Stephens' Stories: Let's just call it a big, tough adjustment

Last Tuesday, November 1 was my first day back at work. I am going to be working full time and Austin is going to "school" at Bright Horizons. It is about 6 minutes from my office and about 2 minutes from David's office. It is nice to have him so close to both of our offices so that either of us can take him or pick him up. I can go during my lunch break to nurse him and then I send 2 bottles for the mid-morning and afternoon feedings. His teachers are Miss Mira and Miss Jaime and he has received good reports so far. He has been napping as usual and they say he is an easy baby, which is how he is at home, so that makes me feel good. There are 11 "infants" in his room and three teachers. They are around his age through 18 months, which is a wide range. He is doing great and I am taking it one day at a time. Last week was a short week since I started on Tuesday and Wednesday was a snow day for his school. David and I split the day - I went to work in the morning and David went to work in the afternoon. Thursday and Friday were rough since there is so much work to do and not enough time to do it in. I just want to leave right at 5 every day so that I can see my little guy for a few hours before he goes to bed. I definitely stress myself out about work since I want to still perform at my best, but I know that taking care of Austin is much much more important than my job. There is just so much work to do and not enough time to do it in. Please pray for me to realize that the work will get done and Austin will do great at school. I think I am almost making myself sick thinking about it. I was sick when we were in Houston - not sure what it was, but it might have been nerves. And today I have felt sick most of the day. I trust that God will get me through it and my little guy will be just fine.

This weekend was fun - we went to dinner with Christy, Corrie, Dianne, Hayden and Maddie (David's cousins and aunt) on Friday. Austin slept the whole time and then also slept for 9 hours Friday night. That was nice except that I barely saw him awake on Friday :(. On Saturday we rooted for the Horns and did lots of laundry. We went to our first birthday party - at Gymboree! It was my friend Pippa's, daughter Hannah's 2nd birthday. Today I went on a long run to Wash park while David stayed with Austin and Savannah. And this afternoon we went to our friends' Brandon and Christina's housewarming party. They just bought a house and had about 25 people over to eat, watch football and just hang out. Austin was not the only little one - Brody (9 mos) and Kaylee (3.5 months) were there. Good times! Here are a couple of recent pictures.