Nicole Tasker Woods

When Ryan and I are at work all day long, the PM schedule is pretty abbreviated for the baby boy. Every night Aidan takes his bath at 8pm, eats his dinner bottle and then drifts off to dreamland. This schedule gives us a good amount of time to ourselves in the evening after Aidan goes to sleep, but it also gives us time to spend with the little man between 5:45-8pm. We try to plan dinner at 7:30pm for us (with Aidan watching from his bouncy chair on the kitchen table) so that we have that time to ourselves afterwards.

We are still rocking him to sleep after he finishes eating so he ends up swaddled in his crib sometime between 8:30 – 9:15pm, all depending on how difficult he is being. I dread the day we have to put him in his crib still awake and let him get himself to sleep. Eek!

After eating sometimes Aidan falls asleep with the tip of the bottle’s nipple in his mouth (I love those nights). And other times, his eyes are wide open as he sucks the bottle dry and he can’t help but look around while smiling, drooling, talking and his favorite–thrashing and jerking his entire body back and forth, up and down, left and right.

These days, Aidan sleeps from about 8:30pm until 5am, wakes up for a diaper change and an early morning bottle and then is back in bed by 6am until 9-10am. This works out great with our morning routine because I need to be in the shower by 6am in order to be ready for work and leave the house by 7am. And Ryan doesn’t leave the house until 7:30am when the nanny arrives.

However, he doesn’t always follow this schedule to the letter. Sometimes I have to hand over a wide-awake baby to Ryan so I can get ready for work. Obviously it is ideal for Aidan to be fast asleep while we get ready in the morning, but the A man will do whatever he wants!

One time in the wee hours of the morning, I walked in on Ryan holding Aidan up in front of him saying, “Please stop thrashing. No, this isn’t a game. It isn’t funny. Stop laughing. Go to sleep.”

Yesterday, Aidan had a very good Grammy day. He spends Wednesdays every week with his Grammy Carolyn and yesterday was his first time at Camp Woods.

He was already awake and super happy when I went in his room to get him ready to go in the morning.  We did the usual morning ritual of saying good morning, smiling and laughing–then we changed his diaper. After that, we went into the bathroom to wipe his face, neck and hands–then back to his bedroom to put on his clothes for the day.

It is so chilly in the mornings when I leave for work that I couldn’t resist dressing him in a long sleeve onesie with socks and matching pants. I knew it would be about 90 degrees by noontime, but I already gave Grammy Carolyn a bunch of clothes of various sizes for her to keep at her house. And I thought she might enjoy dressing him–who doesn’t love dressing a baby!

He ate half of his breakfast bottle with out a poop or spit up (yay!) and when he paused for a burp, we made our way downstairs. Aidan was completely content the entire drive in the backseat and so was Cali in the front seat!

I handed the little man off to his Grammy, grabbed some coffee in a to-go cup (my new favorite thing about dropping him off on Wednesdays) and then headed to work.

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I love my baby
Biscuits & gravy
He’s my baby boy

I love Aidan
When he is a-fadin’
He’s my sleepy boy

I love my rugrat
He is kinda fat
He’s my chubby boy

I love Aidan
Everyday he’s changin’
He’s my growing boy

I love my munchkin
When he is a-luncheon
He’s my hungry boy

I love my baby
Biscuits & gravy
He’s my baby boy

Copyright © 2011 N.E. Tasker

You’re curled up

Into a ball

Your bottom up in the air

Face on my chest

Squished into the sweetest

Open-mouth smile

All 11 pounds of you

Are weighing on me heavily

But I wouldn’t trade it for anything

You twitch and squirm

Sometimes you chuckle

Eyes fluttering as you dream

I never dreamed

I could love anything

As small as you

Copyright © 2011 N.E. Tasker

Today is my nanny’s first day, yay! I have waited for this day for a very VERY long time. There are some things that I need to get done that are nearly impossible with a newborn hanging over your shoulder. And don’t get me wrong, I love Aidan to pieces, but I am really looking forward to going back to work. I may have told you this already but I always thought I would have a hard time returning to work after having a baby. I thought I would want to be a stay-at-home mom and although we couldn’t afford our mortgage if I stopped working, I did fantasize about playing baby all day long. But after being elbow deep in diapers and onesies, Sesame Street and tummy-time, stroller walks and car seat naps–I am ready to hand my son off to someone else!

I also really like what I do for a living and I miss going into the office every day. It did get tiresome towards the end of my pregnancy because I was this big fat blob waddling up and down the hallways from the kitchen to my cubicle, back to the kitchen and to the restroom–over and over again. But now that I have officially lost all of my baby weight (yay me!) I am ready to go back to work.

I also did some re-inventing of my womanhood since Aidan was born. I got my hair turned to a platinum blonde and am working on growing it a bit longer. I also got a solid tan going since I have been walking Aidan and Cali on a daily basis. I highly recommend having a baby in the early summer months so that you are motivated to work out and look your best. I know I did!

Once the nanny got here, I showed her where everything baby was located, nursed Aidan and then handed him off to his new best friend so that I could indulge in one of my guiltiest pleasures–a long hot shower. I don’t know what the rest of the day will hold for me, but what I do know is I can do whatever I want and I don’t have to worry if Aidan’s needs are being met. I know he is in good hands and frankly, he knows it too. The minute he saw the nanny this morning, he smiled and laughed out loud.

I’m sure this post is going to qualify as TMI, but hey, it’s my blog and if I want to talk about nipples, I’m going to. I may not post it on facebook or twitter, but on my website, I can do what I want.

I am currently sitting in bed icing my nipples. There, I said it!

It is hard to explain what my nipples feel like in between my nursing sessions with my 3 week old son. The initial latch and incredibly hard suction he creates with his mouth is a little painful for about 6 seconds at the very beginning, but then the rest of the time it does not hurt at all. However, I have had to ice my nipples on a couple of occasions in between feedings. I even have some homemade ice packs just for my nipples in the freezer. I never thought I would ever want to put something as cold as ice on my breasts–I mean, think about it–anyone’s nipples (be it a man’s or a woman’s) are very sensitive to any kind of touch or change in temperature. But believe me when I tell you this ice is so soothing.

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I had crazy hallucinations about Aidan during the first two weeks we were home with the little man. Since the first night at home, we had him sleeping in his crib in his own room with his door closed. We had a monitor set up so we could hear him cry when he was ready for a change and a feeding–but we decided early on in my pregnancy that we did not want him sleeping in our room. And I am so glad we made that decision.

I had a hard time sleeping with him in my hospital room. All the baby noises he made kept me up for hours and thank goodness for my nighttime nurse, she insisted that I have him brought to the nursery so I could rest and that’s exactly what I got–much needed rest. The nurse on duty would wheel Aidan into my room every 4 hours during the night to feed and then he spent the daylight hours with me, but having him sleep in another room at night was great. I was less anxious and felt a thousand times more capable as a new mommy all because I had gotten decent sleep.

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Aidan is 2 weeks old as of yesterday. Ryan and I celebrated by going out to dinner to the Melting Pot. It was the first time we had been out of the house together since he was born. It was also the first time I had full make up on and I tell ya what, that felt really good! So did the glass of pinot grigio I had with dinner.

Here are some more pictures of the little man. Love how cute he is!

In case you haven’t heard, I gave birth to my son, Aidan Patrick Woods, just one week ago today. I finally found some time so here are some pictures of the most beautiful little man I have ever met.