Life is Boring

More often than not, when Matt and I are getting ready for bed (around 8-8:30) the question arises: Are we a boring married couple?
These are my thoughts...

My typical day right now consists of, being woken up by my beautiful daughter. I feed her, change her, pick out a cute outfit for the day, put her on the bed, lie next to her and we look into each other's eyes while she is smiling and cooing away, flailing her body with all her might. I'll go to work for a portion of the day, then pick up my baby from the sitter's, come home, feed her, put her down for a nap, get some chores done around the house and/or a quick workout. She wakes up, I change her and feed her and we play for a while until Daddy comes home. He takes the baby and I'll get some dinner together (or I'll take the baby and he'll whip something up). We put on a show, eat dinner and play with our baby, trying our best to make her laugh (to no avail). We feed her, change her, get her in some jammies and put her to bed, then we get ready for bed ourselves.

Gone are the days of staying up till all hours of the night hanging out with friends. Gone are the days of late movies and leaving the house past 8:00.

I suppose that does make us a boring married couple, but the thing is, this "boring" life is what I've dreamed of having for my whole life.

When I was a teenager I'd fantasize about who I'd marry, how many kids we'd have, where we'd live. I'd imagine our kids and their names. I'd imagine being a stay at home mom, and all that that would entail. I'd think about my extended family and how much fun we'd all have when we'd get together and that one day my immediate family would become that extended family. I'd imagine my family getting together and all of our kids playing while we chit chatted and caught up. I'd imagine the stories our kids will tell later on of things they did right under our noses that we never knew about.

When I was in my 20's I longed for all of that and wondered if I'd ever actually have it. The dream became a wish and one I didn't think would be granted. I had so much fun in my singleness but I knew all the time that I was living life "in case". I was working as though I'd always have to fend for myself. I played as though this was the best that life would ever get so I better make it a good one. I was living my life to be mentally and physically prepared to always be on my own. The typical day, mentioned above, may as well have been a fairy tale.

Two years ago Monday (January 18th) Matt asked me to marry him, and the dream was starting to become a reality.

It's so cliché, but to say I love him more now than ever is an understatement. In the last two years we have encountered so much and grown together so much. Every time I talk about him to someone else, especially when I'm talking about a disagreement we've had or a misunderstanding (I still wouldn't say we've ever been in a fight) they say, "Wow! What great communication!" They tell me how lucky I am to have a husband who will sit down and talk things through the way he does. They don't need to tell me how lucky I am.
When Matt and I got engaged I knew I loved him. I knew I was lucky to have him want to marry me. I didn't know how seriously he would take his role as a husband. I didn't know how well he would take care of me and how much he would sacrifice to make sure I was happy. I didn't know I was marrying a man who would be so devoted to me. I didn't know I was marrying someone who would make me feel that I was the best thing that has happened to him and how often he would make me feel like he thought HE was the lucky one. I didn't know that he would be the best thing I could have by my side as I had our baby. I didn't know what having a baby could do for our love. I didn't know what kind of a father he would be and how intensely he would love our child. I didn't know that I was marrying someone who would make my biggest fantasy come true.

I didn't know that having a boring life could make me happier than I have ever been.

 

3 Months, The Golden Age

When Sawyer was born and throughout that first month, people kept telling me that 3 months was when everything got better. So many times in that first month I felt guilty for wishing time would pass faster. As much as I loved this adorable little girl and has happy as she made me, she was a difficult baby. Sawyer will be 3 months old Friday and everyone was right!

This last month has been a doozy. Honestly it's been a big challenge on our little family. I was back at work and taking Sawyer to babysitters. She was such a difficult baby in those 4.5 hours of being watched that we had one babysitter quit and another one threaten to quit. She told us that she would give us one more day and if she cried the whole time (again) she wouldn't be able to help us. I understood. That night we bought the expensive formula and some gas drops our doctor recommended to us (more expensive stuff) spent almost $100 on three items. The next day and since then, she was a different baby. She has been so happy and SO MUCH FUN.

Her first two months, in the evenings, we used to pretty much count the minutes until 8:00 when we would put her down for bed. Typically she'd be crying from 6 until we put her down. Now 8:00 comes and she's still smiling and happy and we wonder if she's even ready for bed. She only cries if she's hungry, tired or bored.

This month she also got her first cold. I'm doing things as a mom that I could only do as a mother. You know, things like, literally sucking boogs out of your child's nose. I got a Nose Frida at one of my showers, its this contraption where you stick a little thingy on her nostril, it's attached to a tube, the tube goes in your mouth and you suck the boogs from your child's nostril into the contraption. There is a filter so no boogs come up the tube, but that doesn't stop someone like me from imagining it and gagging anyway. It actually works really well, a lot better than the little bubble things from the days of yore.

We both got pretty sick, I loved snuggling with her.

We also celebrated our first Christmas with Baby Girl which meant another first, a 12 hour road trip. Wowzers, when we planned that, months ago, it seemed like the easier option. I will say that Sawyer was a champ and did a lot better than we thought she would (thanks again to changing her formula) but I imagine traveling that long with even the best baby would be taxing. One issue with Sawyer is, she hates being in her car seat and when she cries she gets very hot and if we leave her in her car seat she gets soaked with sweat. It's so sad. So to avoid that as much as possible we woke up at 3:30, fed her, packed up and were on the road by 5. She slept for most of the morning, both ways.

It was great to be home with my family for Christmas. It was definitely a white Christmas, it snowed most of the week.  We played wallyball, I had lunch with the girl cousins (on the Bingham side), we played games, we even got to go on a one on one date. Jennie and Brock had us for Christmas this year and I told them I wanted a date with my husband for Christmas. They got us a gift card to Ruth's Chris and babysat for us. It was so nice to have that night with just the two of us.

Jennie sent me these pictures while Matt and I were on our date. Sawyer was well taken care of

 

Hanging out with Daddy at my parent's house.

 

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were my favorites. Dane and Annie and their family stayed the night Christmas Eve. They woke up super early to open presents (as families with young kids will do) and were nice enough to let us sleep. The one downer to this trip is it messed with Sawyer's sleeping schedule, big time, so being able to sleep in was nice. We woke up around 8:30 and opened our presents. Family trickled in throughout the rest of the day. Nolan and Treo were going to drive up, but it was snowing really hard and the roads were really dangerous, so they turned around. That night we played games with all my siblings (minus Nolan) and laughed so hard until late (being about 11:00).

Her cousins loved her so much. Especially Talon. He was always hugging her and holding her hand. They watched Jurassic World and a scary part came up and he runs over to her "Oh Thoyo!!!" and gave her a big hug (protecting her) So cute.

We decided we'd drive home the next day so we could have a day to recover after the trip. On the way home, we stopped in St George to see Nolan and Treo. I realized that I hadn't seen Treo and the kids since last Thanksgiving. Can't believe it had been that long. It was nice to see them and for them to meet Sawyer.

She is getting better at taking a binky as well.

 

The week after Christmas we had been talking about what to do for New Year's. Hard to make plans to be up that late when you have a newborn. We decided that we'd celebrate by getting take out and watching a movie at home. Honestly, I was really looking forward to it. I told Matt I likely wouldn't last until midnight, he gave me grief and reminded me that we could sleep in and I agreed. Neither of us even wanted to stay up once 10:00 hit. I put a post up on Facebook about how my first act of 2016 was changing my daughter's diaper and feeding her. I'm honored to be able to have that be my New Year's.

Sawyer is changing so much every day. She's more alert and it's so fun to watch her discover things. She's almost always clasping her hands together and she LOVES sucking on her hand. Now that we have changed formula she is so much better about taking a bottle, though sometimes she still prefers to nurse and will refuse a bottle. She is so happy, and happiest when she's on her changing table. We can't figure out why. As soon as we put her on there she is smiling and kicking and cooing like crazy. Sometimes we'll just stand there and talk to her for 15-20 minutes because she's so dang happy and cute.

She is on a pretty good schedule these days, sleeps pretty well at night. She has a pretty consistent 7 hour stretch at night, sometimes longer, rarely shorter. She takes a good 2.5-3 hour nap during the day with a few 30-45 minuters as well.

I still can't tell who she looks like more. We get differing opinions a lot, but I feel like people mostly say she looks like Matt.

This last month had a lot of challenges and some we are still trying to work through, but for the most part it was wonderful. Now not only am I looking into what the next month will hold, but 2016 as well. 2016 is going to be so much fun.

3 months old means no longer a newborn. Sawyer  has officially graduated to infant status.

Likes:
Being naked,
baths
her changing table
Mommy's singing
talking
being lifted in the air
being on her tummy
her  play gym from Grandma Halls

Dislikes:
Car seat (still)
Being taken out of the bath
being left alone (when we are out of her sight)
sudden noises or movements (she scares easily)

 Extras

This is what it looks like to work from home.

 

She loves to have her hands by her face. When we give her a bottle she's either holding our hands, has her hands tucked under her chin, or by her face.

Someone's getting chubby

Christmas present from Gma and Gpa Halls. She loves it.

Sunday Best.