BUILDING BL(ayl)OCKS: January Journey

January seems to always be a journey, hence the title of this post. I keep seeing quotes like "January was a tough year, but we made it." And, that seems somewhat accurate this year, it feels like forever since M started back to school and Grandma Blaylock was here helping us, which all happened the first week of January.

For the majority of the month, I've been learning how to be a mom and I feel so blessed to have paid leave from work that allows me to do it. So far, the most challenging part has been figuring out the feeding/eating. Jay suddenly decided to nurse only for about 10 minutes, then would stop and not be interested, but still act hungry. After seeing two lactation consultants and trying everything I could, I determined nursing every feeding was no longer worth the stress and began pumping. As we have started to get into a routine with that, it's been so much better. I feel like I am able to enjoy Jay now, loving his giggles, smiles, and play time. He's such a good baby and is starting to sleep for about 5 hour stretches at night, which is AMAZING! There is something to be said for consecutive hours of sleep. One of my favorite parts about being mom is having M as the dad, and getting to work together to help this little one. Whenever M is home, he changes diapers and helps with feeding now that Jay eats mostly out of a bottle. Jay's cuteness melts both of our hearts, and we feel so blessed to call him ours.

Most of our days follow some pattern of feeding Jay, eating breakfast, sending M to school, napping, eating, playing, and repeat until Daddy returns. One evening event that we've done a lot recently is watch an episode of Good Witch. It's been a fun series, and it's helped me remember how engaging TV series can be and how they suck you in to want to watch the next one and the next and the next. One date night, we played Dominion, which is one of M's favorite games. He destroyed me with almost triple the amount of points I had...I realized when playing strategy games for the first time with M, I just need to be prepared to not win and then my expectations will be better suited for the likely outcome.

Jay reached 1 month during January, which was a big milestone!

We also had MLK day in January, which was a great three day weekend. We enjoyed having Nathan and Michela over for the BYU vs. Gonzaga game on Saturday evening, and they brought some yummy snacks to share. Then, on Monday, M, Nathan, and I went to the church to play basketball. Because I hadn't been medically cleared for physical activity at that time, I shot around and joined the boys for a couple games of pig. The crazy thing was that I actually got sore from shooting around, that just goes to show how out of shape I am...which makes sense because I've gone the longest stint in my life without working out, while gaining more weight than ever before. Because it was just us playing basketball, we took Jay and he watched/slept.

Learning to be like M

The last week of January was filled with lots of fun things! I got cleared by the doctor to resume physical activities, so Friday I did my first workout. It was a 15 minute beginner workout that Sisterbug recommended to me that was online. I was excited to try it out, and about 5 minutes in, I was already sweating, thinking I couldn't do anymore, and wanting water. I got my water, and kept moving for the 15 minutes, and enjoyed laying on the ground when I finished. My goal is to get back in shape for the summer so that we can go on bike rides and hikes, and do all the fun summer things.

On Friday, for our date night, we made caramel apples. Many people think of caramel apples as something you do in the Fall, but M and I have been making them since we were dating and each time we learn. This time, I was melting the caramels in the microwave and not paying attention, and they boiled over..oops! I pulled the caramel out of there, dipped the apples, and scraped the overflowed caramel onto a knife and basically painted the apples with it. One thing that went better this time was getting the candy on the apples. We found the trick is to dip the apples in the chocolate, then refrigerate for a few minutes to get the chocolate somewhat hardened. Then, as you roll the apples through the crushed candy, your chocolate stays smooth and your candy sticks beautifully! We always do Reese's on the apples, it's our favorite.

Saturday was a day full of normal chores like cleaning and laundry, but it was also a beautiful day with temperatures in the high 40's and low 50's. So, we went for our first family walk! We bundled Jay up in a warm little football outfit, threw him in the stroller and walked. It was therapeutic to get out of the house and we enjoyed the sunshine, conversation, and moving our bodies. M and I are high achievers, meaning we really like to make lists and check things off...so on our walk we talked a lot about how we need to learn to manage this better with now having a little baby. It's been challenging! The first step being recognizing we can't do all that we used to be able to do, and certainly not in the time we used to be able to. We are learning and practicing, and oh, how grateful I am for a husband who is constantly willing to help me with feeding, changing diapers, rocking to sleep, etc. And, what a blessing it is that M is in school right now and has such a flexible schedule and can be around so much more than he ever will be for our next kiddos. We are treasuring these special moments! That night, my friend from Colorado, came to visit with her new boyfriend. It was fun to meet him, and we played Balderdash. I was SO bad, Tabitha won and I was only 5 steps from the bottom! It was a fun evening and great to have friends over.