My life as I know it

Graham is two months old now and he gets cuter every day, in my (not so) humble opinion. A lot has happened over the last two months and I'm not sure where to start. Let's start with his sleeping habits. I told myself I would transition him to his crib at four weeks. Well four weeks came along and he was still sleeping in our room and I just wasn't ready to move him yet. Not only was he still in our room, but do you remember how I referenced keeping my bedside lamp on that first night we were home from the hospital? Well, I must confess that it wasn't just a one night thing but instead I kept that light on every night for the entire first month of Graham's life. I know, I'm nuts. But it just made me feel more comfortable being able to roll over and see his face. And it wasn't that bright of a light. I have good news. One night I decided it was time to start sleeping in the dark. But that seemed a little too drastic so I switched to only turning on t...

Graham was born a month ago. I cannot believe it. The good news is, we're all still alive. But I have no idea where the last five weeks went. Time is going by so quickly and it probably will never slow down. Next thing you know Graham will be getting married and having his own kids. Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. But seriously, time is flying by! The days fly by, too. I feel like I blink and it's time for Pat to come home from work already (and usually this is when I realize that I haven't brushed my teeth or showered all day). But finally I can say I’m feeling like I might be STARTING to get the hang of this whole parenting thing. And my energy is back which is great. Now I just feel the normal exhaustion that all new parents feel from being sleep deprived (will I ever sleep eight hours in a row again? EVER? What about 4? Or 5? Or 6? Or 7?). We might actually be getting on a little bit of a routine, too. And by routine I mean I am a slave to my son and he cal...

I don't remember anyone telling me how hard the first two weeks of being a mom would be. And if they did, maybe I blocked it out. I guess I was expecting nothing but rainbows and butterflies when bringing baby Graham home. Heading home from the hospital Turns out it's more like baby boot camp coupled with raging hormones and parents who have no idea what they are doing. I was actually terrified to leave the hospital because I wasn't sure how we were going to do this on our own when walking to the bathroom felt like running a marathon for me. But alas, we were home. Ready or not...we were on our own. Within 5 minutes of walking through the door Pat changed a blowout poopy diaper and was peed on. The next day I let Graham pee on his own face while trying to change his diaper. Since then he has peed on himself or someone else at least once a day. Today, he is in his third outfit already and it's only noon... Our first trip out together was for Graham's do...

There are people who believe in miracles and there are people who don't. I've always been one who doesn't. The problem I have with miracles is that when you believe one happened in a situation with a positive outcome, you have to wonder why one didn't happen in situations with bad outcomes. As I sit here typing this, with my two-week-old baby boy sleeping next to me, I am seeing the subject of miracles a little differently. Maybe it's becoming a mom that has changed my opinion because let's face it - from conception to birth, everything about bringing a child into the world is miraculous. To say that Graham's birth story turned out a little differently than I had ever anticipated is a huge understatement. But knowing what I know now and how very much worse it all could have been, I believe the story is nothing short of a miracle. Let's start from the beginning. Thursday, September 27: I was sitting at my desk at work when I started getting really weird ...

Week: 38 Baby length: 19.75 inches Baby weight: 6.8 lbs. - the weight of a mini-watermelon Bump size: 42 inches (down half an inch from last week) Weight: +35 pounds (+1 lb. from last week) Cravings: Apple crisp Wow. A lot has happened during my 38th week and I'm not about to sugar coat anything. Things are about to get real on my life as I know it. Not to say that I've ever really censored my blogs before but I'm about to be even more graphic than ever. Why? Because someone needs to talk about this stuff so that all future moms can say they were warned. Let's start with the fact that I am once again using a watermelon this week to illustrate the baby's weight. We still haven't eaten it, obviously, and I don't know what a leek is and it was a long week/day when this picture was taken so I just stopped caring. Besides, my What to Expect When You're Expecting app used the watermelon comparison for two weeks in a row s...

Week: 37 Baby length: 19.25 inches Baby weight: 6.3 lbs. - the weight of a mini-watermelon Bump size: 42.5 inches (down half an inch from last week) Weight: +34 pounds (+.5 lbs. from last week) Cravings: Pumpkin spice cookies - yum! I'm glad this isn't a full length picture so you can pretend that I didn't wear high water pants and flip flops to work on the day this picture was taken. But the truth is, I did. Oh, and my hair looked exactly like that, too. Obviously, I have completely stopped caring about my appearance. Maternity Lessons Something you should never tell an emotional pregnant woman is that they are emotional. Completely disregard the fact that it may be true, no hormonal pregnant woman wants to hear you say this. Instead, please let me pretend that even though I have no control over anything happening to my body anymore, I at least have control over my emotions (even though we both know that I don't). I'm not on...

I'm so excited to finally be able to say that we are 100% finished with Baby R's nursery. It's been a long time coming but the beauty of starting these projects early is that then it's not stressful. And I can honestly say, this was a pretty stress-free project. Of course, no project which requires a husband and wife to assemble furniture, hang artwork and paint together is without it's stressful moments, and we did have a few. Broken glass, chipped furniture, etc. But we made it through. So here is how the room all started... A bright yellow guest bedroom, painted in Sherwin William's Daffodil yellow. I selected this color over four years ago when we first bought our house. As soon as it was up on the walls, I knew it was much brighter than I had planned and I wanted to change it. But Pat, who had just spent hours painting the room, wouldn't let me. Four years later when we decided the guest bedroom would become the baby's nursery, I knew the...

Week: 36 Baby length: 18.75 inches Baby weight: 5.75 lbs. - the weight of a gallon of apple cider (or a crenshaw melon, depending on who you ask) Bump size: 43 inches (up almost 3 inches from last week!) Weight: +33.5 pounds (+3 lbs. from last week) Cravings: Chips and cake (not at the same time - chips for dinner and cake for dessert) So yes, week 36 is technically supposed to be a crenshaw melon. I had never heard of such a melon but after a little research, discovered it is a cross between a cassaba melon and a cantaloupe. Supposed to be very tasty, too. So I was excited to have an excuse to buy (and eat) one. But as it turns out, I don't think such a melon actually exists - not at my grocery store, anyway. After a brief panic attack and a near meltdown in the fruit department at Giant Eagle (and a threat of giving up on the weekly fruit pictures all together), I spotted the gallon of apple cider and thought it looked mighty tasty (and it is) s...