The Week in Review

I’m hopping over with Kelly and her gang for seven quick takes from the week. Is it Friday already? My brain is so mushy I can’t even stay on task over here. I absent mindedly put my chai tea in the dishwasher with a full mug, wiped my nose with the baby’s socks, and told the kids they could play with perler beads–unsupervised. #mombrain

1) Laundry has multiplied.

Like by a million. I know babies poop and spit up their way through many outfits in one day, but I could do the laundry twice a week and be fine before. Now there are mounds everywhere. EVERYWHERE. It’s making me a little crazy. I’m finally well enough with my pelvis issues that I can carry laundry baskets around so I have no excuse to not get on it. But how can adding one tiny person to the family make this big of a difference? I’m amazed and agog.

2) I vascillate between wanting to do nothing but stare at the baby and do everything in the house at once.

Probably normal postpartum hormones. Sometimes I want to do everything and then in an instant, I realize how tired I am and that I should just lay down with the baby snuggled in. She’s so big that she can easily side-nurse and snuggles like a little snuggle bug. The kids want to crowd in anytime she’s on me so sometimes when it’s nap time for the middle kids, it’s dedicated solo snuggles for us.

Also everywhere I look, I see a mess and want to p u r g e ! o r g a n i z e ! in a very unrealistic manner. Of course, there’s always this great article on how to do that by my friend Lyz.

3) Eggs, apples, toast, baby carrots.

I’m in a food rut. I can’t really find myself eating much beyond these four things. HALP. Trying to follow some food recipe blogs for inspiration, but I’ve been spoiled by all my friends bringing me dinner for all these weeks!

4) Snot everywhere.

We’re getting over a cold. I wipe my toddler’s nose with my fingers and then wash my hands because under his nose skin is sensitive and hates tissue. I feel like a human tissue. I regularly find snot wiped on my pants (well, pjs, well, yeah, living in them). I want to wash us all off with a hose. SweetCheeks has been congested but thank goodness for saline drops for noses, the nose frieda, humidifiers, and squirting breastmilk up her nose, or at it at least.

5) Netflix shows.

We’re watching the Blacklist. James Spaeder is a phenomenal actor and his character makes all the rest of it worth watching. It’s a little gory for me so I look away a lot. Or put it on captions and mute it, forcing AA to tell me what’s happening while the scary part is happening.

6) Blessed is She retreats!

The Catholic women’s ministry I help with is hosting two beautiful retreats this spring, one in Phoenix and one in Austin. I get to take the baby and go to both! Feeling insanely lucky to see my colleagues and good friends!! If you have any inclination, I went last year and I can guarantee you will leave it feeling uplifted, spiritually fulfilled, and loved. So join me! Info here.

7) Paperwork.

All the paperwork after having a baby is hard for me to keep my hands around. Adding the baby to our insurance had a few hiccups so we had to call back the hospital, and the clinic, and the other clinic, and the specialists, and ask for them to re-try billing the insurance company. Of course, only some people call you back from billing and others really don’t understand why I have crying children in the background (mom-phone-rule). All in all, I keep looking at the to-do stack and thinking, man! she’s here! we are both okay! this could have been so much worse! So I soldier on with our paperwork. Speaking of which, I have to go make a call before everyone notices I’ve been on my computer for a solid 10 minutes.

Happy weekending!