A day in the life of Me-Wednesday

Once again, my day begins around 4 or so, and Rose wakes up on and off from then on. I am blessed, as she goes to sleep around 9 and wakes up for the first time around four. I have never had a baby sleep for so long-if I wasn't stuck studying every night I would be pretty rested!

The girls woke up around 7:30, and I got up once Greg was ready for work. Rose slept on peacefully...I am so jealous!

I found the girls watching "Curious George" and drinking their milk:

Both are still so tired. Mara is up every day around 7:30, and usually wakes up Analese before she is ready to get up.

Mornings are usually the only time they get to watch television, and I think that's what forces Analese out of bed.



On Wednesdays have Analese's speech class every other week, and I am so thankful it's an off-week this week. It's so nice to have a break from activities mid-week, and I was hoping to get some much-needed cleaning done.


Mara is always my helper when its time to cook. It's hard on me, as it takes twice as long and I am usually trying to make things as fast as I can before Rose wakes up. BUT-I was also know that this time won't last.......

She's got a mouthful of dates in her mouth-one of the main reasons she loves to cook with me :)


While breakfast is cooking, the girls help me clean out the dishwasher. I love that they love to help me.




Rose is now up, so the cycle of diaper changing and nursing begins! Rose is such a heavy wetter, and since you change more often with cloth diapers...I change about 10-12 diapers every day. She is still nursing about every 1 1/2-2 hours as well, so these two things are a BIG part of my day :)

After breakfast, the fun begins! Both girls are still tired, so there is lots of this:




AND












Oh and we can't forget this:












Mara is usually crying because she got hurt, falling into something. Either that or Analese hurt her. On days when they are both tired, its usually the latter.

Analese is my sensitive child and Mara feeds off of it. By simply not answering her, Mara has the ability to produce a screaming, crying, hysterical sister



She loves this power.

Mara refused to get dressed this morning, so instead of making it a battle, I just left her alone until she was ready.


Two hours later, she finally was.






The day was quickly getting away from us, but I was still determined to try and get something done!

So I let the girls wash the kitchen floor while I cleaned the living room. This is their favorite thing to do. i just add a bit of vinegar to a bowl of water and they are set:









See how clean it looks? The best was when Greg came home and I whispered to him to notice the floor. they were so excited that he noticed!

This completely wiped them out, even more then before!

Taking turns holding the baby. Poor Rose, she is such a trooper!



The girls decided that naps were not necessary this afternoon, and although I disagreed, i refuse to fight it. Analese is outgrowing her need for a nap, and Mara just refuses to without her sister. It makes our evenings so difficult-filled with so many tears, but I am not one to force them to nap. It's too stressful on all of us.

So the girls got to watch "Thumbelina", just in order for them to rest their bodies in some way!


This picture of Analese makes me smile. It was chilly outside, so I suggested to Analese that she might want to put something else on.

She did.

SHORTS!!

Mara read some books before joining Rose and I in the rocking chair. Lots of cuddle time for me!










As soon as Greg came home, I took off to the bedroom in order to get some early studying done. Sort of my payoff for having the girls Tuesday night while he goes out to play pool :)

I stay up studying until 12. The it's yogurt time and I am off to sleep!

Day in the Life of ME-Tuesday

So my sister started this idea last week, where she started posting about the daily events in her life. My other sisters began to do this and I have really enjoyed reading them! It's always hard to stay connected when distance is a factor and you get caught up in your own daily life....

So, anyway, last week I began taking photos throughout the day and I am hoping this week I'll be able to post them!

Always a week behind.....

Rose wakes me up around 4 to nurse. I was up studying until 1, so this is somewhat dream-like for me. She usually doesn't wake me up by crying-more squirming and grunting. I turn the television on to wake myself up a bit, change her diaper and feed her. I used to always watch "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" or "Rosanne" at this time, but I have now discovered that "Without a Trace" is on at this time, and I am happy :) Yes, the simple things....

Anyway, Rose nurses on and off for the next couple of hours. Mara wakes us up promptly at 7:15 by screaming at the top of her lungs. Greg jumps up to get her and I get to snuggle with Rose a few more minutes while he gets ready for work.

7:40 Time for me to get up, leave Rose sleeping and join the girls out in the living room. The first thing on my mind?

My coffee. It's a must, although its more of a psychological thing because I very rarely drink more than a 1/2 cup these days. My first goal in the morning is to at least get a sip in before Rose wakes up!
So Rose wakes up...I change her diaper, nurse her some more and then begin to attempt breakfast for the girls. My fingers are crossed that Rose will sit in her bassinet long enough for me to get things together!












"Not in her face Mara" I will repeat this at least 50 times today! Poor, poor Rose. She is so loved!

9:00 I am on the phone with this new nature center that opened up. We went to the "Great Mother Earth festival" on Sunday and found out about this Nature and Arts program that would be perfect for Analese. It's all about getting children back into nature. They have circle time, music, go hiking, have a story and puppet show. Oh and art! Just perfect for Analese.

So anyway, I get her enrolled into the program and we have to be there in 2 hours. we are supposed to have class at their reggio program on Tuesdays, so i have to call and tell them we won't be there. As much as I love the program, it hasn't worked out great for Analese. She is the oldest one there, and they decided to put Mara back into her class, which is really tough for me. Now, instead of dropping Analese off for class, which was the original plan, I have to stay from 1-3 with the girls. It's very draining for me, hard for Mara with no nap, hard for Rose...its just tough.

So anyway, I struggle with getting the girls dressed, bags packed and out the door in time to meet the educational assistant at the center at 12:30. The girls are less then cooperative! Analese has begun to stress about the "all by herself" part of the class, wondering what I was going to be doing while she was in class. I tried to downplay it with her and play it up with Mara, who was already telling me how much she was going to miss her sister :)

So we get to her classroom. It's cute, pretty small but set up nice. Analese has her own cubby, which she loves. we meet her teacher, who is very bubbly and I can tell Analese is going to be comfortable with her. She takes Analese's hand and brings her over to circle with a few other children. Analese sits down and as I turn to leave, she runs over and whispers "Mommy, I need hugs and kisses" just melted my heart...

So, another reason I was excited about this class was that it would give me a chance to spend some alone time with Mara. I feel like she has been really needing me lately, and its been tough with Rose and studying, etc. I had visions of us being able to hike the trails, talking, laughing, bonding....

Instead I got this. Yes, she looks happy there, but she was such a STINKER!

She refused to move once she saw the picnic tables.

"I tarvin!" was all I heard, in her ultra whiny voice.

I tried to motivate her, showing her the chipmunks that were running around everywhere. Nope, she didn't care.

Sigh. what can you do?

We opted to take silly photos of ourselves while Rose slept. We had some snacks, ad played in the nature center. So , we did get to spend some time together, and that's all that matters!

Analese was exhausted when we picked her up, but she was very happy. She talked the whole way home, telling me about the dam they tried to build, the lobster the painted, etc.

Mara was asleep two minutes after we got into the car.




It's Greg's night out to play pool, so he was home early-thankfully! He made "breakfast dinner" while I tended to Rose and tried to keep the peace with two tired girls.



After dinner, he got the girls ready for bed and ready them some stories before heading out the door.
















Me? I was doing this:


It's what I do every night. Ugh.







But, I also have this beside me:

















She lights up whenever I look at her.

Always make me smile...even while I am doing statistics :)

I end my night eating a bowl of coconut yogurt with granola and some chocolate chips thrown in Yummm

Did you know....

"It's hard to go to sleep when your tummy is empty and your mind is full"


Analese told me this at dinner tonight, When I asked her what her mind was full of, she said

"UNICORNS!! I really really want one to come to our house".



I hope she never changes.

So long, Farewell.....

It looks like my dairy-filled days are over once again :( Rose has been reacting to dairy for almost a month now, and it only seems to be getting worse. My fear is that she will continue to develop stronger reactions if she continues to be exposed to it.
My plan is to go off of it for the next month and see if there is any change. If things are going well, I may try and test to see if its possible for me to have foods with dairy in them. Right now we see the biggest reaction when I eat straight dairy, like ice cream, milk in my cereal, etc. I am somewhat sad to be off of it again, although I really did not miss it that much when I avoided it. I have been off dairy for almost 2 1/2 years, and was enjoying the past 5 months of being able to eat it. Let's just pray that this is it for restrictions!

But I am excited to have some new nondairy options. I can now have coconut yogurt and coconut ice cream (which is delicious!) I think we have decided to buy an ice cream maker and make our own, as a pint is $5.00!

Tonight we are having a special meal...my last meal with dairy. I chose Italian, as I haven't had regular pasta in years! I cannot wait to eat it!

I know I have a bunch of catching up to do....I was hoping to do that this weekend but suffered from a migraine instead. I have to play catch-up tonight with studying...hopefully this week I can at least get some photos up!

I am back!

or at least I hope I am :)

Sorry it has taken me so long to update! I wanted my first post to be Rose's birth story, and just couldn't find the time to write it out. My goal is to do it tonight, as I really do not want to forget the details of her birth.

Things here are going well. They get better every week. To be honest, having 3 children under the age of 4 has definitely taken some getting used to. We have had a lot of adjusting to do! For me, I had to once again adjust to no sleep, no free-time, and absolutely no personal space. It's definitely been tougher this time around. I don't think I gave myself enough time to adjust before the guilt set in, and I set out to do too much too soon and ended up just feeling down that I wasn't accomplishing all I needed to. I can see that now. I felt bad that I wasn't being the best mother I could be, as the lack of sleep definitely ate up much of my patience! There were many days where I felt like all I did was nurse, change diapers and help the older two with the potty. Oh-and cleaning up the older twos bathroom mishaps! Mara had many accidents (which is expected, as she has only been using the potty for a few months) and Analese also thought she would join in on the fun. A few weeks ago she decided to stand there and pee all over our bathroom rug! I couldn't believe it. She just smiled and said " I couldn't make it". Ugh.

But each week it has gotten better. Rose is now sleeping through the night, she sleeps from 10-3 and sometimes 10-5! I am in heaven, as Mara didn't sleep through the night alone until she was two! I should note that this is sleeping with us. When she is next to me in her cosleeper, she is up every 2 hours! But I do love sleeping with her. There is nothing like having your newborn snuggled up against you. No matter how stressful the day, looking down at her sleeping face,listening to her little sighs as she snuggled up against me...it just puts everything perspective and the stress melts away. She is only little for such a short amount of time..I plan to savor every moment I can!


The girls just love their sister, and are constantly smothering her with love. I do my best to protect Rose from all the love without hurting the girls' feelings or make them feel like they are doing something wrong. I'll admit, its tough! Rose does not like to be put down at all, and one of the reasons for this-I believe- is because the girls are right up in her face! Mara has to be constantly touching noses with Rose, as she wants her to "see her"...but then that is ALL she sees :) I should also add that Rose just lights up when she sees her...for those few seconds that she can see all of her (and not just a cheek). Mara has begun nursing her baby-I found her on my bed, IN THE DARK, shirt off nursing her baby the other day! She also walks her baby around, bouncing her to sleep exactly like I do with Rose. Just too cute....

Analese has just grown up overnight. When Rose is crying, she always tells me "it's OK Mom, I got this" and will go to her and sing. Her emotions are still all over the place, and we butt heads on days I just do not have the patience to help her through it. But even when she is testing me like crazy, I can't help but laugh at her. Her latest thing is singing out her her objections.."No, no I won't clean it up...Yoouuuu can" to the tune of different songs. It is hysterical, I must admit. Although the " I won't lay down and take a nap" song is one that amkes me want to cry :)

So just a quick update. I have a ton of photos to post and hope to get on that as well. I have Analese's birthday photos and trip to Dutch Wonderland to post about, and the many photos of baby Rose, who is growing so so quickly!

Sorry for the rambling post, I hope this makes some sense!

Quick Baby Update

Again, not much time, but I had to update you on the news!

Introducing..................................

Rose Hollin
born July 18th at 12:44 AM
weighing 7 lbs 14 oz
20.5 inches tall

Another girl! She is absolutely beautiful and it's unbelievable how much my heart has swelled with love for her.


I'll update soon with more photos, details, etc.


Right now we are just trying to adjust, relax and enjoy our newest family member!

Still here!

Just another quick update!

Baby still isn't here yet! He or she seems to be very happy in there! Me, on the other hand, haven't been too comfortable. I have never felt so uncomfortable in my other pregnancies. The baby is so low, giving me so much pressure that it hurts to walk. I feel like my leg keeps coming out its socket....so hard to explain this feeling! Greg asked me last night...."so what can we do to get this baby out?" as its been hard on him as well.

Anyway, my due date is tomorrow as well as my next appointment. I haven't been feeling well the past few days so I am hoping that means I have dilated more. Five or six, maybe?

I'll try and keep you posted. My parents are here visiting and so my computer time is limited (they are staying in my computer room). I just had 178 new messages to go through!

The girls are enjoying the visit, although they both seem to be so overstimulated 24 hours a day that its been hard for them to just calm down...and to listen. I find myself repeating myself over and over again and getting frustrated (yes-hormones are at play as well) I am trying to let some things go, but also have the fear that if I let too many things go, I will have 2 wild children on my hands once the baby comes and I have all three by myself!

I'll be in touch and hope to bring some good news soon!