Conversations

Mr 2: is it necessary, mommy?

Me: is what necessary?

2: I don’t think he’s here…

Me: whose not here?

2: necessary!

Me: oh… do you think necessary is a person?

2: yes!

This is my fault because every time the dog barks at the window I say, “is that really necessary? Please don’t bark!”

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Me: It’s my birthday today. I’m 29 years old.

Mr. 2: No mommy… you are 2 months old!

Me: No, that’s y0ur baby brother. He is 2 months old, and you are 2 years old.

Mr. 2: No mommy… I’m 3 months old!

Me 2: ….okay

I’m learning that I can’t win any arguments with my children. Also they tend to lose interest in the subject if I keep correcting them. They will figure it out! 

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New Skills

Hello!

There are so many things I want to write about, but there just doesn’t seem to be enough time. Today, I want to make my excuses for not updating.

I/We have been busy learning 5 new skills:

1. Being a mom to 3 boys
2. Learning Spanish (the kids like to press the buttons on the Rosetta Stone app).
3. Experimenting with Essential Oils – so far I’m trying a diffuser and a homemade all-purpose cleaner. We are even doing a science experiment to test the effectiveness of the essential oil cleaner versus 409. I hope to post something about that at the conclusion of the experiment. So far I have learned that my kitchen and bathroom counter are disgusting. What do you use essential oils for? 
4. Incorporating exercise into my week. I can’t say I want a daily routine, because that’s just not realistic, but breastfeeding alone isn’t helping me get into my old jeans. Especially when I’m craving sweets.
5. Trying to cook with an Instapot. So far I have only made steamed broccoli and it was okay. The whole mechanism seems intimidating to me, but I’m sure I’ll get more comfortable with it when I use it more. Feel free to share your favorite recipes in the comments! 

 

Supermom Goals / Sleeping arrangements

Here is my supermom plan for the week:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Activity	Grocery & Library	Music Class	Dollar Store & Playground	Playdate	Boy’s choice
School/Art	Mazes or Tracing	Sticker Book	Chalk	Water mat	Sensory bin with ice
House	Vacuum	Laundry	Sweep	Laundry	Bathroom
Dinner	Spaghetti	Grilled Porkchops	Chicken with roasted garlic sauce (slow cooker 2-3 hr)	Tortellini Soup	Wieners

I’m not one to make detailed plans because they will inevitably lead to frustration when my children don’t want to follow the schedule. Still, it may be a good idea to have some goals and ideas of things I want to accomplish this week.

If none of the stuff I have planned happens, that is okay too as long as all my (3) children are still alive and well at the end of the week.

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This boy is less than 3 weeks old but it already feels like he’s always been a part of this family. At his two week appointment last Tuesday he was 10lbs 1 oz (89%) and 21.75 in (95%).

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All of the boys have not been sleeping well. Mr. 0 doesn’t sleep well because he is a baby. He still needs to learn the difference between night and day. He also gets the hiccups quite frequently and thinks the morning starts at 6:30.

Mr. 2 and Mr. 4 were staying up way too late because they kept playing and talking to each other instead of sleeping. Then they would wake up super early and be a bit cranky throughout the day. Some of this may be caused by their adjusting to the baby, and Mr. 2 taking advantage of not being in a crib.

Our solution was to let Mr. 4 sleep with the dog (he does not want to be alone) and Mr. 2 would sleep in the nursery in a crib again. The baby would be in our room. Surprisingly, neither of the big boys complained about the change and I am happy to say that they are falling asleep close to bed time (8 – 8:30) and sleeping until at least 7.

5 days old

My advice for a great recovery from birth:

• listen to your nurses and doctors
• Take all the meds even if you feel fine
• Eat and drink as soon as possible
• Get up and walk when you’ve got all the feeling in your legs back.
• Walk every few hours, don’t exhaust yourself but exercise will help with digestion and pain management.
• Have a snack and drink EVERY time you feed the baby. Dehydration and exhaustion can sneak up on you.

So basically because of those things I was able to leave the hospital after 36 hours post c-section. I don’t know why I was in such a hurry, but I felt a little bored at the hospital and I missed my older babies.

The worst pain was the contraction of the uterus as it attempts to return to its original size and the pain in my shoulder muscles from all the trapped gasses. And constipation. Walking and stretching\moving my arms always helped the shoulder pain. And the meds, of course.

Enough about me, how about the baby?

Day 1: he was born hungry and with the such adorably long fingers and toes. He latched right away when the nurse positioned him on the surgical table with me and he ate while they stitched me back up.

Mostly, he looks like a clone of his brothers. He slept and woke up only long enough to eat, about every 3-4 hours. In the night he almost went five hours but the nurses and doctors encourage you to wake him up and feed him every 3 hours…

Day 2: More sleeping and eating. In the evening he enthusiastically encouraged my milk development by refusing to be put down between 8:30 and 11:30. He finally succumbed to sleep and gave me 3 hours between feedings.

Day 3: Morning was all sleeping \eating. We took the boys to the museum of Flight to take advantage of both my mom and Sam being available to help out. In the evening he was again insatiable from 8:30 to 11:30. He slept 2 hours then 3 and 3. He had his first breastmilk poop in the night.

Day 4: He weighed 9 lbs 1 oz at the doctor visit. Everything looks good but we need to schedule another hearing test since he failed his at the hospital. This is apparently a common thing. This is the first day where he was awake for an hour while being calm and quiet. This occurred in the hour before his 8:30-11:30 buffet.

He then slept nearly 5 hours but struggled to go back to sleep after.

(I can’t be mad at that face! I was bad and took him into bed with me and let him snuggle while I tried to catch a little bit more sleep. Remember the safest place for your baby to sleep is on his back in his own bed!)

Day 5:

That’s today! He was awake and happy at lunch time for over an hour, and even seemed to enjoy a ride in the bouncer while I got to eat.

 

The Birth Story

Born May 1, 2018

9 lbs 9 oz

21.25 inches

It’s a boy! Mommy and baby are quite healthy; we even left the hospital a little early. (More on that later.)

Our C-section was scheduled for May 1 at 8 am. The night before I showered with antiseptic soap and drank a small bottle of Apple juice. In the morning I showered with the special soap again. We left the house and arrived at the hospital by 6.

For the next two hours they poked and prodded and made sure baby and I were ready for surgery. We briefly met all the doctors whose names I immediately forgot. We shared our worry with the anesthesiologist who was very sympathetic and felt confident that everything would go smoothly this time.

It took 3 tries to start my IV.

It took 4 tries to start my spinal epidural, but that anesthesiologist and his resident did not give up and it worked wonderfully. My back is quite bruised and sore but it was totally worth it.

The big moment was when they dropped the drape and showed us the baby. My husband was supposed to announce to me what the gender was, but they dropped the drape so low the first thing I saw was his swollen testes and penis (completely normal, by the way).

I admit I cried 3-4 tears for the daughter I’ll never have, but this beautiful boy is an angel and I couldn’t be any happier now. This is going to be great.

T- 8 Days / Everything is okay as long as the sun keeps shining.

As Pete the Cat always says, “The Sun is shining, I’m feeling alright!”

We’ve been getting a lot of outside time, soaking up as much sunshine as we can. We’ve even had a few days that we can describe as “warm”, and I am so thankful for it.

I tried to let some sun on my big belly in the hopes of encouraging the baby to come out, but that did not work. I’m still pregnant, but at least we are now in the single digits of this countdown.

My feet hurt, my back hurts, my head hurts, my groin joints hurt, my hips hurt when I lay in bed. Today the baby was squished up against my rib and I couldn’t turn my body to the left to look behind me when switching lanes very well.

We went to the zoo and playground and the boys had a brilliant time. The Tapir was running around and making a barking sound. The orangutan came right up to the window where they were watching. We saw the daddy and mommy lions sunning on the rocks, and then 6 baby ducks floated by in their little pond. We had a lot of fun and nobody got lost this time.

I did discuss beforehand with my 4-year-old what he should do if he felt lost and he agreed that he would stand in one spot and wait for me to find him. Luckily, though, he stayed fairly close to hand the whole time.

We haven’t done a huge amount of art this week because we’ve been spending so much time outside, but they have been painting on the easel which I keep on the deck. We also made tape collages. Tomorrow we are going to the beach with a friend.

Yesterday, I felt a different sort of pain in belly. It was a sharp and squeezing sensation that was more painful than the ones I normally feel, but it didn’t last very long. Nonetheless I got a little excited until I realized 2 hours later that it wasn’t going to happen again. Both my husband and I feel that I probably won’t go into labor before the C-section next Friday, but I can still hope. We have no science to back up our “feeling” just thinking along the lines of, “Shouldn’t my body be doing something different if I was going to go into labor soon?” As far as I can tell, the baby hasn’t even dropped into my pelvis yet. Even though this is my third child, it would be my first labor so there’s a good chance it wouldn’t happen until after the due date anyways. All I can do is keep waiting.

 

Happy Earth Day / 11 Days

Happy Earth Day everyone!

Today my husband displayed a huge reserve of patience while the two boys helped him put together our grill. We grilled bratwurst for dinner, and it was delicious!

We stayed home and cleaned house today. We finally put the car seat in the car after we had to take it apart and wash the cover and straps. We cleaned all the bathrooms and vacuumed the floor and got all caught up on dishes and laundry.  The main earth day flavored activity was moving all my seedlings into the garden. I had been putting them on the patio during the afternoons the last few days and twice a spider tried to sneak into our kitchen when I brought them back. Plus the zucchini didn’t seem to be doing so well in it’s tiny pot.

Hopefully some of them will survive, otherwise I will just have to devote myself to a summer of beans and carrots.

21 Days

Well we have completed 37 weeks of pregnancy. It’s pretty uncomfortable over here. Even though the doctor told me I’ve only gained 31 pounds, it feels like a lot more than that.

Basically, the baby could come any time now. Any….time….now! Nope. Still there.

The nursery is 90% ready (husband still needs to move the changing table). The clothes and blankets are washed. (In case it is a boy.) My hospital bag is packed. (Again, husband is slacking because he has nothing in there except some granola bars.)

We had another ultrasound yesterday and it is confirmed. Baby is head down and has lots of fluid to play and splash in. He or she was even practicing breathing.

My mom will be here in two weeks to help out, but honestly anytime baby is ready to say hello would be fine. I’m sure my angel children can do some coloring and stickers and play quietly throughout my whole labor…hahahahaha ha…ha.

Mr. Conductor turns 4!

My oldest child turned 4 on Tuesday; so Happy Birthday to him! We didn’t have a “party” because his best friend is out of town and we also started a new session of Music Together that day.

We went to the indoor playground, then had music class, and then went to the grocery store.

After lunch and getting Mr. 2 to nap, we set to work baking his birthday cake.

We used this recipe for “the most amazing chocolate cake” and it did not disappoint.

Happy Birthday to my first born. A boy who is particular but lots of fun. A boy who is smart but silly. A boy who loves dinosaurs and trains and trucks, reading and building, and so much more.

Keva Plank Art

Mr. Conductor, who is almost 4 years old, begged and begged for these KEVA blocks last Christmas. He really enjoyed playing with them at the Pacific Science Center, and at his friend’s house. After he had his wish granted, he played with them everyday for a week or two and then drifted away from them. My conclusion was that he was frustrated that  he couldn’t build anything interesting by himself. The planks are lightweight and move too easily to build anything securely and things would get knocked over very easily.

I thought I would try to show him a different way of playing with them today, so I tried using them to make 2D pictures instead.

They quickly took apart my creations and tried to make their own. Mr. 2 made a “sidewalk” and Mr. 4 wanted to make a slide via the instruction booklet.

“Are we architects?” he asked.  Yes, we are.

Mr. Conductor ended up very frustrated again, and I tried to encourage him not to give up. Practice would help him get better! In the end he said, “I’m just not a good architect!”

Mr. 2, on the other hand, was a little frustrated when his pieces kept falling off the table, but he was singing “Can we fix it? Yes we can!” (Bob the Builder) nearly the whole time and never let it affect his mood.

It made me very sad to hear Mr. Conductor make his pronouncement. Both of my boys love to build, build, build. Destroy and build again. After the planks they built more things:

I need to find a way to help Mr. Conductor retain a positive attitude even when he struggles. I would also like him to understand that failing at a project doesn’t make you bad at something, and it certainly doesn’t make you a bad person.

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26 more days until the baby!