I'm an Aunt!

My sister-in-law had a beautiful, healthy baby girl last week. It turns out I was more involved in the birth than I expected. At about 8:00 pm on the night that she went into labor she gave me a call (while I was still at the office) and asked me if I could come and take her to the hospital. I jumped in a cab (she was staying at my in-laws condo right next to our place) and nervously drove her to the hospital. I have never been more nervous about driving a car in my life.

I was expecting that her husband would be waiting for us at the hospital or would be on his way. His whole absence was a bit unexplained. I had asked my sister-in-law where he was, but didn't press her about the details given that she was clearly a little out of it and in a lot of pain. She told me that he was at work once and then later told me that he was at his fathers house (which is about an hour away). I never did get the full story on where he was and why he wasn't with his wife while she was in labor (my relationship with my brother-in-law is not the best one so I tend not to get involved in what he's doing).

He finally showed up after we'd been there for almost two hours (I know, weird, don't get me started). In the meantime I stayed with my sister-in-law and tried my best to maintain small talk with someone who's clearly in a lot of pain. When we first got to the hospital she was about 3 cm dilated and when I left 2 hours later she had already progressed to 7 cm. After I left she gave birth about 4 hours later. I'm not sure what I would have done if I'd been the only one in the delivery room with her. I'm really glad I was able to be there for her and it gave me quite the preview for what I have in store for myself in the future.

Here's a picture of the sweet little girl:

Hubby and I were the first to visit her in the hospital, along with my in-laws and we were the first visitors to their house after they returned home. I loved seeing the baby and I held her for about 4 hours straight. I think I've caught the baby bug. All I can think about is her sweet little face and I find myself looking at her pictures on my cell phone when I'm having a particularly challenging moment at the office. I'm so excited to be an aunt to this sweet little girl!

Routine

It’s been awhile since I last wrote. I guess I’m not very good at writing about the mundane day to day activities of my life. Things are going well at work. We’re getting settled back into our new/old place and life is pretty much back to normal. Hubby is back to working until 10:00 at night and I’m back to cooking meals for one. This time around I know what to expect and I think that I’m a whole lot more supportive of his career than I was in the past. I have my own activities and my own friends to keep me busy, not to mention my own professional career.

We talk a lot about the future and what we want to accomplish in the next couple of years before we have kids. I sometimes feel like we’ll never really feel ready. I feel like hubby will get wrapped back up in investment banking and won’t want to walk away to a more sane work schedule. I’ll never be at a place in my career where I feel like I can either walk away or make sacrifices to make my career and motherhood work. I feel like we’ll never feel fully financially stable. I feel like we’ll never feel we’re no longer selfish and ready to give up our social life.

With all of these doubts in my mind I also have such a strong desire to be a parent. My sister-in-law is ready to give birth any day now and I find myself feeling a bit jealous of her. She seems so happy and content, ready to take on the struggles of being a working mother. Her baby shower was a few weekends ago and it was so much fun looking at all of the baby gifts. I’m excited to be an aunt, but I feel in the back of my head that my time is coming soon.

Bye Bye Summer

Summer seems to be officially gone. A clear sign of the end of summer is the abundance of pumpkin and apple flavored drinks and treats available at coffee shops and grocery stores around the city. I love my pumpkin spice latte as much as the next person, but I’m a little sad that summer seems to have ended so abruptly. I feel like I’ve been cheated out of yet another summer without my husband. We went to the beach only once this summer and any future beach days are pretty numbered. I guess there’s always the hope that next summer we’ll get to spend more time doing the things we love.

At the beginning of the summer I joined a new fancy gym. We used to belong to a really cheap no frills gym that I always dreaded going to because it was really hot and many of the machines were out of order. I also thought that by spending more money on a gym I would feel guilty about wasting money if I didn’t go. So far I’ve really started to take advantage of the perks. I’ve gone to a few Zumba and spinning classes. Over the holiday weekend all of the regular classes were cancelled so I decided to take advantage of the lap pool. I’ve never been a really strong swimmer. I spent a summer as a lifeguard at a summer camp and every morning we had to do laps in the pool before breakfast. It was a special kind of torture for me, but I got in really great toned shaped with seemingly little effort. So I started swimming laps again. The first day I had trouble going more than 50 yards without stopping, but I’m confident I can build my endurance back up. At least it’s something new and challenging for me. My biggest stumbling block to working out is that I constantly get bored with the same routines or the same class. Hopefully with all of the new perks I can keep myself interested and engaged in getting back into shape.

This weekend is my sister in laws baby shower. I’m “hosting” it at my mother in laws house since we currently don’t have a functional place to host at the moment. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve never been to a baby shower so I’m not sure what to expect. I have a feeling I’m going to be attending a lot more in the future. I guess we’ve passed the friends getting married stage and have moved onto the pregnant friends stage. Two of our close friends just announced their impending babies this past weekend. While I’m extremely happy for them I’m also kind of sad that this new stage signals the end of an era with these friends. No more late nights out or last minute weekend trips. I guess it’s only a matter of time before we’re going to start a family. It will be good to be surrounded by other more experienced parents when our time comes. I’m also glad that we won’t be the first ones in our circle of friends starting a family and a plus is that there will be built in friends for our future children.

Thank You Irene

The one good thing to come out of hurricane Irene was getting my husband back early! I was unfortunately out of town on a lovely island in the middle of Lake Michigan when he arrived, but he was there when I returned on Monday from my voyage. Luckily he flew into NY last Friday before the storm hit, but due to the evacuations in Manhattan his hotel was cancelled and he had so much difficulty trying to find a new place to stay that his employer told him just to go home and they would figure it out for him (his week of training in NY ended up being cancelled anyways). He wasn’t able to book a flight so he got one of the last rental cars and just drove home. He made it home safe and sound, one week early!

It’s been nice having him back and not working yet. He’s resumed his dinner preparations for me (though this has been a really crazy week for me and I’ve only made it home to dinner once this week) and he’s been running countless errands for me. It’s nice to have him home; it’s even nicer to have my personal assistant back.

This will be the first weekend since we moved back that I don’t have out of town plans. It will be nice to get organized for the impending move and spend time with hubby at home. Our renters moved out yesterday and the renovations begin this weekend. We’re going shopping for new appliances and a new mattress this weekend. Hopefully there will be some good Labor Day sales. The painters start next week and then our new carpets will be installed the following week. I can’t wait to move back in and get settled. This couldn’t have worked out more perfectly with the timing of hubby returning and moving back in.

I hope everyone else has fantastic Labor Day plans. Enjoy the last long weekend of the summer!

Summer of Weddings

This summer really is the summer of weddings for me. Next weekend I will be traveling to beautiful Mackinac Island, Michigan for my final wedding event of the summer. I’m particularly looking forward to this wedding because I’ve never been to Mackinac Island, much less really even been to Michigan (the Detroit airport doesn’t count). I’ve been looking at pictures online of the resort where the wedding will be held for weeks and I cannot wait. Even more fun I will be there with six of my college roommates/friends. For various reasons (husband in London for me) we will all be flying solo this weekend. It will be a great girl’s weekend to relax and catch up with old friends who I haven’t spent nearly enough time with since we graduated college nearly 8 years ago.

The wedding I was at last weekend was absolutely breathtaking. I was a bridesmaid in the wedding and I had a blast. My best friend/roommate from college was the bride and she was marrying her high school sweetheart. They have been dating for as long as my husband and I have been together (10 years!) and it was so sweet to see them finally make it official. The wedding was in a beautiful vineyard and every last detail was so stunning. I honestly have never seen flowers as beautiful as the ones at this wedding. They were an assortment of purples and deep reds, which were a perfect complement to the bridesmaid’s wine colored dresses. My friend chose the color and fabric and each bridesmaid chose the J.Crew dress they wanted. All five of us chose different styles, coincidentally, and the pictures came out so beautiful and interesting because of it.

Just one more week before hubby arrives home from London. He’ll be flying to New York while I’m in Michigan this weekend, but he’ll be home officially at the end of the week. I can’t wait to see him! We have such a fun filled weekend ahead of us (slightly sarcastic). We have to pick out a new bed (hubby finally won the argument about the old bed which I still love) and new appliances to replace the outdated ones in our condo. Then the painters will be in the following week, new carpets installed and we will finally get to move back in a few weeks later. Soon enough we will be situated in our old/new space and things will start to feel normal again. It’s just getting through the next few weeks that may be a bit difficult.

Swamped

I've been so busy with work I haven't had a chance to write for a few weeks. Now I guess I know what it feels like to be on track to make your hours at the end of the year. It's actually not a lot of late nights, just really insanely busy days where I don't have time to eat lunch or go to the bathroom. I'm actually really loving it though and learning so much. I can't believe how much more responsibility I'm given at this firm. I pretty much conduct my own closing and draft documents with little to no supervision. This is sometimes challenging and frustrating, but I'm learning an incredible amount this way.

Just thought I'd check in and say "hi". Not much new is going on. Hubby is coming home at the end of the month and I'm super exacted to see him and get moved back into our condo. I went and purchased our new dining room furniture and I'm super excited for it to come. Other than that just a bunch of busy wedding weekends ahead.

London Recap

I’m back from London and it already feels like my vacation was a long, long time ago. I had such a great time. It was truly difficult getting on the plane to come home. I spent much of the week sightseeing on my own, but I had a really great time. I’ve never really done much traveling on my own and wasn’t sure how I would enjoying sightseeing on my own, but I actually had a really great time. I was hesitant at first that I would be lonely going to museums and visiting castles all by myself, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. I actually enjoyed being independent and doing exactly what I pleased each day. I often find that when sightseeing in large groups there is always a struggle over what to do and how long to stay, but when you’re by yourself you can do whatever you like. It was actually quite enjoyable and I wouldn’t mind doing it again.

The highlight of my trip was visiting Buckingham Palace and seeing Kate Middleton’s dress on display. I will confess I am one of those people who is completely fascinated and a slightly bit obsessed with the British royal family. I woke up at 3am to watch the wedding and obsessed over news coverage of the Duke and Dutchess visiting the Americas earlier this summer. I waiting in line for a ticket nearly all day, but was able to slip in at the last showing of the day and boy was it worth it. When I studied abroad in London it was during the winter and I wasn’t able to visit certain places that are only available to tour in the summer, such as Buckingham Palace. The second highlight of my trip was a tour of Parliament. If you ever have a chance to visit I highly recommend it. My tour guide may have been exceptional, but she told some truly fascinating stories and I walked away feeling like I’d gotten an amazing history lesson.

Hubby and I were able to take a day trip together up to Stonehenge and Bath. I had been to Stonehenge before, but every time I’m amazed at how many tourists flock there to see a bunch of rocks in the middle of a field (it is pretty cool). Bath was amazing and I wish we had more time to spend there.

Now it’s back to work and I’m already counting down the days until hubby comes home.