Bittersweet

Last week was bittersweet for many reasons.

#1. LEAVING NATHAN: okay, not so bittersweet, just extremely "bitter." The first day he gave me a smile to get through the day. Tuesday - Thursday he was sleeping when I left, so I just gave him a kiss and left quickly. (The whole "ripping the band-aid off" theory) I got more smiles this week. Specifically when I was feeding him in the middle of the night on Tuesday night-Wednesday morning.

#2. SLEEPING: this is the sweet part. Nathan is only getting up once a night. He was so great last week. My mom spent the night on Wednesday night so I could get a great night's sleep-boy did it help! She got up, changed him, and then came and got me to feed him. I felt like a new woman on Thursday! Joe has also been a great help at night. Our new routine is that I get up, change and feed him, and then Joe burps and rocks him back to sleep. It has been working great. I only lose about 35 minutes of sleep this way as opposed to 1 1/2 hours. Originally, we were going to each take certain nights. Me-Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Joe-Monday, Wednesday since he doesn't have classes Tuesday/Thursday. I think we have decided this works best for both of us. Honestly, with Joe's help last week, I felt great each day at work. (The fact that we went bed between 8 and 9 each night helped, too!)

#3. MY STUDENTS: I have the most amazing students. My anatomy & physiology kids are awesome. They were so good last week and they had a LOT of grace. Since I missed the first week of the semester, all we really did this week was review. I really hadn't looked over the material in detail since I made the notes/review/test before I went on maternity leave. They pretty much ran their own review and were great about answering each other's questions if I couldn't remember what I was looking for on their review sheet. (I wrote the review looking for certain answers-but I couldn't remember what they were by the time I actually went over it with them-luckily they had been studying!) My biology kids have been great, too. We spent a lot of the week reviewing and testing, but we did laugh and I had lots of great conversations with them. Honestly, it was great to see them all!

4. BABYSITTER: Maybe the sweetest part of the week. My mom is babysitting Nathan all semester! I have to say, it is the most amazing feeling to know that when I leave each morning my mom will have my son. She plays with him, talks to him ALL DAY, reads to him, picks him up immediately when he gets fussy (I know any other babysitter would just let him cry while attending to other kids needs), sings to him, takes pictures for me so I can see how their day went, keeps a log of all that they did each day, gives Nathan his vitamins, and plays his music to put him to sleep at naptime. She helped Joe and me tremendously this past week by coming to our house to watch Nathan. Each day there was a new surprise when I came home. One day the house was clean, the next the laundry was done, the next my clothes were ironed, Thursday she made an appetizer for me to take to a potluck at school on Friday...each day there was a VERY yummy meal ready for dinner. It was an amazing week and so much easier because of her! She is a blessing.

5. WISHING THE WEEK AWAY: I struggle with this. This specific item is probably the biggest reason for the title of this post. I told Joe before Nathan was born that I don't want to wish our kids' lives away. I don't want to live in the "I can't wait until..." because then I will miss out on so many moments. Even though spending the weekend with Nathan is what I ultimately look forward to the most, I tried to just focus on spending each evening with him this week. (I think we may have a new American Idol fan on our hands!) There is nothing like walking in from work and picking him up and holding him all-night-long. He is such a sweet, sweet baby!