"Hey, Honey. What's your New Year's resolution?"
My husband isn't listening.
Here we are - eating nachos and drinking wine on the loveseat, the baby is on my lap cooing at the TV while eating his hand. The girl has been asleep for hours already.
It's been a big year:
We became landlords and moved into a bigger home.
We had a son!
I became a stay at home Momma.
I pinned approximately 347 things and created 4 of them.
We discovered that art can be created from toilet paper rolls.
We fired our mechanic.
We nearly killed our most resilient plant...and killed all the others.
We still don't own smart phones.
Adeleigh started calling me "The Grumpy Dragon" when she doesn't get her way.
We laughed a lot.
We learned what happens when a black permanent marker finds its way into the dryer.
...
A little louder this time, "HEY! What's your New Year's resolution?!"
Phaeton - "I don't @#$%& know.....To cuss less."
He's watching Feliz 2014, the Spanish Channel's New Year's Eve coverage in New York.
Phaeton - "Do you understand this?"
Me - "Um. No."
Phaeton - "I can't understand this at all."
Happy New Year!
Love, The Gaglios
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Sunday, December 29, 2013
This is our new life
If you had asked me 5 days ago where I would be in a week, I would have told you that I'm going back to work - back to a job that I love, with people I love working with. The kids will be taken care of - Adeleigh at her new preschool and Atticus at home. Grandma will help out one day a week. And Phaeton and I will work opposite shifts, so one of us will always be with him. We won't have a day as a family for at least 5 or 6 months, and we may only have 1 or 2 evenings a week together - unless one of us calls out sick for a day. Since Atticus still will not take to a bottle, I will just make the commute home on my lunches to nurse. If needed, Phaeton and Grandma will bring him to me throughout the day. It will be....stressful. But, we will make it work.
Then today, I officially accepted my dream job -
We had always talked about the possibility of allowing me to stay home, but never really anticipated it happening. We have many friends who do it and make it work. We talked to family members who make it work. And we decided to seriously take a look and see if we could make it work too.
We can. And we will. It just makes sense. I plan on looking for a few kiddos (maybe one or two) to watch during the day, so that I can still generate some income. And I am excited to be able to utilize my Human Development and Family Studies degree in our home.
I know it won't always be easy, but neither would the alternative. So, I am not going back to the job that I love with the people I love working with. But, I get to do the job that I love more with the people I love most. It just feels....right.
So today, as I snuggle with the kids on the couch eating apples, Adeleigh yelling at me that she needs more peanut butter, I can't help but feel excited to hear that sweet voice yell at me more often.
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Then today, I officially accepted my dream job -
We had always talked about the possibility of allowing me to stay home, but never really anticipated it happening. We have many friends who do it and make it work. We talked to family members who make it work. And we decided to seriously take a look and see if we could make it work too.
We can. And we will. It just makes sense. I plan on looking for a few kiddos (maybe one or two) to watch during the day, so that I can still generate some income. And I am excited to be able to utilize my Human Development and Family Studies degree in our home.
I know it won't always be easy, but neither would the alternative. So, I am not going back to the job that I love with the people I love working with. But, I get to do the job that I love more with the people I love most. It just feels....right.
So today, as I snuggle with the kids on the couch eating apples, Adeleigh yelling at me that she needs more peanut butter, I can't help but feel excited to hear that sweet voice yell at me more often.
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Who could leave this sweet face during the day anyway?
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(Photos by Jessica Loucks)
Saturday, December 21, 2013
He is totally worth 9 days of labor
In case any of you hadn't heard, the Spumoni ice cream trick did not send me into active labor. I ended up with 9 days of "prolonged early labor", 2 false alarm trips to the hospital, and an extra pint of black licorice tasting calories...Which I wish could have been mint.
Here I am at false alarm #1 -
October 1st - I went to work in labor, beginning to think that this was my new life. This baby is staying put - forever. I had already had my membranes stripped once, with nothing to show except an extreme disliking of having my membranes stripped. And on this day, I went back to my midwives, only to hear what I had been hearing for the last 9 days, "You are definitely ready to have this baby. He could come today. Or he might wait another week."
I may have yawned.
"Do you want me to try stripping you again?"
Since this was my new life, and I was growing used to the pain, I told her yes, fully expecting it to be another unsuccessful attempt.
I went back to work, against my husband's advice, and encouraged that he go see a movie and pick me back up at 5.
Phaeton - "Um. I don't think so. What if you go into active labor?"
Me - "I won't. And if I do, just have your phone on vibrate."
He decided to grab a pizza and beer and either wait for my call or wait until 5pm.
Thirty minutes in, he texted to see how I was.
I texted him - Contractions are two minutes apart again, but I fully expect them to stop any minute.
Honey, let me come get you.
No. Go to a movie.
Fifteen minutes later, he texts.
I texted him - They are getting more intense. But, it's only been fifteen minutes.
I'm coming to get you.
Let's wait to see if they last an hour.
Honey...
Two minutes later - Come get me. This hurts.
He was already halfway there.
We went to get Adeleigh from daycare and met up with my parents. Then headed straight to the hospital.
I was dilated to a 7 after having been stuck at 4 cm for a week. For the third time in 9 days I heard, "This is it!" Then, since this was my new life, a little piece of me was convinced that I would be the medical mystery that would undilate back to a 4.
At 11:45pm my midwife, Lani came to check on me. A quick look and she said, "This baby is ready. Go ahead and push...let's see what happens."
I pushed.
"Oh this won't take long. Push again."
If any of you remember my very first blog post, it took 4 & 1/2 hours of pushing before I could call myself a momma. So hearing my midwife say "this won't take long" was music to my ears.
My midwife started yelling for the nurse (the same nurse that delivered Adeleigh) to get in there. Then, she said something that made me laugh...
Please note: At this exact moment in time, I was still pregnant, which translates to - I have no recollection of what she said. But I have the epidural to thank for allowing me to laugh while pushing a baby out.
His head crowned. Our nurse still hadn't arrived, and I assume due to some rule or legality, my midwife told me, "No pushing! And no laughing until Jan gets back!" She literally held his head in place through 2 contractions until the nurse walked in. Four minutes (and 2 contractions worth) into a new day, caught by his daddy, my little guy was here.
And [almost] born by laughter, he is perfect.
Here I am at false alarm #1 -
October 1st - I went to work in labor, beginning to think that this was my new life. This baby is staying put - forever. I had already had my membranes stripped once, with nothing to show except an extreme disliking of having my membranes stripped. And on this day, I went back to my midwives, only to hear what I had been hearing for the last 9 days, "You are definitely ready to have this baby. He could come today. Or he might wait another week."
I may have yawned.
"Do you want me to try stripping you again?"
Since this was my new life, and I was growing used to the pain, I told her yes, fully expecting it to be another unsuccessful attempt.
I went back to work, against my husband's advice, and encouraged that he go see a movie and pick me back up at 5.
Phaeton - "Um. I don't think so. What if you go into active labor?"
Me - "I won't. And if I do, just have your phone on vibrate."
He decided to grab a pizza and beer and either wait for my call or wait until 5pm.
Thirty minutes in, he texted to see how I was.
I texted him - Contractions are two minutes apart again, but I fully expect them to stop any minute.
Honey, let me come get you.
No. Go to a movie.
Fifteen minutes later, he texts.
I texted him - They are getting more intense. But, it's only been fifteen minutes.
I'm coming to get you.
Let's wait to see if they last an hour.
Honey...
Two minutes later - Come get me. This hurts.
He was already halfway there.
We went to get Adeleigh from daycare and met up with my parents. Then headed straight to the hospital.
I was dilated to a 7 after having been stuck at 4 cm for a week. For the third time in 9 days I heard, "This is it!" Then, since this was my new life, a little piece of me was convinced that I would be the medical mystery that would undilate back to a 4.
At 11:45pm my midwife, Lani came to check on me. A quick look and she said, "This baby is ready. Go ahead and push...let's see what happens."
I pushed.
"Oh this won't take long. Push again."
If any of you remember my very first blog post, it took 4 & 1/2 hours of pushing before I could call myself a momma. So hearing my midwife say "this won't take long" was music to my ears.
My midwife started yelling for the nurse (the same nurse that delivered Adeleigh) to get in there. Then, she said something that made me laugh...
Please note: At this exact moment in time, I was still pregnant, which translates to - I have no recollection of what she said. But I have the epidural to thank for allowing me to laugh while pushing a baby out.
His head crowned. Our nurse still hadn't arrived, and I assume due to some rule or legality, my midwife told me, "No pushing! And no laughing until Jan gets back!" She literally held his head in place through 2 contractions until the nurse walked in. Four minutes (and 2 contractions worth) into a new day, caught by his daddy, my little guy was here.
And [almost] born by laughter, he is perfect.
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