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I'm baaaaaaaaack!

I've obviously been a little distracted to update the blog and keep things interesting, but here I am, I'm BACK. I'm back to work, Josiah starts daycare  next week, so I'm hoping to get more into a routine than I've been in for the past 3 months.

Yup, 3 months ago today I had Josiah. WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?

REPEAT: WHERE. HAS. THE. TIME. GONE?

 

*Quick Josiah Update*

So Josiah is 3 months old, 15.6 pounds, and aprox 25 inches (I think he might be a bit shorter than that but it's not so easy to measure a squirmy baby!). He holds his head up on his own, loves to smile and coo and talk (mostly to Daddy, and mostly in the morning). When he does tummy time, he does the super man (head and arms and legs lift up and he supports himself from his chest), and he LOOOOOVES anything Mickey (especially his lovey blanket).


Anyways....

I'm hoping that the blog doesn't get completely consumed by Josiah, but this is my blog, so really it can be consumed with whatever I want it to be! Although I may now be a mom, I am still me. Just an updated version. I still am a wife to an amazing husband. I still work at my amazing job. I still sing at church (finally back!). I just now do all of this AND have a baby in tow!

Yes it's been a bit stressful having JP in the office with me off and on. I don't feel quite as productive as I once did, but I still get the job done, just while tiptoeing around a sleeping baby, or while feeding him.

Yes I don't sing at church as much as I use to (it was like every other week for a while there), but we're getting back into a routine. I'm on once a month on Sunday's and a few Thursday nights (like tonight) so we can still spend time as a family after church most week's rather than me be tired from a long morning.

And yes, Mike and I still go out! Even just the two of us sometimes! For our anniversary we went to Dave&Busters (and for those of you who don't know it's an arcade with alcohol lol) by ourselves and had an awesome time! We've gone grocery shopping/regular mall shopping without him. But to be completely honest, it's really weird going out just the two of us. We always are checking the back of the car thinking "where's Josiah??" or we'll go to grab the stroller out of the car before entering the mall and realize "oh that's right we don't have him for a few hours".

Watching Mike become a father has been amazing. He is so good with Josiah; so loving, supportive, and does diapers! He understand that after a day at work, or a day at home, with Josiah, when he get's home I need a little break. I know that he's been working all day so I don't take too too long, but it's nice that they get that bonding time, and mama get's to pee without worrying if he's going to wake up screaming, the cats are going to jump on him, etc.

Becoming a mother has been the most natural thing to me. I am not the perfect mother, and I have a lot of moments that I need support. Mike has put JP to bed the past few nights because I just was exhausted and drained and didn't have the patience. But being Josiah's mother just feels like what I was always meant to do. All the waiting was for this exact moment. I couldn't have asked for a better partner in parenthood than Mike, and we couldn't have imagined having a more perfect child than Josiah.


So I'll leave this post here. I'm hoping to make posting a weekly thing, and hoping to have some sort of outline of things all over the board to post about (Motherhood, world events, my walk with God currently, Josiah, do's and don't, and really anything you guys want!). If you have anything you want to know about me, my opinion on, or anything you might want to see on the blog, feel free to drop a comment! I love hearing inputs!

Now excuse me as I go take my 3 month old's picture and cry that he use to be so small.

X's and O's
Amanda

What JP's Taught Me (In Pregnancy)

It has been a WHILE since I've blogged. I wonder why? Probably this cutie that I've spent the past 9 weeks at home loving up!

 

A few weeks before Josiah was born, I started writing this blog post entitled "What JP's Taught Me". I would fill in this drafted blog post every once in a while about things that were changing in me and around me and how my son had a hand in all of it. Reading back on it now, 10 weeks post partum, I can't believe all the things I went through over the course of EXACTLY 40 weeks, and all of the things JP has taught me in the 10 weeks he's been Earth side. That blog post will come at another time, but for now, here's What JP Taught Me in my pregnancy.

 

What JP Taught Me

March 8th, 2017

2 Weeks Prior to Josiah being born.

I know he's going to be a world changer. Want to know how I know? Because he's already changed mine. He's taught me so many things in these past 38 weeks.

He taught me week 1 that things aren't always going to go as planned, as seen back in June when we started our first cycle with the IVFNE doctors and had so many complications getting the medicines ready and here on time.

He taught me in week 4 that miracles happen every day, whether they're as small as the elevator being on the right floor when you press the button, or as big as seeing those two pink lines on a pregnancy test.

He taught me in week 6 that God is ALWAYS in control, and to trust him, even when you think your entire world is crashing down (when we thought we were having a miscarriage and went to the hospital).

Week 7 he taught me that people can be amazing. In a world with such negativity, when we announced that we finally had gotten pregnant, everyone forgot who was a Christian and who was an Atheist, they forgot who was married, single, straight, gay, black, white, republican, democrat, rich, and poor. And even if it was for a moment, so many people forgot those things and joined together in congratulating us on our pregnancy.

Week 14 he taught me that everything is just a season. The bad times don't last forever, and that there is always something to look forward to. For me, it was the ability to actually eat food and not feel sick 24/7. And that was one of the best lessons for me so far because man I missed eating real food and not just a bowl of cereal and a few crackers!!!

Week 19. Week 19 was the week we found out that he was a he. And that week my little miracle taught me I'd be a boy mom. And I NEVER thought I'd be a boy mom. My best friend and I always joked that she was "called" to be a boy mom and I was "called" to be a girl mom. Well, guess who's due with girl #2 a month after nugget comes?? We were just so excited that everything was going well with the pregnancy that it didn't matter what baby was, but as soon as I saw that it was a boy, my heart completely changed. I had NO idea what being a boy mom meant. I still have no idea. But I'm so excited to see where this adventure takes us!!!

Week 28 munchkin showed me that my life is no longer my own. Up until about this point, I had had nausea, and felt kicks, but that was about it. Around the beginning of the 3rd trimester, I started to feel the pressure (literally and figuratively) of carrying another life inside of me. The weight continued to pile on, the bump got bigger, and the days got more uncomfortable. I think the physical comfortableness of the 3rd trimester is the truest form of love because man, to endure this last trimester (and birth) takes a special person. Unconditional love. Lots and lots of unconditional love.

And here at 38 weeks pregnant, he's teaching me to be prepared for anything and everything. He could literally come at any point now. We're all just waiting on him. I don't sleep (so don't even tell me to sleep now while I can), I pee all the time, he pushes in weird ways out of my stomach and low in my pelvic area. Every little twinge is me saying "is that him coming? Is my water about to break? Was that a real contraction?" The symptom spotting at the end of pregnancy is just as bad as symptom spotting the week before your period is due trying to figure out if you're pregnant. But I know he'll come when he's ready.

The patience I've learned through out this whole pregnancy is amazing. I never found myself to be a patient person, even though everyone around me would say I am. When it comes to work situations, volunteering situations, and things having to do with other people, I am extremely patient. But when it comes to myself and things being done when I think they should be (like, getting pregnant on our honeymoon, or this baby coming today vs in 2 weeks on his due date) I'm so impatient, and that's something I'm working on. JP has certainly helped with that, because I know he will come at the perfect time, just like getting pregnant happened at the perfect time, whether I saw it that way or not.