back to work, and I will immediately start the job hunt. But I think I will be ok with collecting unemployment with the other 1.5 million Americans for a couple months.

We will make it work.

Last Night

Last night Dave was closing so it was just me and my bundle of joy! We had dinner - sweet potatoes and rice cereal - and then played in the living room for awhile. She got pretty fussy, but it was still pretty early so we went upstairs and practiced rolling on our bed for a bit. Finally at about 7:20, she couldn't take it anymore and off to bed we went. I nursed her and she went into her crib peacefully and easily. Here's the big deal - she slept until 3:30 this morning! A whole 8 hours. It was awesome. I hope that this is a sign of what is coming. Also, 2 nights ago, Hayley cried for almost a half an hour before she fell asleep, so it was really nice to know that the sleep training is still working.

Yeah! I hope for more nights like these in the future...

Some New Pictures - 6 Months

Hayley is officially 6 months old! It's amazing how fast the time has gone. I look at pictures of her and I can't believe how much she has changed already! Here are some new pictures to enjoy her as much as I do!

Can you tell it was freezing out?

Hayley loves Josie so much! Everytime she sees her she squeals with delight and reaches out to touch her!

Hayley in the Snow

I finally got a good day to take Hayley out and "play" in the snow. She kind of just sat there, but I had fun taking pictures at least! We went over to the Leone's and the boys really loved having her there. Here she is riding in Sam's sled. I'm not sure if she was just cold or what, but I couldn't get a smile out of her for the life of me!
I finally got a cute picture of me with Hayley!

Hayley and the boys...

TFM - Final Post

I have become quite bored with posting daily results, as I am sure my readers have as well. Things are going well, though not perfect. Dave and I are ironing out the kinks and I think within a month or so she'll be set in a good pattern - for nap and night. Not sure if that will include sleeping through the night, but getting up only once is totally fine with me. I just want her sleeping through the night by Marco. That's April, so I think that is a totally reasonable request.