VICTORY!

I hope I don't jinx anything by typing this, but Emma slept through the night last night -- a solid 7-hour stretch! Unfortunately for me, she would only eat on one side for her last feeding, so I was extra heavy and sore on the other side by morning...10 hours of milk production will do that. UGH. It would seem that she's eating more, even though my chest isn't necessarily any bigger. I assume she's eating more because now when I pump I'm consistently putting out 5 oz. rather than the 3 or 4 I used to. I'm really facinated by how the body works...senses what she needs and adjusts accordingly.

Today was sort of unusual for Emma in the daycare. As I've posted before, she usually doesn't sleep very well when she's there. At 1:30 when I retrieved her to nurse, she'd only had a 1/2 hour nap. After eating, she seemed tired, so I held her until she fell asleep. Then, wanting to get her to a deeper level of sleep before returning her to the room of chaos, I walked the hall to talk with my co-workers about work stuff. My journeys took me over to the school to set up a meeting with one of the teachers, but she happened to be free right then, so I stayed and we had a long discussion. All the while, I was holding Emma as she slept. I finally returned the Peach to the daycare at 3:00 -- she'd been asleep for an hour. I set her in a swing, snuggled in her blanket, and headed back to my office. Two hours later I went back to get Em to find her still in the swing, sound asleep. THREE HOURS she'd been snoozing. I lifted her from the swing and settled her on my shoulder, took her down to my office to put her in the carseat carrier. She stirred some, but then fell back to sleep in the car on the ride to get Daddy. I was starting to wonder if she might be sick for how sleepy she was being. Fortunately, we took her temp upon getting home and she wasn't feverish. Finally she woke to eat, stayed awake for a little over an hour, then laid down for a nap....which is where she is right now. Hmmmm. I miss her.

I'm getting a bit overwhelmed at work right now. We're planning to launch some summer day camps and I'm ultimately responsible for them as they're considered a community outreach ministry. I've had several camp-related meetings this week and have a deadline coming up at the end of the month that I'm going to have to work aggressively to meet. I really wish I had the option of cutting back to part time, or ceasing to work altogether so I could spend more time with Emma. I just don't have the desire or drive to continue doing what I'm doing right now. I feel worn out... I want someone else to be the responsible one... I want to have the option to say NO for once. I guess I am lucky, though, that it's not my nature to bring work home with me. I can compartmentalize pretty well, so at the end of the day I make an easy shift back to being wife and mom separate from being a pastor.

That's all for now. I'll try to post some new pictures tomorrow.