Routine

I think I’ve finally come to terms with “just” being a SAHM. Yes, this is what I always wanted to be ‘when I grow up’. But that whole thing of having a college degree and having earning ‘potential’ kinda bugged me. Well, maybe not bugged me, but it was just this thought, this ‘thing’, that was there. For the couple of years before A was born, I was the one who brought home the bacon since hubby was in school full time. Once she arrived, hubby was the breadwinner and I stayed home. (Which worked well, btw since we were already used to getting by on one income!) The transition was rather quick too. T started his new job and A was born something like two or three weeks later.

I guess the main thing I missed about the work world was the feeling of accomplishment when reaching goals, checking things off my to-do list, that sorta thing. All that went out the window when my new to-do list revolved around a newborn, which meant ‘nurse baby’ was the #1 priority, and everything else just fell by the wayside. And there’s no feeling of accomplishment when you have to do it all over again in an hour! Baby cries, change diaper, nurse baby, baby falls asleep, mom doesn’t put baby down ‘cause she’ll wake up if she does, baby sleeps while mom reads parenting book, baby wakes up, cries, change diaper….. That’s what my day now looked like. If I got the dishwasher loaded or unloaded, a load of clothes washed, dried or folded, or dinner made in addition to that, I was doing REALLY good.

Enter babywearing. A concept I found while reading one of those parenting books mentioned earlier. I went to Target and got just a cheap Infantino version of the baby bjorn, and was so amazed. I now had two, yes TWO, hands free! And the rest of the story is in a previous blog below. So now I’m able to actually get a few things done while still comforting a baby who needs mommy’s continual touch.

I’ve also gotten back into my ‘reaching goals, checking things off my to-do list’ thing. Except now, the list looks a little different: Potty train toddler (long term to-do), story time, playgroups, support groups, blog… Some get done. Some don’t. But that’s life. :-)