Working Mom

Lately I have been going through what a lot of new moms go through. I am wondering what my future holds. Should I go to work? Is there any way that I can do that and keep Ryan out of daycare? What sort of job should I get? If I do go back to work, when should I do so? Can we give Ryan all we want to if I don’t go back to work? On the flip side, is it fair to put him in daycare if we can afford not to? But honestly, can we survive once my student loans become due?
These questions have been all consuming since I had a conversation with my loan company last week. The panic grows stronger every time I think about it. At some point I will have to make a decision. Don tells me that we will be fine, that I shouldn’t worry so much and that everything will work out. He tells me on a daily basis to chill out.

I will soon have a law degree that I worked entirely too hard to get, shouldn't I at least try to use it?
Last night I had a dream that I was in the car on the way to a job interview. I was almost there with about 10 minutes to spare when I realized I was in sweatpants and a ratty t-shirt! I had totally forgotten to change into presentable attire for my interview. Read into that what you will, but I am not taking it as a good sign.

VOTE

I'm not going to hide the fact that I am not a huge fan of the republican candidate and his running mate. I have been watching the convention this week and have been less then thrilled that they even have the possibility of being in the oval office in the near future. Enjoy this little clip... oh I just love the media.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184086

Everyone should go out and vote... you can find voter registration forms online, you just have to send it in and then go out to vote.

Go Patriots!

WHAT!!! the NFL season starts this week?? I haven't even learned the rules yet!

Dad has a lot of teaching to do.

Who Does Ryan Look Like?

Since Ryan was born we have received countless comments about how much Ryan looks like Don. Now I admit there are times I look at him and I see Don Jr. (Actually Don III as the case may be). But I have proof that Ryan has a little bit of me in him too :) I haven't seen any baby pictures of Don before, if I get my hands on some I will post them. Until then you can check out mine.

Me at 5 months
Ryan at 3 months

I'm not sure how old I am here but I do recognize that I am with my Uncle Bill

So do you see any similarities?

Making up for Lost Sleep

Ryan heard my pleas for sleep! Yesterday he took 3 naps totaling about 5 hours; he did that after waking up at 8:00am instead of 6:30. Today he woke up at 8:30am and went right back to sleep after eating and right now is napping which he has been doing over an hour! Apparently he was as tired as I was! Well the family is more rested and I am feeling super amounts better. He is all full of smiles. Good start to a long weekend.

No Sleep for the Weary

Dude where’s my brain? For any of you that have noticed that I am a little off this week I apologize. If I don’t get a chance to catch up on sleep on weekends (like last weekend) the next week is really hard unless I somehow can have a chance to recover (at least 8 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period). Last weekend was rough and Ryan has decided that naps during the day should not be longer then 40 minutes (some in fact should be only 10 minutes). The result is that I am spacey, irritable and I find myself repeating myself. But, tomorrow is Friday and we have nothing planned for Saturday so sanity is on the horizon.
*Also, we are having a BBQ Sunday so if you want to come by, email me and I will give you directions if you don’t know them.

Cranks

Ryan is an amazingly great baby MOST of the time. When he is tired Don and I have a nickname for him, it’s “Cranks.” I am probably to blame for this; I am certainly not considered a peach when tired.
His sleep schedule is approximately: naps at 9, 1 and 4… this is still approximate- he is the dictator of this schedule. We are getting closer to the point where I am somewhat in charge of deciding when he naps. He then sleeps from about 8:00pm until 7:00am (waking up for an hour to eat in there).
When he sticks to the schedule he is in a great mood all day- laughing and playing and smiling at everyone. When he doesn’t- he melts down, you can see him losing his cool until he is so worked up he can’t get to sleep. This probably did not pop up until he was about 2.5 months old- I think he plays so hard now that he gets worn out fast (he is rolling over, propping his head up and starting to slide on his belly).
There are a few tricks to distract him long enough for him to fall asleep- trust me if you were in my shoes you would do whatever it took to get him to sleep. So I have found that the iTunes visualizer is amazing at distraction, it calms him and he just stares until he falls asleep, music videos do the same thing. I know, I know some people might have a problem with my approach but until your child has a total melt down with tears streaming down their face as they are screaming don’t judge too harshly.

UHAULin' and single parenthood

Since becoming a mother I have realized how difficult it would be to be a single parent. Most days I have Don to take over if I really need help, even if I don’t accept it, it is nice to know. Last weekend I felt like a single parent, so here’s the story: My brother decided to transfer to Duke Law from University of Chicago. I am really glad he decided to do this however there was a downside. He had to bring his furniture from there to here the cheapest way possible. So he decided to drive it back in a UHaul overnight… not a safe thing to do on your own obviously. My husband being the good guy that he is agreed to accompany him. He flew out at 11:00am Saturday and made it back to NC about 1:00pm Sunday (he didn’t actually make it home until about 2:30 because of a dryer fire but that is a whole other story). When he did make it home he needed a nap until 5:45 (he hadn’t slept on the drive) and then he went to bed at 8:00pm and couldn’t help on the “night shift.”
I am tired. So very tired. Having responsibility 100% of the time for days on end is a lot to deal with. My mom helped when she could but it was hard not having Don here. So to all you single moms my hat is off to you, I honestly don’t know how you do it. Don is taking the baby for an hour while I blog and shower. Okay I’m really tired, I don’t know that this blog makes any sense but hey I thought I should write a little somethin’ somethin’.

Back from the Beach

NEW ADDITION: Jays Pictures

Our week at the Outer Banks (where Don and I got married last year) is over and we made it home (Ryan slept almost the whole ride!) I am posting a few pictures now. If I get a chance this week I will try to post some stories.

Ryan was not a big fan of the pool. He loves his baths but this just wasn't as warm.. find me a pool that is 97+ degrees and he will be all over that.

After the pool experience, he was substantially happier wrapped in the towel.

Jay and Brian the adventurers of the bunch (This was the one picture I have of them where one of them is not on a computer... I will post the link to Jays pictures once I get it. He will have pictures of them Kayaking etc and maybe a few more of Ryan)

The partiers of the bunch: David and Dan (I had to put a picture of David in here or I would have heard about it- even if he only reads the blog every two weeks but I'm sure one of his friends would have told him)

Standing in the water! Strong little legs.

Ryan got to wear his super cool hat when he was at the beach. I don't think he is a huge fan of it but he let it go.

Dan hadn't figured out exactly how to hold Ryan.. he decided that Ryan was roughly the shape of a football and therefore should be cradled as such.. Ryan was a very good sport about it.
Don really liked this picture, he thinks Ryan looks like a pirate :)

Hanging out with Grandma, one of the highlights of the week for everyone. Mom got a break, grandma got to hangout with her favorite person, and Ryan is a huge fan of grandma (he is a big fan of being spoiled and she is a rock star at spoiling)

Ryan played hard and then he slept hard. Good times.

Leaving it Behind

I just finished law school. No joke, today was my last day of law school and it is done. I am in shock, in all honesty I thought this day would never come. I am heading to the beach tomorrow to celebrate for the week!
Oh glorious freedom.

Headache

You know when you have one of those headaches that last through the day making you both exhausted and irritable? Well imagine how it is while taking care of a baby…. Not good. That was my day yesterday, by the end of it I was just about out of commission. I was thinking that I would have to call my mom this morning and have her come over today to help me recover, and then I come to find out that she is sick, cross that off the list. So instead Don insists we go to bed early…. You know who didn’t insist? Ryan. He in fact insisted that he not be left alone, if we did leave him alone he would wake up 20 minutes later. This is very abnormal behavior for him; I am still not sure what was going on. Don being the wonderful husband that he is finally took the baby downstairs to sleep in the living room with him. I have a feeling I am still going to be a mess tomorrow.
My friend Nicki got sick a week and a half ago and it was really bad (like going to the doctor’s a few times) but she still had to take care of her daughter. She has inspired me to suck it up, if she can do that I can certainly get through a day like I am in for. That and I am leaving for a beach vacation for a week on Saturday. Yay beach!

Out of Touch

I admit I have never been 100% into pop culture; I didn’t have cable until I was like 13 and I wasn’t allowed to listen to the radio until I was 16. I did for a short time during law school get into the gossip web pages about celebrities; I blame Rachel for that one. With all that said I feel like at least for the last 10 years I have been pretty good at picking up trends and knowing who the big bands are out there. I never understood why parents never seemed to really understand trends and what music was good (popular) and what was not. I was so convinced that Don and I would be “cool” parents, we would listen to the same music as our kids and just generally get it.
I already stand corrected. I figured out who the Jonas Brothers were through Good Morning America (already a bad sign for my coolness). Apparently they are the end all be all for tween girls right now (the backstreet boys of this generation). Well I was trying to tell Don something about the Jonas Brothers and his response “who are the Jonas Brothers I have never heard of them” even after I played him the music he wasn’t sure he had ever heard it. I am not trying to say that I know anymore then him, I don’t know the names of any of them, who they are dating and I am not 100% sure which songs are their much less the words to them.
I guess the reason parents are un-cool is that they give up all the time it takes to stay current raising their kids. We also have a different perspective on the importance of such things, that and we don’t need to fit in with our peers on such an extreme level like kids feel they need to do when they see them everyday in school.
So here’s to the beginning of being an out of touch parent!

cloud watching

The interesting thing to remember about very small children is that anytime you do anything new it is often the first time they are experiencing it. When we were driving back from Ohio we stopped somewhere in the Virginia mountains to feed Ryan and when we got out it was chilly outside. Ryan looked shocked! He was born at the beginning of the summer and has only seen super hot weather. Yesterday Ryan was tired of being in the house so we took a blanket outside and watched the clouds from our front yard; generally we take the stroller out so again there was something new. It made me realize how much small stuff I don't notice because I am always trying to get stuff done.
We should all take a little time to notice the things around us and appreciate the small things. I highly recommend turning off the TV and the iphone and take some time out to do some cloud watching.

12 Week pictures

Getting ready for sleep pose

Hanging out with mom (check out the shirt, I am a big fan)

Hanging out under a tree at the park, Ryan LOVES trees

Developing his strong neck