The art of multi-tasking

I am a multi-tasking GODDESS!  I knew I was good, but I did not realize just how good.  Adding a third child has been significantly more difficult to adjust to than adding a second child.  Even with the help of my parents, I feel like I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off.  But the other day I succeeded in a feat I never knew possible.

I was able to put my two oldest children in time out while I was nursing the baby.  That's right... I said while I was nursing the baby.  The kids were fighting with one another and I couldn't take it anymore.  I put one kid next to the bathroom counter and our son I put on the edge of the bed.  Really, they could have taken off any time they wanted.  I guess I had my scary face on, so they were too scared to venture off.

After that experience, I feel like I can conquer anything.  Bring on another baby!  How bad could four be?

That just happened

What I am about to write is the truth; 100% the truth.  No exagerating. 

Last night I saw one of the craziest things I have ever seen.  If I hadn't been there to see it myself I probably would not believe it happened it all. 

In the 16 days since my precious little girl was born she has yet to make a real big mess.  She doesn't spit up and her diapers don't leak.   

My family and I decided to go out for frozen yogurt.  My husband did not want any so he stayed outside with the baby while the rest of us went in to get some yummy, yogurty goodness.  We then joined him outside on the benches to eat the yogurt.  I was standing next to my parents when I looked over at my husband and saw something dripping from the car seat.  I thought to myself, "huh, why is there something dripping from the car seat?"  I then asked my husband the same question, who immediately started to investigate the source of the drip.

Turns out the source was a leaking diaper from an absolutely passed out baby.  We all braced for what was to come next because a couple of drips started to become a steady stream.  And it just kept coming and coming.  It's hard to believe that one little baby could possibly hold that much poop.  I don't know how many people have had the pleasure of cleaning up a diaper explosion out in public, but it is an interesting experience.  I personally have had the pleasure about four times.  I grabbed the wipes and extra outfit from the diaper bag, my mom grabbed a bunch of napkins from the yogurt shop and my husband bagan to gingerly unbelt the baby from the car seat.  I prepared to grab the poop covered baby from my husband. 

This is where it gets interesting.

He took the baby out and I went to gingerly take her when suddenly, I noticed there was no poop on the baby!  She was totally clean!  I took her to the bathroom to change her diaper and there was a little mess, but it wasn't bad at all.  I was relieved to see that she had escaped the mess, but was very concerned about the car seat.  They aren't exactly easy to clean.  We went back outside and I went over to my husband to inspect the damage.  Remarkably there was NO MESS!  Turns out the poop leaked out of the diaper and went straight down the hole where the seat belt threads through and down onto the sidewalk.  Totally crazy!  The seat belt was a little dirty and a little bit of the plastic needed to be cleaned.  That's it!  It took 4 or 5 cups of water to clean off the sidewalk, but there was nothing on the car seat!  It was incredible.

Seriously, I'm only one person!

My daughter's last day of school before summer and I dropped her off in my pajamas.  I almost made it to the end of the year, but today I just could not get ready in time.  Thank goodness my dad was with us because we actually got her to school a few minutes late and she needed to be signed in.  Normally I would have no problems going into the school in my PJs, but the school was having their 5th grade graduation this morning and I would have had to walk through all the parents and grandparents who were there for the ceremony.  While I totally would have done it I'm afraid it would have really embarrassed my daughter and my husband if he were to find out.  Even my father, who NEVER gets embarrassed about anything,  seemed to be upset about my mismatched robe and PJ attire.

It's not that I couldn't have gotten ready.  In fact if I had ignored the things that I needed to do and just focused on what everyone else needed I would have had plenty of time.  Unfortunately, I have mastitis and I HAD to pump after feeding the baby.  Unfortunately, that made it impossible to turn the TV to the channel that my son wanted, to help my daughter get her stuff ready for school and of course impossible to put some clothes on; that is if I wanted to eat and go to the bathroom.  I could have gotten up earlier, but last night was rough between the baby fussing and the dog vomiting everywhere, I just didn't get much sleep and the idea of getting up at 6 was just not appealing.  As it was, I rushed through breakfast and barely got my son and daughter dressed before it was time to go.  I don't know why I feel so overwhelmed.  I have time to get done what I need to do, but I have no time to get anything done for me.  I've even been interrupted while writing this no less than 5 times.  I guess that's just the life of a SAHM.  Unfortunately It's very frustrating and I am not the best person I can be when I'm frustrated.

I felt really good yesterday.  I managed to get some areas of the house cleaned up and even got some errands done.  But it wasn't enough.  I feel like to make everyone happy I needed to have done more.  But I am just one person.  I can't do everything that everyone wants.  I can't do everything that I want.

I know it's selfish to want to do something for myself, but sometimes there are things that I have to do.  I need to learn how to balance or I'm going to be one angry mama.

Three's a crowd?

Almost two weeks as a mom of three and I think things are going pretty well.  The baby is sweet and calm and sleeping through most of the night.  It would be difficult to imagine a better baby.  My older children are adjusting well and seem to really like her.  It's amazing how you can love each new child as much as the older ones.  I love all my children equally, but I do find myself torn between them.  Whenever I spend too much time with one, I feel like I'm neglecting the others.  I don't want to spend all my time with the baby, but I don't want to only see her when she's hungry.  Obviously with our first child I could hold her all day if I wanted to.  With our second, our daughter was at daycare a couple of days a week, so I got a lot of alone time with him as well.  This time, I have all three of them everyday and it's difficult to carve out much cuddle time with her.

I love to hold her.  She's so sweet and cuddly, but I do have two other children that want my attention as well.  At the same time I have a house to keep going.  There's dishes to do, meals to make, children to bathe and then I still want to have fun with the kids.  I spent a whole 30 minutes outside playing bubbles with my older children today and felt awful the whole time because the baby was inside with my parents.  She was just sleeping.  She wouldn't have known if I was holding her.  It was the perfect time to spend quality time with my other children. 

A little while later, the baby was awake and I was holding her and talking to her; listening to my other children playing.  I suddenly felt guilty for not being in the room playing with them.  I'm still adjusting to being a mom of three.  It's definitely different.  Hopefully as the baby gets older and we can all play together some of this will fade. 

SAHM-wear

It's official.  I am a full-fledged stay at home mom.  I know I've been home for almost three months, but I now own fancy cleaning gloves.  They are called Glam-gloves in fact.  They are a beautiful green with a funky mosaic pattern.  I decided that if my primary job after taking care of the kids is going to be keeping my house clean, that I should look great doing it.  I've never really used cleaning gloves before and I must say it makes a huge difference.  Not only do I walk away from a previously dirty toilet not smelling like cleaning chemicals, but I'm far less grossed out by the whole process.  And now that I can finally bend at the middle again, I've been able to hand-scrub the floors in the bathrooms.  I've been dreaming about getting that done for 4 or 5 months now.  I do love the smell of Pine Sol!

Now all I need is a sexy apron and I'm good to go.

Pummeled... that's how I feel

Pummeled is the best way to explain my 2012.  95% of the time I am a very optimistic person.  I know my life is pretty darn great.  I have a loving husband and family.  All my children are healthy.  We have plenty to eat and a house to live in.  Life is pretty darn good.

But 2012 has really kicked my in the booty physically, mentally and emotionally.  It didn't start out so bad.  I caught a cold in January.  Just a normal run of the mill cold.  Than two months later, I still had a lingering cough, a pulled muscle in my back and I was peeing my pants with each cough (see previous blog).  Then I lost my job.  That hurt.  I dealt with the embarrassment of that and looked forward to being a SAHM and felt blessed to even have the option.  It wouldn't have been easy finding a job 6 months pregnant.  I would like to say that I've been OK with the transition, but I'm still dealing with the pain of losing my job.  You're ego really takes a beating when you lose your job, even if it's not your fault.

Nothing major happened for a while.  I was getting used to being a SAHM and things were OK.  Then the swelling started.  It wasn't bad at first, but then I was waking in the middle of the night, not able to move my hands because of the swelling.  And they ached, in fact they still ache... all the time.  Soon my feet began to swell to at least twice their normal size.  And my face began to puff.  My face always gets puffy with pregnancy, but this was a little too much for me to bare. I didn't even look like myself.  If I smiled, my eyes would literally disappear into the fluid filled things, I used to call eye lids.  Really, I looked pretty creepy at peek swelling.  My nose swelled to twice its normal size and needless to say I just felt fat and incredibly ugly.  That's really hard to deal with when you're coping with ever changing hormones.


I was learning to cope with all the swelling and then I got a pinched nerve in my leg.  I'm not sure what's going on, but whenever I bend it too far it feels like my skin is literally ripping apart and now I have a spot on my leg about 3 inches in diameter that is completely numb.  Still, I can avoid hurting that spot.  Then I went a week over due.  Not really a big shock; both my other kids were 10 days late.  Three days before the scheduled induction I caught a cold.  And not a mild one either.  I could not breathe out of my nose.  I mean no air was getting through....at all.  I had no voice and developed a cough on the morning of the scheduled induction.  Believe me, there is nothing more painful than trying to blow your nose or coughing during a contraction.  It just takes the pain to a whole new level.  On the upside, my labor was shorter than the other two and much easier.  Plus, I got a beautiful little girl out of it all.


There are a few more things that have happened in the last few months that have been difficult to deal with, but I've made it through.  I can't remember having a tougher five months in my life.  I know I'm extremely lucky.  These complaints are shallow and nothing compared to what others have gone through.  I just try to stay focused on what matters most and I try to remember that it will all get better.

First Day home

Well, she's finally here.  I am officially the mother of three adorable children.  I have my little momma, who can be quite helpful but may also accidentally smother the baby with love.  I have the angry middle child who is only happy if we all do exactly what he wants when he wants and of course the cutie baby who never talks back, never moves, loves to cuddle, but also does not sleep and currently will not eat.

Our first day home was completely uneventful and totally exhausting.  The night in the hospital was totally unrestful.  Not because of the baby, but because of all the nurses who kept checking on us.  All I wanted to do was sleep and all they wanted was my temp and blood pressure.  While the baby slept most of the first night, we were not so lucky the second.   We left the hospital about 7:30 at night, so our first priority was getting the other two in bed.  Then my husband and I, quite stupidly, decided not to go to bed until 10 or so.  Mistake.  The baby just wasn't sleepy.  She wasn't dirty, wet or hungry.  Just not necessarily sleepy.   

Needless to say we started our first day home with about 2 hours of interrupted sleep.  Luckily my husband had decided to take the week off because he was just about a zombie from almost 3 days of little to no sleep.  Our oldest went to school, so it was just the two year old and the baby against us.  Of course the baby slept most of the day, so we were pretty much devoted to entertaining our son, which I think worked out for the best.  He as been quite angry lately and we think a lot of it has to do with the newest addition to the family.  I think we were able to successfully show him that we will not forget about him just because there is a new baby in the house.  Some how we managed to squeeze in a few hours of sleep during the day, but then it was time for our oldest to come home.

She is a beaming older sister.  There could not be a prouder sister in the whole world.  She just glows around the baby.  I am super excited about that.  However, our daughter does have other responsibilities including homework and piano practice and she needs to do them instead of playing with her sister.  That did not go over well and I think a few less than ideal night's sleep had caught up to her because we had quite the crying fit.  As soon as I mentioned it was time to practice piano we had tears, a stomach ache, a bug bite and a sudden inability to play.

We got the kids cleaned and to bed and totally crashed as soon as the baby would allow.  Thankfully she slept a little better and while we are not 100%, we are certainly a lot more capable today than yesterday!

And even with all the craziness, I love being a mom and would not change a thing!

The Joy of Pregnancy

It's just a cruel joke that you spend 9 months waiting for a baby and go through many body pains and changes, just for that baby to NOT COME OUT!  This happened to me with my first two kids and now the third will be induced as well.  Oh well.

I got excited for a few brief seconds yesterday when I thought my water broke.  Turns out I just peed my pants.  At least only my husband saw.  It would have been much worse if it had happened in the grocery store or something.  The truly sad part is that I couldn't tell!  What has happened to my body that I not only can't control when I pee,  but I can't even tell if I'm peeing.  And of course to go along with the inability to know if I'm peeing comes the overwhelming feeling that I need to pee, but I don't actually because it's just the baby pounding down on my bladder like a jackhammer on an unwanted concrete slab.

The craziest part is that I knew all this would happen and chose to get pregnant again!  I may even do it again.  Children truly mess with your brain.

What do you do with him all day?

"What do you do with him all day?" is the question I got from a friend the other day concerning what my son and I do.  I was kind of caught off guard and really didn't have much to say.   We mostly hang out.  I get some chores done while he plays or watches Sprout.  I have made some attempts at getting him involved in some activities and interacting with other kids.  We go to the library every week for story time and a craft and I take him to an hour of open play for preschoolers at a local gymnastics studio once a week.  I do read him books and do the occasional art project.  I even bought him some finger paints the other day and have several fabulous pictures hanging on the wall.

But really, we don't do too much and that was hard to admit.  Right now I'm still using the excuse that I'm VERY pregnant and just don't have the energy or ability to move.  Today is my due date and I look like I have Michelin man feet and feel like the Michelin man is sitting on my abdomen.  Of course saying I'll be able to put together some kind of schedule where my son will actually learn something after the baby is born is like saying I'll crack the eggs after I finish eating the omelet.

It's too late to change my strategy now, so I'll just have to make it work.