Sunday, November 8, 2009

It's good to be home!

Little stinker sticking his feet through the slats of his crib.

Lounging around at the Hilton.

Little boy in a big bed!

Enjoying the beautiful fall weather with mama.

Work, work and more work
Every year the organization I work for, the National Marrow Donor Program, has an annual conference at the Hilton Minneapolis Hotel. We have over 1000 attendees from all over the world and I am part of a very small group of conference organizers. Planning for this conference starts a year in advance and as the date of the event gets close I'm always working long, long hours.

This year I timed Miles' birth almost right - to miss a lot of the planning and work. I think I'm the only pregnant person I know who wanted her baby to come after her due date to avoid some of this work! Sweet Miles was anxious to see the world and came 8 days early resulting in me working my butt off since I've returned to work from maternity leave.

The conference was a success... and I survived thanks in HUGE part to my mom and Mike. Due to the long days at the conference I get a room at the Hilton. Since Miles is so young and I'm nursing my mom stayed with me at the Hilton for a couple of days and then Mike stayed for a night so that I could pop up to the room every 3 hours to feed Miles. I don't think that I could have been away from him around the clock for the whole conference.

Highlights
This weekend Miles rode in his first elevator, stayed in his first hotel, rolled around a king size bed for the first time and was probably one of the youngest attendees ever to participate in a conference on advances in unrelated hematopoietic stem cell transplants.

My mom and Miles were a hit at the hotel and were greeted by name by all of the Hilton staff as they strolled around the Hilton. Miles loved looking at the view of lights and skyscrapers from the 24th floor and squealed in delight while looking at himself in the mirrored closet doors. Saturday night the meeting ended with a dinner and closing keynote speaker. Mike and Miles got to sneak in the back and attend this portion. The speaker talked about IQ and emotional intelligence and the science behind people's reactions to change and transformations. I was so exhausted at this point that I didn't get a lot out of if and will have to watch the dvd but Mike enjoyed it. Much to our surprise Miles was mentioned twice in the speaker's talk! On two occasions he referenced "the baby in the back." We'll have to keep a copy of the dvd for Miles' baby book.

Home sweet home
Today we loaded the car and came home and it felt so good to be back. Back not only to the house but hopefully my normal life again. I've been so consumed with work that I've missed Miles, Mike and just enjoying things outside of work. Hopefully starting tomorrow (now that this conference is over) I can really put my family first and enjoy time with them. In order to make being a working mom work I will have to establish a much healthier work/life balance.

The highlight of today was walking around lake Susan with Miles in the Baby Bjorn. The weather was beautiful and Miles rode facing forward for the first time. He's getting to be such a big boy!

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