9/11

Today is September 11, 2010. Nine years ago, our world changed forever. On that day, I was a junior in high school. I lived on Fort Meade, Maryland, less than 30 miles from Washington, DC. It's still thought that the NSA building on Fort Meade was the intended target of the plane that went down in Pennsylvania. The NSA was 2 miles from my house and 2.5 miles from my high school.

My best friend's dad's office was in the part of the Pentagon that got hit. Luckily, he had just left the country to do a year in Korea. But my dad knew someone who died in the Pentagon.

The weeks that followed were crazy. On Fort Meade, they had just finished building new gates all around the base where heavily armed Military Police would be stationed 24/7. We were on complete and total lock-down for the week following the attacks and no one could leave or come onto the base. We were completely protected but it was still so scary.

After everything calmed down a bit and they reopened the gates, every time you wanted to come back on base, there would be a line of cars waiting for the MPs to check everyone's IDs. At the beginning, the only people allowed on base were those with military IDs. They eventually loosened the reins a bit and made it so as long as SOMEONE in the car had a military ID, you could come on base. No civilians can go on base anymore without someone in the car with them or without some kind of official business on base or without proof that they are visiting someone who lives there. It's nuts, but I'm so grateful that I lived there when I did.

Watching footage from that day still brings me right back to the emotions I felt watching it as it was happening. It's less open-weeping and more outrage and astonishment now.

Someday we'll be able to explain to Jack what it was like that day. 9/11 will always be our Pearl Harbor or JFK.



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In baby news, Jack's 2 month appointment is on Monday. I get to hold a screaming baby while he gets shots. :( I have to go alone because Dan will be doing work-related things.

He'll be out taking a test for an amazing job opportunity that, if he gets said job, will mean I get to be a SAHM and watch my kid grow up. I can't wait. He's SUPER qualified, and from what we can tell, there hasn't been as much interest in the jobs that are open with this particular company as originally thought, so he has a really good chance of getting it. There's a million hoops he has to jump through though, so it'll be a while before we know for sure.

Stuff is crazy right now, but good. Crazy good.

Jack is 8 weeks and 5 days old and currently napping in some jungle jammies.

It's been too long, fair Blogspot

So it's been like 2 and a half weeks since I updated this thing. No one told me being a mom was a 24-hour a day gig. Well, actually, lots of people told me that. But I was always cynical and egotistical to the point of thinking "yeah whatever, I'll be cool under pressure and my child will be a perfect angel and nap most of the day and I'll get everything done!" Haha! At night I sleep for maybe 3 hours, then pump for 30 minutes (while my amazing husband feeds the baby). Rinse and repeat hopefully 2 more times. Unfortunately, there have been very few days where I've gotten to sleep past 6am. Considering I was used to sleeping until noon prior to having Jack, this is a pretty radical change.

I'm physically and mentally exhausted. I'm lucky if I can muster up the energy and time to take a shower every day. I've been saying "I have to do laundry" for like, 4 days and I'm running out of shirts that don't have rotten, half-digested boob milk on them.

My new life is awesome. o_O

Actually, I talk a big game about how horrible it all is, but every time that little person smiles his huge, excited smile at me... all the turmoil vanishes. His happy face makes me melt and remember what all the crappy times are for. So I'm usually able to make it through the mess and come out the other side in one piece.

In other news... It's been 8 weeks and I'm still bleeding. Oh, sorry. I forgot the TMI warning. Too late now. I'VE BEEN BLEEDING FOR 8 FREAKIN WEEKS. It slowed down for about 5 days, then my period started. OMGAREYOUSERIOUS!? Don't believe the people who say "breastfeeding totally keeps you from getting your period!!1!" They're lying.

Welp, I'm about to pass out. Time to feed the kid and try to sleep for a few hours so we can do it all again tomorrow.

Jack is 8 weeks old, and I'm so unbelievably tired.