Maternity Leave

I'm going to try not to leave anything out, but I know I will....
The next week is kind of a blur. Mom was with me and it was awesome to have her stay for such a long time. I absolutely loved every minute of it!!
We took Tucker back to the doctor for a weight check and he was at 7lbs, so that was awesome because he was sleeping so good at night we needed to make sure he was gaining weight and he was. :) So, I just continued to let him sleep at night. He would eat about every 2-3 hours in the day and then at night go for at least 5. It was so nice. Many mornings I would wake up about 4:00 and feed him and then go back to bed and we would all sleep till 9 or 10. We got really spoiled. We went out and about several times to the mall, Target, playground, and pool. We got into a routine where we would get up around 9:30 feed Tucker and then head to the pool till about 12, when Tucker was ready to eat again, have lunch and then take naps. We did that for probably 2 weeks. It was awesome!! Sadly mom had to go back to Florida because they were chomping at the bits to get her back! She left on Wednesday and David's mom got here the night before. It was great. But I started to get Mastitis the night before mom left, so I called the dr and he called me in some antibiotics so that was nice. I felt better the next day.
It was great having Brenda here. She loved being with the boys. Ty really got spoiled while the grandmas were here. But he was doing great adjusting to everything. Saturday night I was up pretty much all night with fever and achy to wake up having mastitis again. I was still on my antibiotics. I called the dr and they said to try to pump through it. I pretty much slept all day. Thank goodness Brenda was here, I don't know what I would have done!! Mike flew in Sunday afternoon so she took Ty to the airport to get him.
It was so fun having them all here. Mike and David worked most of the time fixing the playground for the backyard. It turned out great, it was just too hot to play on it. :) One afternoon we went to the movies to see Toy Story 3 in 3D. Ty loved it and pretty much watched the whole thing. He kept his glasses on about 3/4 of the time, so that was good. Tucker did pretty good, I just took him out once to change him and finish feeding him his bottle. It was a fun little trip, then that night we all went to eat dinner.
We hated to see them leave, but knew it was time to figure out how to do this on our own, and actually it went really smoothly.
The next couple of weeks we pretty much just hung out and went for short day trips here and there between Tucker's feedings. The first Wal-Mart trip was successful and I was pretty proud of myself to get them both in and out and no one was crying. :)
Brittany got to fly in and stay a couple of days before the rest of the family arrived. We picked her up from the airport and it was so good having her here. She was a big help and I enjoyed making our friendship stronger that week. It was good. Ty loved her being here and at his beckon call. :) We didn't do much but it was fun just being together. Then a few days later the rest of the family came. It was absolutely awesome having everyone together, except Brad and GG of course. We really just hung out and loved being together. That hasn't happened in a LONG time! So then on Sunday, David left for camp for the week. Dad, mom, and Britt left on Wednesday to head to Ohio and Mandy and the kids stayed with me the rest of the week. Ty absolutely adores Austin and Madi and it was fun having them together making memories. The kids were kind of scared of Tucker, but by the end of the week, Madi was a pro at holding him! Mandy kept all the kids Saturday night so David and I could go on a date. Dinner at J. Butlers and a trip to Wal-Mart...perfect! :) Mandy of course is a pro and did great with the kids. We celebrated Austin's 8th Birthday on Sunday. Lunch at Kimono's with church friends and dinner at LaCarreta with most of the same friends. He got sang to both times. :) I think he had a great Birthday. The night before he went with Jeff and Eliott to the Dash baseball game, so all in all I think he loves coming to KiKi's house! :)
They left Monday morning and headed to Atlanta to go to the Aquarium and to the Coke Factory. So they were excited, but we were so sad to see them leave!!
2 weeks after that, David left for a mission trip to Costa Rica and the night before Ty came down with a high fever! I was sad because I knew Ash and Jake couldn't come with Ty sick. I took him to the dr on Tues and they said it was a virus. Thank goodness he was over it by Thursday and they were able to come on Saturday. It was so fun having her here. I haven't spent that long with her in a really long time. It was fun for Jake and Ty to get to play. They had a rough start, but by the end they were best buddies. We went to parks, children's museums, and just hung out. It was so fun being together!! I am so thankful she drove down to see us!!
David got home and then about 2 days after that we headed to Ohio to see his family. His cousin, Jason was home from Iraq so we were excited to get to see him. We had a great relaxing trip. The weather was gorgeous and I spent most of my days on the front porch with Tucker. Brenda's garden was in full bloom, so we enjoyed fresh veggies and I enjoyed watching her make all kinds of yummy things to can. :) We went to the zoo, visited with friends and family, and really just had a great time! I was sad to leave because I knew that was my last full week of maternity leave and was going back to work the next week. :(
The boys did great on the trip and really adjusted to everything we did! They are pretty sweet, if I must say so myself! :)
So I kept pushing back my start date, I was originally going back Monday, 8/23, but then pushed it to Wednesday and finally actually went back on Thursday, 8/26.
It really wasn't that bad and once I talked to Darla and she said the boys did great I felt 100 times better. Don't get me wrong, I wish I could stay at home with them, but I can't, so I felt good about the situation. They are in a safe place where they are loved, so I know that all is well. :) Work was fine and wasn't too hard to get back into. They had a temporary come in while i was out, so that helped my work load, so when I got back it wasn't a disaster. My boss is great and so understanding. I'm so thankful to God that He put me in such a great place. My boss also told me on Thursday if I wanted to start working Mon-Thurs 7-5:30, I could and then have Friday's off. That was a huge blessing and I'm so thankful for that!!
So all in all, Maternity leave was absolutely awesome. I have 2 incredibly precious boys and a wonderful hubby that loves me. We are doing well and adjusting to day to day routines. God is good and so are we! :)