Friday Favorites

We made it to another Friday!  Yay! I actually took today off from work to spend some time with my cousin who is in town for the weekend.  Hooray for three whole days with my boys!

I have a hard time with consistency, but I really love writing and posting new things here on the blog.  To help keep myself motivated, I'm going to try to post a wrap-up of a few of my favorite things from the week.  Here goes!

Game of Thrones season six premiered on Sunday night.  Ben and I started watching GoT while I was on maternity leave and were instantly hooked.  We finished the first five seasons in during the free 30-day trial of HBO Now.  Of course, we loved not only GoT, but also the movies and documentaries on HBO and now we are monthly subscribers.   We were so excited for the new season to begin, we could barely stand it!  Henry was awesome on Sunday night and went to bed right around 8:00 so we were able to watch the newest episode without any baby commentary.  It was great, but since we have binge-watched all of the other episodes, it was painful to not be able to keep watching after the final scene.  We can't wait until this Sunday to see how the story progresses.

I began listening to podcasts while at work before I went on maternity leave.  Pandora is great, but it tends to repeat itself and I get tired of listening to the same old music.   My favorite podcasts include Pop CultureHappy Hour and KS1075 Morning Show Podcast.  I discovered Stuff You Should Know this week.  Check them out if you are looking for new podcasts to subscribe to.

My mother-in-law picked up these shoes for Henry last summer while visiting Australia and they are awesome.  They don't fall off, Henry can't pull them off, and they are super cute!  Henry started wearing them this week and I love them! 

Tonight I have a girls night out with some of the moms from my Mom's Group.  We are going to happy hour and then Whimsey Paint and Sip to test our artistic abilities.  Just kidding, we're going to enjoy some beverages while attempting to paint the same picture as the instructor.  It is sure to end up in lots of laughs and fun memories!

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Wrap-up

It has been a busy week around here!  We took our first trip as a family of three to Florida.  We left a snowy, cold Colorado "spring" for warm, sunny Florida and came home to sunny days in the 70's.  We missed the little cold spell for once! We have a busy weekend planned with playdates and birthday parties.  I'll be back next week with some details of our trip and some tricks I learned along the way about traveling with a baby.  

Follow me on Instagram if you'd like to see what we're up to! 

Have a great weekend!

Here's what we've been up to this week:

The Jenkins take Disneyworld

We went with my family to Disneyworld and it was so much fun!  I didn't think that Henry would be as interactive as he was, but he loved it!  His favorite part was definitely meeting Mickey Mouse.  He smiled and giggled at him while trying to grab his nose.  Let's be honest, it was my favorite part of the day too!

Henry swam in the pool for the first time and I think he enjoyed it (it's so hard to tell sometimes whether the look on his face is deep concentration or utter disgust).  The pool was a little chilly, but it was really warm in Orlando so I think the cool water felt refreshing to him like it did for us.  Ben would hold Henry and swim with him around the pool letting him kick his legs.  We also let Henry float in a little baby raft, which he also seemed to like. The best part about the pool at the hotel is that it was a "zero-entry" pool so Henry could sit in the shallow part and splash in the water.

It was a big week of firsts for Henry, he rolled over for the first time too!  And I was able to catch it on video!  Now he has been rolling all over the place and sleeping on his stomach (which freaks me out).  I didn't sleep very much last night because I kept getting up to check on him.  He can roll from back-to-front and front-to-back so I know that I shouldn't worry, but he's my little dude and I have to make sure he's safe!

I took Thursday and Friday off of work even though we got back from Florida on Wednesday afternoon.  I wanted to have a cushion built in during my time off just in case the trip was more exhausting than I was used to.  Luckily it wasn't so Henry and I have had a great couple of days hanging out and adventuring around town!  We went to the zoo on Thursday with our friends and a walk on Friday with some other friends.  

Friday was my bestie's birthday so Henry and I took her out for lunch at our favorite spot in Louisville, Lulu's, followed by ice cream from our favorite ice cream shop, Sweet Cow.  Maggie and I ate our ice cream on a walk to the park to have Henry play on the swings (another first!).  We wrapped up the week with a good old fashioned family outing of grocery shopping.  Fridays are the best days to go to the store, neither Costco nor King Soopers was busy and we were finished with our weekly errands much more quickly than if we had gone on Saturday or Sunday.

The weather is supposed to be really nice this weekend, so we plan on spending a lot of it outside!  What are you up to this weekend?  Let me know in the comments below! See you next week!

Back to Work | Three Months In

Monday marked three months of being back at work for me. Which means I have now been a working momma for longer than I was at home with Henry during maternity leave. These three months have gone by so quickly! It definitely hasn't been the easiest of transitions, and here are some of the things I have learned:

Going back to work is one of the hardest things I have done. The first couple of weeks back to work I was a wreck. I was very overwhelmed with my new schedule of getting Henry ready and to my in-laws in the mornings before getting to work.  I felt like I was always behind. I was having a hard time adjusting to everything I had to do. On top of that, the first week Henry really missed me. He wanted to make up for the time we weren't together during the day by cuddling all night long. Which was super sweet, but since we don't bed share I was spending most of my night awkwardly sleeping in the glider in his nursery while he slept soundly on my chest. Not a very comfortable way to get some rest after a long day of working and taking care of a baby. I cried every night when I got home from work. I felt like I was missing so much (even though I really wasn't). 

Big transitions like this can trigger feelings of postpartum depression. At my six-week postpartum appointment I took the questionnaire that is supposed to tell you and your care provider of you are at risk for developing PPD. I scored really low (which meant PPD was not even on the radar for me). I love being a momma and after Henry was born was one of the happiest times of my life. I definitely had some "Baby Blues" in the first couple of days home, but I never felt depressed. Going back to work brought all of the warning signs of PPD to the surface. In the weeks before I went back to work I became very bitter and refused help from those who loved me. I felt like I was the only one who could truly care for Henry. I cried all the time. I was very snippity and short with Ben. These feelings continued to grow in the first few weeks back at work. I was happy at work and loved seeing my co-workers and friends, but every night the negativity would set in and I couldn't bring myself  to see all of the positives in my life. I called my doctor to get help. She referred me to a counselor at the Postpartum Wellness Center of Boulder, who helped me learn to cope with the negative and overwhelming feelings I had been having. I saw my counselor every week for eight weeks. After each session I truly felt better. She validated the feelings I was having and taught me how to manage the stressors in my life. 

It does get better. After being back to work for about three weeks I started to feel a lot better. Each week is a little easier.  I figured out a schedule for the mornings. I make sure to do things at night to help "tomorrow's me" out. I don't cry every night after work. I play with Henry until bed time and enjoy the time we have together. Henry sleeps by himself again in his crib and I am getting more sleep. I am back into the swing of things at work and truly enjoying my job again. Some days are still really hard. Each week I can't wait for Friday to be over so I can spend two days with my family. On Sunday I do get a little sad about the week ahead and being away from Henry. I take it one day at a time and each night when I put Henry to bed I tell him the number of days left until weekend. On Friday mornings I burst into his room exclaiming, "We made it to Friday!"

Letting those who love you help you makes all the difference in the world. I am a very independent woman and always have been. It was (and still is) hard for me to ask for help. But I have gotten better at it. It doesn't necessarily take a village to raise a child, but leaning on your village does help. Ben and I share the responsibility of driving Henry to and from Grandma and Grandpa's each day. Ben cooks dinner at night so I can feed Henry and we can have a good chunk of time after dinner to hang out as a family. My in-laws drive Henry to my office at lunch so I can see him and nurse. My mom and dad pick up the phone every time I call. Without my village I would be so overwhelmed. I am so grateful for these people and everything they do. 

Whether you're heading back to work tomorrow, in a month, or in six months, just know that you can make it through this transition. It will be hard. You will be sad. But that's ok. Reach out to your village for help. Cry if you need to. It does get better. Plus, you have something to look forward to every night when you head home from work.  Baby giggles and snuggles are the best cure for a long day at the office.

Evenings now consist of stories about dinosaurs and pirates

This is me. Honestly.

This post has been sitting as a draft collecting dust for months.  It didn't feel perfect, and I've always been a perfectionist.  This morning I was scrolling through my instagram and saw this post. "Perfectionism is one of the best forms of procrastination."  I decided right then and there that I was going to dive in and officially start my blog.  Honestly, the post below isn't perfect.  But If I wait until it is, I might never post it.  

Photo: dave and lindsey photo

This is me eight weeks after Henry was born.  He had been fighting a nasty cold and we had both been up all night.  We had spent hours upon hours sitting in the bathroom with the shower running trying to create enough steam to clear out my sweet little boy's stuffy nose.

We had plans to go hang out with my bestie Lindsey and her son who is about nine months older than Henry.  Henry and I were both exhausted and I didn't know if either of us were up for the trip across town.  I knew I had to go see another momma for my sanity and some socialization.  I quickly got both of us dressed, threw my hair back and jumped in the car.  

I couldn't remember the last time I had showered (was it last night?  or the night before that?).  The days were blurring together as had been running on a few hours sleep and Starbucks for the past couple of weeks.  Oh, the life of a new momma.

It was so great to see Lindsey and her little boy.  We had played dolls together as little girls.  It was a little surreal to be hanging out with our own, real babies as adults.  

Lindsey and her husband are photographers and I have turned to them for our family's pictures many times over the years.  After settling in with our babies, Lindsey mentioned that she had all of her photography gear set up to take some pictures of Henry and me. I love her work and I was very happy that she had offered.

At first when I got the pictures back I didn't like the ones of the two of us.  Henry was as cute as ever, even though he wasn't feeling well.  But I didn't like the way I looked.  My hair wasn't done in the signature curls I had worn for so long before Henry was born.  I didn't have time to put on makeup that morning and the bags under my eyes are so apparent.  Looking at the pictures a few days later, I realized how much I truly love them.  

Being a new momma is hard work.  It's sleepless nights and long days that somehow fly by so quickly.  It's worrying about someone besides yourself first, and foregoing things like showering and taking time to get ready.  It's knowing that your little one needs you to care for him and show him love.  It's realizing that you don't even care about the little things that used to be so important to you before mommahood.  It's that surge of love and joy through your body the first time your baby smiles at you. And I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.