Maternity Leave

,

Barely Two

,

My alarm has been going off at 5:30 recently, which is actually sleeping in for me. I get up, make breakfast for E and G, shower and get myself dressed, and then I’m on kid duty. It becomes a very loud and wiggly assembly line as each child needs to be changed and dressed and chased around the room. So many wiggly feet to capture with a sock.

I was halfway through dressing the smallest, and trying to corner the middle since he was next, when E caught me yawning one morning. “Mama are you tired?” he asked me.

, ,

Making Magic

, ,

You’d think that sleeping less would mean you’d have more hours in the day to, well.. do more? And maybe it’s true, but all those things you want to do, you need to figure out a way to do them without your hands. Occasionally it works - I read an entire book the other day. But most of the time I’m struggling to accomplish one thing that needs to get done that day.

,

In the Moment

,

You ever have a disconnect between your eyes and your brain? My brain understands that I was pregnant for 9 months, my body grew a baby, and that she’s here now. My eyes however, see this baby and are still just shocked and can’t understand where she came from. Just a tiny miracle lying in my arms. Am I really lucky enough to be experiencing this for the third time?

,

A Week with Grandma

,

I don’t think we realized when we got pregnant with E, that we had timed things perfectly. Our parental leave ended in September, and that’s one of the easiest times to get a daycare placement, since all the kid’s “move up” to the next grade. June is not. It’s not as bad as February for example, but we still weren’t able to get a spot when we needed it. So we’ve been patching together coverage until G’s spot opens up.

Luckily we have some great family who have agreed to give up a week of their time to come hang out with us and take care of G while we work. Considering he’s almost 20 lbs, likes to pinch loose skin, and scream randomly in your face, it’s a pretty big commitment!

,

Things We've Been Doing

,

A lot of little things happen around here, and it’s hard to keep up. And since my brain is so fragmented anyway, here’s a brain dump of a post. Random things we’ve done or things that are floating around in my head. Enjoy!
…
Baby G has this thing he does, where every time we go to lie him down after we’ve been holding him, he gets this terrified look on his face and his arms flail up like he’s afraid we’re going to drop him. He totally does not trust us. Every single time. He is not someone who can hide his expression, and his expression says “Holy cow I’m falling and they’re not going to catch me!”

,

Adult Update

,

Hello! It’s me, a fully functioning adult, and I’m here to talk about things besides the tiny humans that I live with. I know, crazy right?

I went back to work this week. It’s a little weird because it’s 6 weeks earlier than last time, and I keep expecting myself to be at the same spot that I was when I went back to work after E. But it’s only been 10 weeks since I gave birth, and it was my second pregnancy and labor was harder on my body this time, so I’m not quite the same. I am feeling great, but not 100% “normal” and I’m still searching for clothes that fit. Maybe I’ll never get exactly back to where I was, but I need to keep reminding myself that it hasn’t been THAT long.

,

Today is Friday

,

I’ve officially fallen into the maternity leave vortex. All day yesterday I was SURE it was Wednesday. Because the day before it was definitely Tuesday. Except it wasn’t, and yesterday was Thursday. I almost showed up to the police department to get the car seats checked, but luckily I was too tired yesterday because they only check car seats on Wednesdays.

,

Today's the Day

,

I feel like I've been sleepwalking lately.  I'm kind of wandering around, room to room, pacing back and forth, not sure what to do. It's a weird feeling.  It's knowing my entire life is going to change, but not exactly how.  It's almost like being pregnant, but not quite.  Maybe if we'd had a scheduled c-section it would be the same feeling - a countdown to a life changing day. 

I know I need to be prepared; I know it's going to be hard.  I just don't know how to prepare.  How hard it's going to be.

,

A Day in E's Life

,

Remember when I kept a diary for a full day when I was pregnant?  It was a peek into what early life was like between me and E.  Now that E's physically here, I thought I'd do it again.  Because who isn't curious what I do all day on maternity leave?? (spoiler alert: it's not that exciting and it's super repetitive)

, ,

How Quickly Things Change

, ,

I'm still adjusting to how different my days look now.  No more dressing up in business casual.  No more commuting.  No more meetings and presentations.  No more interacting with other adults.  Instead I'm home all day with this tiny human.  Oddly enough, my days are actually less predictable than they used to be.  

I have no idea how long E will sleep, or where.  If it's going to be a day full of crying, or if I'll be able to get things done.  And I'm still surprised at how quickly things can change.  For example, this was a small chunk of a recent Monday:  

, ,

A New Normal

, ,

I had to go into the city the other day.

It's weird, I've only been gone 3 weeks, but already everything is foreign. I got off at the same T stop I used to get off at every day for work. And already it felt as if I was getting off at a random stop in a different city. Nothing seemed familiar and I felt lost, even though I knew where I was going.

, ,

Heading Home

, ,

E was born Sunday morning, which meant that we headed home from the hospital on Tuesday afternoon.  I thought it was going to feel weirder than it did, but I think because every part of this process has seemed surreal, this wasn't any different.  I still don't think it ever set in that I was pregnant, I'm just continuing that denial now that E is here.  I swear sometimes I look down at this little baby in my arms and just think "WHO GAVE ME A BABY!?"