Erin Akin Carroll

There is nothing as exciting, overwhelming, sweet, precious, wonderful, and scary as coming home with your newborn baby. The minute we strapped Hudson into his car seat and the nurse wheeled us together out to the car, I was a ball of emotion. But I couldn’t quite figure out which emotion I was feeling. I had never done this before and had no idea what to expect. For a control freak, that’s hard.

We came home to a surprise from my mom. She had ordered a large wooden stork to be placed in our yard and it had Hudson’s name and birth stats on it. It was such a sweet surprise.

It’s an overwhelming thing to come home and be responsible for a brand-new, perfect little person. Especially when it’s your first time. I had never bathed a baby or cleaned a belly button. Hudson came home on the biliblanket and that added a new level of stress. We were measuring out all of the breast milk he was getting and taking him for weight checks and heel pricks every day. But I was in a fog.

We had wonderful friends bringing meals every single day, and because of this, we had daily visitors. I tried to keep it to just one visitor per day so we could try to maintain a schedule and so we could all get our rest. But everyone is so excited and wants to see the baby. Maintaining a good “one visitor per day” rule was effective for us. If someone called and we weren’t up for visitors, we asked if they might be able to come the next day or later in the week. We love our friends and family so much and wanted to just have a house full of people, but sometimes you’re just tired and want to be in a quiet house, holding your precious newborn.

I was very fortunate to have my mom stay with us for about a month. She cleaned for us, warmed up the food our friends brought, and generally helped me learn how to take care of a baby. She was patient with me and loving and it was such a special time as Todd and I learned from her.

The best thing about having my mom around? That whole sleep-when-the-baby-sleeps thing? It’s so much easier when you can count on your mother to take care of the baby in case he does wake up. I slept so soundly during all of those naps. And when your newborn baby sleeps 21 hours a day, it’s easy to get caught up on sleep.

The day she left, however, was a very sad day. Deep in my heart I knew I could do everything by myself, but I was scared. And I had gotten so used to her company and her advice. (Solicited and unsolicited!) But five minutes after she left I stopped crying. And I looked at my 10-pound baby boy and something clicked for the first time. He’s mine! He’s mine.

He is my baby and I know him. Better than anyone else. He’s a part of me and even if I don’t have every single answer, I will figure it out. And he and I will grow together.

We were so fortunate when Hudson and Hayes were born to have so much help from friends and family members to help us ease into this new life as a growing family. The day would come when the meals would stop. And the visitors would stop coming by every day. There would be many wonderful days, but just as many hard days as we figured it all out. But we do, eventually, figure it out. This experience is unlike any other, and that first week of pure bliss mixed with complete fear really did a great job of preparing me for the full range of emotions that come with motherhood.

Find more posts from bloggers sharing their experiences of motherhood on the Huggies page on BlogHer.com.

There’s a lot of fun stuff I wanted to share with y’all, but I promise it’s all worth looking at because I saved the best for last!

1. The promise of seeing The Hunger Games this weekend! I am so excited to see Katniss, Peeta and Gale come to life. I am hoping that we can go to a theater that isn’t super crowded with screaming tweens, but it may be inevitable. You know what they say: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em!
I seriously can’t watch the movie trailer without getting chills.

2. My sweet friend, Jennifer (of Life in the Green House) wrote a wonderful blog post called “Carpe or Be Carpe-ed.” I encourage all of you to read it and add Jennifer’s blog to your Reader. She’s a great writer with a beautiful heart.

5. I saw this party last week on Hostess With the Mostess blog. The talented Kate Landers hosted a “Tortilly Adorable” party for her son, who has torticollis and plagiocephaly, and had just received his “helmet” to correct his head shape. It is the sweetest little party to bring awareness to these two conditions and help people understand why these babies wear the helmets and doc bands.

image via Hostess With The Mostess

6. Finally, back in July my best friend got married. Her name was Catherine Traylor and she was marrying Sean Parks. So it was the Traylor-Parks wedding. Get it? Hee hee…

(just a screen shot– click the link at the bottom to watch the video)

Anyway, they had a gorgeous ceremony in Northwest Arkansas and then had the most fun, down-home, backyard reception at her parents’ home up in the hills in Bentonville, Arkansas. They even had an airstream trailer as the backdrop for their bar to make light out of the hilarious coincidence of their names.

I wanted to show y’all their wedding video. You have to watch the whole thing. It is the most fun thing you’ll ever watch! I promise!

Pen Weddings did the videography and I just love everything they’ve done to capture the best of Catherine and Sean’s wedding day. (You may even catch a glimpse of me as the matron of honor shedding a few tears.) And y’all, Pen Weddings is the best. I am seriously impressed with all of their videos. (Click on the link below and watch the video!)

Catherine + Sean | Mildred B. Cooper Chapel Wedding Film from Sarah Pendergraft on Vimeo.

Back in the days when I was applying and interviewing for jobs, I had to think about my strengths. I was a young thing and I was very specific about the kinds of jobs I was interested in and, because I didn’t have a whole lot of experience, my list of skills wasn’t particularly long.

I was really good at planning things. I was creative. And I enjoyed organizing things and was, dare I say, good at it.

I didn’t interview for my current job. My bosses are wee little boys. They didn’t even pick me for the job. But my skill set has grown as I’ve learned from them. Or maybe I just stretch myself and continue to do things that I’m not especially good at, but I do them because it’s part of the job.

For instance, Hudson loves animals. He wants me to sing “Old MacDonald” with him, but he likes to name off the wall, non-farm animals. And guess who gets to make the animal noises? Do you know what sound a penguin makes? Yeah, I didn’t either. But I do now!

Collectively, my boys weigh about 65 pounds. Put 65 pounds into a double stroller, and it’s close to 90 pounds. I had no idea I could walk at a brisk pace while pushing 90 pounds. But I do it because it makes them happy. My bosses need their walks.

I’ve been asked to draw elephants and monkeys. I’ve been asked to draw every wild animal under the sun for Hudson’s amusement. And you know what? He praises every single drawing like it’s a complete work of art. I’m a terrible artist. My drawings look nothing like the animals he has requested. But he knows exactly what they are and says, “Wow, Mommy!”

I’ve never received such high performance ratings in my life!

If you throw in the fact that I’m a boy mom, you’ll realize how much I’m really stretching myself for this. I had no clue what the names of all the different trucks were or the difference between a fire truck’s siren and an ambulance’s siren.

Before having kids I wasn’t even really a “kid person.” But these days, my whole day. Scratch that. My whole world revolves around kids and what they love. And I love it!

It’s keeping me young. It’s helping me grow.

And you know what else? There’s never a time when I’m asked to do something and think, “Oh no. I’m not very good at that.” I mean, who would say that to a toddler?

“I’m sorry. I can’t show you how to play tee ball because I was never very good at it.” Pssh! No way. I have tried so many new things I’ve never tried before. And as far as my kids are concerned, I’m the best in the world at it. (Besides their Daddy, of course.)

I still get to organize and plan. I can still be creative.

I still can’t sew and I don’t whip up gourmet breakfasts for the heck of it. I can be crafty if I want to, but I’m better at sitting down and making animals out of Play Doh. (They don’t really look like animals, but Hudson doesn’t mind.)

But this job has perfected my talent of singing funny songs and making goofy faces that cause Hudson and Hayes to fall over in fits of laughter.

I believe it’s safe to say that my little bosses have taught me more than I’ve taught them.

This post was sponsored by SC Johnson. These are my honest opinions on the product. I do not post reviews on products I can’t stand behind.

There really is something about this time of year. Spring fever and cabin fever kind of go hand-in-hand.

If Spring is here, that means Easter is on the horizon. Easter is such a special day for our family and the holidays are so much more fun when little kids are around. We’ll start dying Easter eggs soon and I’m going to make a wreath out of fake eggs and pretty ribbon.

So in addition to the wreath and adding fresh flowers to my house in the springtime, I need to work on Easter party plans which includes getting my house ready for having company. I want each room to smell fresh and clean.

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