Hello, lovelies!

Our household has taken a turn in a great way in the last few days. After I wrote my post on Monday, I got a comment from a sweet reader with some much appreciate help and advice.

We have had Hayes on a pretty strict schedule, sleeping in his own room, swaddled with white noise since the day we brought him home from the hospital. But after some chatting with my friend and another friend, I decided there was one place where I was making a mistake. And that was our bedtime routine.

Both of these sweet friends referred me to Moms on Call, which is a sleeping training and parenting guide developed by pediatric nurses who are also moms in the Atlanta area. I watched their online seminar, took vigorous notes, made a few changes to our bedtime routine, and Hayes slept 8.5 hours! It’s a miracle! Since then, he has slept anywhere from 7-8.5 hours each night. I feel like we’re heading down a great path.

Visit Moms on Call for more information and watch their online seminar or buy the book. I’m a believer!

Another super fun development since Monday’s post… The Gamecocks won the College World Series! For the second straight year! We are so excited and feel like our two little boys are good luck charms for Gamecock baseball.

Here’s a picture of Hudson from last year’s parade celebrating our 2010 College World Series victory! We won’t make it to this year’s parade, but we are just so excited for the University and the state of South Carolina.

My best friend is getting married this weekend. This is such an exciting day for lots of obvious reasons. My best friend is marrying her best friend and the love of her life after a few years of dating and a few months of planning what is sure to be a fabulous affair!

2004

I’m also super excited to get to see so many special people in my life that I don’t get to see very often. College friends, their spouses, their babies! Fun weekends like this don’t happen very often which is why we always make the most of them when they come around.

2005

Now let me tell you a little bit about Catherine.

I met Catherine in my very first class at Louisiana Tech University. At the time, we were both graphic design majors. She stayed a graphic design major and I moved along to multiple different majors. But we met in our very first graphic design class. We recognized each other from our first sorority meeting, though! We were both Alpha Chi Omegas and had just gone through Recruitment in the fall of 2000.

2006

When I was looking through photos, I found so many of the two of us. But the really fun pictures from college would have to be scanned in, but Catherine and I remember what we looked like.

We bonded over our similar tastes in music. We both liked REM and DMB. I went with her family to a Prince concert in Dallas that fall. We quickly realized that we weren’t really Prince fans!

2007

We weren’t as close during our Sophomore year, but because were in the same sorority and had lots of mutual friends, we stayed in touch. It was during our Junior year that we got close again.

Catherine was always hanging out at our house when we’d spend time sitting on the porch or playing Nerts in the living room floor. We’d sit around on our ugly green carpet watching The Bachelor and The O.C. and eat Captain D’s. (Don’t judge!)

2008

After college, she moved to Dallas and I moved to Columbia for graduate school. A year later, Catherine moved to Columbia for graduate school and we got to live together again and re-live our college days and make lots of new memories together with new friends and new adventures in a new town.

And there were lots of fun times in that year! I met TC during that time and Catherine graduated and moved back to Dallas. Then my parents moved to Dallas! So I still got to see her all the time.

2008

She met her wonderful guy and after a few years, they got engaged! He makes her the happiest I’ve ever known her to be and for that, I love him, too!

Catherine is the sweetest, most genuine person. She is honest, loyal, and everything you’d want your friend to be. She will always tell you the truth and always be on your side. Catherine is carefree and yet still careful. She is thoughtful and creative. She and our other dear friend, Jennifer, will always be the girls I call first when major life events happen.

2008

I can’t wait to stand next to Catherine this weekend as she and S say their vows to each other.

We’re looking forward to a great weekend of celebrating their love for each other and making lots of new memories!

2010

For the past seven weeks, I feel like TC and I spend our days playing catch up. There is not a slow moment around the house all day. I spend the day chasing Hudson and caring for Hayes while trying to keep them both happy and entertained at the same time. I don’t even have a concept about what time it is except for knowing when Hayes needs to be fed. So I also have no idea how long it will be until TC gets home from work.

But poor TC. As soon as he sets foot in the door, we all go into scramble mode. It’s always between 6:30 and 7:00 p.m. when he gets home, which also happens to be dinner time for Hudson immediately followed by bath time and wind down time. With two little ones, we each seem to grab one child and get to work. TC feeds and bathes Hudson while I get something ready for us to eat and keep Hayes happy then feed Hayes his 7:30 bottle. And then it’s time for Hayes to get a bath.

Where we used to have about four hours together every night before bed, we now have about an hour and a half to two hours before Hayes gets his last bottle and then we fall into bed. Exhausted.

Yesterday morning I was thinking about how nice it would be to go away with just my husband– even if just for a night. Or a dinner. Or a movie. But with Hayes’s schedule still at such a crazy, habit-forming time, I would feel bad leaving him with anyone overnight. And whoever that person is (ahem, KK) would have to stay at our house.

Just as I’ve said over and over again, this is just a season. But I don’t want my marriage to suffer because of it. Because we’re both so wrapped up in surviving these days and just making it to the next morning, I don’t want us to forget how we got here in the first place.

The kids are obviously important, but our relationship is the most important one in the household. We need to feel connected and have time to talk. Our hands are full and we are both doing what’s best for both boys right now. I just wonder how long it will be until we are able to sneak in some time for just the two of us.

I do know that as Hayes gets older and starts sleeping more and eating less often we’ll feel more comfortable sneaking off for some time with just the two of us– even if it’s just to grab coffee. My husband is so much more to me that just an extra set of hands around the house and I don’t want him to get a chance to forget that.

TC is such a hard worker and is the most dedicated person I know. I am sure he has never quit anything in his life and always gives everything his all. Parenting a newborn may not come as naturally to him as it does to a mother, but the man gives it his all. When he’s exhausted in the morning after being up half the night (we’re currently sleep training Hayes), he has to go on to work and do some really important things for people that he’s not related to. I have the option of staying in my pajamas all day. I do have to be on my toes, but I can at least dress comfortably and maybe sneak in a 45 minute nap.

I am a prideful person and that’s a terrible way to be when you want to prove that you can do things without help. Like take care of kids. But I need his help and he wants to help. And we’re spending every bit of our time learning more how to work as a team and use our individual strengths to help the other along.

Right now we’re getting the little moments together by making it through long nights and knowing that we did it together. And handling meltdowns together and backing each other up on the tough decisions with toddlers.

The romantic nights out will be back as part of our reality soon enough and that much needed vacation will rejuvenate us someday.