Long time no post! Ugh, life with a baby is seriously boring. And because I’m really not super big on sharing pictures of Jackson online, it’s not like I even want to get online to share how absolutely freaking adorable he is. But trust me when I say that he is absolutely freaking adorable. I’m definitely getting adjusted to our life. It feels a lot more manageable and less like my life is ending. I still go a little stir crazy at home, but not nearly as bad! I’ve also somewhat adjusted to getting 5 hours of sleep in 3 different increments and usually get up at 6:30 or 7:30 with Jackson for the day, which helps with getting things done! Although, I’ll be honest, I still kind of resent Jon for getting 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep on a regular basis, even if he is working full time! I would be so happy to go back to work for a week just to get 7 hours of sleep EVERY NIGHT! That sounds delightful! But of course, due to pumping, that isn’t in my future for another 2 months.
School is out in 3-ish weeks! It’s actually not out till the end of April, but my last big project is due on April 17th, and I need to get in my portion of our other big paper within the next few days. After that, I’m really looking forward to venturing out more with Jackson. I still feel a little housebound since I’m juggling Jackson, pumping, keeping the house in order, and school! But once I’m out for the summer, I’ll be able to at least have one outing a day with him without trying to squeeze in school. I can’t believe I have 2 years left of this BS! Ugh. This semester has been way easier than last semester though. It was way less writing intensive and I think I just didn’t care nearly as much. Instead of spending so much time making sure my assignments are perfect, I just sort of throw some stuff together at the last minute and call it a day! Priorities definitely change once a baby comes!
I put in for daycare this past week! There are waiting lists all over the Atlanta area for infant daycares, so I’m on the wait list. They said that it will probably be June or July before I end up getting a slot. Daycare is just under $1000 a month, which is insane. If I work my minimum hours, I’ll basically break even after taxes and my 403B. I’ll probably work at least double my hours (so that’s still only 86 hours a month) just to make sure it’s worth it. The benefit of this daycare (or the downside) is that there is no part time daycare. It’s all full time. So I basically have a babysitter from 6a-7p Monday-Friday! I’m super excited about getting back to my own life a little bit, but honestly, it is way harder already than I thought to have to let some random people watch my baby along with 10 other kids! I have a feeling I’ll really struggle with leaving him when the time comes, although I already decided we’ll ease into it the week before I go back to work, just so I can be a phone call away while we see how he does. So, my plan is basically to put him in daycare while I work 2 days a week, and then I’ll probably put him in either one full day or maybe 2 half days during the week, since we pay for it anyway. I figure if I work every Tuesday and Thursday like I used to, plus maybe put him in on Monday and Wednesday mornings from 9-1ish (HELLO GYM!!!!!!!), that’ll still give me time with him and will also make my $1000 a month worthwhile! I technically don’t have to go back to work, but I want to. I’m ready. If I get to a point where I decide I’d rather be at home with Jackson, then we can take him out of daycare and I can stay at home with him. But right now, I’m just not there yet. I’d rather work, and we also want to move out of our condo and could use a little extra money to get us there!
I’m also itching to get back to the gym! My 6 week postpartum appointment is in 2 weeks so I hope to get the go ahead to work out then! There’s a CrossFit gym super close to here on Groupon for $50 for 6 weeks! Um, yes please! Super cheap! So I’ll do that, and then hopefully I’ll be back to work and can pick up ClassPass again or join a CrossFit gym full time. I don’t have any abdominal pain or anything, but my incision is still really tender to touch. The skin is so irritated! I’m sure I’ll be taking it easy when I finally get back to working out for awhile, but I don’t even care. I just want to be active and do something I love again! And not related to working out, but I fit in my pre-pregnancy pants again yesterday! Woohoo! They’re my looser pants, but I am still so happy! Hopefully that means once I get back to the gym I’ll be able to fit into all of my pants again!
Tom (my cat) is sick again. For those of you who read back in December when he had pancreatitis, it came back with a vengeance. Back then the vet said that his numbers were the highest they had ever seen. Well, they were way higher this time around. So I spent two days in a row taking him to the vet since he was getting worse as time went on. He’s still there now since they said he wasn’t ready to come home tonight, but hopefully I’ll be able to pick him up tomorrow. This dang cat is so expensive. We’re going to put him on a prescription food (which is $60 per bag for a 17lb bag- JEEBUS) and hopefully that’ll help, but I worry that this is going to be an ongoing issue because it’s so severe. Let me just put it this way- I could have flown to Australia with what we’ve spent on vet bills between his December bout of pancreatitis and this one. And then some. So, you know, perfect timing while I’m not even working and we just had a baby.
My 30th birthday is a month away! My good friend’s baby shower is on my actual birthday (May 1st), so Jon and I are heading out the weekend after. I jokingly asked Jon the other day what he was doing for my 30th birthday and then I guess he started looking! He booked something tonight. He wanted to fly somewhere but I didn’t want ask my mom to take that Friday off work since a month later, she is taking a day off work to watch Jackson for us. So, I have no idea what we’re doing now. I think he’s kind of nervous I’ll be disappointed, but I told him I don’t care at all what we do- I just want to spend time with him!
It’s amazing how much I can miss him when we still live together and see each other daily. The dynamic of our relationship has changed so much. Instead of enjoying our evenings relaxing together, we’re juggling a baby. He gets home from work and I’m baby-d out, so I hand Jackson over for him to take care of him. Usually while Jon puts him to bed, I end up doing my last pump and get into bed for the night. Jon used to give me back massages all the time and he gave me one the other night and it was just like, wow, I have missed this. I miss us. I posted this about our late night Shake Shack run the week before Jackson made his arrival, and I really do miss moments like that. Everything is so planned out now and there is no way we’d ever leave our house at 9pm for a shake now. I mean, I’m in bed at 8:15 some nights. And our weekends are spent with each of us trying to get some alone time, grocery shopping, and spending time at my parent’s, so we rarely get time to feel like a married couple anymore. Or maybe this is just what marriage feels like now.
We went to Florida this past weekend for Easter. Well, we went so the family could meet Jackson. We ended up not getting there till 1am on Saturday morning and then I was exhausted Saturday! Luckily the drive was smooth and the room we slept in was pitch black, so Jackson even slept later than usual. Jackson did really well, although he was fussy in the afternoon just from being overstimulated I think. The kids all wanted to hold him and they were constantly moving him around and feeding him how 5 year olds feed babies, and I think he just had enough. So putting him down took awhile, but Jon’s mom ended up sitting with him and getting him to sleep, which she loved. And then Sunday we came back!
Alrighty, well Jon just finished up on his conference call so I’m off to make some broccoli while Jon cooks us up some chicken. No lie- this is the first time I’ve cooked a fresh vegetable since Jackson was born 4 1/2 weeks ago. Let’s not even talk about my diet. Although, it is improving some. I actually got tired of eating chocolate.