M.I.A. and Starting Work

I'm really sorry I've been a terrible blogger lately!  (By the way, I wrote this and a few other posts yesterday with the intent to post this one like I promised and then realized I never did...I'm seriously the worst...)  With the business of getting our things organized and out of the way at my parents condo and a fiasco trying to get my Illinois PT license through and starting work last week I guess I was too busy to blog.  I can think of a million things I want/need to do while Kayla is napping/sleeping, but it so hard to choose between them:  blog, catch up on my long queue of T.V. shows on Hulu, read, sleep, eat, shower, do this puzzle that's been sitting on the dinning room table, clean my Coach purse, edit photos etc.  See what I mean?

And since going back to work, there is absolutely NO WAY I want to do much else besides be around Kayla when she is up and I am home.  Going back to work was interesting.  I really wasn't looking forward to it pretty much at all.  There wasn't much positive to it in my mind except that I got us to Illinois.  It was hard leaving the house in the morning, but the whole time I was at work last Wednesday, I didn't cry.  It actually felt nice to feel like a normal female human being again and not just Kayla's mom.  I was proud of myself to have gotten through the day.  Even though I really missed her, I knew she was at home having fun and Daddy and Uncle Brendan.  I am glad that Justin gets to spend some quality time with her now.  Oh and the drive home from work is probably the hardest part.  It seems kinda crazy, but for me it is true.  All I want to do is get home to see her and it feels like the drive takes forever and all the lights are inevitably red.  I'm glad I get to see her a little bit every day.

Two days a week I'm 15 minutes away and 2 I am almost an hour away, but that is only for this week.  Next week I'll only be an hour away one day a week so I'm very thankful for that.  My biggest concern is being able to continue breastfeeding.  There isn't a great place to pump at work and my half an hour "lunch period" is actually the second half of a patient's time slot so I've been doing some legal research and I'm going to have to fight for my rights as a breastfeeding mother.  I'll try to keep you updated on that if you are at all interested.  I refuse to be at work for longer than 8.5 hours and I expect a 30 minute break without ANY patients to take care of so I can continue to breastfeed.  And I think that's crap anyways, if you work for 8.5 hours you should get paid for that.  It's not a break when there is still a patient there.  Hopefully, I can find a firm but kind way to express my frustrations.

Anyways, I'm going to try to write some blog posts over the weekend so I don't have as much to do every day to keep up with my blog!  Hopefully this will work out, and I can still put edited photos in all my posts! :)

Everyone, Meet Kayla

Yesterday, Kayla and I had a day out.  It is extremely nice to get out of the house, and it makes my day go by a lot faster.  As soon as it gets a little bit nicer out, I think we are going to start regular walks, especially because she loves the car seat/stroller and the car rides.

Yesterday, I took her to my office to meet some of my co-workers and a few patients.  I had looked at the schedule in advance to make sure I tried to go when there was a patient of mine there and some patients I knew would be interested in meeting her!  Everyone oohed and aahed over her of course (I may be biased) and my boss, co-workers and patients kept telling me how great I look.  It's really nice to hear something nice about me instead of everything being about Kayla (as much as I'm ok with that!).  Again, I honestly fully contribute my weight loss and current body shape to breastfeeding.  It's not exactly like I want it yet and I can't wait to get back to working out or baby and me yoga to get my stomach at least a little bit back to how it was before.  After showing Kayla off at my office I took her to Justin's office.

He had gone to get pita's for us for lunch and we ate in this little room near his desk.  He sent out an email saying where we were if anyone wanted to meet/see Kayla.  It kinda felt like show and tell!  She was sleeping in her car seat so I was really hesitant to move her unless she woke up (which she didn't).  So all of the women in his office stopped by to meet her and tell us how beautiful she is and tell Justin that they aren't convinced he had anything to do with her (as many people have said she looks a lot like me - right now at least!)  After about an hour, Kayla and I headed home to finish her nap and wait for Justin to get home.  I love when it gets close to 5:15 pm!

Aunt Lauren (and maybe Brandon) come tomorrow.  Aunt Meg has big plans to have a Markowski/Hales girls night complete with little dippers from Pizza Hut - which she is apparently dying to try.

Pregnant forever?

I literally feel like I'm going to be pregnant forever.  The end of pregnancy is this very strange time where you become really uncomfortable and sort of expect to feel something happening, like some sort of build up to labor.  Turns out, apparently it's just going to come at any second without any forewarning which is exactly why I think most women feel like they are going to be pregnant forever.

For those interested, I had my check up appointment for my blood pressure on Thursday.  Turns out, my PIH (pregnancy induced hypertension) blood work was prefect (the midwives like to use this word a lot with me: blood work, baby's heartbeat, etc.)  She said literally perfect, it wasn't even anywhere near borderline abnormal.  My BP was still slightly high when I went in but apparently that's not of a concern.  Now, they are more concerned if this baby doesn't come soon!  I rescheduled my appointment from Monday to Wednesday afternoon, where we will have to talk about possible induction eventually if I don't go into labor before then.  So get ready, Baby Hales, Nana/Ohmi comes tomorrow so if you just wait 24 more hours that'd be great.

Yesterday was my last day at work.  I have to admit I'm a little sad about not being able to see a lot of my patients again, but some of them I'm happy to hand of to Kate, Kim and Kassidy (new therapist, and apparently I'm the only one whose name doesn't start with a K :) ).  I had been bringing gifts from patients home every once in a while and every time Justin would say, "Another one??"  All I could say is, "Well my patients like me!"  The other day, I discharged a patient and she came in the next day to bring me a handmade quilt she sewed herself.  The same day, Great Aunt Shirley (who I rode 100 miles on my bike (while 7 weeks pregnant) for) sent us a gorgeous knitted blanket for Baby Hales in his/her mom's absolutely favorite color!  Here is a picture.  Baby Hales sure is a lucky little one.

Come on baby, we can't wait to meet you!