6. MONTHS. OLD.

Wow, I cannot believe our sweet baby Abigail is already 6 months old! She brings so much joy, happiness and love to our lives. I am so excited for her to grow up with her cousins and both sets of grandparents in the same state. Life is so much more fun and exciting now because of her! She gives me a reason to work hard at work and makes me want to be a better wife, mother and overall person. Life is more challenging but definitely 100x better after having children. My perspective about what's important in life changed and I really found myself maturing as a person after having Abigail. Some recent pics :)

 

11/10/12 Grandparents with all the grandkids celebrating Papa's birthday!

 

My little family whom I love sooo much!

 

In that last picture, I was in my scrubs because I had to leave for work right after, but for the first 3 Saturdays of December I'll be getting Saturday night OFF! I am so beyond excited! I will be working Friday, Sunday and Monday nights. That means I will actually be able to spend a weekend day with my family and will be able to enjoy going to church without rushing to go to work afterwards or falling asleep since I just got off a 13-hour shift! If this works out, then I will be requesting that to be my schedule. My mom will be able to watch Abgail most Mondays and Tuesdays so I can sleep (thank goodness for a 3-day work week for nurses to be able to do this)! I miss spending the weekend with my family!

Update: Halloween up until now

The weekend before Halloween was my first weekend off since the beginning of July! It was AMAZING. I totally took the weekends for granted before, definitely not anymore. We had a Halloween party on Saturday and I think it's becoming an annual thing. This was our second year! I ran out of time trying to think of a creative costume, so I just wore something we had from our luau we had to welcome Abigail a few months back. Jim and Abigail were Alan and the baby from The Hangover and Jasper was a hotdog! Here is a family pic from the night:

 

Last Monday night at work I developed mastitis. It was horrible and I hope I never get it again! Luckily, it was my last night on and had 3 days off afterwards, so I had time to rest and recover. My mom was off that day so she came over and watched Abby after I came home from work so I could sleep. I don't know what I'd do without the help from my mom! I eventually went to the doctor's office and she confirmed it was mastitis and I've been on antibiotics since then. But still, breastmilk is what's best for Abigail, so I'm going to keep on keeping on for as long as I can.

 

Halloween night I was still recuperating, but I couln't miss out! This was Abigail's 1st Halloween! Jim, Abigail and I grilled up hotdogs in our front yard and also passed out bottled water and candy (of course). We did the same thing last year and it was a hit, so we decided to do it again this year. Some of the trick or treaters even remembered us from last year and referred to us as 'the hot dog house.' Lol. People really seemed to appreciate it. We met our new next door neighbors and also got to chat with our other neighbors. I love connecting with our neighbors!

 

Here are some pics from when we went to the neighborhood park this past week. This was Abigail's first time in her stroller WITHOUT her infant carseat! She is such a big girl now! She will be 6 months this Thursday! Crazy!

 

 

Today Jim and I voted. Then we went to dinner with his parents at Flemings. :)

 





Sick day

Yesterday Jim came home early from work because he was sick. It was nice him being home since we don't get to spend much time together, but sad that my hubby was sick. :( Then at night, I became sick too! He took a sick day from work today and we've both been having fevers on and off and the day has just been a blur. Napping when Abby naps and trying to muster up the energy to take care of her. It was so nice to have a day together with Jim, but the circumstances not so good. At least we took turns getting sick. When one would start feeling better, the other would get a fever again and repeat. I hope Abigail doesn't catch it! She's been okay so far though. I hope by tomorrow we are both better. Jim has to go back to work tomorrow and I'm going to be home with Abby. If anyone reads this, please pray for my family's health! Thank you. :)

GHS Alumni Mommy Reunion!

Last week I had an idea to get some girls I knew in high school together for a mini reunion! There are a handful of us who are now mommies, and it's always nice to get together with other mommy friends and babies! We got together yesterday at San Tan Mall. Kids played in the play area, went to see puppies and ended our playdate at DQ! It was so nice to see them again! I will be planning another alumni playdate, this time not so last minute so hopefully more moms and kids will come.

 

Also, the Halloween pictures that J Lobbins Photography took last week are done! Here are a couple of my favorites. :)

I think I'm the only one who DOESN'T look forward to Friday nights and LOVES Monday mornings!

Today is Friday. Back to work tonight. I know I am blessed to even  have a job, that pays well and has flexible hours, but working every weekend is really getting to me. But then I feel humbled when I meet someone like this... I met a girl at work a few months ago, the week I returned from maternity leave. She was floated to our floor and we started chatting. She told me how she used to be a stay at home home before nursing school. Her husband was successful in his career that allowed her to do that. But then the market crashed and he, like many Americans, was left without a job. So luckily she had the nursing degree to be able to go back to work and make ends meet. Now she is the primary provider of her family for the time being, working full time at our hoispital and 2-3 days a week at another. That's working 12-13 hour shifts, 5-6 days a week. Wow. She knows it won't be like that forever, but for now, it's what has to be done for her family. I was totally put in my place complaining about going back to work 3 days a week. I think God had me meet her for a reason, especially that week I returned from maternity leave. When I think I "have it bad," I am reminded of how blessed I really am. I see that girl around every once in awhile and am reminded of that exact thing.

Anyway, this week was a wonderful week. I just love my days off! I love Mondays because I have the whole week to look forward to, but Mondays are also rough since I can't sleep until Abigail naps. I usually only get an average of 2 hours during the day, maybe 1 hour in the evening, and then I can sleep at night after Abigail falls asleep. Monday was the Mom's Night Out event I talked about in my previous post. So much fun!

Tuesday I finally got my butt back to the gym. Zumba was fun as always. I saw this quote that said "You know all those things you've 'always wanted to do'? YOU SHOULD GO DO THEM." So simple but it inspired me to seek out those things I've aways wanted to do but [insert excuse here]. The only thing holding me back from accompishing my goals/dreams is myself. One of those being to teach Zumba. There are few things I actually think I'm good at or would accept compliments on, and Zumba Fitness is one of them. I was a dancer growing up and my love for dance never outgrew me. I am happy when I dance, my worries go away and I feel like I can just let loose. I've seen friends become successful at doing this, so why not me? I've been licensed to teach for about 2 years now and I haven't actually taught any classes. What a waste! It's time to make it happen!

Thursday Abigail and Jasper had their Halloween pictures taken by J Lobbins Photography. She has become our family photographer and we love her! Here is a sneak peak of Abigail from the shoot:



Mom's Night Out!

Last night my sis in law Laura and I went to West Valley Moms Blog's 1st Mom's Night Out! It was so much fun! They held the event out on the terrace at Pita Jungle at Norterra. They had lots of amazing giveaways and I actually won one of them! I received a free pedicure with add on at a cute salon here in the west valley ($55 value! Woot!). So excited to go pamper myself! The food at Pita Jungle was delicious and for dessert they had Paradise Bakery cookies- every woman's favorite. :) Yum. We are looking forward to the next WVMB Mom's Night Out event!

 

Anyway, since the last time I blogged, I made my first fall wreath! I am actually pretty happy with how it turned out. :) I never thought that I would be into seasonal decor (my home growing up was never decorated according to season/holiday besides Chirstmas) but it just makes the home more festive and the season/holiday more fun and exciting! I am looking forward to when Abby gets a little order so we can work on crafts together and she can help mommy decorate. :)

MIA no longer!

Wow, it has been months since my last blog post! I really was hoping to keep up with this blog but I have been so busy (totally understandable, I have a 4 month old!). Blogging has been last on my list, or shall I say has fallen off my list, and when I finally do get some free time, I'd rather sleep! So it's past 2am now and I finally have some free time to blog.

Abigail still goes to bed sometime between midnight and 2am and about half the time does not sleep through the night. :( With Jim and I's opposite schedules though, it's hard to get her on a normal schedule. She takes about 2 naps during the day, and despite us trying to keep her awake so she will sleep longer at night, she is out cold when she naps. I know babies need their sleep, but why couldn't she just get that sleep at night? Although she has gotten better lately, still not enough to say I got a full night's rest. My sleep is cut up, which is hard. Also hard that I switch my sleep schedule every few days to accomodate work and sleep like a normal person on my days off.

Learning how to balance work and family time has been a major struggle of mine lately. Some days I just cry and cry and beg Jim to let me stay home with Abigail because I think it is just too hard to do both and give them 100% and just not worth what I'm missing at home. Other days, I am so thankful for my career, knowing I am contributing financially to my family which in turn is going to provide a better life for Abigail. I hate working every weekend, but at the same time, working the weekend is what works for my family right now and I'm really maximizing my pay that way (working nights I get a pay differtential and weekends is an extra pay differential). But I thought after a year+ of being a nurse I would've had this dig down by now, but no, learning new things everyday and wondering if I'll ever feel comfortable and confident in what I do. A good coworker of mine and also one of my nurse supervisors this past week mentioned that I seem like I'd be a good L&D/post partum nurse, which is funny because that is exactly where my heart is and where I eventually want to work as a nurse. I feel like I'd actually look forward to going to work and actually retain the information I learn if it was in that area I was passionate about. But I also know that getting that general nursing experience on a floor like mine is good. My plan is to stay on my floor working nights and every weekend until the end of the year. Then starting January, try to schedule it so I can work just every other weekend. But with that, it would also mean that Abigail would have to start going to day care a few days every other week at the minimum. :( Still weighing the pros and cons to that situation, but family time is important to me too, and I feel like I am missing a lot by not being able to go to family gathering or spending the whole day with my little family. Maybe I will look into switching floors next year (to L&D/post partum) but another option is becoming a chemo certified nurse on my floor. I've never had a passion to be a chemo nurse, but working on my floor (medical/oncology) it has started to interest me and I never know if I'll like it unless I try it, right? But with being a chemo nurse, there are a lot of risks. That's why if a nurse is pregnant or breastfeeding, she cannot give chemo. Since we want to have another baby eventually (God willing, could possibly be as soon as the end of next year) I don't know if that would be a good career choice for me at the moment. Just lots to think about... hopefully I will update this blog again sooner rather than later! Goodnight. :)