First three days back at school

Ok, I am not going to sugar coat this and say my first few days back were great. They were far from it! It started out with Jason helping me drop the boys off at school. I almost remembered everything except I forgot the diapers for Grayson so Jason had to run home and get them! While Jason was gone I had to put Grayson in the crib to put some of his stuff away. His teacher asked me "Oh he sleeps on his BACK?" (She asked a bit surprisingly.) I started kinda freaking out when she said that and made sure to say YES he does and I wrote it on his daily sheet. I later called the director and told her that that comment made me nervous and I was worried Grayson wouldn't be put on his back to sleep. She reasurred me later that yes he was sleeping on his back. However not without his teacher telling me that if I had a problem to come talk to her and not call the director first! In my defense I did stress that he needs to sleep on his back! I ended up making the excuse and saying that "oh I think I was just super nervous because Grayson is so little and it was his first day and Corbin didn't come to the daycare until he was 6 months old."

I realized after I left I am NOT going to make excuses for my children anymore! Frankly if I felt she was doing something wrong I don't care if it got her in trouble! That comment made me nervous and I wanted what is best for my child! I need to buck up and be the advocate for my own children regardless if it makes someone upset! I have always been the type of person who hates hurting peoples feelings and I really don't like to causing problems and having them result in fights etc.

Grayson's first few days at school were ok. He will only really sleep in the swing or with a teacher holding him because he wakes himself up after 5 mintues of being put down in his crib. That has been frustrating me! I want my child to be able to sleep by himself but I am not willing to let him "cry it out" until he is at least four months old. Maybe going to school will help him sleep better.

Once I got to work, I was on my toes ALL day! The first thirty minutes with my students consisted of me literally running after my new student trying to make sure he didn't run out of the cafeteria which he did and ended up staying in the office in the assistant principal and principals offices for a long time! I was worn out after the first thirty minutes at school! I will say that he has made some small progress from the past few days of me being there and having a consistent routine! I haven't left work past 5 or 5:30 which made me upset because I told myself that I wanted to get the boys earlier! I guess its hard though trying to get back into the swing of things!

I am struggling with the routine once I get home with the boys. I really just want to come home and play with the boys. However there are lunches to clean out and make for the next day, dinner to make, bottles to clean out etc. I can't wait and do these things until Corbin goes to bed because by 8:00 pm I am ready to go to bed myself!

Since Jason and I have gone back to work after Grayson's arrival this has prompted many discussions about FINALLY making the move up to North Austin. Jason usually doesn't get home until 6:30 sometimes almost 7:00 with traffic and Corbin goes to bed an hour later. Jason is in a bad mood and starving because he has been in traffic for close to an hour/hour and a half. Jason is feeling like he is missing out on seeing his boys grow up and it is really bothering him and I don't blame him! However the move is totally dependent upon me being able to get a job in either another district or transferring to another school up north. I guess we will see what happens.

Yesterday we went to lunch with Jason's mom, sisters, and brother in law. We were celebrating Jason's sister Jessica and her husband Ryan's 26th birthdays, which is today. They have the same birthday! We are acutally going to lunch today at Benihanna with Jason's Dad's family for Jessica and Ryan's birthday today too! I can't wait to see Corbin's face when they do the cooking on the habachi grill!

We had Jason's mom watch Corbin while Jason and I ran out to Round Rock donuts to order Corbin's birthday cake. We got him a race track cake and we are going to put cars for the movie Cars on it. Jason HAD to get a Texas sized donut. We have seen them on Man vs. Food and some other food shows talking about RR donuts Texas sized donuts! Jason loves RR donuts he used to go there ALL the time when he was in middle school. I wonder how he stayed so skinny! :) We shared it with Jason's family! It was GOOD!

Grayson's 2 month appointment

Our little guy is 9 weeks old today! I took this picture today when we got home from the doctor!

This morning Grayson and I went for his two month doctors appointment. Everything was great! He weighs 11 lbs 5 oz and is in the 25-50 th percentile for weight. He is in the 10-25th percentile for height at 21 and 7/8 in. Dr. Owens checked his lungs and said they sounded much better from last week!

Poor guy had to get two shots but he did so well! He barely cried and I held him and nursed him afterward so he was happier!

I hope he transitions well to daycare tomorrow. I said it with Corbin and I am saying it with Grayson, I just WISH I was able to strap Grayson in my carrier and go to work! I am going to miss him so much! He has really started showing his personality and is smiling and cooing SOOO much! He is
really ticklish on his face! Jason, Corbin, and Grayson are so
ticklish!

I also hope my transition back to work goes smoothly! Our pediatrician recommended I pump three times while at work so my milk supply doesn't tank! I hope I am able to find time to do that. I will pump once during my planning period so that shouldn't matter but I am going to need to find one more time where I am able to do that. Ok I am off to get things ready for tomorrow, clothes picked out for the boys and I, lunches made etc. Sigh, I am REALLY going to miss taking Corbin to daycare whenever I want to in the morning and not having to rush to get myself and the boys ready to get out the door by 7 am. I am really going to miss keeping Corbin home whenever I wanted just to have a fun day with Mommy and Grayson!

Wish me luck! I am a bit nervous to go back especially with my new high maintenance student!

McFatty Monday week 2

On to week two! My first week I can happily say I lost 2 pounds! I stuck to at least one of my three goals from last week! I did only have one cup of coffee from the Keurig a day! I did take the boys out walking one day and almost died from using the muscles I hadn't used in who knows how long! The baked goods situation, well I made Corbin these blueberry muffins from a recipe one of my students parents gave me last year that only has a half a cup of sugar and oatmeal in the recipe. So they are healthier than my regular baked goods. I like to bake and can't help it! I really need to work on not baking as often though. Corbin and I are the only ones who usually eat them anyways.

I also got the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred DVD and did that yesterday. Let me tell you today that I am sore! It was a little hard to manage because my two year old either wanted snacks or wanted me to "lay down Mommy" on my yoga mat when it wasn't time to!

I didn't not eat so healthy on Saturday because it was my sister Merritt's 25th birthday. We had a girls day! I needed one so bad! :) (I really appreciated Jason watching the boys so I could do that! He went and saw a movie yesterday while I watched the boys!) My mom took us to lunch, I shared a salad with my sis. We went and saw Leap Year! LOVED IT! It is one I am going to have to buy on DVD! Then we went to dinner at North in the Domain. YUMMY! My sister wanted cupcakes instead of a cake. My mom made these yummy orange chocolate cupcakes and lemon with meringue and fresh fruit!

Side note: Corbin was so cute when we left for the movie he thought he was going too and was at my parents door that leads to the garage and said "mon' Mommy!" It just about broke my sister, my mom and my hearts! It was super cute!

One thing I did noticed compared to before is how much I eat when I am NOT even hungry! So I am trying to not eat when I am not.

Goals this week:

1) Do Jillian Michaels at least three times this week! (I hope I am able to accomplish this and don't get too overwhelmed with going back to work Wednesday.)

2) Don't stress eat/snack when I go back to work! I used to eat snack when the kids ate snack and wasn't even hungry most of the time. I tended to snack on peanut m&ms when I was pregnant with Grayson during my planning period which is at 2:00 and basically all my kiddos are gone by then.

3) Don't stress and try to enjoy my boys and know that eventually everything will get done each night for the next day, ie. housework, making lunches, dinner etc.


Also, I might add last night should be a night for the history books in our house hold. Jason put Corbin to bed and he immediately fell asleep! No crying! I had to go check on his to see if he was still breathing! (He did wake up at 5:45 though :( ) This is the first time since he was born he has done this! I know your probably thinking "so what?" but this kid is a terrible sleeper, so this is huge!

comparisons

I wanted to compare pictures of Corbin and Grayson at about the same age. I keep hearing from Corbin's school how much Grayson looks like Corbin.

Our little guy starts daycare on Wednesday. I am not wanting to go back to work. I had to go to a meeting on Tuesday for a new student, with Grayson in tow which made for an interesting meeting, I had to keep standing up and bouncing with him because he would crying but there were all ladies and didn't care and understood my situation, and there were literally like 12 people there and like 6 of them were specialists! I really didn't have a lot of input because this student started in mid December so I have only met them twice. I apparently have a lot of 'fixing" to do for behavior once I get back. My students were able to sit and do circle time when I left and apparently they aren't now! Arg! My new sub though is wonderful!!! I am so fortunate! She is a retired teacher who taught for like 30 years in the district! Wow, I am just fortunate that once I have a stressful day I get to come home to all my boys!

Ok enough stressful stuff! On to my cute boys!

The first two pictures are Corbin at about 2 months. He of course barely had any hair at all! The boys have the same face shape and nose. I also think Grayson outweighs him at this point. I looked back through the blog because I started it when Corbin was 2 months and Corbin only weighed 12 lbs. Grayson is already 11 lbs. Corbin had a lot of trouble packing on the pounds. He would nurse a TON at night barely sleeping through the night and still had trouble gaining weight. Grayson however, only nurses like twice at night, usually around 1:00ish and 5:30. He sleeps really well! I am definitely getting more sleep with Grayson then Corbin ever let me!

Corbin always has had trouble sleeping! But the good news is he has started sleeping through the night at the ripe old age of 2!!! Ever since we have brought Grayson home, Corbin will cry in front of his door when we put him to bed but we noticed the other night after about 10 minutes he crawled into bed and fell asleep! This is great! I always felt so bad about him sleeping on the floor in front of his door. He did get to the point where I think he preferred it to sleeping in his bed. Luckily I think he now prefers his bed!

I think our sweet boy is going to have BLUE EYES!! We always tease that the Ziaja genes are strong and that the Talbott genes are whitebread! I think he is going to have my color eyes!

Grayson was smiling a ton when I took these pictures but I couldn't catch one, stupid Iphone taking forever to take pictures! The outfit his is wearing is a 6 months, but in his defense Polo runs SMALL! It really fits like a 3 month outfit. Corbin wore it at this age too!

We had to make another trip to see Dr. Owens this week because Grayson I think got what Corbin had. I noticed Monday he was SUPER wheezy and had a bad cough. His poor cough has triggered that horrid gag reflex and he has spit up his whole meal a few times! Last night we had to take off the swing cover and wash it because he soaked himself and the seat really badly. Poor baby. Dr. Owens took an RSV swab and thankfully he doesn't have it! She said hopefully it won't last long and told me to get some over the counter meds. We are going for his 2 month check up on Tuesday so hopefully he will be better than.

I took the boys on a walk on Thursday and I think I overdid it. When I got home my c-section scar was hurting and sore on the right side. (The skin tucks in a bit on that side, second time around the scar isn't a perfect straight neat line anymore.) It scared me! I was scared it was tearing or something. I think I pulled the scar tissue or something when I was trudging up these two huge hills in our neighborhood while pushing a heavy stroller! It feels a lot better now thank goodness!

MLK fun day with Mommy!

Crazy Morning hair in the pack in play!

Umm yah I don't know what he's doing?! Maybe dreaming of trying out for the Olympics?

Nap time in Mommy and Daddy's bed! Our boys look so cute!

Today I decided to keep Corbin home from daycare since its MLK Day so I wanted to have a fun day with my boys! I wanted to soak up my fun day with Corbin since I have to go back to work next Wednesday. Corbin woke up at 8 am and had some crazy hair! He also climbed in the pack and play and was in there for over half an hour just playing cars in his pjs. We have just stayed at home and played with CARS, Thomas, and watched some Thomas videos, and colored. Corbin is really starting to love Thomas aka "Choo choos." I feel a new obsession starting with him!

I think we played too long! He didn't go down for a nap until 3:30!

McFatty Monday

Well I am hopping on the blog bandwagon in order to get me motivated to shred these pounds. Blair at http://theheirtoblair.com/started McFatty Monday in order to shred post baby weight pounds. I don't know if I will be brave enough to post pictures like she does. She started this three weeks ago and has already lost 8 lbs! I also added the Iphone app Lose it! and have started using that this weekend. Since doing that and just recording what I've eaten I have lost 1.5 lbs since Thursday.

Starting weight (My weight from last Monday): 115 lbs
Weigh in today: Lost: 1.5

Goal this week:
1) Put down crappy food/ i.e. baked goods and eat healthy! Lets see if I can do it! We went to the store yesterday and bought a bunch of healthy food.
2) Drink more water!
3) only one cup of coffee from our Keurig a day!
4) Work out/take the boys on walks more!

Our date night and Drama king

Yesterday, Jason and I were fortunate enough to be able to go on a date! My parents and sister offered to watch Corbin and Grayson while we went to see Avatar, which by the way was awesome, and go to dinner. It was great to finally be able to get out without both the kids. Something we haven't gotten to do since our anniversary, five days before Grayson arrived.

I called my sister after about an hour and a half while we ran errands to Target before the movie. She said Grayson was drinking a bottle! I called them after the movie and my dad said that Grayson had not really slept at all! My dad did say that Grayson smiled at him a few times! (He has been smiling at us for almost 2 weeks now!) We were gone for about 7 hours and I think Jason and I overdid it! In retrospect we should have probably just gone to the movie, because I hated my dinner, it was gross and I think we were just gone too long for the first time leaving Grayson. My mom told me when we got there Grayson didn't really sleep at all they had to put him in the stroller and wheel him around a million times and he only really slept for about 30 minutes. My dad, mom, and sister had to take turns dealing with Grayson because he just wouldn't sleep. My mom teased that the daycare would kick him out because he was high maintenance and he is very attached to me. So I spent the majority of the ride home worrying about my child and him going to daycare. I don't think my family will offer to babysit for him for a while. ;(

I already call Grayson a "drama king' because when he coughs it sounds like he is chocking/hacking up a lung and he cries if I am not holding him. The first time he did it after he was born I thought he was chocking.

So today Jason decided to toughen up our little guy. We decided that he NEEDS to sleep by himself at least for naps right now. So we have put him in his crib a few times and just let him cry himself to sleep. The first time we put him in there he cried for about 30 minutes and slept for about 30 minutes. I have had to keep myself BUSY or I can't stand the crying. Thankfully the tv is loud and I can't hear him crying. He is asleep right now, lets see how long it lasts.

Valco toddler seat

On Tuesday we finally got the toddler seat we ordered from Amazon for our stroller! Corbin was very confused because I put Grayson in the stroller part and he got upset. He has only ever sat in that part so he looked at me while crying like "why the heck is HE sitting in my seat?" I was finally able to convince him to sit in the toddler seat. He finally said "ok", which by the way is one of his new favorite words and he says it all the time. Corbin and Grayson loved the walk. I loved getting out in the fresh air and got some exercise! (For all those who care I seriously am starting to doubt if I can lose these 10 pounds before my birthday. I am not eating a ton but I am just STUCK at this weight and it won't budge! I am hoping once I go back to work and am not tempted to snack on yummy snacks I will have more success. I am totally sick of not being able to fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes and I know I could fit into some of them after I had Corbin. I am at about the same weight, well a few pounds lighter, I was at 2 months after I had Corbin too because I joined Weight watchers because they account for nursing moms. I am having trouble finding the time to work out or do much because I am been really tired lately! Can we please get a cleaning fairy for the house?)

I promise although it looks like from the pictures that Grayson hated his walk he really LOVED IT in reality it was just because I had stopped moving the stroller to take pictures.

Doctor Update

First off we left the doctors office with a TON of prescriptions!

Grayson didn't have any thrush in his mouth but Dr. Owens is treating his mouth because she said it sounds like I have thrush. He also had a yeasty diaper rash. Corbin also had to have an albuteral nebulizer treatment in the office and we rented a machine. Oh lord the nurse told me several times I had my hands full! The boys weren't too bad but Corbin was super hyper as is usually what happens when you give a child albuteral. Well its not so fun trying to hold an almost 2 year old in your lap and hold this mask over his mouth and nose while he is thrashing around. The whole time he was trying to get down and crying acting like he is possessed! I was worn out but remained calm and tried to keep the mask on his face. I think I inhaled some of the albuteral too! Thank goodness Grayson slept the entire time Corbin was doing this.

I can't wait until Jason gets home so he can help me give the next albuteral treatment!

We left the office with the nurse helping us out to the car! Grayson's freakin' car seat is so cute but SOOO HEAVY! (If we have a third child, our car seat will hopefully have reached the 5 year limit and I am getting a lighter one! Its hard when you pick them out when pregnant b/c hello you don't have a baby to test it out on to see how heavy it will be once a baby is in it!)And I had to hold Corbin's hand and she helped by carrying out the neublizer machine.

I hardly ever get the car seat out of the car when I am out by myself with Corbin and Grayson. Its easier for me to have Corbin hold my hand and I put Grayson in his carrier. If I have to chase after Corbin like I did today, he walked past his door and almost out past our parking spot to the street and I had to put Grayson down and RUN! Scared me to death! He went into the street last night after I took the boys on a walk in our stroller with Corbin's new toddler seat attached to our Valco stroller. Thank god we live on a non busy street.

In other news the boys got weighed with their clothes on and Corbin weighs 24 lbs 14 oz and Grayson weighs 11 lbs 4 oz! Wow our little Grayson is a porker! :)

Thrush

Today I have to take both boys to the doctor today. Corbin had a 102 fever last night and has been wheezing and has had a runny nose and cough. Grayson is going because I think I gave or got thrush from him. I called Dr. K's office because we both have to be treated or else we can keep passing it back and forth to each other. I can't wait to this to be gone and the painful nursing sessions to stop! Hopefully we can get this under control soon!

6 weeks

I went to my 6 week post-partum check up and everything was great! Dr. K told me that I need to take the blood pressure medicine for another month and then I should be ok. I don't have to go to his office for a whole YEAR! I don't know what I will do, its like losing family because you see them every month for a whole 9 months!?

Weight loss update: I lost a pound so now I am 114lbs. I am thinking I want to lose about 10lbs. I think 105ish is a good weight. I was doing my Dance with Julianne cardio ballroom video (yes I know your probably rolling your eyes but I saw the commercial and had to have it. I told Jason that I need some of those Booty shorts to get me motivated to lose the weight!) on Sunday and Corbin started trying to do the dance moves too! So cute! Let me just tell you I was kind of embarrassed to do this video workout with my family watching! I was on the dance team in college and did dance classes throughout my childhood but I felt like I had never danced before. I am VERY rusty!

Now to leave this post on a positive note! Pictures from this past week!

Attempted shot of both the boys together! Can you tell it was the night of the National BCS game? Yes we won't talk about it! Jason left the room after the first quarter!

Daddy and his Grayson! So sweet! love it!

Attempting to get a picture of me with my boys! Corbin wanted to go play with his CARS!

Haha this is what I look like a lot lately! No makeup and comfy clothes! Maybe its a good thing I am going back to work?! Jason may actually think his wife looks cute and attempts to look nice!

On our way to Mimi's house on Saturday! Corbin wanted his "Eyes"(what he calls sunglasses) because it was so sunny!

My baby is 7 weeks old today!

This is how my 7 week old spends his days. He is most happy being with Mommy in his Beco butterfly carrier! If he isn't in the carrier he will wake up immediately and start CRYING and won't stop! I keep telling him he is going to have to man up. He has two weeks from tomorrow to do this because that is when I go back to work. Oh man the first few days at daycare are going to be hard on my little one!

Hi ho Hi ho and weight goal

Well, I SHOULD be finishing my students report cards that go out on Thursday instead of being on here and in my defense I am almost done and Corbin is at daycare so I have all day to do it. Well I went into work this morning after dropping Corbin off and the good news is that we found someone to finish my maternity leave. The not so good news is that I found out that I am going back to work sooner than I thought! When I asked the leave office at the beginning of the year if Christmas break counted as part of my leave and he said no! Well I asked our sub secretary and she called the leave office just to make sure and it doesn't count towards my leave time but it does count as postpartum time. That makes sense and all but I thought in my head I wouldn't be going back to work until the beginning of February. Well the sub secretary told me I would be going back the 19th of this month! I quickly called Jason and he was asked me if I was ok with that. He told me I could take off more time then that if I wanted. So I called the daycare too to see if they could get Grayson in that quickly and they told me they could. I ended up deciding to go back to work on January 27. The day after Grayson's two month well-check appointment.

This morning I also decided to set a weight loss goal for myself. If I am totally honest with myself I have 15 lbs to lose to get to my pre-pregnancy weight. I was probably a little too skinny before I got pregnant with Grayson. I weighed 100 lbs. I weighed more than that when I got pregnant with Corbin! However, I decided this morning that I am giving myself until my 29th birthday, March 22, in order to get back into my pre-pregnancy size. I only have a few pairs of pants that I can wear when I go back to work. I bought a few pairs of pants that were bigger than the size I normally wear after I had Corbin. Grayson will be 6 weeks old tomorrow and I go to see Dr. K on Friday for my 6 week postpartum visit so I can finally start working out! I didn't want to do anything before hand because I don't want to diet and screw up my milk supply and I wanted to make sure my c-section incision has completely healed.

Happy New Year! A decade in review...

Happy New Year! I feel old! Jason and I both fell asleep well before midnight. Grayson was kind enough and needed to eat 10 minutes into the New Year so I rolled over and told Jason "Happy New Year!", to which he replied..."mmmhumm."

In looking back on the past decade of my life I've had quite a lot of changes. I graduated from high school and college, had a variety of jobs, dated a few losers, met the love of my life, got engaged and married the love of my life, bought our first house, got our first "babies", (our dogs and a cat), we had to say good-bye to two animals- they went to good homes, I became an Aunt, realized that getting your first job isn't so easy, substituted for 1 and half years before getting my job, went on a few great vacations, pregnant 3 times, gained 40 lbs with my first pregnancy, lost 40 lbs, had two c-sections, discovered the amazing joy it is to be a mother, discovered the hardships of working and being a mom, realizing I have a truly amazing family, my parents/family are the best.

There is probably a ton more I could write about but this what all I could think of at the moment.


I can't wait to see what the next decade will bring! Hopefully maybe I will learn to not get so worked up about things and just realize things will eventually fall into place!

P.S. Yesterday at my Mom's house Corbin wanted to sit on the toilet and was trying to pull down his pants/diaper. I sat him on the toilet and of course nothing happened. Since then hes wanted to sit on the toilet two more times. This morning I put him on toilet and he was sitting there all by himself for a minute or two without me holding onto him and he didn't even get upset. I am just happy he is so interested in potty training.