Hi everyone. Welcome self-professed new blogger James to the blog as my final guest poster. One more exam and I’m done with finals week. I’ll be back with something fun tonight.
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My life is split into two parts. BD and PD. BD being “Before Danny.” Danny is my son, and Monica is my wife. He came into our life two years ago and changed my life in so many ways. Before Danny my life was pretty simple, go to work, spend time with my wife, and get in as much fishing as possible. When he was born, he changed everything! I knew that with his birth I might not be able to fish as much, but what I didn’t know was that this 7 pound, 3 ounce, 19 ½, inch bundle of joy would completely change my work life and my family’s future.
Shortly after welcoming him into the world we were bombarded with requests for news, pictures and videos of Danny. Seeking to quell the mob that demanded to see our new family member we logged onto the Internet and started posting pictures here and there and sending scattered emails that were sometimes filtered out by Spam-screeners. We soon became very frustrated by the need to act as technical support for Danny’s various online profiles and photo sites. Plus, we were constantly worried at how safe these sites really were. So, one of my closest friends and I created our own website for Danny. It was supposed to be just a one-time thing for Danny – next thing you know we were doing it for many other new parents and had built an online network, BabySpot, for new babies.
All of a sudden my simple, but pleasant life that entailed work, my wife and family, and fishing was turned upside down! I now had my own company on my hands and work-life balance became an utter challenge. My wife and I both work full time and now we have two babies on our hands – the love of both our lives, Danny, and our new company. We struggled initially balancing it all, but were blessed that our families have helped out. My mom lives a few minutes from us and so she takes care of Danny for us during the day. And, while I work a lot now, my schedule is more flexible where I can spend time with him in between meetings.
My little mister, Danny, completely changed my life – he definitely made it much more hectic – but he also gave it so much more meaning. My life now is about Danny, my wife and family, my company, and fishing whenever I can sneak it in! I can’t wait till Danny is older so that I can take him fishing.
Although that might be awhile, as my beautiful wife is 7 months pregnant and our little cutie pie, Danny, is giving us a fun time with his terrible two’s! I’m sure each of you out there has your own stories of how hard it is to manage newborns, work, and family. How did you manage? As we expect our 2nd son, my wife and I are really nervous for Danny as he will have to go to daycare for half the day. As new parents we feel like we are starting school again ourselves! Remember those butterflies in your stomach that you probably got when it was your first day of school? YUP those! Did you go through this?
Would love to hear how you balance it all! Let me know by leaving a comment of how you have been able to balance it all. Now, I have to run, Danny wants to play with Thomas the Train!
I am fortunate to be able to stay at home with our two girls. Izabel is 2 years old and Emily is 3 months old. Even without me working, there is still plenty to balance between hubby, home and kids. Everyone had a flipping moment when they leanred how far apart (how close) our children would be in age. It really isn’t as horrible as they say. You learn to manage life in a new way; everything usually goes as it always has. There may be more mouths to feed, more toys to buy, and more diapers to change, but there is also more kisses, hugs, and love. Congrats on Danny, he sounds like such a wonderful little boy and congrats on yet another fishing partner. Two boys will be so much fun!
With two sons 22 months apart, my husband, and a full time job, I have asked myself the same thing many times. I finally realized that balance led me to a life where I was defined by all my roles, and it wasn’t really working for me. I lost touch of myself. Now I tend to focus on wholeness, making sure that the me in the middle feels good and can bring the best to all of the things I do. Best of luck with the transition.
I work three days a week so my Pumpkin is in day care on those days. That was hard but he seems to do well with it (although he gets a lot more colds, etc. than kids who stay home). One word of advice- listen to your instincts regarding day care. We had a lot of issues at our old center but we just kept assuming that they were issues we would find at any center (we had evaluated all of the options carefully before deciding on which one to go to). We eventually switched to another center after about six months and it has made a huge difference. Also, make sure you look up the center’s inspection reports on whichever state agency is responsible for licensing (ours is the Dept. of Social Services)- you can find out a lot info that can rule out a particular center- good luck!