Being a mom is soo busy. I sometimes get time to breathe, but Naisa takes 110% of my time, and then I'm also doing dishes and coming up with and making meals, so it's been nearly impossible to keep the house clean and keep up with exercising and eating right.
I have started exercising again, but it's been on again off again for a month and I'm hoping to stay on again because some baby weight needs to get rolling. I would love to join Weight Watchers to lose weight again, but because of where we are financially, it's not a possibility.
Naisa is a "good" baby. She doesn't have colic, she takes a couple naps a day, goes to bed without too much of a fuss, and sleeps almost all the way through the night (last night she slept through, but we've had a couple of those followed by regular once a night.
The hardest part for me has been the adjustment to pumping. I wanted to breastfeed and we were going to do it for a long time. But Naisa had other plans and wasn't taking in milk efficiently or effectively and so I've been attached to a pump three hours a day since she was two weeks old. And we're planning on giving her breast milk as long as I produce it (when you get pregnant again it dwindles and stops). But pumping takes double the time nursing a baby would take. Because I have to pump and then feed and pump and while I'm pumping I change her diaper and entertain her and eat lunch and use the bathroom, and read books and surf the Internet. I call it my oxygen tank because I have to carry it with me if I try to go somewhere while I'm pumping, and because I'm hooked up to the pump with little tubing like on an oxygen tank.
It gets old. And I have the patience for it, but to add to my breastfeeding woes, I had thrush on my nipples. This made pumping very painful and irritating, but I persevered, and through a series of medical and natural remedies (including vinegar rinses, coconut oil and excessive consumption of garlic) I have overcome it and my breast feel much more "normal".
We've had to supplement with formula to keep Naisa satisfied. At first I was a hater, but it's keeping me sane now because Naisa gets her needs met, and trying to increase my milk supply was not working, no matter what I tried (and I tried nearly everything.)
Oh I hate thank you cards. People kept sending cards with gifts and congratulations and I am thankful, very much so, but writing them takes forever. I would much rather thank people in person rather than mail them a card (a very indirect way to thank them). I made duplicates of the same thank yous for several people because I wrote the thank yous on two different occasions. So now I have to deecide what to do with the extra ones.
We're packing up our apartment this week. It's very challenging to pack up because we try to wait until Naisa is asleep for the night and then we can only pack up in the living room (which needs plenty of packing, for sure). But then we're tired, and I'm tired, and I have no motivation. It's super hard to pack up with a baby telling you to look at her and give her attention. I have an ergobaby carrier, but we have to bend over to pack many of the things in the living room and bedroom, so having a front heavy carrier on makes it challenging to do that.
We're having some friends come and help because I need the extra hands.
Christmas was great. We went to PA for a short while and spent it with Ben's family. It's always fun to go to Ben's house because there's lots and lots of food (which was also my demise) and get a break--Oma and Poppy want to spend time with her. It's also nice to connect with the Delps in Ben's extended family and also the Meyer's--Ben's step mom's extended family.
We drove home in a snowstorm and the drive took 8 hours instead of 4.5. It's easy to say that but it was a long frustrating drive home. Naisa was cranky when she wasn't sleepy and when we were not moving in bumper to bumper traffic (and both Ben and I had to pee) I took her out of her carseat to soothe her and she spit up big time on me, and pooped in her diaper. So I changed her diaper in the backseat of the car,, on my lap. That car is going to be too small very quickly.
We got to spend four days with my sister and parents, who came down to Virginia the day before us (also an 8 hour drive, but it's supposed to be) and we mad ea music video to a Kpop song, went running, ate Ethiopian food twice (YES) and they got to hang out and play with Naisa, who was adorable as usual. I love seeing my family. It was very special to see Mari's reaction to Naisa--it was her first time meeting her and it was truly delightful to see her interact with her.
So now we are looking for a job since Ben graduated from EMU and it's looking like we'll either stay in Harrisonburg or go somewhere random. It just depends on the job and the amount of work that will be involved. Ben is looking for something in Sales, and there are a few bites, but we haven't accepted an offer (there haven't been any official offers).
So that's life in a nutshell.
