My Little Man and Me

Yesterday was my first Mother's Day. All I wanted to do was, well nothing! I enjoyed a day of lounging around the house and I even got to take a nap! The little man woke me up kind of early but it was all good because after I fed him he was all smiles and coos, loved it! Being a mom is fun, challenging, tiring, rewarding...I could go on and on. Luke is learning so much lately. He'll be 3 months this week and I can't believe how fast it's going and how fast he's growing. Here's some pictures of Luke and I from the past few days. It's so hard to get a picture of him smiling with me, but these are some of the better ones!

Working and Weddings and Babies, OH MY!

Busy doesn't begin to explain our lives lately - back to work, Jamie's wedding, traveling with a baby, whoa! Everything happened at once, but we survived!

Friday after worked we rushed down to Norristown to start Jamie's wedding weekend! Friday night was rehearsal, Saturday morning/afternoon was primping and pictures, wedding and reception Saturday night. Jamie looked awesome and the wedding was beautiful. I have another bridesmaid dress...this one I may be able to wear again, who knows.

I went through major Luke withdrawal this weekend BUT he got to spend a lot of quality time with the rest of his family, so it's all good. Sunday we paid for the weekend away though with a super cranky baby. His change in schedule and surroundings had finally caught up with him. By Monday morning he was back to normal thankfully. Now he's sitting next to me sucking on his hands and staring at his feet. It's so amusing to watch him "find" new things about himself and realize how cool hands really are! Last night he figured out he could hold on to the rings hanging in his play mat and move them all around, so cute!

Packing for a weekend away with a baby is insane. Luke had so much stuff! I thought we packed too much, but we pretty much used everything we took. This summer we're headed to the shore for an entire week, I can't imagine how I'm going to pack for that!

On top of all that, I pumped in all sorts of weird places this weekend. Even when you think you have an adult night away from the baby, the pump goes with ya! But hey, at least its free food!

Smile!

What a week! I know I still have one more day but man these past 4 days have been rough. Going back to work is emotionally hard and physically I'm beat. At least I get to come home to my guys each night and the little one was so happy to hang out with Mommy and Daddy Tuesday night!

Who turned on the waterworks?

Oh wait, that was me! I was crying before I backed out of the driveway this morning (if you don't know, my driveway is all of 40 feet). I composed myself by the time I hit route 30 and thought I was good. Driving in, listening to a morning show on the radio, just like old times. I was good until I got almost to school and it hit me that I was going to be there ALL day and not get to see the little guy. So more tears, but again composed myself before I went in the building.

Things at school were overwhelming at first, even though my room was fairly neat and put together, it wasn't the way I had it and I'm weird like that so it added to my stress. Classes overall though were great and I got back into the swing of teaching really easy. The students kept me busy all day and even though I didn't really know what I was teaching coming into today it was all good and things just kind of fell into place. I didn't have any tears at work, but my eyes got really watery when I called home twice and when Luke sent me flowers...(thanks Mom! :)) BUT I held it together and I survived. Luke survived too, seemed like he did better than me, hah.

One thing I did learn today though, pumping at work sucks! It's extremely strange and uncomfortable, but it also takes for-ev-er! I only get a 40 minute planning and a 30 minute lunch. Pumping takes up at least half of each, sigh. Today I didn't want to spend my lunch doing it but I think after school is an even worse option. So this means little to no adult interaction for me. Oh well, I'll get some sort of routine down and things will get better.

It's official!

It's official, I'm a real mom now. You know how when you were little and you hated when your mom or grandmother or someone would lick their finger and then clean something off of your face? You pull away with the look like, "are you serious lady???" Well, I kind of hate to admit it....I did it to Luke this morning. After I did it, I was thinking "wow, did I really just do that?" Welcome to Momhood!

Things I need to do

1. Lose the rest of my pregnancy weight. I have a less than serious approach to this thinking it will just happen, well that was dumb of me. It's not going to just happen, instead I need to kick my butt into gear and make it happen. Anyone want to be my workout buddy?

2. Go shopping for work pants....refer back to #1.

3. Declutter. We have so much stuff and we probably don't use half of it. Now that we have baby stuff, and lots of it, we realized how small our house really is. The perfect scenario would be to find a bigger house, although we'd probably just clutter that up too, but either way thats not reality right now, so declutter would be a achievable goal.

4. Take 2 month pictures of Luke. We kind of missed it, but we can get some that are close to 2 months.

5. Stop only writing about baby stuff. I am a wife, daughter, sister, friend, teacher, and much more in addition to being a mommy, and I should write about everything.

6. Get a pedicure. Jamie's wedding is next weekend (yay!) so I need my toes to look beautiful!

EASY?

Nothing seems easy lately, but I'm trying to get Luke in a routine (which may lead to a schedule eventually???). I was reading things online and heard about the EASY routine. E - eat...which for Luke includes food and holding him up for at least 30 minutes to help with his reflux. A - activity...so tummy time, books, music, talking, toys, etc. S - sleep...hes getting so much better with naps! Y - you...this means "me" time to shower, eat, clean, or whatever. So far so good, we'll see. We just cycle through the EASY over and over again, except for bedtime we skip the activity part of course. Maybe this will help him and I with the adjustment of next week.

Next week I have to return to the working world, sigh! I had 10 weeks off but it went by way too fast and I'm completely not ready for work. It will definitely not be easy, I'm going to stock up on the tissues for Monday. I'm nervous about getting back into the swing of things with the students, I'm worried about pumping at work and having enough if I'm going to pump less than I would normally feed him, and I'm thinking nights are going to be tough with feedings and getting up so early for work. I know what you are thinking, millions of moms do it everyday and we'll be fine. I'm sure we will, but it's still going to be really tough for the first few days.

Tonight I think we are going to try to put Luke in his crib in the nursery - easy? Maybe, maybe not. Up to this point he has been in our room in the pack-n-play. I'm a little nervous about the whole thing, but we need the pack-n-play downstairs when I head back to work and the bassinet doesn't work with the incline wedge that Luke needs to sleep, so it looks like we have no other option. It's been almost 2 1/2 months, so I guess its time anyway. Wish us luck!