Slowly But Surely & Mom/Nana to the Rescue

This will be a combination post since, well, I'm short on time and neither topic seems to be enough to do as a solo post...

First things first, I've been weighing myself intermittently since declaring that it was time to start getting serious about the post-baby weight loss and tone up. When I made that declaration, the scale said I was at 179 lbs. Today marks the first time (post-pregnancy) that it dipped into the 160's (169.8 to be exact). Woohoo! My weight does fluctuate quite a bit throughout the day (sometimes as much as 5 pounds) but I've checked it a couple times today and I think it is safe to say I'm making progress. I still have a way to go to get to my goal, but progress is progress. And while I haven't gotten as far on the "tone up" part as I'd like, I did recently discover that I can once again fit into 2 more pairs of pre-pregnancy (size 8) pants.

This news is just the sort of positive kick-in-the-butt that I need to get back on track. I kind of slacked a bit after vacation, and was actually feeling a bit discouraged looking at vacation pictures and not seeing as much improvement as I'd hoped. Nevertheless, this proves that things are moving in the right direction. With the garden really starting to produce in full force, I've got no excuse to not make healthy eating choices. Last week, we made a huge pan of roasted veggies and just ate that for dinner. It was filling and delicious. This week's goal is to reintroduce healthy proteins (as in, NOT three-meat frozen pizza) and go back to drinking a daily Greek yogurt smoothie.

In other news, I had a bit of a meltdown on Saturday. Paul had just discovered that he is signed up to work a 48-hour shift over Labor Day weekend. That will be his 4th weekend double shift this month. I can do the single-parent thing during the week, and I can handle the occasional weekend double. But this month has been out of control. Normally when Paul is on a weekend double, I can drop Nathan off with my in-laws for a couple of hours while I run the kind of errands that are hard to do with a baby or speed clean the house. They get to see their grandson and I get a mini break to catch up on stuff, so it's a win-win. But my MIL had knee replacement surgery a couple weeks ago, so neither she nor my FIL are available to help out right now.

All this to say, working all week and single-parenting all weekend is starting to wear on me. The double shift for this coming weekend had been accidentally left off the family calendar (even though Paul agreed to the trade shift months ago) so finding out about it last minute was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back. In the process of venting to my Mom about it, she happened to see a good flight deal. And since my dad also has to work all Labor Day weekend, she offered to come here. She arrives Wednesday evening and will leave Tuesday after the holiday. My mother is an angel. I'm soooooooooooo thankful that she has the means and flexibility, at this stage in her life, to drop everything and come help me. Just having another person around to help hold/change/feed/entertain Nathan or start the dishwasher or harvest the garden or help do whatever else needs doing will go a long way towards restoring my sanity. On top of that, she is a superb organizer, and I have a couple of projects in mind that could use an organized touch.

So that is all. Just wanted to write a quick post to share the good news. Still hoping to eventually finish some of the other, half-baked posts that have been rolling around my brain lately. Who knows - with my mom here - maybe I'll get around to that over the weekend!

Where Does the Time Go?

I don't know the answer to that question. All I know is that I'm currently feeling overwhelmed and stressed out. Projects are piling up at work, my house looks like a disaster zone, I have multiple to-do lists that never seem to turn into "done" lists... I'm to the point where I sit down to try to do something, but instead of concentrating and finishing any one task, I just freak out about all the other things I need to do, and end up doing nothing at all. I've been in this situation before, and I know what I really need is a day (or preferably a couple days) to just organize myself and my life.

The trouble is, in the past I could just take a personal day off work before or after a weekend and be done with it all. Now, even if I do that, I still have a baby (who is now quite active). Even if he naps for a couple of hours, that isn't really enough time to tackle some of the larger projects that need tackling at home. If Paul is home, he can help with Nathan. Unfortunately, he's been doing a lot of double shifts lately. And my in-laws are currently out of commission as well (my MIL just had knee replacement surgery and is having a rough recovery thus far). My mom will be coming for a 2 week visit the end of September, but I'm not sure I can wait that long... I'm not very good at thriving in the midst of chaos - and that is what my life feels like right now!

The one area I'm refusing to slack off is in regards to Nathan. I am very aware that he is already 7 months old (as of yesterday!) and time is flying by in that respect as well. When I'm with him, or doing things for him, I'm very good at being 100% present and focused. We go on walks, we play, we have adventures - this past weekend he went to the water park and to a Cubs vs. Cardinals baseball game. I manage to keep his room (mostly) clean and organized, and I'm still making all of his baby food. I'm actually really proud of that. I may not be home with him all day every day, but I'm doing that for him, and that makes me happy. And he seems to like it! He has a huge appetite and is up to 3 meals a day now.

Ultimately though, I know I need to have better balance and focus in other areas of my life besides Nathan. Because at some point, the stress and anxiety I feel over the disorganization and chaos in those other areas are going to bleed over into my time with him, and I don't want to be a stress-ball mom who can't relax long enough to read a book or play peek-a-boo with her son. The fiscal year begins September 1 at my work, at which point I will gain an additional 3 personal days in my PTO bank. I think I will plan to take at least 1 on a day that Paul works and Nathan is going to daycare anyway, and spend it organizing and cleaning my house. If I feel a bit more in control of my home, I should be better able to concentrate on work (especially since I work from home 2 days a week!).

In the meantime, if anyone has discovered the secret of adding more hours - or even minutes - to a day, please share!

Something My Son Has Taught Me

I know I just posted yesterday about how I don't have much time to write these days, but I just had to share something that has been on my mind today. They say that as a parent, your children will teach you lots of things. What has my 6.5 month old son taught me? To smile more.

Nathan greets everything and everyone with a smile. Everything is new and amazing and wonderful in his eyes, and his immediate reaction is to smile. I've even had other people comment on what a smiley baby he is, and it's true. Just his past week, he smiled at a can of coffee in the store, my car keys, his first ride on a gondola, every single member of my dad's extended family that he encountered at our family reunion, a new toy I got him for his carseat... The list goes on and on.

What if I approached life the way my son does? What if I faced each new day, each person I meet, each obstacle I encounter, with a smile? That isn't to say that everything would be forever happy and rosy. But wouldn't beginning my day with a smile be so much better? Wouldn't there be less tension at the start of a stressful meeting if I could just smile at everyone first? Couldn't I theoretically brighten some stranger's day if I flashed a smile in passing rather than glaring at them for being in my way or taking too long at the coffee machine?

This was Nathan's face, the first time we introduced him to snow on the mountain last week:

Pure joy.

So Much to Write, So Little Time...

I said before that July and August were going to be crazy-busy, and now we're really in the thick of it all. I returned home from my work trip late on the 23rd. We then left early on the 27th for vacation/family reunion in Colorado. We started the trip back on Sunday the 4th, and were supposed to have gotten home on Monday, the 5th. Unfortunately, Nathan got sick (for the first time) Sunday night, so after being up all night with him in the hotel, we got a late start and weren't able to make it the rest of the way Monday. We're home now, and he seems to be doing better, but it was an exhausting end to a vacation that was fun and active (but not exactly relaxing).

Paul works a double shift (48 hours) this weekend and then his mom goes in for her knee replacement surgery next Monday. She'll be in the hospital for a few days, and then will need lots of help at home. This means my FIL (who usually helps with Nathan 1-2 days per week) will be otherwise occupied, so Nathan will go to daycare more often than usual for the rest of this month. This isn't a huge deal except that it will require a lot more juggling on my end.

September is also starting to fill up. Paul's birthday is the 1st and I have no idea what to plan for it. The county fair is the weekend after Labor Day, and then it's my MIL's birthday on the 12th. It's a milestone birthday for her, so she's expecting a big hoopla. Unfortunately, we don't know how well recovered she will be by then, so it's proving to be rather difficult to plan anything at this point. My mom is coming for 2 weeks the end of September, which will be nice. She will be here to help Paul with Nathan when my friend B and I go on our girls' weekend, and she'll be around when Paul and I go on an overnight getaway for our 5th anniversary. And then it'll be October!

Meanwhile, things are crazy at work. I have a lot on my plate, I'm mentoring a graduate student intern, and I just found out from my boss that she needs me to help deal with a huge HR mess that just happened. As a result, I've kind of stopped taking a lunch break. I still eat, but I no longer have time to blog during lunch. I do read other bloggers' posts while I'm pumping, and even manage to comment now and then. But typing my own is too much to do with one hand on my cell phone. Hopefully the workload will change as I get caught up from vacation! I do have things I want to write about, including Traveling with Baby, Pumping and Flying, Adventures in Solid Food, and Other Random Drama in My Life. I'm thinking about asking my MIL if she wants to babysit for a bit this weekend (before she becomes incapacitated from the surgery). If she does, I might have time to squeeze in a post or two...

Until then, hope everyone is enjoying what remains of summer!