Daddy’s Maternity Leave

It’s been 6 weeks since I had my son and I’m enjoying every second I can with my family. My husband has a few days left of vacation, totaling five weeks all together that he has been able to take off. I’m so very thankful for this time with him and no one deserves it more than he does. Well we both deserve it and my daughter has loved having him home. Financially we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to swing it but my husband is a go getter and he worked his butt off working overtime while I was still pregnant to make this happen for us, as we often say, we will never get this time back again. I had so many things in store for us while he was off and slowly but surly we are checking off the things we wanted to do as a family and things we wanted to get done around the new house. Though we weren’t able to get everything done we were sure able to enjoy some time off together.

We’ve been here over seven months now but with how much he worked during that time pictures didn’t get hung, small projects were unfinished, curtains sat and blinds were stored in there boxes. I’m so happy to share the things we’ve gotten accomplished, it’s so exciting to me to see the playroom completed. Curtains hung, blinds put up and pictures now personalize this space for my children. It’s one of my favorite rooms! Go figure it’s the room I’m in the least because it’s for my kids. My daughter is learning to play more independently since the baby has been born but for some reason this room just completes me. It makes me happy to know my kids can have a room that they can call there own besides where they lay there heads at night. Yes it also makes me very happy to have a space that the toys can all hide in at night!!

My daughter finally went into her big girl bed!! I put this off for so long anticipating nights of battling sleep. Granted we are only three nights into but so far it’s going well. Putting Madison to bed since Drew was born has been a battle, I’m not quite sure but it involves a few tantrums, some tears and a VERY tired little girl. Each night it gets better and she has yet to figure out that she can actually get in and out of the bed herself now! I’m happy to keep it that way.

I’d like to talk about the clock that we bought for her a few weeks ago. I think it’s a fabulous product to try out for transitioning into a big girl bed. Or if you’r looking for that extra 30 minutes of sleep in the morning!! It’s a versatile clock that has numerous functions. One is a night light with another color they call “it’s OK to wake” light, another is a talking time-teaching game that has adjustable time skills and also an alarm clock for when they get older. This wonderful product that I swear by is called a American Innovative Teach Me Time Talking Alarm Clock and Nightlight and I bought it on Amazon.com.  Let me tell you why I swear by it. A few weeks ago I introduced this to Maddie explaining to her that when the yellow light (that’s the nightlight that I set to go on a half hour before bedtime) turns green, it’s time to wake!! It means she is allowed to call for Mommy and/or Daddy. At one point a few months ago Madison was starting to wake up really early and we were trying to get her to sleep in a bit more, I also bought it with the intentions of using it for the big girl bed transition because I was deathly afraid a big girl bed meant she’d be running into our room at all hours of the night. My daughter has been learning her colors for months now, I know they work with her at daycare and my mom and I are both big on teaching her milestones. Once we explained how the concept worked we set the clock to go off to “green” at 6 for a few nights, then 630 for a few nights, then 7 for a few nights and now we are at 730 on a normal basis, if she goes to bed later for numerous reasons given the summer time we do try to adjust it to later. It’s a HUGE thing for her to say “Mama, Dada……….It’s GREEN!!! It’s time to wake!!!! We introduced this clock about a month ago (if not longer) so when we introduced the big girl bed this I said remember if you need “Mommy or Daddy you just call for us and when the light turns green you tell us it’s time to wake up!” I knew she would be a little intimidated by the bed because we went directly to a full size bed, I used this to our advantage!! She can’t get up by herself which means she’s afraid to get down on her own, score for us! Well for now of course. I know once she learns she can actually get down on her own we may face new challenges but for now……….this is working. She even napped for three hours in it yesterday!! I swear by this clock so if your looking to make your transition a little smoother to the big girl bed, give it a shot!! 🙂

It’s funny how the second child comes and how much more laid back you are with getting things ready for their big arrival. With my first her room had to be put together a month before she got here and I bugged and bugged my husband until it was completed. This time…..Drew’s changing table was put together and that was it, We ended up making a make shift changing area in our master bedroom since that is where we feed him in the middle of the night, so in all honesty I didn’t even need the changing table set up!! I have everything to decorate, just not put together, the only time I had to work on it while I was pregnant was during the day, three times a week while my daughter was at school, then I’d get tired and sleep during those days to catch up from my crappy nights sleep or I’d clean the house and prepare dinner It feels good to finally complete his room! Thank you Daddy for helping!!

If you’ve read any of my articles you’d know that I have a terrible time keeping my daughter busy with any one activity or toy for more than 10 minutes, I know I know, typical two and a half year old. Well maybe so however I struggle with it! Though she has become more independent with her playing since Drew came along, we still wanted to buy her a few things for our new yard. The yard that we waited a VERY long time for! So again, thank you Daddy for all of your hard work so our children can have nothing but the best.  Another thing that I waited a very long time for was our canvases. I love pictures, I used to scrapbook every picture I took back in the day, before I had kids, before I had any real responsibilities. I just love capturing every moment, every smile, every special memory I possibly can. So taking my favorite shots of my family, ordering canvases and hanging them in that “perfect” spot in our home was something I couldn’t wait to complete! Here are 3 of them and I have about 6 more to hang on another wall, I can’t wait to complete them!

So what else did we do while Daddy was home?? Well we did a whole lot of NOTHING too!! We had a lot of lazy days at the camp. Baby Drew’s cousin Mia was born three weeks before him. My cousin and I grew up together, at this very camp, so it’s truly amazing to see our children together, even if it is doing a whole lot of nothing!

We hung out with friends, Momma even got to work out. Even if it was only once it felt good to sweat from something other than the darn weather with the humidity that we’ve had this summer!! A good friend of mine had her son 11 weeks before me so here is another cutey that will be friends with Drew! Yes my son sleeps with his mouth open, like his Dad!!

What else did we do?? Well Baby Drew had his very first camp fire!! Yep here he is enjoying that! LOL 🙂 Now we need to invent these bug nets for adults too!

We also had lazy days on the porch while family and friends visited. As you can see from this picture Drew didn’t mind what we did while we had visitors!

And well…………neither did Madison!

It sure hasn’t been all fun and giggles I must admit. No one wants to talk about the hard times. However it helps me to. My daughter hasn’t gone to bed without a tantrum and lots and lots of tears since Drew was born. She hasn’t really done anything without a battle! All the regressions we knew we’d be facing we are certainly facing. A lot like motherhood you really don’t know what your in for until…………YOUR IN IT. I can’t believe before we even left the hospital we were talking about having a third!!! HA!!!! I know times will get easier and I know everything Madison is going through right now is not forever, just like I know my baby boy won’t always have gas issues (I hope!) I don’t mind the lack of sleep, at least I’m not too deprived, though my husband has been helping so we shall see how that goes after this week. I think the thing I find the most difficult right now is making time for everyone. Myself included. I’m up until midnight and I’m sacrificing the sleep because I like to do a few things for myself come the end of the day. My son has been cranky between 5 and 9 for the past week, so by 9 I have no problems enjoying a glass of wine and folding 6 loads of laundry. I try to squeeze in maybe painting my toes or browsing through some new recipes! Oh and the juggling………..I’ve never juggled so much in my life. I’m thankful that I cooked those casseroles before Drew came, we’ve had a few and I plan on saving a few for the week my husband goes back to work so I’m not completely in over my head with having to cook dinner too.  My daughter goes to school three days a week, I have yet to get here there before 9:30 and that is NOT including with baby Drew in tow!! I’ll be trying that next week…….wish me luck! Thanks to my mom, my mother-in-law and my sister my husband and I did get one date night alone. It was so nice to put on a dress and some make up and remember that my husband was the person that started this crazy but wonderful journey with me!!

I long to get into my kitchen again. I’m trying to not get disappointed because every time I think about making time to cook, write or photograph I get upset because I feel like I’m never going to find time to do that again…….It took me a whole week to write this article and many MANY  MANY interruptions, I don’t know how other bloggers do it that have little ones. Another thing that I’m trying VERY hard to focus on is eating more healthy and staying active, though I haven’t gotten much time to work out yet I’m still letting my body heal so I’m taking it easy for another week or two. I’ve certainly been watching my portion control and my consumption of fatty/fried foods. I find it VERY difficult to eat healthy while trying to juggle this new adventure. It’s easier to grab snacks and crap and go, there have been some days when I don’t get to eat until 4pm in the afternoon 🙁 I know that’s not the wisest decision. I got so lucky to have shed 20 lbs within the first month after Drew was born I just really want to take advantage and keep it off. A friend of mine has given me some tips and tricks, like making things ahead of time so when I am on the go, I can still grab healthy things and go! I’ll leave you with what I did squeeze in the other night while I wore the moby wrap with my son and bounced him around the kitchen destined to cook up something healthy for breakfast the next few mornings!!