Wow- Time Flies!

I guess it's time to update ya'll on the progress of this foster care journey! We accepted a placement about two weeks ago! We are referring to her as "Lovebug" in social media world, because she's just the most cuddly kiddo (and because we got her around Valentine's Day).

Well. To state the obvious: we're exhausted! It's been such a whirlwind experience, and definitely different than we planned, but we're just taking it as it goes. When we got her, Lovebug was 4 months old (she just turned 5 months today!), and was a pretty sick kid. But after an overnight in the hospital (less than 24 hours after placement) and a long round of breathing treatments and antibiotics, things seem under control now, health wise. Schedule-wise, it's a different story.

So when she was placed with us, she was sleeping A LOT. Now, she still sleeps (pretty) well, but it's not at the same times as she used to, and we are trying to get a routine down. Speaking of routines, mine is totally messed up.

Pre-Lovebug
5:45-6:15 Wake Up
6:15-7:15 Gym
7:15-5 Commute, Work, Commute
5-9 Various evening activities including TV watching, laundry, dinner, etc. (Oh, and we had a menu for the week, everything we needed for the meals, and almost always knew who was going to make it).
9-10 Wind down and go to bed

Post-Lovebug
2:15 am-7 am Wake Up (depends day to day what time)
GYM?? What is that?
6:45-7:15 Daycare drop off (this is new, since she just started yesterday)
Work
4-5ish Pick up Lovebug
5-8ish Feed, bathe, read, play, put Lovebug to bed
8-9 Time to ourselves? Slash do laundry/pick up/clean up kitchen/everything else
9-10 Crash for a few hours before she wakes up again.
(To be fair, my family has been AMAZING at helping out, and it's not always quite this bad...but when it is, I really feel it!)
She also has visits with her mom, meetings with social workers/her attorney/others, and we have shopping and other errands to work in there somewhere.

When they say 'life changes in ways you can't know until you have a kid', it's true. I say that not in a preachy, now-I-know-everything kind of way. I say it because I'm still reeling from the reality of it. I'll be working on a post for the next few days about the effect this has had on my relationship with Dan, because that's another thing I hadn't anticipated changing so very much.

But overall, despite the lack of sleep, time to myself, and the lack of clean laundry I have, I'm 100% thrilled to have this little girl in our life. And I pray every night that she grows up healthy, strong and happy...with the people she is meant to be with.

-Jenn