So now that the “why I’ve been MIA” the last year and a half is out in the open, let me provide a glimpse of what this whole experience has been like and some of the things we have done in this time. What finding out being pregnant was like, what being pregnant in a pandemic was like, what learning how to raise a tiny human was like, and what the heck we just have been doing this whole time.
Finding out I was pregnant generated every emotion in the book — surprised, excited, terrified….if you’ve been pregnant before, you know the feelings I mean. I have struggled with Endometriosis since I was 13, so I have always thought I would have problems getting pregnant — and in cases where getting pregnant should have happened and never did, I started to really believe I wouldn’t be able to have a child. So to get this news…was mind blowing on all levels. After realizing that above all things it was just freaking awesome news, we were really able to indulge in the pregnancy. This is right around the time I decided to put all this blogging work ‘on hold’, so I could reallllly indulge in the pregnancy.
Right around this same time is when all the hell of Covid really started to break lose — places shutting down, masks become mandatory, nobody allowed to work…we all know what happened so I won’t dwell on the past. How was my experience being pregnant during a lockdown and pandemic? It was definitely weird, but honestly, overall it wasn’t too bad. Yes there was a lot of stressful times, and yes my emotions were extra high, and yes I really hated having to go alone to so many doctor appointments, but I had to try and look at the positives. I was forced to work from home everyday: jackpot. This made me so much more comfortable in my day-to-day operations, that I was able to work just fine and probably better even. I had flexibility and the freedom to wear moo-moo’s all day, it really was great. There was also no option to have FOMO on anything because nobody could go and do stuff anyways! Jealous everyone was out drinking at the bar? Nope, because nobody was there. Jealous everybody was going on vacations or out to all these concerts? Nope, because nobody was doing those things either. Honestly, and I know a lot of people will think it’s weird, but overall it wasn't that bad for me to be pregnant during a pandemic in hindsight. Would I want to do it again for next time? Oh hell no, but for this first time around, I will take it.
Learning how to be pregnant for my first time, and learning how to be in a pandemic for my first time too, led us to a lot of different activities to participate in. The main one: sleeping. We slept. A lot. The other one: learning how to take care of a baby. Lots of videos, reading articles, watching courses online, just all you can find on how to keep a freaking baby alive and happy. That all really sums up the big 5-6 months of my pregnancy. So lets face forward to after this little guy welcomed us with his presence (I'll do a whole post about my birthing experience so don’t worry, you’ll get to hear all that goodness soon). The first few months of Jakob’s life were still kind of in pandemic mode, but things were starting to lighten up so we definitely took advantage of slowly introducing him to the world. For me, this of course meant my horseback riding family. We did several trips out to the barn when he was a wee-little guy, getting him used to the horses, the smells, the people, the saddle…what a natural!
Jakob’s first 6 months were jammed pack with meeting friends & family, both in person and via FaceTime for those over in Germany. But it wasn’t long until we started intruding this little guy to the life of traveling, something Tobias and I both enjoy doing very much. Now I'll get down to all our adventures in more specific details later, but once he turned about 8 months he started venturing out to: Florida, Germany, Prague, Chicago, and Las Vegas. This kid has gotten around! It’s been a blast traveling with him…it’s also been hard. I wouldn’t change it for the world, but let me repeat…hard. Traveling with an infant requires a lot of patience, a lot of time, a lot of wipes, and a lot of wine (just kidding, sort of).
Now we are right around his 1st birthday, and the time where I decided I was ready to get back into my blog and all the goals and dreams I have for it. Experiencing the last 18 months has been incredible: to grow a human inside me, to live during a pandemic lockdown, to give birth to a beautiful baby boy, to begin traveling around the world as a family, and all the little stuff in between. I am so happy I decided to put this blog on hold during this timeframe so I could really focus on my life going on in those exact moments.
The now brings new challenges, new experiences, and new goals. I am ready for the now.