Videos, and thoughts on life kicking my butt

First of all, thanks for the sweet comments on the last post and the support to continue blogging. It's nice to know that you enjoy reading about our life, even if it's not very often. I'll find the balance soon enough I'm sure and I'll continue to post as long as I can find the energy to do so.

And now onto the videos of little dude. I realized that I hadn't uploaded anything from our camcorder since March (!), so it was high time to go through the archives. Lots of little 90 second snippets to show you today even if they are rather mundane, they are still cute!

With two Physical Therapist parents, you know this kid is going to be so annoyed by our antics. Such as, making him weight bear through his legs to 'stand' at an early age:) Also, the comment about a dagger in my foot is because I started to film this a few seconds before but somehow got a gigantic splinter in my foot from our hardwood floors (?!). I screamed and it was very dramatic. The show must go on, though.



Ordinary days with Truman....



Truman is cute when he wakes up from naps. I'll show you:


And my favorite video of all, Mister Smiley! If you don't watch all of these you MUST watch this one to make your day:


This is what tummy time looks like at three months. Again, with those PT parents you know he's totally over it.


And although this is probably the most boring video of all (well, a lot of them are basically about nothing---very Seinfeld of me, right?), he is still stinking cute.



And then comes the part about life kicking my butt...

I am the privileged owner of my second case of mastitis! Whoo hoo. Perfect timing. This isn't stressful at all, being gone for 11 hours a day, craziness at work, first day of putting my baby in daycare hovering over me, and Truman deciding to sleep for just 3 hours at a time again.

On Thursday night, after Truman's first day with Grandpa as the caregiver, he literally nursed non-stop from the second I walked in the door until he went to bed. That's 3 hours of nursing from side, to side, to side in case you were wondering. I'm sure it's because he only ate 6 oz of milk all day with the Gramps instead of his usual 11-12 ounces--not that he was fussy and refusing bottles, but just that he slept a little more during the day and didn't seem hungry. In fact he was a perfect angel for Tony all day as a happy baby boy, thank goodness! He sure made up for lost milk time that evening as if to say, 'Wait a minute, I just realized I'm starving now and The Boob is here so I'm going to indulge myself.' While I adore Truman and love to spend our time bonding through nursing, my evenings at home are SO jam packed full of prepping activities for the next day that I was incredibly stressed out. Stressed about the next day being our first at daycare. Stressed about how much organization life requires right now. Stressed about having so little time with Truman. Stressed about being so freaking tired I almost need to prop my eyelids open with toothpicks to survive. Stressed that I was stressed and not enjoying our nursing marathon. Stressed that I was starting to feel like hole with the chills and aches and a painful right boob (again!). I figured it was mastitis starting again and decided that was the final straw. And so I had a minor breakdown Thursday night when Truman finally released my boob and went to sleep.

Maybe being a working mom is just too hard for me and I'm not tough enough to deal with it. Maybe I'm in WAY over my head. Maybe I just needed to go to sleep and suck it up.

Friday morning I was all business. I didn't have time to be sick or tired or stressed because I had to get my butt in gear for our big day. Here we are that morning, bags under my eyes and all:
First day of Daycare! Bright and early...

When I dropped Truman off at daycare he was a total trooper and they immediately fell in love with him. My biggest piece of advice for any mom on the first day of daycare is this: do NOT make eye contact with the baby as you leave. I just looked right at the daycare Director and avoided T's gaze all together and thus I avoided crying like a little school girl when I left. Score one for working mom! That day at work I got my antibiotics for the mastitis and tried to stay focused on my patients instead of worrying about T. I called once to check on him and they said he was rocking it out hard core (not in those words) and they said they were in love with his cloth diapers (shocking, but cool!). When the most hectic Friday at work ended and I finally got to pick up little man, he was just chillin with 'Miss Margaret' in a bouncy seat, smiling his face off at her. I got my little report card about his day stating he took three huge naps, drank 12 oz of milk and worked his diapers to the bone. What a good boy! I cannot tell you how relieving it is to have our first day behind us knowing Truman charmed the pants off the ladies there. He's going to make so many little friends and he'll do wonderfully I'm sure. :)

Yes, Friday night was light-years better than Thursday. Plus, Truman got the memo that it's super cool to sleep for long stretches at night and he whipped out a strong showing of 6 hours in a row Friday night. I worked on Saturday and then Saturday night.....get this....baby boy was a rock star and slept for ELEVEN HOURS IN A ROW. Oh. Em. Gee. Our first night of truly sleeping through it without a peep was amazing, even though I woke up hourly from midnight until 6 am when I finally had to get up and pump my engorged tats to relieve the pressure. He didn't even wake up until 7:45 and by that point Nate and I realized that we don't even possess the skill of sleeping in anymore, so we just laid there itching to wake him up the whole morning. I love my baby all of the time but when he sleeps for longer than 3 hours a time life is exponentially better, my friends.

Please, Dear Lord, let this be a trend. I'm so over the idea of waking up at 12, 2, and 4 before the alarm at 5:15. I hope it's a thing of the past now....cross your fingers!

So that's that. Life was sucky and stressful and painful for a few days. I mean, I wasn't even able to log into Facebook for a whole 48 hours (the horror!!) But now it's better with some sleep, antibiotics, and my Sunday and Monday off with my boys. Phew. Time to breathe and recollect my thoughts is always nice. But let me just say that being a working mom is ridiculously challenging, much more than I thought, and even though I'm the queen of time management this is testing my organizational skills like none other. Someday I'll post about a typical daily routine to get feedback on how I can make it all easier on myself but basically I just need about 2 more hours in a day. That's all:)

10 comments:

  1. Oh girl, I feel ya on the boob. If you want to feel like it could be worse . . . go to my blog and read my latest post. I wouldn't wish what is happening with me on my worst enemy!

    And as for feeling totally overwhelmed and stressed, well, you'll have good days and bad days. The first day I dropped Landon off at daycare I was an absolute mess. I did make the mistake of making eye contact. He was bawling when I left. I closed the door behind me and instantly started sobbing! I quit my job a month later ;)

    I'm going back to work (at a new job) in three weeks and although I'm gonna miss the hell out of my two beautiful boys I know this is for the best. Not only do we need two incomes at this point but I really want to work. I'm just hoping to find that work/life balance that so many people talk about.

    I'm rooting for you, Julia. Just try to "keep it real" as my husband always says and know that some days you'll feel like super mom and other days you'll feel like melting into a puddle of tears. BOTH are normal :)

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  2. I was feeling really bad for you until I got to the point of Truman sleeping 11 straight hours. Ummmm...jealous. The longest stretch we've gotten is 7 and that was only one time. Lately, it's been 2-3 hours. Boo.

    I totally can relate to being stressed about being stressed. That's the worst. :(

    Mastitis blows. I've had two lovely encounters as well. But be careful with the antibiotic - you don't want to end up with thrush too!! Take a pribiotic to counteract it. :)

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  3. Um, you're clearly a rockstar. Keep up the awesome work...IDK how you do it!

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  4. I feel useless posting just to say hang in there since I have ZERO experience or advice to give... BUT I will say that as an outsider, you seem to be doing great at managing it all! I'm sure things will get better as time goes on. And your comment about "not being tough enough to be a working mom"...I don't buy it. I think you can definitely do this and it has to get easier. I hope Truman keeps up with the long stretches of sleep!

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  5. ugh. poor thing. mastitis sounds awful. the whole stress thing is hard, juggling working and being a mommy is hard. It really is and it is exhausting.

    im with you on the sleeping thing. we have had TWO 10 hour nights, and that is it. and we are SEVEN month old over here. :) Im sick of it too. but i think T man will get the hang of it way better than my big man! :)

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  6. You're doing great, mama! I don't think ANYONE would find your schedule a breeze. Don't get too discouraged...you're stronger than you think :)

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  7. I love reading your blog. Your little man is so cute, and I have noticed him wearing a few outfits that we got as gifts. Our little guy is coming in ONE WEEK:) He is still breech so they scheduled a c-section. I also like that you are a working mom, because I will be one soon enough:)

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  8. I agree with what others have said...you are doing a great job. Hang in there girl!!!

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  9. I get it! Truman and my little man share the same birthday, so I LOVE coming to your blog on occasion (although I'll admit it's much less than it used to be now that I've reached motherhood status) and just seeing how the transitions and to check out Tru. Thanks for continuing to share your joys and challenges with all of us :)

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  10. I hope everything is going good with Truman now and he's sleeping lots!! Your videos were super cute. You inspired me to take one of Hailey waking up from her nap too because she is so smiley then!

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