So yesterday the little guy was Six Weeks Old. And I feel like I should have some kindof celebration. We survived!
I can sortof see the light at the end of the tunnel that is the newborn phase and we are all still (kindof) standing!
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| Kindof. I do dumb things when I'm this sleep deprived. |
But still. THREE kids! THREE. And it's all ok. I might even eventually stop using caps lock every time I write/think THREE.
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| Notice how there are not one, not two, but THREE kids? |
So how about a list of things that have made it possible to get this far.
1.) Our CSA / People who brought us food. Food is something I SO have not figured out yet. Finding the block of time required to cook something has been... a challenge. Literally the first time I was able to do it was nearly 4 weeks after this guy was born:
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| The first thing I cooked post-partum. I took a picture I was so proud. Baby Steps, right? |
Luckily we have an amazing support system of friends. The meals they brought us saved us from a fate of perpetual takeout and woe. And because of them I was able to feed my visiting in-laws without having to figure out grocery shopping. Yeah grocery shopping? I'm still not so much on that. Two kids, no problem, THREE, OMFG HOW THIS IS BAD HEAD SPLODY. So luckily we have a CSA:
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| Smoothies - highlight of the CSA according to the kids. |
Which means that even if I don't make it to the store (ever) we still have fresh things around. Last year I was all creative and tried to cook everything to really show off the flavors and highlight the CSA items in the perfect manner. HA. This year I'm more in a place of "Yay we have food! Throw it in the oven, the kids are starving"
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| Roasted red potatoes, fennel, and onion. Basically everything
roast-able that was in our bag chopped, tossed w/olive oil, salt, and
pepper, and thrown in the oven until done. YUM. |
2.) The Mei Tai. Someone doesn't like to be put down. Ever.
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| Hint: It's the small one. |
And while I have not completely drank the attachment parenting kool-aid I'm doing the baby wearing thing ALOT more than I did with my other two. Household chores? Only possible thanks to this little contraption:
The combo of him needing to be held so, SO much, the double stroller not fitting in our car with all of the carseats, and the other two kids.. existing... well... I went ahead and upgraded the Mei Tai to an Ergo. I'm hoping when this little guy outgrows both the Mei Tai and the Bjorn* (Matt's preferred method of wearing.) we have something that works for us both.
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| YEAR OF UPGRADES, BABY! |
3.) My mom. Yeah. I don't even know where to start. She has been so awesome. I really don't know what I would have done without her this last six weeks. And the fact that I don't have a picture to insert here says everything - it's so normal for her to be with the kids that I don't even think to photograph it.
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| The Dude at a PARK. He is obsessed with PARKS. The other day my mom made me breakfast and then took him to the park while I fed a baby and let my ankle rest. Seriously. My mom is awesome. |
I hope in 30 years I"m half the grandma that she is.
4.) Summer Camp. So I signed my daughter up for this little preschool summer camp program for the month of July thinking it would be really good for her. That by July she'd be sick of hanging out with babies and need some interaction with kids her own age. I was totally right about that:
But what I didn't realize was how good it would be for me. And not for the reasons I would have thought, either. See getting out the door with a newborn is hard. Getting out the door with a newborn and a 2 year old is really fucking hard. Getting out the door with a newborn, a 2 year old, and a 4 year old is damn near impossible. At least for the first few weeks sliding into months. But with this camp I had to get everyone (including a 3 week old baby) dressed, fed, ready, and out by a set time every day.
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| Some of us dressed much more stylishly than others. |
I HAD to negotiate the THREE carseat thing. And the getting up early enough after being up all night nursing a baby thing. And well, all of it, really. And now I've done it so many times that I can do it in my sleep (or in this sleep-deprived state). And yes it takes a loooong time and yes it's HARD but it's not impossible.
All of this is hard but none of it is impossible. Good to know.
5.) These Guys.
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| Enough Said. |
*Oh the Bjorn. We loved the Bjorn. It was good stuff. And then sometime between our first kid and now they came out with all of this nonsense about how wearing them forward facing isn't good anymore. Which, fine. FINE. We'll not do that this time. I really do try to stay on top of the latest recommendations by doctors and such but the more kids I have the more I realize that no one really knows
anything. Seriously don't even get me started on Peanut Butter or the Pertussis vaccine. Way to tie parents in knots, American Association of Pediatrics!
