Baby M's calendar

I'm tired these days, oh so tired!  Since going back to work baby M has decided she needs extra cuddles at night, then she got sick, then I got sick, then 2 year old B got sick, then Nick got sick, and now that we're all sort of healthy, baby M has decided to practice her new rolling over and moving around skills in her crib in the middle of the night instead of sleeping.  And don't get me started on getting up with 2 year old B... that is its own set of issues!  Sleep isn't the only thing that I either haven't done or done very little of in the last 7 months, though. Since I'm tired, I get a free pass at being whiney and will provide you with a list of the things I have been missing out on lately:

1. Sleep!
2. What is a haircut?
3. And remind me again what a hair dryer does??
4. My teeth could definitely use a good clean and polish.
5. The closest thing I've had to a girls night in a while is drinking wine while watching Downton Abbey and The Mindy Project with Nick.
6. Exercise.

Okay, enough complaining, and really, who needs those things when you've got these girls to play with and snuggle everyday...
 

Well actually, a cute smile won't clean my teeth so maybe I do need to make it to the dentist.  

This blog post is actually about number 7 on my list of things that haven't really happened in the last 7 months - the baby book.  To be perfectly honest, I don't have a book for baby M... I never even ended up buying one for her.  What I did end up doing was a calendar.  I give all the credit for this idea to my friend Katie B. who told me her mom did this for her and her brother and sister.  When baby M was getting closer to arriving and I was thinking about a baby book for her, I came to the conclusion that I needed something easy and accessible to help me remember all of her milestones and development.  That's when I decided to keep a calendar by my bed.  I printed a monthly calendar from printfree.com for baby M's first year.  Here is what the February one looks like:

February 2013
Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28
January 2013	Printfree.com      Printable Calendars					March 2013

I keep the calendar in my nightstand drawer and the plan was that when I would go to bed at night I would jot down baby M's milestones.  It turns out I don't remember to do it every night, but I manage once or twice a week to pull out the calendar and write down some notes.  I'll write things on specific days, like when she first smiled and laughed and rolled over, etc.  I also write notes for the week.  For example, last week I wrote across the whole week, "Rolling over in her sleep at night and doesn't like it!"  I keep track weekly of how many naps she's taking, when she has been going to bed, what she's been eating, and what her new developments are for the week.  I keep waiting to write, "started drinking from a bottle," but that hasn't happened yet!  This week I need to write that she loves it when I hold her and we chase 2 year old B around the house.  I've never heard her laugh so much as when we play chase!  

The calendar I use isn't super cute and looks really messy with all my notes written all over it.  I could have gone with a pretty notebook or planner, but it works for me and with this system I can write things down as I remember them and then someday I'd like to make a cute baby book that I can put all this info in.  I think if I didn't have the calendar by my bed I'd never remember to write anything down and since I can't remember things that happened an hour ago, I know I'd forget all those important milestones that happened during baby M's first year.  Thank you Connie and Katie for the great idea!!