Survival...

Not only did we survive today, we did pretty great. Thanks to a wonderful night's sleep last night. (2 good chunks from Munchkin. 3 1/2 hours and then 4.) The older 2 didn't nap, which I could've avoided if I had been more careful. But it worked out since we had some good friends stopping by on their way to visit family and had they napped, they might've missed some of the visit.

Thanks to all who have been sending me encouraging thoughts. I've been reciting them to myself constantly today, and it helped a ton!

My favorite moment today was when I was coming out of my room after having put Munchkin to sleep. I heard the older 2 fighting. I walked into the living room and stopped all fights with a quick, "Hey!" But I didn't want things to escalate or turn into a crying match. So I sat on the couch and had both kiddos come sit with me for some cuddle time. We talked nicely (in nice tones) about what happened and both kids apologized. Then they went back to their activities. It was awesome. It was one of those moments that made me feel like a really good parent for handling a situation the way I did.

Tomorrow will be my first day with all 3 in the car. Just to drive Moose to preschool and pick him up. Nonetheless. Wish us luck. :)

Vacation Over...

It's officially over. The hubs goes back to work tomorrow. Send me happy thoughts tomorrow. Better yet, send Monkey "don't wake up at 5:30" thoughts. :)

Test Run: FAIL...

Today we were going to have a test run of what it will be like when the hubs goes back to work. Let's just say it didn't go well. Munchkin has had some congestion lately and it disturbs her nighttime sleeping. I fed her (a "dream feed", she was asleep the whole time) at 10 and then we went to bed. She nursed at 12:15, 1:45, 2:15, 4:15 and 6:30. Some of those earlier times only included nursing on one side, which is probably why she was up again so soon afterwards. But either way, she was congested and we could tell it bothered her a bit. She slept a small bit with the hubs too. Oh, then the kiddos came into our room at 5:55. Yeah. Moose went back to bed, but Monkey is still just too young to grasp that idea. So she laid in bed with us for 30 minutes.

So what was supposed to happen was this. The hubs was going to get up early and leave the house between 6 and 6:30. Then I was going to try the morning out on my own. I ended up "sleeping in" with Munchkin til 8-ish and then the hubs napped from like 10-12 or so. (He still has a small cold too.) Looking past what an undesirable night it was, the day went well.

Munchkin's sad bum rash is almost healed. Hooray!

The hubs goes back to work on Monday. Boo!

I'm sure we'll manage. I wish Monkey would sleep in til at least 6:30, if not 6:45. That would be awesome. But I know I can handle all 3 on my own. I just know I would be freaked out to try and go anywhere with them on my own. But I'll have to end up trying if I want to take Moose to preschool on Tuesday. It'll be such a short drive to and from though, I'm sure we'll all survive.

Tomorrow's Saturday. Easter egg hunt with Grandma and one more relaxing day with the hubs and kiddos before life returns to "work-mode".

Emotions...

This evening, Moose and Monkey were watching movies. Moose was watching the second half of Ice Age 2 on the computer. He watched the first half yesterday. I tried cajoling Monkey into watching the first Ice Age. (She's so not into traditional movies.) She was only occasionally interested in it because of the baby, which is why I picked it. Moose's finished first, since he was only watching a portion. So he came and sat with us to watch the end of Ice Age. Right at the end, he started to get sad and teary eyed. I asked him why he was sad and he started to cry. (Fortunately the hubs was on the ball and had sat down with him for some comforting.) He said that Diego was still dead and that made him really sad. I told him it would be okay because Diego wasn't dead. It still didn't make him feel better until he saw Diego on the screen. What a sweet, sensitive boy! He's seen that movie a dozen times, although it has been a while. I almost find it funnier that he didn't grasp the concept that Diego was in the second movie (which he had just watched) so he must be okay in the first one. Guess that logic's a bit too advanced.

P.S. I hate baby congestion, hiccups and gas.

The Big 365!

I've officially made it through a year's worth of blogging! Yay for me! Although it ultimately took me longer than a year, I'm still proud of myself. It really is hard to believe I've been writing this blog so long. But for those of you who get a kick out of my parental rants and stories, fear not. I'm not going to stop writing. I may not write every night, but I do think I'm going to continue sharing my stories of Moose, Monkey, and Munchkin.

Today Munchkin had her 2 week appointment. She weighed 9 lbs. 2 oz. and was somewhere between 22-22 1/4 in. long. (I find most of their measurements for infants very unreliable, no matter what method they use.) She's wonderful and healthy and just amazing. :) We did get a better diaper rash remedy. The poor thing has had a diaper rash for a while (She's only 2 weeks old. I can't believe she already got a diaper rash. We change her like every 2-3 hours!) and it was getting pretty nasty the last 2 days. So now we're putting neosporin and triple paste on her. We're hoping it will work quickly (like the doc said it would) and get our cutie's patootie feeling better soon.

We got the kiddos down somewhat earlier today (since Monkey wakes the house up at 6:30 no matter what time they go to bed) in the hopes that they'll fall asleep earlier and give us more "us" time. (Even if "us" includes Munchkin.) We'll see if it works!

Happy Birthday Monkey!

Today is Monkey's 2nd birthday. It's hard to believe it's gone so fast. We had a little party this evening with the in-laws. Dinner, cake, ice cream and presents. She has her very first tricycle and helmet. (Even a bell) She's very excited about it. Moose got her a present too. A battery powered bubble gun. That one is a big hit! She also ended up with fridge magnets that are letters and you put them on the base and it'll tell you what letter it is, and sing the alphabet song. Also a hit. I think it was just right for a little 2 year old. We wanted to do something outdoors yesterday, a little park playdate. She loves parks. But, needless to say, the weather was awful. Apparently Spring doesn't want to exist here. So it's just not happening. I'm beyond frustrated with it at the moment. But I appease myself by saying that perhaps it'll be nice in 4 weeks when I'm allowed to exercise. Perhaps.

Well, I'm gonna go help the hubs clean up from the party. Oh, and I'm starting Munchkin on a new daily routine. It includes doing "cluster feeds" in the evening (doing her last few feedings at night closer together) in the hopes that she'll have a longer stretch at night. We'll see!

Happy Birthday Monkey! We love you! (Despite my last post about how absolutely frustrating you are.)
:)

Grrr...

Tonight was frustrating. Monkey is totally wearing me out. "No" to everything, and no longer letting us shut the door at bedtime. Me and the hubs had a long talk and we're going to do our best to stay focused on what's important and not let the little things drag us down. With so many changes going on, it's hard to find solid ground. and with Monkey being 2 and changing so much, that only adds to the chaos. But we'll manage. The hubs has a cold (boo!) so we're headed to bed early in the hopes that he can get better asap. Tomorrow will be semi-relaxing since the hubs will be taking the kiddos to church and me and Munchkin will be at home for a few quiet hours alone. Hopefully that will be enough for me to feel rejuvenated.

I would've posted something about yesterday but it would take too much mental energy right now to remember any of it. I do remember we (finally) gave Munchkin her first bath at home. Took long enough, I know. Now her hair smells like Aveeno. Delicious.

Pooped On and Other Parenting Lessons...

Yup. This morning I was pooped on. I can't say for certain it was the first time. I don't doubt it's happened before. It's not something you remember unless it was extremely memorable. (The hubs has one of those stories. In the end he was in the shower half-dressed, at 4 am, to rinse off what Moose did to him.) But as I was changing Munchkin on the couch, I totally got pooped on. The things about newborns and their pooping is, it almost always comes out in bursts of gas. So not only is she pooping, but it's coming out with big toots, which will literally propel the stuff around. So it got on the couch, my lap, down my leg, and on the floor. Thankfully I was able to spot clean the couch's slipcover instead of having to wash it. Again. (She peed on it sometime last week.) Oh, and after the pooping, she went on to pee. Fortunately, by that time I had so many wipes thrown all over, it didn't get on anything crucial.

The highlight of my day today was when all 3 kids and the hubs were napping. And took really long naps at that. I sat on the couch with a sleeping Munchkin next to me and read my book. (I started it right after she was born and have been reading it while she nurses.

So the other parenting lesson I've been learning is that it's just better to do it right the first time. When Munchkin woke up last night at 11:30, it was earlier than I thought it would be and I wasn't thrilled. So I nursed her on one side. She was totally asleep, as usual, but I didn't want to change her diaper to wake her for more nursing. So I just put her back to bed. But when she only nurses on one side, she won't sleep as long, so she was up within 2 hours. So I nursed her on the other side. But again, didn't want to go through the hassle of a diaper change to rouse her enough to nurse more. So I perpetuated a bad thing. I ended up being up around 4 times before I got a solid feed in her. We ended up having to change her at 4:30 because she had leaked out of her diaper, which gave me the chance to nurse her on both sides. She then proceeded to sleep til 7:45. Then I fed her again, gave her to the hubs and I slept til 10:45.

Monkey is turning 2 on Sunday. And yes, her "terrible twos" have begun. Like saying "no" to everything, multiple times. We're going to try helping her say "yes mama/papa". Half the time she's saying "no", but she doesn't even mean it. The hubs said to me tonight that sometimes it feels like we're dealing with a force of nature. I couldn't agree more. She's very different from Moose. He's a rational kid. I was able to talk to him out of fits and reason with him. Not Monkey. We're just going to have to find other methods that suit her better. I'm sure we will. With time.

So Monday will be my 365th post, if I don't miss any days before then. I've had a few friends tell me how much they enjoy my parenting blogs. I think I will possibly keep them up. But perhaps in a less regular fashion. I still really want a new project to sink my bones into. Parenting is a day to day thing no matter what, but I'm looking for something to do that's for me. We'll see if the new blog is ready to debut soon. Should be interesting. :)

Ultimatums...

The last two days, Monkey has been having some serious issues going down to sleep. Nap or bedtime. It's been so annoying! She just starts freaking out when it comes time to close the door. Last night, after the hubs came home and calmed her down, she ended up falling asleep with the door open. So fast forward to tonight. I'm singing them songs (the hubs is taking care of Munchkin.) and start closing the door. She starts doing her freak-out thing. At this point, I had had it. So I go and tell her that if she insists on screaming and crying, I am going to take her paci away. We let her keep it this long because it keeps her happy. If she's not going to be happy with it, it's going in the trash. We recently got a book from the library called "Pacifiers are not forever" and it talks about putting them in the trash. (To which she'd always say "no".) So Monkey understood exactly what I was talking about. After a short discussion, I was able to close the door without the screaming and other antics. Yay for that! I'm so glad she's getting old enough to understand certain things. I'll be glad when things around here calm down (as far as transitions with Munchkin are concerned), hopefully her molars will make their debut soon, and the paci can be gone permanently. Soon.

I'm getting my new blog project ready. I know I'm going to be working on health and nutrition (getting back in shape since Munchkin was born), so that will most definitely be a part of what I blog about. But that's more a lifestyle change than anything else. I'm making a list of potential projects I want to work on, and am going to be putting it to a vote. I want to know what projects people would be interested in reading about. I don't know which one I want to do, so I'm opening the decision making to what few readers I have. :) I'm almost to my 365th blog entry, so prepare yourselves to help me start my next writing endeavor!

Good, Until...

For the most part, today was a great day. Munchkin has been taking great naps in her bassinet. So I was able to do odds and ends around the house all morning and afternoon, leaving me feeling very productive. It was great. I also went for a walk (and ran into my mother-in-law walking too!) and that felt good. The hubs went to a school board meeting this evening, so I was hesitant how things would go. I think that was my first time alone with all 3. (While they were awake anyway.) Everything went really smoothly until it was time to close the door to the kid's room. For some reason, Monkey threw an absolute fit. She's currently screaming at high volumes at the hubs who just walked in. (Fortunately, she's also calming down for him. Versus requesting me.) If it wasn't one thing it was another. I actually had her quiet for around 10 minutes, but then it started all over again. Not horrible for my first time alone with all 3. Perhaps next time won't involve any prolonged periods of screaming. :)  Oh, and I'm pretty sure Moose fell asleep with her screaming inside their room, door closed. He didn't get a nap today (thanks to Monkey) so I guess he was pretty darn tired. He's like me. I slept through earthquakes when I was a kid. He sleeps through screaming fits from his sister. :)

I'm prepping my next blog project. For the moment it looks like it might be a conglomeration project, containing whatever goals, projects, etc. I might be working on. I haven't had a ton of feedback (but from my mom, who of course wants to hear about the kids) about what anyone would be interested in reading about, so anyone who chooses to read will just be stuck with what I put out. We'll see. I'm sure it'll change as time goes on. But it's fun thinking about something new.