Time Flies When Your Having... Fun?

Alright, so I realize it's been almost a full year since my last post but I make no apologies. I've been super busy. Actually I think busy is the wrong word. It's been more than that, I basically have taken on a whole new lifestyle and I feel like I'm always in a state of trying to catch up with my life and all the many changing aspects of it. Let me start at the beginning. A month after my last post I gave birth to a human being. So I think that gets me off the hook as far as this blog goes. I'm going to try as best as I can to sum up what's been going on since then. If it doesn't make sense or seems a bit out of order just keep in mind I have a nine month old that needs my constant attention so I'm pretty much writing this in between all my many mommy duties. Which reminds me... I'd like to give a shout out to Gerber Graduates baby snacks, without which this blog (not to mention all my housework) would never get done. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, so I gave birth. Which I had always believed would be horribly painful with lots of blood everywhere and screaming and scary doctors with evil grins on their faces. Needless to say it was NOTHING like I had imagined. While pregnant I suffered from preeclampsia and gestational diabetes. I'm not going to go into the details of what those things are, if you really wanna know then look it up. Basically I had to be on bed rest and I also had to check my blood sugar levels fifty times a day (which involves pricking my own fingers and drawing blood, which I am not fond of). So by the time I reached 38 weeks of pregnancy I was more than ready to get that sucker out of me. My doctor had scheduled for me to be induced the day I reached 38 weeks and honestly it was the best thing ever. I showed up at the hospital at seven in the morning, they brought me to my room, gave me the inducing drugs and I basically just hung out until the baby was far enough down that I could start pushing. I only felt two contractions, which I'm not going to lie, felt like the worst menstrual cramps I had ever had, and then I asked for the epidural and around five in the evening I was ready to start pushing. I pushed for 45 minutes and then he just popped right out and it was over. Easy peasy. After that, me and baby hung out at the hospital for a few more days and then we went home. Little did I know the hardest part was yet to come. After we brought him home and it was just me and baby, I realized I had no idea what I was supposed to do with him. Lucky for me I have the best husband in the world and he was nice enough to take a whole week off from his job to teach me the right way to hold an infant, how to change a diaper, give baby a bath, figure out the snaps on all the little onesies and how to lay the baby down for a nap. He also woke up for all of the late night feedings with me and held me when I would break down and cry from all the pressure I put on myself about breastfeeding (eventually I would learn that not all women are cut out for breastfeeding and that formula would be my best friend). And then before I knew it that first week was over and my husband would go back to work and I would be on my own. It was scary and tiring at times but looking back I don't seem to recall any of the bad times at all. All I remember is holding that teeny tiny little thing in my arms with the realization that I had helped to create him. That I had helped to create life. It was wonderful and terrifying all at the same time. It was also wonderful to watch this little creature reach all his little baby milestones one at a time. Watching him learn new things and figure out how to use and maneuver this new body of his. I watched him learn hand eye coordination, how to sit up, how to eat baby food, how to crawl and pull himself up and how to play. He also learned some other things along the way that I wasn't particularly happy about like how funny it is to spit out his baby food in mommy's face or how to sneak little things he finds on the floor into his mouth when mommy isn't looking, or how much fun it is to slap mommy in the face every morning to wake her up. But despite all of that we somehow managed to make it all the way to nine months old with minimal damage and all ten fingers and toes still intact. So that brings me to where we are now.

So, what has been going on with us lately? Actually not too much. Tim is still out of a job. Him and the rest of the Northern Marine crew were laid off last March. At first we were under the impression that it would only be temporary but it is seven months later and still no job. We were hopeful last week when Tim got a call from his old boss saying that they wanted to hire him back. He was supposed to start yesterday but as soon as he got there they told him they were laying everyone off again. Apparently the company that was supposed to fund the Northern Marine company backed out. How have we survived for seven months without a real job you ask? Well, lucky for us Tim is a skilled carpenter who can do just about anything from putting up a fence to remodeling a house. He has managed to work several different jobs for random people and ended up making quite a bit more money than he did when he was employed. But now that summer is ending the side jobs are far and few in between and we are starting to get worried. He has applied for many different jobs in the area the last few months with no luck. There isn't much out there that pays enough to support a family of three so we have started to look in other areas. By other areas I mean in Oregon just in case we need to move back in with the parents for a while. Not our first choice but we have bills and a child and need to do whatever is necessary to make it work. It would be hard giving up our independence and privacy. I love keeping my own home and doing things my way but we need to do what is best for our family. But I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that Tim will land a job here so we don't have to move and leave our home and our friends. I think my parents are secretly hoping that Tim won't find a job so that they get to be closer to their grandchild. I don't blame them. It's got to be hard not getting to see your only grandchild grow up. So I suppose that if we do have to move back at least someone will be happy.