For the last 6 years, I have been a part-time stay at home mom (SAHM) and a part-time nurse. I feel very fortunate that my employer has been so understanding of Sayla’s needs and the intermittent medical leave I was able to take when necessary. After eight weeks of maternity leave at the beginning of this year when Pax was born, I returned to my job. Pax attended daycare a few days a week while our LPN, Peggy, continued to watch Sayla while I was at work. It has been very difficult maintaining a job, being a mother of a special needs child, and an infant, wife, caretaker of the home, and managing Sayla’s healthcare, even though I really want to do it all! I was also accepted into a part time Nurse Practitioner online program starting this fall. This is hard to admit, but I’m choosing to be real with y’all right now…one of my biggest struggles is taking on too much, and not being able to commit myself 100% to any one role, so not giving each one my best. (Another struggle is my habitual run on sentences) The stress I have put on myself to try and do many things, is just not fair to anyone, so I have decided to stop being a “part-timer” with many roles, and focus on being a “full-timer” at home. No more work, and no school. My children (and the hubs) are my priority and they need 100% of me right now. Sayla has her upcoming surgeries with many pre-op appointments, and I am excited to stay at home with Pax, just as I did with Sayla the first years of her life. I am blessed to have this option, and thankful for a husband who supports my new full-time gig. This will not be for forever, but for right now, it’s the best choice. To celebrate the first week of my new full timin’ mom status, baby Pax and I decided to road trip it with my sister in law and niece to Charleston, SC, to see my brother and other sister in law. Sayla was with her dad and is not stable enough to travel right now, but she would have loved the ocean breeze as much as we did!

I look forward to many more adventures with my babies. Out of all the part time commitments I had, I chose the hardest role to commit to full time, but I know it will be the most rewarding. Any SAHM sanity tips would be appreciated, so leave a comment!

I have heard many times “I don’t know how you do it all!” Special needs child, infant who breastfeeds, work, maintain household, organize Sayla’s healthcare…list goes on. Truth is, I don’t do it all, I have help. I didn’t always have help, but I will spare you the ugly details of my life before help existed! We do not have family that live close…not even in the same state, so finding help has not been easy. I don’t like to ask for help. Could be a pride thing, or I don’t want to bother anyone, or it could be that I’m a control freak? But I just cannot do it all on my own.

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Sayla is a keto kid again!  She was admitted to Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center November 14- 16 to initiate the ketogenic diet.  This diet is a special high fat and low carb diet, designed to help control seizure activity in those suffering from epilepsy.  Sayla was started on this diet at age 16 months for the first time at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for a type of epilepsy called infantile spasms.  It took the diet approximately three months to stop these types of seizures.  We kept Sayla on the diet for four and a half years, then decided to wean her off since she was having issues with high cholesterol.  Unfortunately, Sayla developed a new seizure type this past August, that is spasm-like and causes her heart rate and breathing rate to increase for about 30-45 seconds at a time.  She would have these spasms anywhere from once a day to one an hour.  Instead of increasing her current seizure medication doses or adding a new one, we decided to go back on the ketogenic diet, and will continue to pray for seizure control once again.

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{Gender Reveal September 2016}

I love surprises, and my husband loathes them.  I waited until Sayla’s birth to know her gender, and I could do it again with this baby!  Whereas, Patrick would pay hundreds of dollars to find out gender at 10 weeks with genetic testing.  We decided to compromise and both be surprised at a gender reveal party at 17 weeks gestation.  My best friend Alana, offered to throw us this shindig, and it was seriously the best party anyone has ever given me.  We had the gender scan 9 days before scheduled party.  The results were made available for front desk pick-up by Alana, ONLY, and required ID verification. She guarded this secret with her life, and says it was the hardest secret she has ever had to keep, BUT was totally worth it when she saw our reaction.  We had the reveal at our home, and invited close friends and family.

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{Wishes Spectacular – Trip to Disney World January 2016}

Day 2 may have been the Best Day Ever, but THIS day was Spectacular from start to finish.  It was Mommy, Diddy, Nini, and Pappy’s last day with Sayla at the Disney parks, so we had a lot planned to see and do.  Most of our photos are from Day 3 and we were able to capture so many memories.  Warning: this post is mostly photos.  Make-A-Wish and Give Kids the World included a Memory Maker/PhotoPass in our trip package.  This allowed us access to photos online that professional photographers at Disney World would take of us and our adventures.  I would highly recommend purchasing this feature if going to Disney! (https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/photo-pass-service/)

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