The End of an Era

After Jayla was born, I took 16 weeks off of work. Before returning to work, I worried about how I would be able to get up in the morning and get everyone out of the door in a decent amount of time. One of my main concerns was having to nurse Jayla every morning when it generally took her any where from 60 to 75 minutes to nurse each time. So, the morning of December 12, 2005 I woke up at 6am and started nursing her. It took her an hour, of course. But, during the last 30 minutes of that, my husband was able to get himself dressed and was ready to dress Jayla by the time we were done. We then packed the car after Jayla and I were dressed and managed to get out of the house around 8:00.

Well, as the months passed, we got more and more efficient at the morning routine. By the time Jayla was about 7 or 8 months old, it went something like this:

• ~6:50am - Daddy wakes Jayla up and brings her to our room.
• 6:50am - 7:30am - Jayla nurses. I sleep. Daddy gets dressed, picks out Jayla's clothes and packs the car.
• 7:30am - 7:55am - Daddy dressed Jayla. I get dressed.
• 8:00am - Everyone leaves the house.

This schedule seemed to work like second nature for the whole family.

Today Jayla turned 17 months old. This morning, I finally decided to switch up the morning routine a little. It went something like this:

• 6:40am - Daddy and I wake up
• 6:40am - 7:05am - Daddy and I get dressed.
• 7:05am - I wake Jayla and take her to the kitchen to warm milk for her. Daddy picks out Jayla's clothes.
• 7:10am - 7:30am - Daddy dresses Jayla. I make breakfast for Jayla and me and pack the car.
• 7:30am - Daddy leaves for work.
• 7:30am - 7:40am - I feed Jayla a bowl of oatmeal.
• 7:50am - Jayla and I leave the house.

A huge part of how we have always defined our mornings is now gone. It was a game time decision. I prayed about it last night because I was considering making the change this morning. I did not even tell my husband that things would be different this morning until about 6:55am when I said, "When you go get Jayla, just go ahead and get her dressed." It seemed fitting. It seemed like the time was right. I am very happy that Jayla and I were able to enjoy that experience for 17 months. I think Jayla realized it was missing this morning but, did not put up a huge fuss. I am slightly uncomfortable, physically, as I type this. But, I think it was the right thing for us right now. I have always known this day would come and, quite honestly, I am handling it much better than I thought I would.