Sunday, December 4, 2011

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

A Race Against Ethan

Today Ethan is 11 weeks old. Time has flown by! Since Ethan has joined our family my daily routine has drastically changed. With Matt in the airlines his schedule is never the same. Usually he is home 3 or 4 days then gone 3 or 4 days. Prior to Ethan, I enjoyed that alone time. My house stayed clean and I could hog the TV all I wanted to. I could take my time getting ready in the mornings and come home and do nothing after work if I wanted to. I could decide at any moment that I wanted to go out to eat or run to Wal-Mart, and on the weekends I could spend the whole time on the couch if I wanted to. That has all changed since the arrival of Ethan.

My routine has become a race. In the mornings I hurry up and shower because Ethan can wake up any minute. I get out of the shower and he is still sleeping, that means I have to race to get dressed, put on deorderant and brush my teeth. Ethan is still asleep, hurry up and put on my make-up and dry my hair (forget about straightening it, that takes to much time now). What is this!?!?....he is still sleeping, time to pump, pack my lunch, fix a couple bottles. If he is still sleeping I take the moment to enjoy a bowl of ceral, but more then likely he is starting to stir and I grab a granola bar because I can eat that with one hand, and let Achilles out. By now it is 6 a.m. and after Ethan is dressed we enjoy a bottle and some TV, if we have enough time we might squeeze in a cat nap before leaving the house. We get home and it is a race again. This time I'm racing to get stuff done before Ethan gets hungry. I need to let Achilles out, feed the animals, clean the cat box, change my clothes, pump, fix a couple bottles and try to eat something. In between those, I have to entertain Ethan because he can only stay in one spot for so long before he gets bored. Then it is time to get him ready for bed. Once Ethan is down for the night it is time to do stuff around the house, and what I don't get done I save it for the weekend. I love this and wouldn't change it for the world! Don't get me wrong, when Matt is home it does make things a lot easier, but doing this by myself has taught me a lot about myself. I am a strong and independent women.

Changing the subject.....

The weather has changed yet again here in Missouri. We had 80 degree weather on Sunday and today is didn't even get out of the 40's. I broke down and turned the heater on yesterday morning (I got to keep Ethan warm). I'm digging out the cold weather clothes for Ethan, and slowly packing away the warm weather clothes. I get a little sad putting those clothes away because he won't fit into them next year. People aren't joking when they say babies grow up fast.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Take Time to Smell the Roses

I am a new mom. Ethan David was born August 3rd at 2:35 a.m. He came into this world weighing 8 pounds 3 ounces and was 21 inches long. Prior to his birth I had bough a journal so I would have a place to write down everything that I was doing before his birth and then to continue that through his first year of life. I was doing a pretty good job up until he was born. Now that he is here and we are busy learning about eachother I have gotten lazy. Plus I have horrible handwriting. Writing the journal was not an original idea, I stole it from my mom. She kept a journal from the time she was pregnant with me until my first birthday. She then gave me that journal on the Mother's Day before Ethan was born. I've read bits and pieces of that journal, but I can't read all of it because it is too hard to read it and not cry when she talks about my Grandmothers (neither one of them are no longer with us).

Back to the subject. Since I've gotten lazy about writing in my journal and I have horrible handwriting I've decided to give blogging another try. I've attempted this in the past and it never works out. This time I'm determined to make it work to someday when Ethan asks about what I did when he was little I can pull this up and he can see from himself. This is going to be my version of that Google commerical where that father has an email account set up for his daughter and he write emails and sends pictures of her growing up. This whole blog won't be dedicted to the sole purpose of Ethan. This is just my day-to-day life now that I am adding mother to my resume.

Matt and I got married October 2, 2010 and we found out we were expecting in December. I'm going to be honest...it wasn't planned. I believe that although we were not planning for a baby, God was. God works in mysterious ways and apparently He saw that we were ready. Those nine months were a roller coaster ride. I never experienced morning sickness, it was more evening sickness and during the first trimester the smell of garlic would make me sick. I never had that strange pickle and ice cream craving, instead I craved chicken and fresh veggies and fruits. I got to hear his heartbeat before Matt did since Matt was out of town for that doctor appointment and I bawled like a baby. There are no words to describe what you feel the first time you here that tiny heartbeat. Matt was able to make it to the appointment where we found out the sex. Matt wanted a little boy, and I really didn't care. Once we found out we were having a boy it got fun. We had to think of names, and we could start shopping! We picked out a name, but didn't tell anyone (that drove my mom crazy). My belly continued to grow, and I loved being able to feel and see him kick. Time flew by. My due date was supposed to be July 31st, but Ethan had other plans. My last doctor appointment before my due date, I hadn't made any progress and Ethan was running out of fluids and room so we set an induction date for that Monday, August 1st. We checked into the hospital that night and were expecting a baby that following Tuesday. Once again Ethan had other plans in mind. After spending 3 1/2 hours pushing he finally decided (or more as forced) to make his appearance. Hearing him cry and finally being able to hold him is another feeling that can't be described.



Now Ethan is almost 11 weeks old and weight 13 pounds 4 ounces and is 24 1/4 inches long. Time is still flying by. I was able to take 9 weeks off of work and going back October 4th was hard. I cried off and on the whole day and 5 o'clock couldn't get here fast enough. I love the sitter he goes to, but still hate having to leave him, but as soon as it is 5 o'clock I am out that door heading to go get him.



This blog is to help me remember to take time to smell the roses.