LOL, SAHM, WTH?

Not only are we adding an additional family member this fall, there are also some other changes that have been brewing in the Barbeauld household.  After much thinking, pondering, crying, worrying and praying, I have decided to become at stay at home mom starting in September. 

That last sentence is something that I thought I would never write, in fact, if you had told me I would be writing this blog entry 5 years ago, I would have laughed at you.  Everything changed when I had Aubrey.  When I was pregnant with Aubs, I requested and generously received a 6 month leave from work, and in that 6 months I found, much to my surprise, that I didn’t need work as much as I thought I did, in fact, I didn’t miss it at all.  Honestly it scared me a little, but while I found that while working gave me a little break from the constant work that was caring for Aubrey, I missed her a ton and started to feel like I was missing out on her life.  During busy season, it only got worse, and when we discovered that we would be adding to our family in March, it became unbearable.  Add that to Joey being out of town quite often for work and the decision became very clear. I need to be home with my babies while I can.

While I was making my final decision on coming back to work, one of the reasons was that I wanted to make sure that I would have no regrets about staying home.  Yes, there will be days where I will miss having hot meals and adult interaction, there are so many more years down the road to enjoy those things, there are a very few number of years to enjoy those baby smiles and the excitement of your little one accomplishing something big or just giving you a hug for no reason. 

While I will no longer worry about missing out on my kids’ lives, there are now other things to worry about.  Money for one – thankfully Joey has a great job that will allow me to stay at home with way less sacrifice than I would have expected.  Another question I have pondered is will my kids have it better than I had growing up?  When I was little, I thought that the rich kids had side by side fridges and access to the Disney Channel, and thankfully those are two things that we will be able to provide our children, as well as everything that they need - not always new, but they will have what they need for sure.  :)

Finally, there’s the question of how can a career girl hang all that up to spend her days covered in spit up and jelly.  I don’t know the answer to that one right now, but I’m hoping that everything will fall into place.  Actually, I know it will because this is exactly what I’m meant to do right now.  I also have the awesome benefits of a family that lives here in town and a great group of mom friends that I will be hanging out with regularly. 

I very much understand that I am very lucky to be able to stay at home with my babies, and to all those full time working moms out there, I salute you.  I just couldn't cut it as a working mom, and I very much admire and love you all.

Will I eventually get back into the workforce?  Yes, of course, just not where I was before these little blessings came into my life.  My priorities are so different now, sometimes I wonder how I became and enjoyed that person that I was.  I guess I did enjoy that life, but this one is so much richer. 

Wish me luck!

The more things change…

While there have been many things that are the same about this pregnancy, such as morning sickness, fatigue and the inevitable weight gain, there have also been quite a few changes this time around.  For one, while there has been morning sickness, it only lasted about 16 weeks instead of the 20 weeks that I endured last time.  The fatigue seems to be more prominent this time, although, I’m not sure if that’s the baby or the fact that I have a rambunctious one year old this time around. 

I do seem to be carrying lower this time, and the round ligament pain is much more prominent.  I am going to look into prenatal yoga and maybe some other exercises to ease the discomfort.   Gestational diabetes has also come back with the new baby.  I had to test about 4 weeks earlier than before, and I unfortunately will have to monitor my glucose levels again.  I should be able to remain diet controlled like I was last time, so other than trying to remember to check my sugar when I am supposed to, I don’t think the diagnosis will bring many changes.

I’m not really sure that any of the changes have to do with boy versus girl, but overall, I am pleased with how this pregnancy is going.  I’m so glad to have my energy back and I’m looking forward to a smooth second half to this pregnancy.

I’m not much for belly shots, but here is how things are looking at 21 weeks J.

Happy Father's Day!!!

We had a great Father’s Day this year with a ton of family time and get togethers with both sets of grandparents.  Aubrey got everyone stepping stones with her foot prints, and the gifts were a big hit.  I also had the yard mowed for Joey and got him of book of information for Dads that includes how to make a PBJ sandwich and how to get rid of monsters under the bed.  In honor of Father’s Day, I just wanted to let Joey know how much we appreciate what he does for me and for our family.  He works so hard and often has to go out of town, but we know that he’s doing it for us and would love to be home if he could.  He also takes care of the manly things around the house, from building an amazing new deck to coming back home to chase a mouse around the kitchen.

We love you Daddy!!!

And then there were two...

Joey and I had decided a long time ago that we wanted more than one child, and we are so blessed to be expecting a baby boy on November 7^th.  That will put the baby and Aubrey 18 months apart, which sometimes seems incredibly daunting, but at the same time, I think it’s going to be great down the road, when they are older and will hopefully become close.  Needless to say, I have been a bit exhausted lately and I hope that now that my energy is back, I will be able to post more entries and give some more perspective of the 2 under 2 world, I guess I will just start here and fill you all in on the past few weeks.  

I had started feeling just odd in March, not good or bad, just different.  On a whim I took a pregnancy test and so our new journey began.  I have been sick again this time, and terribly exhausted, although I'm sure that some of it has to due with the fact that there's a one year old running through my house at all times.  

While I have had morning sickness again, it only lasted until 16 weeks this time and was not as severe as last time, and for that I am grateful.  It's been a little more difficult to pay attention to my diet and work on exercising with a crazier than expected work schedule, I'm happy to say that I'm getting there.  Here's hoping the second half of this pregnancy is better than the first.

Keeping true to form, we decided to keep the gender a secret and reveal to family all at once.  Only this time, we decided to find out at the doctor's office ourselves, and then tell our families that night over dinner.  I was convinced that it was another girl, and boy was I in for a shock.  It actually took me a couple days to wrap my head around it, but I am getting there.  I have bought a couple outfits and luckily, we will be receiving some hand-me-downs from my cousin that had a baby last December.  

She actually was happy at one point, we promise!

So here we are, and we are so grateful to be able to add to our family.  Stay tuned!

The Year in Pictures

Since we have taken a picture of Aubrey every month, I thought it would be cool to show them all in one place so that you can see how much that she has grown over this past year.  Enjoy!

One Year Old!

Here we are, over a month since Aubrey’s first birthday, and I am just now getting to post about it on the old blog, that being said, I’m going to go ahead and sneak in what has been going on during month thirteen as well.  As you will see in upcoming entries, it has been a little bit busier around here than I expected.    At any rate, it has been a great past couple of months, and it seems like Aubrey has been doing something new every day.  I look forward to waking up every morning to see if there is something new that she has learned to do, and she usually comes through, or at least finds a way to make us smile.

While Aubs is very energetic, she is also incredibly loving and sweet; I have lately been calling her my sour patch kid.  She’s into something she shouldn’t be one minute, and then giving you a big hug and a kiss the next.  She has really gotten into her books and always wants me to read them to her, or at least flip through the pictures.  As an avid reader, this makes me incredibly happy, and I hope I can pass my love of reading to her.  I can’t wait to be able to catch her under the covers with a flashlight, finishing that last chapter as I often did when I was younger.

Other big developments these past couple of months have been several steps (our record is eight).  She still prefers to crawl, but I have a feeling that will change here in the next couple of weeks.  We of course went and got her some big girl shoes, and she loves them.  She has also started talking a lot more, while it is still gibberish to us, usually starting her sentence with “Aubee”, and she will repeat the same thing over and over, until we say “yes” or “really?”.  I just can’t wait until the day that we actually know what she’s saying.  I’m sure then that we will never hear the end of it after that.

We also had our one year appointment last month, and the doc says that Aubs is right on track on doing great.  She weighed in at 18 pounds (5^th percentile) and measures 28.75 inches (50^th percentile), while she’s still out little peanut, she makes up for it in sheer energy.  I don’t know how she stays so slim considering she could probably eat most 3 year olds under the table.  She hasn’t met a food she didn’t like, although her current favorite is any type of fruit.

She also had her birthday party last month, she really showed her cake who was boss and she loved her presents.

I can’t believe that I’m here with a one year old and that time has flown by so quickly.  Aubrey is such a joy, and although there are the days where I wish she would slow down just a little, I’m not sure that I would really want change a thing.

Ten & Eleven Months Old

It’s been a very busy couple of months, so I will be condensing the ten and eleven month updates into one.  Baby Girl is proving to be quite the handful, she is crawling at warp speed and can now climb up the stairs as well as turn around and come back down safely.  She really amazes me with how fast that she can catch onto things and also how fast she can make a mess, especially when it comes to the pantry. 

We have had to get serious about our baby proofing this month as Aubs has figured out how to open the cabinets.  She loves taking absolutely everything out and attempting to climb right in.

As far as food goes, so far Aubs hasn’t met a food she didn’t like.  She’s getting over the purees, and she’s all about the finger foods or whatever is on Mama and Daddy’s plate.  Blueberries, green beans and waffles seem to be in the top three.  She is now mostly sleeping through the night and now goes right to sleep at bedtime.

Big events these past couple of months have been the arrival of Aubrey’s cousin Sam, and of course Easter.  Aubrey is getting used to her cousin, although she is frequently reminded to use “gentle hands” when patting him on the head.  She also doesn’t like to share him with Grandma and Big Daddy, we continue to work on that one.  We are so blessed that we are in the same town and the cousins will be able to grow up and makes some great memories together.

Easter was a wonderful time with family and friends, we had an Easter Egg hunt with my family, and the kids seemed to have a great time.  Aubrey found the golden egg and got $2 for her piggy bank.  We had a wonderful dinner with family on Easter Sunday and got some great shots of Aubrey and Sam.

Next month, our girl will be one, time has flown by!  Maybe I will be able to get that post up in a reasonable amount of time.