Brad here with a special guest post. On Wednesday we took Leo to his first baseball game at PNC Park as the Pittsburgh Pirates played the Chicago Cubs. We went with our friends Josh and Diana, and it was a very exciting game for all of us. Before the game we went to guest services to get a certificate in honor of Leo's first game:
After grabbing a beer and a huge cup of french fries, we went to our seats just as the game was starting. The Cubs were up first and nothing too exciting, but then with the Pirates first batter up he his a solo home run and the stadium went crazy and there were fireworks over the river. Leo was very unsure of what was going on, but he was taking it all in and wasn't scared.
As the game went on we had our snack, and he had his. After eating he usually burps and falls asleep, but there was so much to look at he was just staring for a while, before finally giving in and passing out. We stayed until the bottom of the 6th inning as it was a slow game and time to go home for all of us. The Pirates ended up winning the game 6-5 and we're all excited to go back for more games this season hopefully. Below are a few pictures from our MLB experience.
As I write this, I only have two weeks left of maternity leave before I go back to work. Where has this time gone?!? I've already been at home for 10 weeks with this adorable little nugget? Wow how time flies!
Here's what I though I was going to do during maternity leave - get in really great shape, go for tons of walks, get a million projects done around the house, keep the house spotless, read a bunch of books I've been wanting to read (including both novels and more baby books), cook elaborate meals (or any meals at all for that matter), take naps, and sit around and eat bon bons.
In reality, none of that has happened. I have gone for a bunch of walks but only done one actual workout. I have to force myself to get a project done a day (if possible), and sometimes I don't even leave the house all day. Turns out newborns eat about every 2 hours, then they need to be burped, and they need their diaper to be changed, then when they blurp on their outfit that needs to be changed. Then they want to be held, then they spit out their pacifier (cork) and want it back, then they spit it out again, then again, then it's time to eat again! And round and round we go. This is the reality of maternity leave. Oh, and those naps? Fahgettaboutit! I'm probably in bed for about 8 hours a night but within those 8 hours, I usually feed him 3 times, burp him 3 times, clean up his blurp, change a diaper or two, put on his mittens that have fallen off, comfort him when he has dropped George, his giraffe cork, etc., then go back to sleep for another couple of hours. I am very happy to say that last night he slept for almost 5 hours straight! Unfortunately I wasn't tired when he was so I watched him sleep ever so peacefully. I think I'm finally getting the hang of this stay-at-home-mom thing, and just in time for me to go back to work! Really, I am loving all of this amazing time we're spending together. Out of all of our days together, I can only think of one day that was really tough, but the rest we've pretty much cruised through! Here's what we do:
We go for walks around the neighborhood:
We take really close-up pics:
We do Mommy & Me things like go to Baby Yoga and Books & Babies at the library:
We go to the doctor:
We have tummy time (this is sped up for your viewing pleasure):
We hang out in the kitchen and clean bottles and pumping parts:
We take naps - okay, Leo takes naps (very short naps until he realizes that he is both not being held and doesn't have a cork in and promptly wakes up:
We hang out in our AWESOME puppy chair that is the most amazing gift he ever received (who would have thought, but this thing is a miracle worker!):
We take selfies:
In reality, this is my view during most of maternity leave - Leo having another snack:
Since this kid just loves to be held, I can really only get things done in this position. In fact, this is us right now, as I sit here and write this blog!:
But I'm going to miss hanging out with this little guy! Our mornings together are special - for about 2 hours, we're both in states of semi-consciousness and snuggles. This picture was taken this morning before I was ready to get out of bed (don't worry, he doesn't sleep in our bed - he sleeps in a bassinet). I'm getting choked up as I write this - do I still have pregnancy hormones running through my body or have I just become sappier? Either way, we sure have been having a ball!
Last weekend, Grandma Carol and Poppa came to visit us! Okay, let's be honest, they really came to visit Leo. What did we do all weekend? A lot of this:
They brought Leo a new friend, Simba! Simba lives downstairs while George lives upstairs so Leo has a wubbanub friend wherever he goes.
We asked Carol and Joe if it would be okay with them, if they minded if, if it would be possible that Brad and I went to see a movie and they watched Leo. They could not have shooed us out the door fast enough! We saw Beauty and the Beast, and we both stayed awake the whole time! We came back after the movie and where do you think Leo was? That's right, in the arms of grandparents!
On Sunday we went to Spoonwood for brunch - yum. Leo hung out in the sling and we designed our own beer flights. Double yum! After, we told Carol and Joe that we had a friend's house to stop by for his birthday, would they like to come? They said, "no, no, you go ahead, we'll stay at home with Leo". Boy this kid is going to be spoiled. If he's not in someone's arms, he's not happy.
After much contemplation, I decided I needed to go to Los Angeles to be with the family for Grandma's (GeeGee's) funeral. I knew that if I stayed in Pittsburgh I would feel like I needed to be in LA and if I was in LA I would feel like I needed to be in Pittsburgh. But in Pittsburgh, I had a support team who was able to help me make this happen. Carol was amazing and offered to stay in Pittsburgh for an extra day. I took a very early flight Monday morning, and returned home on Tuesday morning. 30 hours in total. I pumped and pumped and pumped. I pumped on the plane while watching Bridget Jones's Baby (it's only fitting), and the business man next to me said nothing, so we were all good. I set up shop (see below) - I was a-milking while watching my movies, drinking coffee, and eating cookies. And since I had my headphones in, I couldn't even hear the machine make it's kaa-awckkk kaa-awckkk kaa-awckkk noise for an hour and a half. I bagged it, tagged it, and off I went!
I pumped as soon as I got to Grandma's house, I pumped on the way back from the funeral (in the car, with the entire family - thanks for being cool, family), I pumped in the Mother's Room at the LA airport, I was supposed to pump on our redeye flight from LA to Charlotte but I fell asleep!!! (and it was the longest period of uninterrupted sleep I've had in months), and I pumped at the Charlotte airport. In this short period of time, I pumped 42 ounces of milk - that's over 5 cups! If I'm Bessie the cow, Erin is my Registered Nurse Maid. She was so amazing - she would help me find outlets and dark corners of airports, she would take the full bottles of milk from me and bag them while on a variety of moving vehicles, and she didn't judge me and even told me it's okay that I didn't pump on the redeye and that I got some sleep. Thank you Nurse Maid Erin!
After 30 hours of being away from my baby, I got home, came through the door, and saw him snoozing away in Grandma Carol's arms. I picked him up and within 5 seconds (literally 5 seconds), he told me that he was ready to eat. Gah! And so Bessie returned to her job and fed the baby.
Oh yeah, and Grandma Carol and Leo made a huge pot of matzo balls - they're in the freezer (along with all of the milk) for Passover. Thank you, Grandma Carol, you made this very important (and very quick) cross-country journey possible for me. And thank you for teaching Leo how to make matzo balls.
