Let's be real.

So, having a baby and a job is tough!

Even with a complete partner of a husband with a flexible schedule and amazing parents who come, let you sleep while they take the baby for a day-full of adventure (even though we hid the bottle nipple from them and really didn't explain the moderately-tricky stroller to them).

I love my work.

I love my baby.

It's tricky stuff.

So, we take help where we can get it. We let our house be a mess. We eat mac-n-cheese for dinner when sanity calls for it. We completely veg out sometimes with video games for him and terrible Netflix for me.

Mostly we let stress and pouty-exasperated faces complaining about trains or time or mess or hunger or whatever all melt away when we look at this wonderful little baby.

We are also completely fortunate beyond fortunes to have a happy, agreeable, healthy baby who likes walks and sleeping and just about everyone she meets. Seriously, I went to give blood today and she fell asleep "wrapped up like a Mexican baby" while held for a nurse there who demanded the baby. Being chill (bringing the baby to the blood donation place? on the train? letting a stranger hold her? all totally fine!) seems to make D chill. So we let the chill wash over us.

Being reflective types who adore fine-tuning, B & I are always working on ways to make all this work more beautifully...

• planning! like planning meals and backup-I-can't-cook meals. 
• eating good stuff -- even my night shift meals are pretty delish! I generally pack a peanut butter half-sammie, carrots, fruit (honeycrisp apples starting today!), nuts, cheese stick, cereal, soup, etc... Tonight I had a smoothie, some tortilla chips with cheese and a few blood-donating Oreos. 
• drinking water! I hope tossing this on a blog will make it actually more of a priority. I chug water at work, but at home it's tougher. But I'm working on it.
• prepping! I pack my work bag for my next shift as soon as I get home from work. I have my scrubs, socks, etc... ready to go. I have all my pumping stuff ready to go in a bag that I (hopefully) keep next to the door. 
• shop smart! This, like all this crap, is a major work in progress. What do we buy online? What do we buy online? What do we buy tons of versus regular amounts of? It's all a mystery!