Officially a Mom

Officially A Mom: Part 1
Tuesday night we were getting ready to meet my family for dinner. I was feeding Mr. Mister right before we left when all of a sudden I felt a little wet on my shirt. His diaper had leaked and soaked through onto me. Five minutes later, when I was burping him, he spit up all over my pants. After briefly considering changing my clothes, I realized that I would most likely end up with spit up on the next shirt and pair of pants, so why ruin two outfits? So I wore them both to dinner. And I wore the shirt again the next day. Officially a mom.

Officially A Mom: Part 2
Today I was changing Mr. Mister's diaper. Because of the tendency of baby boys to pee straight up in the air without a diaper on, I always cover "it" when I'm changing him. I had too much confidence in the no-pee streak we've been on and removed the covering wipe too soon. Sure enough, he started peeing and with nothing in reach to cover it, I automatically put my hand there to stop the pee from shooting up over everything. I sat there while he finished relieving himself on my hand and thought, yep, officially a mom.

Expectations

Being a mom is not so much what I expected. Expectations are interesting. I talked to a friend recently about how nothing is ever exactly what we expect it to be like...college, marriage, new jobs, working in Mexico, moving halfway around the world, etc. Being a mom can be added to that list. It's not that all these things are different in a bad way...they just are different because our expectations can never be comprehensive enough to include all aspects of reality. Most of reality can only be learned by doing, no matter how much other people tell you in advance.

So I had this expectation that motherhood would be bliss because I've always longed to be a mom...I have felt like it was what I was created for. So how could it not be the perfect fit right from the beginning? But somehow it wasn't bliss from the beginning (I'm not sure what could be bliss on this little sleep!). The first couple weeks I felt guilty because I didn't love being a mom. I mean, I loved Mr. Mister but being a mom didn't bring a feeling of "arriving" like I thought it would. And it took me a little while to realize that that's okay. And that if I search for a feeling of arriving this side of eternity, I will never be fulfilled.

Today Mr. Mister is 4 weeks old. And today I loved being a mom.

A Smile!

Today we had a big milestone...Mr. Mister's first smile as a response. I mean, there have been smiles before but mainly due to either passing gas or having a dream. But today he was laying on his back looking up at me while I made silly faces at him. He looked at me for a minute then smiled in response to my goofy looks. I was so excited but just to make sure it was for real, I tried it again. I got a second smile. It made my day.

What a Weekend

This was a big weekend for us with a lot of firsts for Mr. Mister. We were very social and did normal people things (as opposed to staying in our house while the world goes on like we've been doing since Mr. Mister was born).

Friday night was Mr. Mister's first football game. Sycamore vs. Fairfield...my alma mater vs. our now hometown team. In my 6 years of leading YL at Fairfield, I attended plenty of their football games so it was a little strange being at a high school game without being there to hang out with high school students. Anyway, it was the first day of colder temperatures so Mr. Mister was all bundled up and snuggled in close to Mark in the Baby Bjorn carrier, looking adorable as always. We met Grandma and Grandpa there and Grandma sacrificially held Mr. Mister for most of the game. It was a great night for football and we were so proud of ourselves for getting there by half time. We're still learning how to leave the house with everything we need in less than an hour. (Side note...this game made me feel a little old. The quarterback for Sycamore is a neighbor I used to babysit. And when Mark and I walked over to the Fairfield side, I didn't know anyone. I've officially cycled through all of the students who were in HS when I led YL there. Oh and I had a baby with me...that's enough in itself to make me feel old!).

Saturday night was Mr. Mister's first wedding. We responded "yes" to this wedding when I was still pregnant. "We'll just bring the baby with us," we decided. Last week when I finally made it to the grocery store with Mr. Mister, I thought to myself, "The grocery store was an accomplishment...how are we going to make it to a wedding?" We had to be on time...no arriving at halftime here. But we made it with 5 minutes to spare. We got an aisle seat in the back just in case, but Mr. Mister (all bathed and looking quite dapper in his Ralph Lauren polo outfit, borrowed from Caedmon) stayed asleep the whole time. He slept through the reception too, even though it was outside on a pretty chilly evening. Once again, Grandma willingly watched him the whole time at the reception so that Mark and I could socialize...and once again, I felt somewhat back to normal!

So after all of these outings, our plans to make it to church today for the first time in 3 weeks halfway fell through. Mark went. I stayed home...exhausted from so much activity. He took Mr. Mister to Grandma's (are you sensing a pattern here?) so that I could have a little quiet time at home. It was really nice. But I missed both my boys and was glad for them to come home.

So there is our eventful weekend. Mr. Mister did great. I felt normal. Mark carried Mr. Mister around like a very proud father. It was a good weekend all around.

Jasmine

It's a sad time in the Oppito household. Our faithful dog Jasmine has passed away. A little over a week ago my mom and dad had to take her to urgent care, where they ended up putting her to sleep. Everyone who knew Jasmine loved her. She was a part of our family for over 14 years and every day she was at the bottom of the steps in the morning or at the door when we came home. On Sunday, I went to their house for the first time since she died. It's not the same without Jasmine there.

I wish Mr. Mister could have met her. But when I think about the fact that we got her when I was in 6th grade, I never could have imagined that she would live long enough to meet my child! She almost made it...Mr. Mister was already born, we just hadn't made it over to see her. I'll be sure to show him pictures and tell stories...we definitely have lots of stories.

I never understood how people could be so upset after losing a pet. But I realize now that a pet like Jasmine quickly becomes part of the family. I never could have imagined that 14 years ago. Hers was a life well lived. We'll miss her.

Mr. Mister

August 22

7lbs 11 oz 20.5 in.


We are so excited to welcome our little guy into the world. He is a beautiful gift and blessing to us and we are amazed at how quickly we have fallen in love with him.

I've been wanting to post all week to announce his arrival, but the week after giving birth isn't very conducive to much activity besides sleeping, feeding, and changing diapers (and not necessarily in that order). So I apologize that I wrote a million posts about waiting and then didn't announce his arrival until now!

So far, I can say that delivering him was the hardest and most worthwhile thing I've ever done. If you're one of the lucky ones who have thus far escaped hearing the details of it all, I'll spare you. But I am encouraged by my mom's insight that God gives women short term memory when it comes to giving birth. Needless to say, number 2 won't be right around the corner. For now, we're enjoying getting to know our new addition. He keeps us laughing with his facial expressions and cute noises and already we can't imagine life without him.