A Dollar Store Letter

Dear Lady At The Dollar Store With Two Kids Under Two And Many Pregnancy Tests In Her Cart,

Real funny!!!

Love,
Oh wait... that was me...

(It's just for piece of mind, people)

It Makes Sense.

In case anyone is actually reading this blog, I think the lack of posting should be a pretty good indicator of my free time. Currently babies are 8 months and just about 22 months. One crawls and screeches while the other runs too fast and complains. Even though the house looks like a tornado hit it 100% of the time, I have been taking pride in my new found stacking laundry to the ceiling ability, remembering to feed everyone every day, and the fact that we have made zero ER visits. Life is chaos, but it is good chaos. Exhausting chaos. If I could just teach them to sleep at night...

Turning The Corner

Let's not lie, having two kids is hard. Having a new baby is hard. And having two very small people close together is hard. But a couple of days ago I realized something... I have turned the corner.

I suppose it started about when Sammy was 4 months and began to consolidate her naps into a more regular routine. The increased predictability allowed me to plan when I could do certain things (shop, shower, clean, etc.) And now that she is 6 months we seem to have settled into an even more predictable schedule of sorts.

The rest of the equation is kind of like this:
Reasonable Predictability+Slightly Better Night Time Sleeping+Body Healed From Birth+Exercising+Sammy's Ability To Self-Entertain Better+Harmon & Sammy Entertaining Each Other+Misc.= Feeling pretty in control of my life with two small people.

And it's a good feeling.

The Bedtime Blessing

It seems I am neglecting this blog. Blame it on the children.

Lately said children have given me a most wonderful gift at bedtime. They have been going to sleep in the same room at the same time from wide awake to fast asleep. Without me being in the room. I don't know how this magically happened, but it did. Sammy often goes to sleep an hour or so before Harmon, but will often get woken up in the process of putting Harmon to sleep. A week or two ago was the first time that when I put him down and she was awake and I just left (to both of them complaining) instead of taking her out with me to put her down in the other room. As soon as I shut the door (assuming I would be coming back to actual crying in a minute) the complaining stopped. And there was no more noise until several hours later when Sammy needed a snack.

I still don't want to jinx it, but I will say I am VERY happy with the current situation and hope it continues. My landlord just woke my baby up. The end.

The Diaper Problem

This is so ridiculous, but as Sammy has moved up a diaper size her diapers are harder to distinguish from Harmon's just by glancing at them. And if you have a helper who likes to take all diapers out of any container they may be put in, you will then have a jumble of diapers of various sizes which then require opening the tab to see what size they are. This is not a task I wish upon anyone. After lamenting my fate of always having to figure out which diaper is which when it is urgently needed I came up with the best solution I could think of: my old friend sharpie. Now when I open a pack of diapers I take a few minutes to pull them all out, mark them with the appropriate 'H' or 'S' and feel like a genius.

Harmon's Sixth Sense

Is knowing the exact moment in which I am 30 seconds away from finishing nursing the baby and about to put her into her crib ultra-drowsy. He will ALWAYS come wandering in and for some reason my almost 18-month-old doesn't understand "shhhhhh baby peanut is sleeping!" Or maybe he does, because he will then knock on the door, bang toys together, and talk as loud as he can.

Man I love that stinker. Even if his sister would get more sleep if he would quit it.

I'm Dying, or Sleep PLEASE!

So, the cribs in the same room idea was good. It turns out I sleep a lot better with no babies making little (or big) noises in my ear. What is not so good is that my children hate sleeping. Luckily they have been pretty good about not waking each other up, but perhaps that is in part because I go running in at the slightest noise to keep whoever is the noise producer quiet. Which is approximately EVERY HOUR.

Somehow my babies come out sleeping well enough, and by months have learned that waking up every hour is the best idea in the world. I think Harmon was at 2-3 hours by 4 months and waited until 6 months to do the hourly thing. Sammy is so advanced. I realize that Sammy is suffering teething pains, but most of the time she just wants a little snack and to be put back to sleep. The times when Sammy has been sleeping 2 or more hours, Harmon favors us with a teeth pain induced waking, or perhaps just an "it's-5am-I-want-to-be-cuddled-and-rocked-while-you-stand-up-don't-you-even-think-about-sitting-or-laying-down" waking which we enjoy so much.

All this sleep deprivation leads me to say awful things to my kind husband who asks yesterday morning: "what can I do to help?" My reply? "Don't get me pregnant ever again!"

But seriously. One baby is ridiculous if you like sleep. Two babies? I think I may die.