Parenting
Many days, I’m hustling MonsterTot to the toilet while SweetCheeks is in the sling, hoping like a tornado chaser to catch the big storm (poop) before it’s gone (in his pants). I’m spelling out words for SweetPea’s construction-paper-cut-and-stapled-into-a-book while wiping a huge spitup out of my hair and onto the hem of my bathrobe. I’m pulling snow pants on a squirmy, reluctant toddler while the baby is bouncing in her little chair, a-gooing with her big sister. Lots of juggling goes on day-to-day and the big kids need more schlepping around to school & activities & playdates than when I had my third baby and the oldest wasn’t even four yet! I’ve been on this path with a newborn four times now and each time I marvel that while she is the easiest member of the family to parent, she’s also the most needy. Here are our six top tricks to keeping life with an infant easier. A few of these are feasible only because I’m not working outside the home, so take that into consideration. 1) Nurse on demand. We feed on demand–that means whenever my baby squalks or squeaks and doesn’t have a burp or diaper, I offer to nurse her. Sometimes she drinks a ton of milk, sometimes she just soothes herself. Yes, I am a human pacifier, and yes I’m okay with that. Using a pacifier before 8 weeks old can really impact amount of breastmilk you produce for the long term. Here’s an article about it. Basically,…
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What a stunning thing it is to be able to witness a sacrament for your kid. AA and I were marveling on the drive home from SweetCheeks’ baptism that it is a privilege to be the parent, the one who helps guide, the one who makes early on decisions to help steer a child’s life. Our baby girl was baptized a few weekends ago and it was a joyous affair! Our dear friends from childhood are the godparents and we couldn’t feel more blessed. One of the best parts of the whole thing was the thrill on my children’s faces as they watched their sister’s sacrament. We prefer the Extraordinary Rite for baptism and the rituals feel extra compelling as the salt and oil and expelling of demons comes with extra zest. I totally forgot to change out her orange wool socks with the sweet crocheted unicorn ones we had, and of course, also forgot the beautifully made white blanket from my grandmother so she was half-wrapped in a jersey stretchy swaddle. Details, details. My friend Ryian lent me her baptismal gown and it fit her like the little chubby doll that she is! Our pastor is a dear friend and offered a beautiful baptism, as per usual. We’re blessed!
Read MoreI’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…
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These photos are why I’ll always and forever more be a mere Mommy Blogger, and not a lifestyle blogger or fashion (what?!) blogger or anything more sensational. My house, currently, six weeks in to having four kids. I have tidied up. Several times. It makes absolutely zero impact. {{spy some new fabric for new Whole Parenting Goods projects in the next few months!}} Life definitely feels and looks different with a fourth child, and our day-to-day is still in slow-motion, new-baby, postpartum-don’t-wear-a-bra-just-bathrobe land. AA does mornings with the three oldest so I can rest a little, gets SuperBoy off to school, feeds the middle two breakfast, and then deposits them with me so I can keep one eye on them while laying in bed nursing our BIG BABY. And I can gaze at the one clean room in the house: her nursery (because it’s virtually unused aside from clothing containing and occasional crib fun for the kids’ sake, not the baby’s!). The kids play most of the morning with me periodically shouting from wherever I am, trapped under a nursing baby, to “STOOPPPPPP FIGHTING.” My mom does homeschool with SweetPea while MonsterTot does his ABCs to get a single chocolate chip. We eat lunch around 11, head down for naps after quiet time, aka, trashing the guest room, and do a rousing round of speed reading all six Mercy Watson books. If you don’t own them, you need to. After naps, around 2, we re-adjust to the fact that yes,…
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The past few weeks I’ve been in the blur of a newborn, complete with being pooped on, spit up on, and little sleep. But in those few moments of clarity, when the older kids are playing nicely (okay, very few moments), and the baby is nursing or sleeping on my shoulder, I’ve felt deeply there has to be a better way to sort out the differences between us as women. I’m seeing this in the Catholic circles, but lots of my thoughts here apply to all women, regardless of creed. My social media feeds are chuck-filled with people telling other people they’re wrong, and they’re not just wrong, they’re WRONG. Like, so wrong that they’re bad. If it’s not whether or not you marched for women (pre-born & born) last week or you’re marching for pro-life this week, it’s Santa Claus. If it’s not whether or not Santa is “wrong,” it’s yoga and (Godforbidwetalkabout) yoga pants (are they leggings or tights and can you wear them without anything covering your butt?). If it’s not exposed curves, it’s working and being a mom. If it’s not abandoning or saving your children, it’s natural family planning. If it’s not spacing or trying to have kids, it’s how you feed those kids. And on. And on. Okay, ladies. The moral questions are few and far between. They really are. The rest is discretionary. I know it’s hard to find and believe such gray mass exists, and that it’s okay for your sister to…
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Our fourth babe made an appearance a few days before Christmas, just in time for me to be able to enjoy Christmas pies without throwing up! She’s already my favorite! TLDR: She was big! She was stuck! She and I suffered some injuries that physical therapy and time will heal! She is obsessively loved by her older siblings! And she’s a total sweetie snuggler. I love birth stories. Grace has a whole link up! I love reading about how my friends’ (and strangers’!) children come into their families after growing in their wombs or hearts. I love the scary parts that end in a happy way. I hate the sad parts that end sadly. But mostly I just love this time-old tradition of sharing the miracle of meeting that new baby in our lives. SuperBoy’s birth story is here, SweetPea’s here, and MonsterTot is here. Gosh, am I really going to call him that on the blog? He’s not truly a monster. Maybe we’ll call him SecondSon? I digress. I had prodromal labor for about a week before having our little SweetCheeks. That means I thought I was really in labor, we watched the contractions get stronger and closer together, and we headed in to the hospital. It also means after a number of hours there and I never dilated, we were sent home with well-wishes and assurances that yes, she would arrive someday, but that day was not today. The contractions went on and on for hours on end. They…
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