Thursday, February 13, 2014

I'm a stay home mom! Now what?

Let me start this by giving you some of my background.

I am a 30 year old mom of 2 with 1 on the way.

I have been a career type of girl since I was 15.
I got my first job working in a 50s style diner in Indiana in my hometown of Rochester.
I went to college in Fort Wayne, Indiana for Architectural Design. 2 semesters into my degree, my dad got really sick and I had to take some time off of school. That time off turned into a permanent situation due to financial issues and I ended up moving in with my high school sweetheart who was going to college nearby Chicago.
There, I ended up working 3 jobs at one time just to make ends meet. But, things got better, and I went down to just working at Hooters for 3 years. Hooters moved me up the career path and moved me around and I ended up in Ohio. That job went south when my "promotion" to management ended up paying less (half in fact) than what I made as a waitress. So, I left Hooters and started working for a financial company who asked me to move to Houston to help with their expansion. My high school sweetheart (yes, we were still together after 5 years) jumped at the chance to leave for "greener pastures".
Houston held fantastic opportunities for us. I excelled at my new sales position, but sooner after arriving, we found out that we were going to have our first kiddo! Super excited (since we wanted kids and had just decided to start trying) and terrified, we took on this new chapter in our lives with zeal! We earned a company trip during that time to Hawaii and decided to use that great destination to get married! It was beautiful and lovely (and super inexpensive since we were kind of broke at the time).
From there, life moves on as it always does. After 5 years in the financial industry, I decided to leave and decide on a new career path. While I decided on what to do, I went back to waitressing and bar tending. During that time, we decided to have another little kiddo.
I realized quickly that 2 kiddos is a whole different ballpark then 1. The good news was that, since they were 4 years apart, my eldest was able to be a really great helper. But, I really didn't like being gone every night to work. I wanted to be home at night with my kiddos. I just felt like I was missing so much. So, I decided I really needed to work harder at getting a day time career instead so I could be there for my kiddos.
2 years after leaving my last day time career to go back to waitressing, I finally found something to get me home at night and on the weekends and I started working in the telecommunications industry. Things were going well for us. My hubby was now working in the oil industry, so we were finally financially stable for the first time in our lives. Things were finally looking up. So, we planned to have our 3rd (and final) kiddo.
My first 2 successful pregnancies had issues, so my Doctor and I had a plan. I was under careful monitoring for health concerns. My first baby was 6 weeks early and my second was 8 weeks early and had to spend 10 days in the hospital before he was ready to go home. It was all due to preeclampsia. So, we knew the signs and what to expect and knew that going through with a 3rd pregnancy was a risk in itself, so we needed to be very careful.
So, this is what brings me to today. My blood pressure skyrocketed early this time due to work stress (I was/am in sales) and it was high enough to already cause issues. I was having dizzy spells, passing out in the middle of the day when my blood pressure spiked, and I was getting really bad anxiety. So, my Dr decided to put me on bed rest at 14 weeks along.
So, this is where I ended up. A career person, who's work ethic is so strong that I end up being a workaholic, is now a stay home mom!

So, transitioning to this was actually simple.
We had just finished up with Christmas vacation and so it just seemed to go smoothly.
Now, from there, what does a stay home mom do?
How does one schedule herself?
Granted, I had a TON of projects to accomplish. I am a super crafty chick who never had time the last 10 years to do the stuff I used to love.
But, I want to make sure that I do a good job. I don't want to mess up. I am molding a child's life.

This has made me have a newfound respect for teachers also. I have lots of friends who are teachers, and I totally respect their careers since lesser people would have anxiety or panic if they really thought about the gravity of the effects of their daily actions.

Wow. My background story took a lot! LOL!

Well, not comes the "Now what?" portion of this post.

I have lots to do still to clean, organize, and prepare our house for our new kiddo (we moved in last year and I still have tons of stuff still in boxes, so you can imagine the fun stuff involved in all that).
I also crochet. I made a baby blanket in pink and I am working on a blue one, just in case. We will find out first or second week in March on what we are having.
We are also going to have a gender reveal party after the ultrasound to announce it. This will be a first for us.
I also am going to reteach myself how to sew. I want to make a baby quilt and do a few other projects.
Whew! Lots to do!

As far as what I will accomplish with this blog. I just hope to share my daily antics and memories while I learn how to be a great stay home mom.

With that, I think I will end this INSANELY long post for tonight.
If you read this to the end, thanks and I hope you weren't bored.

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