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Confessions of a First Time Mom- Working Mom

August 7, 2017 by Katie Haller

When I was growing up, my mom was a stay at home mom. Every day she took care of us kids. She cooked, cleaned, took us to school, play dates, doctor appointments all while my dad was at work. All my friend’s moms were also staying at home moms. When I was younger, I always figured that I would do the same thing as my mom. I thought that I would get married, have kids and be home with them. Somewhere along the way, my plans changed. I went to college, got a degree, a job and oh yeah… lots of student loans. By the time I got married, my husband and I knew we had to take on the loans first before we could start a family. We ended up paying off the loans and working very hard at our jobs. By the time we moved to Las Vegas, we both finally had good jobs and it felt good.

After Jack was born, there was never a question of whether I would go back to work or not. After an 8-week maternity leave, I returned to work ready to get into a new routine of being a working mom. It was defiantly an adjustment for me at first. Mornings took me a little extra time to get ready, I was very tired and then there was the whole breastfeeding a pumping routine I had to get used to. After a while, things just started to flow.

After work snuggles were always the best when Jack was really little. Now he’s too big and just wants to play.

Now, after being back at work for well over a year, I feel like I kind of have this working mom thing figured out. I have a really good routine and I try to stay on a schedule the best that I can. The major thing that has changed in my life is that I don’t have as much free time as I used to. I honestly don’t know what I did with all that time that I used to have before becoming a mom. I guess I used to cook and binge-watch shows on Netflix, but not anymore. Nowadays, when I get a little break from work and mommy duties, I usually spend my time cleaning or working on my blog.

When it comes to my job, I often struggle, because I feel like I’m not as good of a teacher as I used to be. This past year was hard because Jack has been sick with ear infections or teething really badly. When he’s sick, I have to stay home or leave work early to be with him. Sometimes I feel like I don’t put as much effort into my job as a teacher as much as I used to, but after Jack was born I told myself that I wasn’t going to bring my work home with me anymore. I try to keep work at work so I can focus on my family when I’m home. My job is important to me, so I work hard during my work hours, but I always tell myself that I’m a mother first.

I used to feel guilty about working and leaving my baby, but now that Jack’s a little older, my thoughts have changed. He loves going to his school every day. He loves his teachers and friends. I’m always impressed with how much he is learning. I’d like to be home with him at times, but I would feel very pressured to keep him busy and active every day. Plus he wouldn’t get all the social interaction that he gets at school. Since he has no siblings or cousins his age, that socialization he gets from school is very important.

Sometimes my class gets a visit from the famous baby Jack.

On top of my job, I also have my blog, which has pretty much turned into a second job that I don’t make a real income from. I started blogging for fun, but the longer I keep writing, the more my goals change. The only difficult thing for me with blogging is that I don’t always have time for the other things associated with it. When it comes to writing a new post every week I have no problem with that, but then there’s keeping up with all my social media accounts, my e-mails, networking and it makes me sad how many invitations I have to turn down to blogging events. Sometimes it can be overwhelming. The great thing about my blog is that it’s for me, so there’s no real pressure or deadlines from anyone else but myself. I tell myself to do what I can and just have fun with it.

I love hanging out in Jack’s room after work, trying to sneak in some snuggles from my busy boy.

Bath time is always our special time

So there you have it. My life is super busy. People always ask me how I do it all and I just say, I just do it. I blog because I enjoy it, I work, because it’s my income and I give as much as I can to my little guy, because I love him more than anything in the word. My husband and I have discussed the possibility of me staying at home if and when another baby comes a long, but that’s in the future. Right now, I’m a working mom.

Mom Blog Picture Fails

July 17, 2017 by Katie Haller

Hey everyone! It’s Monday and on Monday’s I like to try to share a mom or family post for Mommy Monday. I don’t always get around to posting one, but today I had an idea for a fun mom post.

I’m not sure about you, but I spend a lot of time on social media looking at other people’s pictures and I love it and hate it all at the same time. I love getting inspired by other people’s photos, but at the same time, everyone on social media makes their lives look so perfect. They post these perfect pictures of their perfect lives and for some reason, we all feel like we need to keep up with that perfect image. I’m defiantly guilty of that. I don’t want to share an ugly picture of myself, or talk about a fight I got into with my husband. We only share the good.

Recently, I was going through my pictures on my phone and deleting the photos I don’t need when I came across some funny pictures that didn’t really turn out so great. If you’re a mom and you have ever tried to capture the perfect picture with your little one, you know how hard it can be. All those perfect moms with their kids didn’t get that shot on a first try. Trust me. Today I wanted to get real with you and share some of my not so great mommy and me pictures with Jack.

Thrifty Wife, Happy Life- Mom Blog Picture Fails

Trying to bribe him to look cute with toys.

He’s always running off on me.

He has mastered the whole boneless move

No smiles for mommy

Trying to jump into the pool.

Screaming and pulling my hair on Mother’s Day

I love this one. It looks like he’s trying to escape me, but I’m blocking the way.

Taking your own outfit pictures is not always easy when you have a clingy teething one-year-old.

I hope you enjoyed those pictures as much as I did. Do you have any photo outtakes that make you laugh with your little ones?

Bedtime Routine- Favorite Products

May 22, 2017 by Katie Haller

*This post contains affiliate links.

My evening bedtime routine with Jack is a very important part of my day. For the first year, Jack had a very hard time sleeping through the night. I tried everything to get him to sleep. During that time, I did a lot of reading for advice, and the one thing that seemed to be consistent in my research was to set up a daily bedtime routine. This was something I did right from the start. I feel that it’s so important for young children to have a predictable and comfortable evening routine. Not only does our nightly routine calm down my little guy and prepare him for bed, but it’s also a special time for us. It’s the time of the day that I get to spend the most one on one time with him.

Today, I wanted to share with you some of our favorite products that we use during our evening bedtime routine.

1.) Honest Company Bubble Bath– My friend sent me a care package from the Honest Company with some of her favorite products when Jack was born. My favorite product in the box was this bubble bath. I love the smell and how gentle it is on Jack’s skin.

2.) California Baby Shampoo and Lotion– I got this set as a gift at my baby shower and I love this brand. The shampoo is super genital with no fragrance and so is the lotion. Living in the desert makes it hard to keep Jack’s skin from drying out, but this lotion does a great job of keeping his skin nice and soft.

3.) Foam Bath Letters and Numbers– Jack got these foam letter bath toys for his birthday and he loves them! They are perfect chew toys for babies and great for older toddlers and preschoolers who are learning their letters and numbers.

4.) Skip Hop Zoo Bath Stack and Pour Buckets– These are another one of Jack’s favorite bath toys. He loves filling the cups and listening to the water. He loves these cups so much that he plays with them around the house and outside too!

5.) Blanket Animal- Jack loves sleeping with his little blanket animal. He loves how soft it feels. He calls it “ni ni” because he knows that he sleeps with it. It helps soothe him at night, and as a mother of a child that could not self-sooth themselves for 12 months, I love his little blanket animal too.

6.) Carter’s 2 Piece Pajamas– I just love freshly bathed babies in their jammies. There is nothing better. I love the 2 piece pajama sets. They are much easier for diaper changing. I’m a big fan of Carter’s clothes because they seem to hold up pretty well and their sizing is pretty true to size. Jack has this pajama set with dinosaurs, but obviously, we would love to have the airplane set!

7.) Huggies Overnite Diapers- I can’t lie, I buy a lot of generic brand baby products, but sometimes there are just things that you need to buy name brand. One of them is overnight diapers. These diapers have been a game-changer for me. Around 12 months Jack finally started to sleep longer stretches through the night, but he would still wake up around 3 am with a soaked diaper that had leaked through. As soon as I started using Huggies Overnite Diapers, he started sleeping through the night without the 3 am wake up. This makes me a very happy mama!

8.) Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you See?- You always have to have a good bedtime book. This is one of Jack’s favorites. This series of books are perfect for toddlers because they are repetitive and do a great job keeping your little busy body’s attention.

That’s my list for my favorite products that are apart of our bedtime routine. What are your favorite bedtime products?

Confessions of a First Time Mom- Pregnancy

May 8, 2017 by Katie Haller

Lately, I’ve been seeing so many people I know announce that they are pregnant with their first child. I always love seeing this, because it wasn’t long ago I was in their shoes. It brings back a lot of memories and emotions about my own experience. I was so excited for the future, yet so scared of the unknown. Today, with Mother’s Day being at the end of the week, I wanted to share my personal experience of being pregnant as a first time mom.

I had a difficult beginning to my pregnancy. I learned that I was pregnant not long after experiencing my second miscarriage. I never thought that I would go through anything like that when the time came to have a baby, so it caught me off guard and left me with a very distraught feeling that wouldn’t go away. The first time I miscarried, I was very disappointed, but also hopeful. The second time that it happened, I felt very alone. We had only been living in Las Vegas for a couple months and I hadn’t told anyone that I was pregnant. I was so saddened by the whole experience, that I was afraid to try again. It wasn’t long after that second miscarriage, that I felt like something was off. I kept waiting for my period to start, but nothing happened. I decided to take a pregnancy test and sure enough, it was true. I kept it to myself, in fear of it being too soon to tell, so I took one more test later in the week. Sure enough, it showed I was pregnant. The next morning I threw up and knew it had to be true.

18-week baby bump

My first trimester was long and miserable. I threw up almost every day. I was so tired and sick. I remember feeling so sad because I thought pregnancy was supposed to be an exciting and happy time in my life. I was worried all the time because I thought that something bad was going to happen to the baby. The one thing that saved me during this time, surprisingly, was going to work every day. As sick as I was, I never called in and I never threw up at work. It kept me busy and kept my mind off how yucky I felt. When I hit 12 weeks and was still sick I got concerned that the morning sickness would never go away. Then one day, probably around 15 or 16 weeks I didn’t throw up my breakfast. After that, I magically started to feel like a human again.

Once I got over my morning sickness, I started getting excited about my pregnancy. My ultrasound at 18 weeks was definitely a high light. I found out that I was having a boy and that everything was developing well. I was able to worry less and start to enjoy myself a little more. My belly popped out right around 20 weeks and that’s when I got really excited about styling my bump. I started my weekly maternity post on my blog which I really enjoyed. (You can check those out here) I felt good in my second trimester, for the most part. I did start to feel very uncomfortable around 22 weeks. As the baby grew, my body grew and stretched in ways it never had before, making it very uncomfortable.

28-week bump

By my third trimester, I had the perfect size bump and I felt as good as I could feel. I do remember feeling extremely anxious. I started watching people’s birth stories on youtube and reading lots of other blogger’s birth stories. I prepared myself for the worse. I was ready to get my little guy out, it didn’t matter how. Despite all my research, when the time came and I went into labor, I didn’t believe it. I had to google “water breaking” over and over again. It wasn’t until I started having strong contractions that I believed I was in labor.

It was a really weird feeling when I finally got to hold my little man in my arms. I was in awe of him and couldn’t stop thinking about the whole experience. As much as I was ready to get him out, I immediately missed feeling him inside me. I wanted to be pregnant again….if that made any sense?

Snuggling with my newborn

I would love to have another baby someday, but I’m not in a rush. I’m enjoying all the moments I can with Jack right now and our little family of 3. I do miss that feeling of being pregnant at times, and I look forward to experiencing it again one day. It makes me a little sad to think that nothing will be like the first time, but it does excite me to know that the next time I am pregnant, I will be sharing it with Jack too. I look forward to the day that I can make him a big brother.

What was your first pregnancy experience like? How was it different from your others?

Confessions of a First Time Mom- Boy Mom

April 19, 2017 by Katie Haller

I always imagined my first baby to be a girl. At the beginning of my pregnancy, all my friends and family were convinced that I was having a girl. People thought that I was just too girly and could only picture me with a girl. Well, that was not what God had in store for me.

When I found out that I was having a boy, I was completely thrilled. I love little boy babies! They’re so cute and always love their mommy’s. I wanted to have a mini version of my husband, and that’s just what I got. I know that my husband kept his parents extremely busy, and that’s what Jack is doing for us. He has been giving me a run for my money since day one. I knew when I was pregnant, that he was going to be an active little guy. He never stopped moving. Sometimes he moved so much that I would worry he was trying to kick his way out. After he was born, Jack was always moving around and kicking his little feet. He started rolling around the house at 4 months, so we had to baby proof the living room quickly. At six months, he was army crawling and by seven months he was full out crawling, standing and running on all fours. On his 10 month birthday, he took his first steps. By 12 months I had a full-on toddler, which makes for a very long toddler stage.

I have nothing to compare Jack to since he’s my first, but I will say that having a little boy has already saved me money when it comes to shopping. Boys don’t need very much. Whenever I go shopping for Jack, I always get distracted by all the cute little girl clothes. There are so many cute dresses, bows, shoes… I’d have a hard time controlling my spending if I had a little girl. For boys, their clothes are simple…pants, shirts, shorts. The downfall of shopping in the boy’s department is the selection. I can never find the cute things I want in Jack’s size, especially when shopping in the clearance section. Even when buying sippy cups or pacifiers, they never have enough of the boy colors. I guess the stores think that boys don’t need as much as little girls.

Overall, I’m having a lot of fun being a boy mom. Jack has been a really good baby. He’s smart, cute, loving, funny. He’s also extremely curious, stubborn and wants to be independent. He’s so busy, it’s hard to get a cuddle in these days. I recently had someone tell me that “the days are long, but the years are short, so enjoy it while it last”. I find this to be so true, so I take in every little snuggle I can get from this little boy.

If your a mom of both a girl and boy, is there a big difference?

The Pros and Cons of Child Care

April 10, 2017 by Katie Haller

I’ve been wanting to write this post for a while now because I’m sure that there are a lot of new parents out there struggling with the idea of daycare. It’s never easy to think about leaving your baby in someone else’s care, but many parents do it every day. I have been working in early childhood settings ever since I graduated from college with my degree in child development. I’ve been an infant teacher, toddler teacher, and administrator at child care centers, so I know what it’s like to work in a child care center and take care of other people’s children. It’s not always easy. I also understand now just how hard it can be from a parent’s perspective. I dropped off Jack for his first day of daycare when he was just shy of 8 weeks old. It was not an easy day for me. I remember that feeling of having to trust a complete stranger with my precious baby. This is why I feel like I am the perfect person to write a post on the pros and cons of daycare.

It’s often a personal or a financial decision to continue to work after having a child. For me, it was a mix of both. My husband and I felt that we weren’t at the financial place we wanted to be at to support our family with just one income, so I continued to work. Plus, I actually like my job. It has been the best job that I’ve had since I graduated college and I wasn’t ready to give that up yet, so after a short maternity leave, I went back to work. I’m grateful that I don’t work too long of hours and I do have a lot of flexibility with my job if needed, plus it was nice knowing that my husband was able to be home with Jack most days in the beginning. For the first 9 months, my husband stayed home with Jack 2-3 days a week, which was nice. We found a small Christian child care center close to our home that had the right price. At first, I had my concerns about leaving him, but overall I’m happy with the setting and Jack seems to love it. His teachers are very sweet and I can tell when I drop him off that he’s in good hands.

So what are the cons of starting your baby in child care? Here is what I came up with.

1.) It’s not you

If you are planning on heading back to work after having a baby, one thing that you have to accept is that no one is going to take care of your baby the same way that you will. I knew that things would be different if it was just me taking care of Jack. It’s hard for teachers to care for your child the same way that you would because it’s a different setting and there are other children that need their attention too. You have to accept that your baby will eat differently, sleep different and play differently while they are away from you and that’s okay.

2.) Child care staff turn over

Child care jobs are some of the lowest paid jobs out there. Many places require the bare minimum qualifications of their teachers and pay them minimum wages, while other higher quality programs have higher standards for their teachers and still only pay them a little over minimum wage. This is why many child care centers are a constant revolving door. Just in the first few months that Jack was at his center, he had a number of teachers come and go. As a parent it makes you question what is going on behind closed door. All you can really do is trust that anyone who takes a job to work with young children has there heart in the right place.

3.) Germs and Illness

Unfortunately, children can carry lots of germs and with germs comes illness. I’ve seen lots of children start in a child care settings and then get sick quickly, because they have never been exposed to the foreign germs. My best advice for that is to start your baby early. The earlier you expose them to the germs the more their little immune system can build up a tolerance. I’d also recommend breastfeeding. Breastmilk has antibodies in it that help protect against infection. The month that I stopped breastfeeding Jack, he got his first ear infection. He never even had a runny nose before that.

4.) No one-on-one care

Most centers have a 1:4 ratio in the infant room, which means that your precious little one and only is going to have to share the attention. It’s impossible for the teachers to attend to your baby perfectly, so in some cases, they might have to cry and not be held and comforted right away. They might have to wait for their food longer than at home. It’s just the reality of not being the only one to care for.

After listening the cons, I have to end on a positive note and tell you the pros of child care.

1.) SOCIALIZATION!

It is so cute to see Jack start to interact with his friends. He’s the first child in our family, so he doesn’t have any siblings at home to interact with and learn from. I love that he can go to school and play with his little buddies. You would be amazed with how early children start to engage with their peers and learn from each other.

2.) Helps build up their immune systems

I mentioned that illness is a con of daycare, but on the opposite side of that, the germs that they are exposed to can also be a benefit of child care. It definitely helps build a child’s immune system. Parents who keep their kids at home until preschool or kindergarten often find that their kids get sick all the time. As I said before, the earlier you expose them to germs, sometimes the better.

3.) Curriculum

Most child care centers have a curriculum that they follow, even with babies. They do learning activities with them throughout the day. They paint, read books, dance, do sensory exploration, it all helps meet their developmental needs. When choosing a center, I would ask about the curriculum and find out how they implement it with the infants and toddlers.

4.) Cheaper than a Nanny

My husband and I had thought about getting a nanny who could be flexible with our schedule needs, but after doing the math it was just not worth the cost. It was much cheaper for us to pay for full time care at a child care center than it was to pay for part time care with a nanny. When looking into child care, look at the price and see what they offer, but you are almost always going to find that a child care center is cheaper than a private nanny.

Honestly, child care can be a really great thing for you and your baby, but you really need to decide if it’s the right fit for you as a parent. It’s a personal decision that you have to make as a parent.

Are you a parent looking to enroll in child care? I’d be happy to answer any questions from a parent or teacher’s perspective.

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