Push Presents

When I first heard of push presents I thought to myself "we women are absurd and will come up with anything to get presents from our significant others". Don't let me lie; there was no we in that thought. If you could not infer what a push present is from the name, it's a present given to the mother from the father to thank her and honor her for pushing out (birthing) their precious baby. Initially I told my husband there was no need for a push present. Like I said, I thought women were being a little absurd. OnceI became pregnant, I was completely on board with the whole push present idea and immediately let The Husband know that I would be expecting one.

I've mentioned in previous posts that I had a very smooth pregnancy, but there are some parts of pregnancy that are just scientifically going to happen and one of them is being tired all the time. I slept through my first trimester. This is not a hyperbole. I literally slept through my first trimester. I took three naps daily at work and would fall into a coma the minute we got home. I would literally walk into the door and flop down on the sofa, in my work clothes, and fall asleep. This meant that the husband took on ALL the house duties and puppy duties. My coma sleeps magically stopped during my second trimester but then the whole "nesting" thing kicked in and I dragged my husband around registering at baby stores and pointing out things I wanted for the house and nursery. During this time our little cub was moving about and creating little discomforts so I took full advantage of massages and foot rubs; these of course carried over into the third trimester. Needless to say, my husband did a lot to keep me happy, comfortable, and stress free. I was so grateful to have him by my side that I bought him a "papa's patience present". I'm not sure but I think I totally created this. I bought him a present for being so patient, loving, and overall amazing. I was eight months pregnant when I bought it and gave it to him. It wasn't anything special, just a video game to let him know he was appreciated. Well after experiencing labor and delivery my husband said to me "anyone who thinks a woman doesn't deserve a push present is out of their mind" and last night I got my push present. Husband did good...I got a pair of earrings with my cub's birthstone. They are absolutely gorgeous and I can't think of a better push present. I tell you that husband of mine always manages to amaze me even after 9 years of being together. Bear if you are reading this I love you so much....and not just because of my push present (wink).

First Day Back At Work

So today I went back to work. This was truly one of the first times in my life that I followed through and did something although I had mixed emotions. As a general rule I prefer to only do things that I am sure about; I have a theory that you end up with fewer regrets that way.

It was definitely difficult to leave my cub today but my coworkers did help make the transition back to work a little easier. There was a lovely vase filled with flowers and balloons waiting in my office. Sitting in my chair at my desk felt so weird. Everything was exactly how I left it but I almost felt as if I was someone else office. When we started our usual Monday morning staff meeting I felt like a stranger. They were discussing appointments and upcoming events and I was completely out of the loop. Of course this was expected but it's different when you actually begin to experience it.

I thought about my cub all day so it helped that I got to talk about him all day. Yep I was ready with my stories and my pictures. I couldn't wait to share my precious cub with everyone. I spent most of the day talking about him and settling back in to the swing of being at work. With the exception of cleaning out my emails and getting caught up on the office functions, no one expected anything of me. I am grateful to them for that.

 Now that I am home I am exhausted. I finally see what my husband has been trying to get me to understand all this time. This exhaustion is a little different than the exhaustion you feel from taking care of your baby all day. I can honestly say it's hard business to take care of your baby all night, wake the next morning for work, then return home to take care of your little one. It's only 8:30 p.m. and I can tell that it is going to be a rough night. I'm determined though because I want as much time with him as possible. I hate that we didn't get home until a little after 6:00 p.m. because we traditionally bathe him at 7:00 p.m. and begin the ritual for putting him down for the night. I hate that my time with him is shorter. I find myself just holding and staring at him like I could make up an entire day's worth of time. I'm sure it will get easier and I will find ways to maximize my time with him.  I'll just have to take it one day at a time.

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.2

Step by Step

I'm finally beginning to see it get better. As I have shared my adventures as a new parent, I have received the reply "it gets better". Although I knew this to be true, I was not in a place to receive it because things were so tough. My little cub was very fussy. We did everything to address this. We started with changing  his formula. My son was extremely gassy largely due to his formula.Changing his formula  was one of the best decisions we have made as parents thus far. Automatically his fussiness decreased.  We changed his bath time which seems to align perfectly with his feeding time. This allows us to put him down for bed at a better time and he seems more relaxed as well. Lastly, we moved his crib back into his room and now he sleeps in his own room. This last one may benefit us more so than the cub. Basically, while he sleeps he makes a lot of noise. I learned through reading and other parents that babies are not sound sleepers. I don't know where they got that saying "I slept like a baby" because babies go in and out of several sleep patterns and are quite vocal while they sleep. Well, for a new mommy this can make sleeping very difficult. Every little sound he made had me jumping up and checking on him. Now with him in the other room and me being forced to only hear him through the monitor I am not as jumpy as I initially was.  All in all the nighttime is so much better. It also helps that he only wakes up twice in the middle of the night for feeding and immediately goes back to sleep. This gives me hope that he will soon start sleeping through the night.

He has also started smiling and interacting with us. This makes the joys so much more joyful. I love seeing his face light up when he smiles and talks to me in his baby talk. Well more like baby sounds but I know he is communicating with me. It's one of the most precious things. It's also amazing how fast he is growing and developing. He can hold up his head now and he tries to grab things. He also pushes up with his legs. My little cub is getting really strong.

I am a huge advocate of the Baby Einstein DVDs. Our little cub loves his Baby Beethoven DVD. When I pop it in he immediately becomes focused on the images flashing across the screen. They use colors and images that stimulate brain activity while playing classical music. We'll watch to see if my cub is a genius (of course I already think he is).

Whoa I'm Turning 29

My ten year high school reunion passed recently. I absolutely can not believe I'm already ten years out of high school and even worse five years out of college. I do not know where the time went but it flew by extremely fast. The icing to this daunting realization is I turn 29 years old on December 24th. My final year in my twenties. Next year I will be 30!!! Oh and please spare me the "30 is the new 20". Who came up with that? Thirty is thirty and twenty is twenty. I can also do without the "you're only as old as you feel" because sometimes you're as old as you are. I'm  not sure how many people can relate but when I was around 13 years old I planned my entire life. Well, I planned my entire life up to 25. Apparently as a 13 year old I felt that age was the high point of a life span. It's amazing how as you get older you change your mind on what is considered old. I have a 12 year old sister and I am positive that she considers me old. The reverse of that is I consider her to be extremely young. We were having sister night at my house not too long ago and I mentioned "Coming to America" and my little sisters had actually not seen that movie. I almost fainted. How could they not have seen "Coming to America". Seriously, that movie is an Eddie Murphy classic!!! Needless to say I felt so old. I had finally reached that point where I was removed from the new and young generation. I find myself saying things like "the music they make these days is horrible". I still don't care what you say the mid-90s music to early 2000-2001 is the best music ever. I mean this was the time that Outkast, SWV, Envogue, Juvenile, Tupac, TLC, Aaliyah, Destiny's Child were at their prime and this is just to name a few. I still hear that Do or Die song and think to myself "this group wasn't even one of the best out but they still put most of what is out today to shame". I could go on and on and don't get me started on the cartoons. Like I said, I am officially "old". I'll embrace it though because honestly I have no choice. I want to do a quick walk down memory lane of some of my favorite things from my youth as I embrace my new stage in life:

1. Jem and Holograms
2. Before there was Xena warrior princess there was Shera
3. Boy Meets World
4. Transformers
5. Laffy Taffy, Nerds, Now and Later, Ring Pop, Push Pop and Pixie Stix (who am I kidding I still eat these)
6. Care Bears
7. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
8. Nintendo with Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt then Sega with Sonic the Hedge Hog
9. Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, The Jetsons, The Flintstones, The Snorks, The Smurfs, and The Wuzzles
10. Lisa Frank
11. New Kids on the Block (that Step by Step song was awesome and you know it)
12. Back Pack purses
13. Lipsmackers