I noticed my Mom Life post got a few hits this week, so of course I had to go back and read it. I love reading some of my older posts and was inspired to give some updates on my thoughts in the original post - I know you're all waiting with bated breath, so here goes! ;)
1.) Sleep has continued to get better. Or maybe I should say it did continue to get better, but we've pretty much been at the same place for the past few months. When I wrote the original post, I had just gone back to work and Ellie's "bedtime" was approximately 12 am. Add in at least two wake-up calls and the 5 am alarm came pretty quickly. Ellie goes to bed crazy earlier than she used to, which is AWESOME. Seriously, cue the fireworks, pop the champagne and throw the confetti awesome. While I love my little girl and cherish all of our time together, I enjoy my sanity every second of sleeping baby time before I head to bed myself. She still never ever, ever, ever sleeps through the night, but beggars can't be choosers and I am certainly not complaining about a 7:00 bedtime.
2.) Nursing stopped in October when Ellie was just under six months old (if you're new here, you can read about my breastfeeding experience here and my feelings about stopping here). Honestly, I don't miss it. At all. Okay, maybe I shouldn't say that... I miss the cuddles (the STILLNESS!), not having to make + wash bottles, and of course not having to pay for formula (holy cow, I can't wait until she can have milk). I miss nursing a two/three/four month old Ellie, but not so much our nursing experience at the end when it became less enjoyable for both of us and my boobs felt like they would explode if I didn't get home from work rightthissecond. So, I do look forward to trying out nursing again with another newborn baby, whenever that time comes, but for now am more than happy with my decision to stop when I did.
3.) Yes, it's great when your baby starts to recognize you as her mom; but, when she starts actually saying "mumma" and giving you what we consider to be hugs? Even better. I can't even imagine what it will feel like when Ellie can say "I love you" back to us.
4.) Multitasking is definitely still very important and something I think you just kind of keep getting better at over time. What's even better now is the fact that Ellie can feed herself some foods so I can set her up in her highchair with a snack while I do something else for ten minutes. She tries shoving way too much in her mouth on occasion, so she needs to be watched carefully... but still, having two free hands is having two free hands.
5.) "Me time" is still so important and has gotten better over the past few months. Mostly because of the early bedtime situation I mentioned in #1 since girlfriend's nap "schedule" is still all kinds of crazy. I tend to feel like my to-do list is never ending, maybe because it kind of is, but at some point I think you just need to put the time you spend on things that you like to do over chores that really aren't that important to get done in the grand scheme of things (i.e. putting those massive piles of laundry away - I mean, clean clothes are clean clothes, regardless of whether they are neatly tucked away in your drawers or in a giant stack on your bedroom floor). I do actually enjoy cleaning and organizing sometimes, so it can also just feel good to check a couple things off my to-do list... but, I also really need to take the time to browse Pinterest and add a million things to my online shopping carts that I will never actually buy. I've got a few "me" things that I'd like to do during daylight hours in the next few weeks, like maybe wander the aisles of Target for an hour or get that haircut I've been meaning to get for months, but all in all I think I'm doing okay in this department.
6.) Take pictures? I think this mamarazzi's got that covered (27,000+ photos later). One of my goals for the new year was to take more videos. I've been snapping some short ones here and there, but recently came up with the idea of doing a "day in the life" video using clips of our everyday lives. While it would be great to get all of the clips on the same day, realistically that will never happen so I'm hoping to get all the pieces I want within the next week or so! Then, I'll have to use my nonexistent video editing skills to put them all together. I'm hoping to end up with a brief glimpse into all of my favorite parts of our daily lives - kitchen dance parties included!
7.) Similar to #5, alone time for Tyler and I has improved tenfold since I wrote the original post - also attributable to the early bedtime situation (see, I wasn't kidding about my excitement). Since we both have things that we like to do solo, we will usually catch up for a bit and then do our own thing a few nights a week, and the other nights we will spend the whole night hanging out just the two of us. I can't stress enough how important it has been to both of our sanity's to kick back, relax and laugh together. Sometimes I swear we have more fun now than we used to pre-baby - maybe because we appreciate our alone time together more now?
8.) Yes, yes, yes - every new age IS the best age ever. Ellie gets more fun, entertaining, silly + sweet every single day. We love to watch as she learns new things and get so excited for her when she's excited for herself. While we would love her to stay a teeny baby forever, it's just not going to happen so instead we are loving watching her turn into the tiny person she's quickly becoming.
9.) Babies have a lot of stuff, and in our case Ellie might not have liked something one month but then loved it the next or vice versa. She still loves seeing some of her older toys that we pull out of the bottom of her toy basket (or that she violently throws over her shoulder as she sorts through it), so I think this one is still true too. Plus, just because one baby doesn't like something it doesn't mean the next one won't! ;)
10.) YEP, baby fever still hasn't gone away since before I was pregnant with Ellie. I 40% jokingly, 60% not, tried to convince Tyler that we should have four babies the other night. I don't think it worked, but he is one of five so I also don't think it would be that out of the question. In all seriousness, I'm sure it is no surprise that I can't hardly wait to add more sweet babes to our family... and am frequently browsing all of my favorite stores for teeny tiny gender neutral sale items. ;)
While it's not always easy, glamorous or fun, I consider getting to be Ellie's mom the biggest blessing. Mom life is the best life.
3.) Yes, it's great when your baby starts to recognize you as her mom; but, when she starts actually saying "mumma" and giving you what we consider to be hugs? Even better. I can't even imagine what it will feel like when Ellie can say "I love you" back to us.
4.) Multitasking is definitely still very important and something I think you just kind of keep getting better at over time. What's even better now is the fact that Ellie can feed herself some foods so I can set her up in her highchair with a snack while I do something else for ten minutes. She tries shoving way too much in her mouth on occasion, so she needs to be watched carefully... but still, having two free hands is having two free hands.
5.) "Me time" is still so important and has gotten better over the past few months. Mostly because of the early bedtime situation I mentioned in #1 since girlfriend's nap "schedule" is still all kinds of crazy. I tend to feel like my to-do list is never ending, maybe because it kind of is, but at some point I think you just need to put the time you spend on things that you like to do over chores that really aren't that important to get done in the grand scheme of things (i.e. putting those massive piles of laundry away - I mean, clean clothes are clean clothes, regardless of whether they are neatly tucked away in your drawers or in a giant stack on your bedroom floor). I do actually enjoy cleaning and organizing sometimes, so it can also just feel good to check a couple things off my to-do list... but, I also really need to take the time to browse Pinterest and add a million things to my online shopping carts that I will never actually buy. I've got a few "me" things that I'd like to do during daylight hours in the next few weeks, like maybe wander the aisles of Target for an hour or get that haircut I've been meaning to get for months, but all in all I think I'm doing okay in this department.
6.) Take pictures? I think this mamarazzi's got that covered (27,000+ photos later). One of my goals for the new year was to take more videos. I've been snapping some short ones here and there, but recently came up with the idea of doing a "day in the life" video using clips of our everyday lives. While it would be great to get all of the clips on the same day, realistically that will never happen so I'm hoping to get all the pieces I want within the next week or so! Then, I'll have to use my nonexistent video editing skills to put them all together. I'm hoping to end up with a brief glimpse into all of my favorite parts of our daily lives - kitchen dance parties included!
7.) Similar to #5, alone time for Tyler and I has improved tenfold since I wrote the original post - also attributable to the early bedtime situation (see, I wasn't kidding about my excitement). Since we both have things that we like to do solo, we will usually catch up for a bit and then do our own thing a few nights a week, and the other nights we will spend the whole night hanging out just the two of us. I can't stress enough how important it has been to both of our sanity's to kick back, relax and laugh together. Sometimes I swear we have more fun now than we used to pre-baby - maybe because we appreciate our alone time together more now?
8.) Yes, yes, yes - every new age IS the best age ever. Ellie gets more fun, entertaining, silly + sweet every single day. We love to watch as she learns new things and get so excited for her when she's excited for herself. While we would love her to stay a teeny baby forever, it's just not going to happen so instead we are loving watching her turn into the tiny person she's quickly becoming.
9.) Babies have a lot of stuff, and in our case Ellie might not have liked something one month but then loved it the next or vice versa. She still loves seeing some of her older toys that we pull out of the bottom of her toy basket (or that she violently throws over her shoulder as she sorts through it), so I think this one is still true too. Plus, just because one baby doesn't like something it doesn't mean the next one won't! ;)
10.) YEP, baby fever still hasn't gone away since before I was pregnant with Ellie. I 40% jokingly, 60% not, tried to convince Tyler that we should have four babies the other night. I don't think it worked, but he is one of five so I also don't think it would be that out of the question. In all seriousness, I'm sure it is no surprise that I can't hardly wait to add more sweet babes to our family... and am frequently browsing all of my favorite stores for teeny tiny gender neutral sale items. ;)
While it's not always easy, glamorous or fun, I consider getting to be Ellie's mom the biggest blessing. Mom life is the best life.
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