Hadley's "Onederful" Birthday Party

When we first began thinking about Hadley's first birthday, Jas thought I was crazy when I told him I wanted to go to Atlanta and have her party at my parent's house. It took a little convincing, but he eventually agreed (even though I'm pretty sure he still felt it was a crazy idea). It was important to me that she have the opportunity to celebrate with both sets of grandparents, as well as her great grandparents and godmother. My entire family is down south, with the exception of Tina, so it made sense that we take the opportunity to go home and ring in the big "1" with as many friends and family as possible.

It was quite the undertaking trying to plan a party long distance, but thanks to a lot of help from my mom, little sister and best friend - it all came together. We had a great time and appreciate all who came out to help celebrate our little lady! Huge shout out to my Aunt Loretta who made all of the baseball tees, my cousin Renee who took pictures of the day and my Aunt Alison who flew in from Portland to surprise us!

Many thanks to everyone who has been there with us since we learned we were pregnant. I know she will never remember her party, but it meant a lot to me to be able to share the day with our family. As any parent will tell you, surviving the first year is a bigger accomplishment for the parents than for the child. I am proud of how far Jason and I have come as parents, even while recognizing how much work there is left to do. As everyone tells you, parenthood is a complete game changer and we have learned a lot about ourselves, and each other, over the past year.

 So cheers to an amazing year and here's to many more birthday parties in the future!

Happy Birthday Peanut! (a day late!)

What. A. Year. On January 22, 2016, I was anxiously awaiting the moment I would finally meet my baby. We had been looking forward to that moment much longer than than the nine months I had been carrying her and it did not disappoint. At 7:12 pm, my life changed forever when this tiny, precious human landed on my chest. Without a sound she curled up and took over my heart. For those first few weeks our lives were a blur of diapers, bottles and shockingly little sleep. But we found our pace, became diaper changing wizards, and soon remembered what it felt like to sleep longer than 2 hours at a time. Faster than we could have imagined, we watched this little person grow and change a little every day into the beautiful, silly, sweet and sensitive soul that lights our lives. Hadley, you make me want to be a better person and I can guarantee you have taught me more in our time together than I have taught you. I look forward to what comes next and I wish for you everything that is good in this world. Happy birthday Peanut! We love you! 

Well....

It took all of 36 hours into 2017 before Hadley spiked her first fever and I now have a cute and cuddly - if not very helpful - assistant for the day. We were all home yesterday and Hadley was acting a little out of sorts. She was more clingy than usual and wasn't eating as much as she normally does. She took a short afternoon nap and when she woke up I knew something was wrong. Those rosy cheeks told a story of a fever higher than 102 and we settled in for a long and tiring night. She was up once an hour and maintained a high fever through the night despite being medicated. She seems to be feeling better today and her fever is lower, though she still isn't eating very much. She also must be pretty tired because she's going on hour three in her morning nap.

Today was to be my first day back in the office but now I'm working from home and feeling a bit overwhelmed. I recently started a new role at work and it is proving to be more challenging than I anticipated. I have found it difficult to balance work with my home life and it's one of my goals for 2017 to try and find - and maintain - a better balance of the two. It's important to me that I do well at work, but it's more important that I am the kind of mom that Hadley deserves. I am sure this is something that I will continue to struggle with as long as I am a working mother, so hopefully I'll find some better coping techniques soon. For today though, I'll work on un-burying myself from my overwhelmingly full inbox in between cuddles with my personal little heater. Praying that she feels better soon and we can get back to our normal routine tomorrow!