I just want to start by saying, this is what I DREAMED of. For so long after Rosie was born, I still felt like I wasn't done having babies and our family wasn't complete yet. We loved Noah and Rosie so much, but I still felt like someone was missing. It was Isaac! Our house and lives are overflowing with chaos now, but I'm so incredibly grateful for it.
That being said, the fact that I sat down to start writing this at 2pm and already felt overwhelmed at the thought of transferring the day onto paper, probably means I need to give myself grace for the fact that, well, our days are a little much right now and even when I don't feel like I did anything, I also somehow never sat down and rested either. So... the first 8 months of three kids was just PURE chaos. It got pretty rough. Right at 8 months, Isaac's allergies had finally responded to the correct elimination diet and we did some daytime nap training, and two weeks later he started WALKING.
So while some of it got easier, other aspects of it got much crazier. However, at that point we did also get to start a homeschooling rhythm again during morning naps, and that has made a huge difference for me, Noah, and Rosie to have some predictability and stability again. Co-op and soccer also started right at that same time so it feels like we got whisked right out of newborn land and into 3-kid-chaos land.
No days are *exactly* the same, but our days definitely have a rhythm to them now, and nights are better (but not great). Our weeks have a rhythm, too: On Mondays, the big kids have co-op; on Tuesday and Thursday, Noah has soccer; on Wednesday, my parents often help in the afternoon and then Rosie has dance class; on Friday, we go to Moon Hollow for scones and coffee.
Last night, I got in bed at 10pm and Isaac woke up right after that. I nursed him and let him fall asleep in my bed because he'd had a really rough day and an allergen exposure. I finally fell asleep around 11pm, and he woke up at 12:45am. I nursed him and he wriggled around for a bit, so I finally put him in his crib at 1:15am. He slept there til 4:15am! Ross brought him to me and I nursed him and then Ross took him back. I thankfully fell asleep again until 7:30am.
When I got downstairs, Noah was awake watching Isaac in the playroom because Ross had a 7am work call he took in the basement. Ross left for the office after that call, around 8:15, right after Rosie woke up.
At that same time, I ate an oatmeal bar, adrenal cocktail, and breakfast sausages while simultaneously feeding everyone else and not sitting down. I made my coffee around 9am and sipped on it while taking Isaac up for his nap. He nursed and we rocked for a few minutes and sang "Skiddamarink-a-dink-a-dink" and I laid him down with his pacifier.
I went downstairs, finished my coffee, sent a work email, texted a client, and then started homeschool around 9:45. That was a mistake with Isaac's shorter naps lately, because he woke up shortly after 10 so it was a fairly abbreviated day in which we only covered poetry, math, handwriting, and history. We also usually do natural history and some math for Rosie, too. I can't believe our first term is almost over! Doing an abbreviated subject list, and the same one every day, has allowed for progress over perfection this term and it's made a world of difference.
So Isaac was up at 10:15 and we took another 15 minutes or so to wrap up our lessons and I finished folding the clean cloth diapers. Then enters one of the times of day where I don't even know WHAT I'm doing, but I'm constantly moving, getting interrupted, putting out fires, breaking up arguments... it's not my favorite. Today during this time, Isaac spilled my coffee (swiping at whatever he can reach on the table is his newest trick), I monitored/helped Noah and Rosie tidy up the office, I fed Isaac, made crackers, salami and liverwurst, and carrots for everyone's lunch, then ate my own lunch while standing and making Sunbutter caramel because the kids saw a picture of caramel apple slices and I'd been saying I was going to make them.
So the big kids decorated their apples while Isaac lost his mind, I whisked Isaac up for nap, and then went back down to tidy up the chaos in the dining room at 12:30pm. During that time, Rosie heard that Isaac wasn't asleep yet. Even though I told her not to, she ran upstairs to "rescue" Isaac from nap time. I brought him downstairs when it was clear he thought rest time was over and let him play while I finished cleaning up the lunch mess and texting my 1pm client.
Then I found Isaac happily playing in a poop-filled toilet. The toilet tank is finicky and it doesn't always flush, and a child had forgotten to lock the lid, so Isaac made a beeline for his favorite activity.
So I cleaned HIM up, texted my client I was running late after Mom and Dad texted that THEY were running late, got Isaac down just after 1pm, got to my computer, and saw my client got her time zones mixed up and couldn't meet for another two hours. SO.
I caught up on Voxer with my course co-creator, replied to Instagram messages, finally actually started this blog post, ate a handful of the (hopefully) allergen-free muddy buddies my mom brought over, and Isaac woke up right after 2pm. I took him downstairs, and came back up to finish my thoughts here. Then I sent two course-related emails.
At 2:30, I took a super quick walk in the sunshine before getting on my call at 3pm. Did a virtual prenatal consult from 3-4pm, visited with my parents briefly before they left, then started warming up dinner whilst eating more handfuls of midday buddies and feeding the kids snacks of muddy buddys and beef jerky and elderberry adrenal cocktails. *Sigh* the snack of champions. Kind of.
Dinner was mostly leftovers from last night, praise the Lord. I reheated the turkey loaf and boiled and mashed some potatoes with a bit of turkey bone broth. Rolled the mashed potatoes into little balls and served them to Isaac along with the meatloaf. He INHALED this dinner. Meanwhile, I realized I hadn't actually SAT DOWN to eat all day, so I sat briefly and ate with him, even though it was just barely 5pm.
Ross was stuck in major traffic on his commute home, and Rosie decided she felt too sick (just sort of sniffly) to go to dance and I didn't even argue.
Ross got home after 6, I made plates for the kids, and I went upstairs to hide. Spent about 20 minutes on Instagram, fed Isaac after Ross got him showered and ready for bed, and tucked him in. By that point it was a little after 7, and I spent another 30 minutes on Instagram.
Then I made some collagen hot chocolate and sipped it while pumping and watching Somebody Feed Phil on Netflix. This time last year, I was balancing my hot chocolate on my baby bump and I still really miss that sometimes.
After that, I wrapped up this blog post. It's currently 9:20 and I'm beyond ready for bed. It's almost comical how interrupted and disrupted and exhausting life is these days. It's crazy and I love it, but I want to take time to remember it and pay attention, too. Not just get through it. These kids are pretty special and I KNOW these are the golden days.
I'm going to go eat a small serving of soaked oatmeal (will bake the full batch in the morning, but I often sneak a small helping the night before), read some of my latest Jenny Colgan novel, take some Earthly sleep tincture, rub some magnesium lotion on my feet, and go to bed. I may or may not actually fall asleep before Isaac (likely) wakes up around 11. Although maybe not because he was so uncomfortable today, he had Zyrtec at lunch and Advil at dinner, which is super rare.
Whew!
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