As I was looking back at all my daily shots from February, I was thinking, “boy, there’s a lot of baby photos in there!” Sometimes it’s hard to remember that he’s only been around for 7 short weeks and is still so brand new to us. Back at the beginning of the month (when he was still little!!?) we finished our family photo shoot to commemorate his arrival.
February 2nd was a hard day as it was my first day back teaching my full student load again, and I wasn’t ready to leave him quite yet:
February 3rd we were still in the midst of figuring out the work / home balance. And also the “whose bed are you sleeping in” balance!
Other than the sleep deprivation and hormones of the first three weeks, to this day I still maintain that pumping is the hardest part of parenting for me. 4.5 hours a day (30 minutes 9 times a day) I’m stuck to a machine and then cleaning up after to feed my child. While I do this, Nick holds him, gives him a bottle, burps, changes, and puts him down. It took me about 6.5 weeks to finally decide to supplement some formula in so that I could take breaks and get to bond with and care for my son as well. In the interim, I’ve been keeping a “gratitude journal” beside my pump to remind me of all the good things during my least favourite thing. The next hardest thing is balancing work and parenting. Thankfully we’ve been able to spare each other off and stay on top of it all thus far.
In the midst of our work and play we also fit in an awesome Valentine’s Day date at the Keg and the movies thanks to a wonderful gift certificate and scene points. And also thanks to the awesome babysitting of our Aunt 🙂
As the month progressed, we started to figure out our rhythm again. Micah transitioned to nights in his own crib, and is gradually figuring out the difference between night and day. We’re not there yet, but we’re close!
As we found our groove, we also found some time for us again, and even got back out shooting 🙂
Being pregnant taught me to let go of the “good” for the “better”. Being a mom has taught me to lay down the “better” for the “best”. It’s an amazing journey and I’m so excited to see where it leads!