Freshly Baked and in Public

I was lurking on twitter today, an often occurrence when I am too tired to chat, and I ran across a conversation amongst some of the mommas on when they took their brand new baby out in public for the first time. I will honestly say I was very excited to hear others opinions on what I feel is a hotly debated topic.

I am pretty low-key parent. I am not a germaphobe at all and really do not understand the fuss about keeping life sterile with new babies. As my ob said minutes after delivery "his days of sterile living are over".  And let me preface this with I mean full term babies. Preemies are a game changer and I cannot speak to that style of parenting at all. But, me, I wasn't worried at all about public places with EJ. Honestly, I was more worried about me freaking out because I don't do cooped up well. I am very go, go type of person and being told I need to stay inside for 6 or 8 weeks is enough to make me batshitcrazy. Just ask my husband mid-February when I have it deemed it too cold to leave for weeks which means I have been at home for days on end. I am many things and nice and sane are not them.

I was pleasantly surprised to read women after women announce they left for the first within a week of their little one's birth. I took a brutal chastising from a few members of my family for taking EJ out to a very late lunch when he was 6 days old, aka we were the only ones there and he was tucked away in my sling. Which meant not a single person could touch him and you could not see him unless I showed you his sweet self. I needed the fresh air and life outside of my inlaws (yes we were living there at the moment) which meant venturing into public.

Since then I have taken note of what others have done simply because I wondered if I was weird. I  can say that one thing I have notice which each additional child parents seem to care less and less. I even had one friend tell me of another who stopped for a Margarita with her husband and freshly baked baby # 4 on the way home from the hospital. Hysterical!  I guess I just believe that life goes on and things need to get done. I am pretty sure I am not going to be able to pause life for 2 months come August and quite frankly I have no desire to do so.  But, that is why I must have summer babies, no flu season for me. I am also the obnoxious person that follows up every person who questions me on my thoughts with you know some people take public transportation home from the hospital right? And to me that is about as germy as you can get.

Plans

We said we would wait awhile. We figured pregnancy and selling a house went together like oil and water. We made plans for 2 years from now and even painted the nursery. In my ear there had always been a whisper... "you can do it, it would be for the best".
I ignored it and continued to plan. This week that whisper morphed into a scream and we both realized regardless the commitment it was the right thing to do. This nudge I hope means that this time we will find a buyer. This time our efforts will not go unseen and come August 3, 2011 sweet baby Jack will come home to new house. One that suits our growing family better.
This weekend we are staging the house. All our family pictures have come down. Furniture is being packed away. Our personal touch is being removed in hopes of inspiring another family to call this place home. For some it might be a bittersweet moment. I think it is for Craig, for me I have never been emotionally attached to this house. It's only ever been just a house. Maybe next time we will find ourselves a home. Until then we will go back to clean mode and say a  silent prayer that in time we will get ourselves a buyer.
And we can dream of the new house that we will find and hope that house brings the home we so desire.

Preggo Rant

This morning we overslept. Maybe it was because this has been an emotionally draining week. Maybe it was because for the first night in weeks I fell asleep fast and stayed that way all night or maybe we are just that exhausted. Whatever the reason we both missed all the queues to get up and I rolled over at 8:20 to realize that we needed to move.

Fridays are a school day and that means before 9am I am supposed to get us all up, dressed, fed and lunches packed. Not a huge deal but if I was going to do it all in the next 30 minutes I needed to work. I managed my time things got done and as I started to get EJ dressed I noticed that instead of eating all his oatmeal he decided to use it as hair gel. Yep, sticky nasty oatmeal in the hair on day that I did not have time to deal with it. I just stared as he laughed and had a very hormonally charged moment where I almost cried and I said to myself this is why I need a girl in this house.

My husband is all man. We have 2 male dogs. And to round it out we make male children. Everything is sticky here and my husband insists that we decorate with fish. I live in a man cave with more testosterone then I even know what to do with. I am forbidden to have anything girly and lets just say I am over it. I like polka dots and Craig swears that they are girly like lost his cookies with me in the middle of Target because I wanted to get EJ polka dot sheets. I was nice and got trucks but guess what too bad for Jackson. I found some crib sheets that I liked and polka dot or not I bought them.

Baby #3 is getting frills and lace and vintage whether it is a girl or boy and my husband can get over it. I love my little men but this girly girl is drowning in sea of masculinity and I need some reinforcements.

A Lakehouse Reunion

This past weekend I packed one bag and slipped out the door all alone. I spent 3 hours in a quiet car and drove north to Knoxville, TN. For the past 11 years I have been escaping life for 2 days to sit in a room with dear friends and do nothing more than eat and talk. These women entered my life when we were just girls and through thick and thin have remained by my side through it all. We have watched each other fall in love and get married, held each other up through heartache and deaths of parents. It is amazing to me the relationship that I have with these women. In the last 3 years 5 lakehouse babies have been born and 4 more are due by the end of the summer.

Craig got EJ all to himself for 2 days and I was more than ready to get home to my boys. It is truly amazing how much I miss waking up next to my love and hearing my son asking for me to come get him. A lot has changed since those early days of our friendship but one thing is for sure... time and distance will never keep us from picking right back up where we left off. These friends are truly some of my best friends and I look forward to many more years of memories with them.

Preparing for another sweet boy

After much debate I decided that each of my boys will get their own "Coming Home" outfit. I opted to get EJ his own outfit instead of using mine because it has a lot of lace on it. In the South, we tend to save important occasion outfits and pass them down through generations. I have friend's that have multigenerational Christening gowns, with each new addition another set if initials is embroidered in it and it is truly a family heirloom. My husband is not Southern and really doesn't get things like day gowns and traditions. But he handles it well. Because I am well aware that sharing important things among cousins can get complicated and may not work. I decided that each child will get their own outfit and they will be able to pass it down to their family. EJ has sweet day gown with a sailboat on it, much more simple since I was weening my husband into my Southern ways. I found this sweet number at a consignment store still with the original tags and grabbed it. It is so sweet and I can not wait to put our baby in it and bring him to his family. And this time, I will get to go to my own house with my things and we will have proper celebration because the day you bring your baby home should be celebrated!

My parents got me the best christmas present! I am way too cheap to purchase all the appliqued and monogramed stuff I want. It is hard to justify the cost when really it is a cloth that gets thrown-up on. But now I can do it myself! No more 35 dollar tshirts just to get a monogramed one. I have been practicing on burp clothes because it does take some practive to get it right. These are some of my first attempts. Sweet little Jack and EJ will have thier name on everything. And Lord help me if a girl ever joins our house. The things that I am learning to make are just too much. Until then Lord help all of my friend's with girls cause Aunt LA is showering them with goodies.

A day in the life

Today I have
*showered
* made muffins for the boy's breakfast
*made my husband a breakfast sandwich & packed his lunch
* Made and consumed a few cups of coffee
* changed 3 diapers
* cleaned up one very bloody lip and provided lots of Momma cuddles and soothing
* made 3 burp clothes for baby Jack
* Prepared dinner and smelled the goodness all morning
* Enjoyed a pb & j with my little boy and laughed over a banana
* Successfully messed up and cleaned a kitchen
* completed 2 loads of laundry
* dealt with both good and bad behavior

and its only 1pm. A day in the life of the momma is a busy one. One that I love more and more with each passing day.