Being a mother is a bit of an odd thing sometimes. It seems like motherhood and raising a child is a constant rollercoaster and one minute you’ll feel like you’re in your groove and totally killin’ the mom game and the next minute you feel like you’re failing at everything and not doing one thing well. It’s a rollercoaster I’ve been riding for a little more than two-and-a-half years now and one I absolutely adore more than anything in the world.
And now my motherhood journey is about to get even more intense when we welcome our newest addition this summer. I am so beyond ready for another baby and every part of my heart is ready to snuggle a newborn and add another family member to the Fagan crew, but I also know things are about to change… BIG TIME.
Chase will be almost three when we have our second child and right now we’re admittedly in a bit of a sweet spot. Of course there are challenges that arise with a toddler every day, but right now they don’t really seem to compare to waking up every two hours to nurse, functioning on as little sleep as possible, navigating unpredictable naps and trying to figure out what a baby who cannot communicate beyond cries and smiles wants from you at 3 a.m.
The other day, as I was tackling yet another mini cleaning project, I stumbled upon the breastfeeding log I kept when Chase was a newborn and Ryan and I laughed out loud together when I began reading the feeding times I tracked during the first two months of his life. 1:15 a.m., 3 a.m., 5:10 a.m. and so on… Somehow we blacked a lot of that out of our minds but this little discovery served as a mini reality check and reiterated in my mind just how much things are about to change in the next two months. Couple that with juggling a three-year-old and a newborn and it’s hard not to feel a little nervous about the transition even through all of the joy and excitement.
As Ryan and I began to talk about what our lives will look like beginning in June, we started to think about a mini bucket list of things we want to do before our baby arrives. Many of them are fun things but some of them are household to-dos and I’m grateful to be partnering with American Express today to share a little bit abut their new Amex EveryDay Credit Card and how we’re planning to use our new card to check some of these items off our list!
Ryan and I recently became Amex EveryDay Credit Card Members and, if I’m being completely honest, I’m an extremely cautious person when it comes to finances, so I researched the heck out of this Card when the company approached me. I did the same thing the last time Ryan and I signed up for a new credit card, and it’s not something I commit to lightly… But the more and more I read about the Card, the more excited about it I became and the more the Card seemed like a good fit and a good decision for our family for a myriad of reasons:
- There is no annual fee**
- A 0% intro APR** on purchases and balance transfers for 15 months, then a variable rate of 14.49-25.49%
- A $0 balance transfer fee** on transfers made within the first 60 days of account opening
- A welcome bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points* after you make $1,000 in purchases on the Card in your first 3 months (Heck yes!)
- Card Members who use their card 20+ times in a billing period receive 20% more points* on those purchases (less returns and credits)
- Card Members receive 2x points at US supermarkets* on up to $6,000 per year in purchases (then it drops to 1x) and receive 1x points on other purchases*
(*Read about the offer and benefit terms / **Note that rates and fees may apply)
Also, this is kind of random, but do any of my fellow Friends fans out there remember the lottery episode where the cast is talking about what they’d do if they won the lottery? Joey says something like “I’d buy the Knicks” while Ross says, “If I win I’m gonna put it all into a very low-yield bond.” I laughed out loud because I’m the wet blanket who totally agreed with Ross. Ha! Well, I’m also the person who is continually jealous of the membership rewards points people receive that allow them to travel for free and do other awesome things simply because they used their credit cards.
The main card Ryan and I have been using for years accumulates monetary rewards which are absolutely wonderful but we typically transfer them to savings (again, wonderful!) but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love the idea of another card with real membership rewards that would actually encourage us to have a little more fun with our rewards here and there and help us pay for flights to see friends and family (especially now that we need THREE tickets).
And that brings me to our Before Baby Number Two Bucket List!
Before Baby Number Two Bucket List
Here’s a little glimpse at a few of the things we’re hoping to check off our list before our little one arrives in June:
- Plan a getaway for just me and Ryan – We’re checking this one off our list RIGHT NOW with a couple of days away in South Carolina
- Replace the roof on our house – Ugh… Not looking forward to this one but it’s necessary and I want to get it done before our baby arrives
- Plan a mini-vacation for our whole family – Whether it be a visit to see our families in Florida or a trip to Atlanta to take Chase to the Georgia Aquarium, we want to get away with Chase before he is no longer an only child
- Potty train Chase – A priority because the summer camps at our preschool require it and I’d love for him to be able to participate
- Figure out Chase and the new baby’s bedrooms – I have ZERO thoughts about what we’re going to do when it comes to bedrooms for our baby and Chase and it’s clearly something we need to figure out
- Stock up on new baby necessities – I feel so clueless about what we might need now that we’ll have two kids… a second stroller? A double monitor? Help!
- Plan a few more date nights – We’re in a good spot with leaving Chase with a babysitter but I know myself and, without family in the area, I’m a little more nervous about leaving a tiny baby with a babysitter so I want to plan some fun date nights in the coming months
- Go on a few weekend day trips with Chase – Some spots on our radar: Tweetsie Railroad, the North Carolina Zoo, nearby state parks
I’ll be sure to share more with you guys as we chip away at our Before Baby Number Two Bucket List and will link back to this post in the future as I’ll be continually updating it with more information about our Amex EveryDay Credit Card experience!
Questions of the Day
What are some must-have items we need now that we’ll have two kids in our family?
What are some of the most memorable things you’ve received or experienced thanks to past membership rewards points from your credit cards?
The post Chipping Away at Our Before Baby Number Two Bucket List appeared first on Peanut Butter Fingers.
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