My Happiness Project: September

Have you read this book?

If so, you probably understand why I want to start my own Happiness Project! This book is incredibly inspiring and the premise is simple: focus on one area of your life each month that you would like to make improvements in and continue that pattern for a full year.

I also feel like now is a great time for me to begin this project because from what I've heard, transitioning to motherhood is challenging (and wonderful!) for various reasons. One of those reasons could be that as moms we set aside our own needs and desires because there's an adorable tiny person who needs our constant love and attention! If this gets too extreme, we become depleted and long for the growth and achievement we seemed to have so readily before motherhood. A happiness project is a simple way to check in with ourselves, set goals and celebrate growth!

While considering many areas I could focus on for the month of September, I ultimately decided on my body. Nine months of pregnancy and recovering from delivery can make you feel like your body has sort of been hijacked, so for September I am choosing to "Restore My Body". This restoration will not involve before and after photos or really a focus on the exterior of my body at all, but will instead revolve around these three sub categories:

- Improve my posture

- Practice yoga daily

- Give myself a bedtime

Improve my posture

I've found that how I sit or stand has a major effect on how I think and ultimately how I act. When I sit with good posture, I feel energized which allows me to think more clearly, work efficiently and feel inspired. It's really amazing how it's all connected! Gretchen Rubin, the author of The Happiness Project, has a saying that we should "act the way we want to feel," and good posture demonstrates that principle.

It's safe to say my decent posture has slowly deteriorated over the past few years. Growing up I did a lot of three things: singing, dancing and playing the piano. All require a certain form of posture, and maintaining it in pretty much every area of my life wasn't even something I had to think about it. When I went to college, however, I got lazy with my sitting posture. I spent more time than ever hunched over a computer studying at the library and before I knew it the little muscles that let me sit decently without thinking were nowhere to be found! I tried to do better, but it was always a major effort. Cue graduation and a full time job where I spent most of my time on a computer editing video footage for two years, and I would come home every single day with an aching neck and upper back. Add pregnancy to that mix... yikes!

Needless to say, it's time for me to buckle down on my posture. This month I'm going to sit up a little straighter and be more aware of my posture at all times.

Practice yoga daily

The first time I went to a yoga class I was about 14 years old. I thought it was the weirdest, most boring thing in the world and told myself I didn't need it. Somehow, I found myself in "yogalates" (yoga + pilates) a few months later and absolutely fell in love with it! From then on I did a mix of yogalates and yoga through high school and college. While I do find it difficult sometimes to want to slow my mind down enough to enjoy a full yoga class, I always leave feeling so glad that I went.

In Utah, Jason and I had a yoga membership, and when we moved to Arizona we wanted to save money so we bought this app for $3.99 and I love it just as much! I love that I can do a quick 15 minute session before bed, or 30 minutes in the morning before I shower during Wells' nap, rather than always having to drive to a studio and do an entire hour or 90-minute class. I highly recommend it!

I'm hoping that practicing yoga daily will help me feel more energized (and relaxed, funny how that happens!) while strengthening and stretching my muscles -- which should improve my posture as well.

Give myself a bedtime

After a month of going to bed at midnight (or later), waking up every 2-4 hours and sleeping at weird times during the day (pre-dinner nap anyone?), it's time to get my body on a more regular schedule! Wells pretty much does the same thing every evening so I have no excuse not to hop on a schedule right along with him. My goal is to be in bed with the lights out at 10:30. Jason and I both have kindles and enjoy reading a bit before bed, so that means we should be in bed reading at 10:00, so we can be asleep by 10:30.

One of the biggest (and silliest) hurdles for me to actually get to bed on time is getting ready for bed! Why is it that something so small can stop us from getting the rest we desperately need? Even when I'm exhausted, I will delay going to bed just because I don't want to floss. It makes no sense. Because of this I'm setting a goal to get ready for bed by 9:00 so I can have that last hour of the day to clean up, make sure Wells is settled and spend time with Jason.

Alright then, it's go time. My Happiness Project begins today! Actually it began yesterday, but I'm just writing about it today. I think that means I need a month dedicated to procrastination...

One month of Wells!

Happy one month to little Wells! It's been a great month. My life be like...

Haha, but really. It's a miracle I haven't gotten sick over the past month from lack of sleep! But when you have a baby I guess naturally you just become supermom and you don't need half as much sleep as you used to get! Less about me, more about the boy.

One month of Wells

Likes:

milk

staring at his dad

me

fluorescent lights

head massages

light opera

holding his own bottle

church

grunting

holding his head up

lying on dad's chest

pulling his own hair

Dislikes:

pulling his own hair

sleeping

his pink bottles (they were on sale)

Achievements:

rolling from his stomach to his back on his boppy

Wells is quite the little guy. I think we're going to rename him "Grunt Wellington" because he spends most of his wake time making grunting noises. It's cute until we're in public, then it's a little weird.

He is also eerily coordinated and strong. He holds his head up like a pro and can grab anything with his hands (usually to put it to his mouth because he is always down for a snack). He's also pretty darn close to rolling over -- he did it once on his boppy but I don't consider that the same as a flat surface, though still impressive. Now for some photos!

 Is it just me or are his hands massive?

*Note to self: no flash in the middle of the night

I put him straight on this mat and left him for about 90 seconds and then I find him like this.

I'm stunned.

Five days old. He did this three feedings in a row! He's freaky sometimes.

Good thing Jamie and I were there to chaperone.

 His favorite time of the day!

That little face. I think he is the most beautiful thing in the entire world.

If I have any postpartum hair loss I think I will know why...  

Wells loves his Nana (Cheryl would not be called grandma. I tried to convince her that "Granny" was young sounding, but she opted for Nana.)

This trio kills me!

Now for two funny stories.

So Wells had his first doctor's appointment a few days after he was born and Jason wanted to come so we got ready and independently decided to wear Red Sox caps. I thought it was a little dorky that we were matching, but not enough to do anything about it so we headed off to meet the pediatrician for the first time.

We walked in the door to the office and looked around... it was basically a replica of Fenway Park! So there we are in our matching hats looking like superfans. To be honest, I can't name one player on the Red Sox but I just love Boston because it's Jason's hometown!

It turns out the doctor served an LDS mission in Boston and fell in love with the place, so Jason had a blast talking to him about all their favorite Bostonian things. Too cute, too cute.

The next story brings me back to my own babyhood...

As you can see, I was born with quite the head of hair. One evening, when I was about two weeks old, my parents heard me screaming and my dad ran into my room to find me pulling my own hair! He said my fist was so tight around the hair that my knuckles were white and he had to pry each finger off.

Fast forward 24 years and little Wells is two weeks old to the day. We're in the kitchen and we hear Wells let out a big scream and my mom runs in to find him with a fist full of his hair, trying to pull it off of his head! Ha! Like mother like son.

This past month has been nothing short of miraculous and humbling. A few nights ago Wells was having a hard time falling asleep so I was cuddling with him on the couch. I thought maybe a song would calm him down, so I started singing the first one that came to mind -- I am a Child of God -- and barely made it through two lines before tears were rolling down my cheeks. I looked at my little boy and said a silent prayer of thanks for moments like that one.

Happy one month of Wells!

Wells' Birth Story

Hello! A lot has happened since my last post, and I'm about to tell you probably more than you want to know about it. Wells is here and we are so, so happy. Here's the story!

I didn't have the "classic" labor experience you see in the movies where your water breaks in the cereal aisle and you call your husband to grab the bags because the baby is coming... mine was a little more relaxed (pictured below).

That's me doing yoga on my due date, wondering if maybe some sun salutations or warrior threes would give me any sort of sign that the baby was coming! Nothing. Somehow I made it through my entire pregnancy without a single contraction, but luckily I scheduled an induction for a couple days past my due date just in case!

Not so luckily, lots of other girls decided to have their babies the night before my 5 AM induction on Wednesday, July 29th, so the hospital called me during what we thought was our "last supper" at the Cheesecake Factory saying all the beds were taken and they would call me when one became available.

To be honest, I was totally fine with it because the thought of labor still terrified me more than excited me. So all day Wednesday we waited for the phone call, and decided to pass the time by seeing Cinderella (again) at the dollar movie. We figured if they called during the movie, it would be okay because we only spent a dollar. Also, if my water broke during the movie, it would be okay because lots of stuff has probably spilled on those seats.

Wednesday morning, afternoon and evening came and went and finally I decided to call the hospital before going to bed to see if there was any update. They said they were still totally full, so I went to bed praying they wouldn't call me in the middle of the night so I could get a full night's rest!

At 8:15 Thursday morning, I woke up and was lying in bed wondering if today would be baby day when my phone started ringing and my stomach lurched and butterflied at the same time because I knew who had to be calling -- and I was right! I picked it up and the nurse told me they were ready for me and to come in as soon as I could. That moment was as surreal as I would imagine your water breaking would be. I walked out of our room to tell Jason and we excitedly gathered our already packed bags and headed to the hospital!

I was admitted to my delivery room around 10:00 AM, by 10:30 my doctor had broken my water, and around 11:30 they started pitocin to get things moving. When I got to the hospital I was dilated to a 3 and 90% effaced, and they expected things would move quickly.

I started getting tons of contractions, but the only way I knew I was having them was from looking at the monitor! After an hour or so I started to feel them, and when I was dilated to a five I decided to get the epidural -- something I was delaying as long as I could because the thought of being numb from the chest down and being awake totally creeped me out -- but it was totally not bad! I could still move my legs on my own but the pain of the contractions was gone. Miraculous!

After that my quick progress started slowing, and before we knew it the evening was coming to an end and I realized I was not going to be having a July 30th baby! At this point I was starting to get tired and so incredibly hungry, so when my nurse Rachel (who I knew from high school!) told me I could start pushing a little after midnight I was so excited!

That was another surreal moment... when they pulled out the stirrups and turned on these two spotlights that made me feel like I was on stage (ew) and started counting as I pushed. Super weird. That part of labor was something I could never envision myself actually doing, and even now after doing it I have a hard time believing it really happened! It's hard to explain, but maybe some of you can relate.

I pushed for a good two hours and was getting pretty discouraged because it didn't seem like I was making much progress. My doctor arrived and was able to see that my baby was facing up instead of down, which apparently makes it pretty tough to progress past a certain point. He told me he was going to have to turn him, which worried me slightly because I felt like there was something going on with my epidural because I could completely feel my legs at this point, which is not normal! As he was turning him I had a physical and mental breakdown because it I was tired and hungry and hurting! My doctor saw my reaction and called in the anesthesiologist to top off my epidural (bless his heart) then he turned him again and then I was able to push him easily. After that he basically flew out (okay maybe not but compared to the previous two hours it sure seemed like it) and before I knew it the doctor was holding up our screaming, squirming little boy and I had never seen something so miraculous and beautiful and I sobbed like a big, big baby.

They placed him on my chest and I vividly remember feeling his skin for the first time. It is difficult to describe, but feeling the weight of him and touching his soft, smooth skin and watching him squirm and feeling him hold my fingers so tight was such a surreal, divine experience. I watched him in awe, and tried to immerse myself in that moment so that I would never forget how he felt, and the new feeling and responsibility I had that he needed me.

 

Another sweet moment was watching Jason hold Wells for the first time. He has been so excited for fatherhood and Wells is a lucky boy to get to have him for a dad!

We spent the next two and a half days in the hospital and it was heavenly. Before labor I didn't think much about the time in the hospital after the baby is born, but it was wonderful! I felt like we were in our own little world, and I didn't ever want to come out of it.

A few hours after he was born, we got around to naming the little guy! When I was about six months pregnant I realized I loved the name Grant, even though it wasn't ever on "the baby name list" I had kept in the back of my journal ever since I can remember. I asked Jason what he thought of the name and he loved it as well, so that was pretty much the end of it, but we kept it to ourselves because we're mysterious like that.

His middle name -- Wellington -- is a family name from Jason's side. Both of us love the name, so that was an easy choice too! The only difficult decision we had was what to call him, Grant or Wells (short for Wellington). Right before naming him in the hospital we decided on Wells. I think it's so charming and it suits him!

The funning thing is I swore I would never name a child something that ends in "s" because I have had to deal with awkward possessives my entire life (Alexis's). Not only does our poor child have a first name that ends in "s" but a last name as well! Or should I say wells (elbow jab).

So there's the story! Happy birth day to little Wells.

Thanks for joining our clan.