A Typical Day in Our Life

I've done a few day in our life posts, including the most recent one right after Declan was born. At that point in our lives it was all chaos and takeout food and survival mode. Lately we've settled into a nice routine, we're completely unpacked (as of last week - don't judge!) and we're loving our new home, so I wanted to do an updated day in our life post. But then, as soon as I thought, Hey, I've kinda got things under control. Maybe I can handle this whole parenting two kids thing, this happened:

After a night of musical beds where I was woken up so many times that I literally had no idea where I was or who was crying, we woke up to day two of a hoarse, raspy-voiced toddler who was just so pitiful sounding and in pain, so off to the doctor we went. It took me + a nurse to hold Ez down long enough for the doctor to look down his throat. That's all, just shine that light thingy down his throat. Imagine how awful his next round of shots is gonna be. Then we got the news that not only is Ez getting more molars (seriously the most awful, horrible, hateful things ever!), but he's also got bronchitis. My poor baby. We head straight to the pharmacy (aka - Target) to pick up his meds. As soon as I pull into the parking lot both boys fall asleep, and all I've got is the single stroller. So I'm walking through Target, killing half an hour while they fill the prescription, using one hand to push Ez in the stroller while also carrying Declan in his car seat. No less than four people stop to smile and point out that I have my hands full. Really? Do I? I hadn't even noticed. And can I just point out that seeing all that cute fall stuff at Target but not being able to touch or browse was really sad. Like really. I did pick up a get well gift for Ez though, because mom priorities. Once we got home I wrestled Ez to the ground in order to force feed him his medicine. He actually likes the way it tastes, but that doesn't stop him from putting up a fight each and every time. Then I go to pick up Declan, who is also screaming, only to find poo up to his hair. And all over my hands. Emergency bath time. While I'm trying to spray down a wriggly, slippery, screaming baby Ez bursts into the bathroom with such force that the door bounces off the wall and hits him right in the face. Cue screaming baby #2. So for about the 50th or so time both kids are simultaneously screaming bloody murder. And did I mention this was all before lunch?

Lesson learned. Never ever ever tempt fate by thinking you've got things figured out. She will laugh right in your face and throw you curve ball after curve ball until you admit that you know nothing. Nothing at all.

So I totally acknowledge that I'm just taking parenthood day by day, and sometimes it's literally all chaos and tears, but the other days when all pandemonium hasn't broken loose look something like this:

Our weekdays follow the same basic formula. I get up whenever the earliest riser wakes me up (not counting Joe, who usually leaves before we're awake). On the off chance Declan wakes up before 7am, he hangs out with daddy while I get some more zzzs. Typically Ez and Declan wake up between 7 and 8, then Declan likes to cluster nap till 9 or 10. We appreciate lazy mornings and start off with breakfast, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and of course iced coffee for me. 

Ez is generally pretty good at entertaining himself in the mornings. He likes being reunited with all his cars after a whole night away from them. So if Declan is napping this is my blog and chore time.

Late morning/early afternoon is when we gotta get out of the house before everyone starts going crazy. Some things we like to do are story time at the library, a trip to the park, walks around the neighborhood, errands, meeting my sister for lunch, or just playing in the garden. Declan is always strapped to me in his Bjorn carrier, facing outward because he's very social and likes to people watch.

Sometimes Ez falls asleep in his stroller and naps up to two hours, otherwise we eat lunch. Then Declan naps and Ez and I get some one on one time (unless they're both napping - hallelujah!) We read books, color, do puzzles, play monster bowling, or I sit on the floor while he plays cars. Sometimes he just needs an audience. 

Around 5 I'll start prepping dinner while Ez and Declan either join me in the kitchen or entertain themselves (Declan loves playing in his exersaucer - a total lifesaver!) Joe gets home around 6 and we eat dinner shortly after. 

Post dinner we usually head straight to the park where Joe and Ez play together while I walk laps with Declan strapped to me. We usually spend about half an hour there then head home to clean up, bathe everyone, and relax. 

Ez and Declan both go to sleep at 9. Declan was waking up only once or twice a night, but in the past week it jumped up to 4 times. Probably another instance of fate laughing at me.

On Fridays we pick Joe up from work and go out to dinner as a family then walk around, check out some shops, play at the park, and just unwind for the weekend.

Weekends are for exploring and we always like to get out of the house and do stuff together as a family. Now that we're in a brand new area there's so much stuff we wanna check out and our Bay Area bucket list seems to grow daily.

This season of life with multiple littles is just so much everything. So much fun. So tiring. So many laughs. So many tears. So many cuddles. And most importantly it goes by so fast. I know when I look back at this in a month or two our lives and routine will be completely different and I'll probably be laughing at the whole poo bath/door straight to the face memory. (I may have had to turn away and stifle laughter at the door slamming incident right when it happened. Does anyone else's kids injure themselves daily, or is mine just extra accident prone?) I probably won't ever find the bronchitis or molars funny, but by then hopefully it will be a distant memory.

Assembly Required

I'm just gonna throw it out there that one of my least favorite parts of parenthood is all the assembly required. There was the crib, dresser, and changing table, which was a ton of fun to put together while I was eight months pregnant. *sarcasm* (nothing is fun while 8 months pregnant). Then we had an extremely pleasant year-long lull in putting stuff together which was broken today when we had no option but to put up a real baby gate (instead of the strategically placed cases of water that we had been using). Ezzy tried to jump headfirst over the water bottles last night. Thankfully he didn't make it, and just belly flopped on top of the water bottles, and then flailed around crying to be rescued. Unlike putting together his nursery furniture, this time I had to contend with a very active baby trying to climb on my back (see photo 1) as I was trying to decipher confusing instructions and manually screw the gate into the wall since my power drill is a cheap Ikea p.o.c. I know this is only the beginning and we've got plenty of Christmas and Birthday toy assembly in front of us. When you pair Joe's impatience for reading instructions, and my tendency to do at least one step per project backward, Ezzy should be in for some interesting presents... Sorry, kid.

Also, as you can tell from the pictures, Ezzy thinks the gate is his newest toy/personal jungle gym. Fingers crossed that thing holds up...

The Sleep Chronicles, Part lll

I've written two other posts about sleep on this blog. One was a very naive and hopeful blog about the first (and only) time Ezzy slept all night long. Ten blissful hours of sleep. That was way back in late September, and sleep has been pretty hard to come by since then. The other post I had somewhat resigned myself that sleep as I knew it was a thing of the past.

This post is about my weekend attempt to try to get Ezzy to sleep the whole night in his own crib. Here is how our attempt over the weekend went. To start with, the way our sleep schedule has worked so far is I put Ezzy down (already asleep) into his own crib, where he sleeps about three hours, until he wakes up for the first feeding of the night (out of anywhere from 2-4 feedings). Then I bring him to bed with me and feed him until he falls back asleep, at which point I move to the couch and leave him and Joe in our bed. The main reason for this is I'm too tired/lazy to sit up with him at 2 am. But now he's been waking up with Joe's alarm at 5 am, and I'm also too tired/lazy to get up at 5 am, so I basically have to pick the lesser of two evils at this point.

I've read so many other blogger's say that their child instantly took to the crib, and started sleeping twelve hours straight, without a single tear, once they transitioned to the crib. In my experience, that's magical fairytale nonsense. I'm pretty sure these accounts couldn't have come from real mothers of real babies, and I refuse to believe it's actually that easy for anyone. (And if your experience really was that easy, please wait to share it with me until I've had at least 8 hours of sleep - so in another 18 years or so.)

Here's how my real-life, non-magical, very sleep deprived and unsuccessful attempt went. To start with, I read The No Cry Sleep Solution. (Ok, I didn't actually read it cover to cover, but I skimmed it and picked out a few pointers.) Some of the tips I picked up from the book were:

• Create a consistent bedtime routine - Check. We've already been doing this routine for awhile now: bath, jammies, story time, nurse Ezzy to sleep.
• Don't nurse baby to sleep. (Whoops.) If the baby is already used to being nursed to sleep, start trying many other methods, such as driving them to sleep, rocking to sleep, etc., so they get used to falling asleep in a variety of situations. 
• The bedtime routine should always end in the room the baby will sleep in. Whoops again. I had been nursing Ezzy to sleep on the couch, which watching TV. And that used to work fine, until lately when Ezzy will almost fall asleep, then suddenly wake up totally wide-eyed and smiley.
• Put baby to sleep earlier. Supposedly the earlier babies go to sleep, the longer they sleep. As in 7 pm is the normal bedtime for babies. Ezzy's bedtime is anywhere between 9-10 pm. 
• Keep a log of baby's sleep habits. I already unofficially do this, just out of curiosity of how much sleep we're getting each night. 
• Make sure naps don't exceed 4 hours per day, and don't go past 6 pm. Ezzy's nap schedule varies. He doesn't usually sleep more than 4 hours per day, though now that he's started taking 2 naps per day, it has happened a few times. Same with the 6 pm thing.
• Get baby attached to a "lovey" - aka, a stuffed animal, piece of cloth with mama's scent on it, etc. I'm trying to get him attached to several different "loveys" to see what he takes to. So far he doesn't seem particularly attached to anything.
• Use a sound machine and a night light. 
• Put baby in his crib several times during the day while you're in the room so he gets used to it and considers it a safe place. I've already been doing this for awhile. Ezzy has no problem with his crib, so long as he's not supposed to be sleeping it.

Ok, so those were the tips I planned on putting into place over the weekend. I chose the weekend as our start point, because I figured Joe might need to take on some early morning shifts if this didn't work out. And boy am I glad he was around, because things did not work out very well.

Friday night we did our normal bedtime routine, but we started about 15 minutes earlier than usual, and this time after story time, I turned on his night light and sound machine and nursed him in his own room. I tried to lay him down while he was sleepy, but hadn't nursed himself completely to sleep. He immediately woke up crying. I tried again, with the same result. Then I gave up and nursed him to sleep. With a slightly earlier bedtime, he still woke up in 3 hours. Instead of bringing him into my room, I nursed him in his room, tried putting him back in his crib, which promptly made him hysterical. I tried bouncing him and rubbing his back, and he was so tired he almost fell asleep, but woke up crying as soon as his head touched the crib. I tried nursing him in the rocking chair and putting him in his crib. No such luck. That's when I gave up and brought him to bed with me, where he immediately nursed himself to sleep. And apparently the whole ordeal tuckered him out so much that he slept 6 straight hours. That was actually the most sleep I'd gotten in a row in a long time. So even though it was technically a fail, it worked out ok.

Saturday night I tried putting him to bed even earlier. I started bathtime at 7:00, instead of our usual 8:00. He was asleep by 8:30. He was awake a little after 11:00. Then I went through the same routine we tried on Friday night, except when I finally gave up and brought him to bed with me (almost two hours after he first woke up), I was completely drained - literally - so he couldn't nurse himself to sleep. That made him distraught and angry and kept flailing his head around and screaming. It was around that time I left him to "cry it out" next to Joe in bed. So of course Joe got up with him, and they spent two hours watching TV until I nursed him to sleep in our bed.

Here are a few things I take from all of this:

• Maybe it's easier to just give Ezzy my bed and take over his room instead?
• I clearly lack the patience at 2 am to be as consistent as I need to be for any actual sleep training to take place. 
• Perhaps I should give The No Cry Sleep Solution a more thorough study. 

That's all I've got. For anyone else that had a less than magical experience with getting their child to sleep in their crib, please share what eventually worked for you. Or just commiserate with me. Because, you know, misery loves company.

Mommy Laughs

Once you're a mom, you realize there are things that nobody can understand unless they've been there themselves. So I get really happy when I come across articles and blogs by other moms who understand what it's like being sleep-deprived, and unshowered, and basically ruled by a tiny little being that can't even speak yet. Here are a few articles that have made me laugh out loud this week, and give a good glimpse at life with a baby:

1. What I Do All Day When I'm Home With the Baby - To start with, I love the blog's tagline: Attempts at Adulthood. Her whole timeline had me cracking up and thinking somebody else gets me. The end pretty much sums up a day in the life of a stay at home mom: 4:46  Jonathan arrives home.  Asks how day was.  Asks what I did today.  I show him clean sink and baby who is not crying or bleeding. Yup. What more can you ask for? 
2. Real-Life Mommy Brain Moments - as you can tell if you scroll through the slideshow, misplaced keys and phones are a serious source of contention for moms. Also, leaving the house without shoes has happened to me recently. Twice. Anyone else? The first time I made it all the way to the grocery store, stepped out of the car, walked around to the other side to get Ezzy, then finally noticed I was rocking my bright pink fuzzy slippers. Suddenly I understand the women who grocery shop with curlers in their hair.
3. If I Had Known - This one made me laugh at first, but I was crying by the end. When you're childless, it's easy to think of several tangible reasons why parenthood is so hard. And all anyone ever says in response to those "downsides" is that "it's all worth it." Which is true, but it's nice to find an article where someone so articulately puts into words why parenthood is "worth it." 

Any other mommy brain moments you'd care to add to the list?

"They Grow So Fast"

2 days old vs. 8 months 

It seems like every time I go anywhere with Ezzy at least one person tells me, "enjoy it while you can, they grow so fast." Which is true. Joe and I were marveling over the picture above a few days ago. He used to be so tiny in his carseat, and now his feet are hanging off the edge and the belt needs to be adjusted to the third highest setting. But every time someone tells me that, I never really know how to respond. I feel like I'm just constantly saying, "I know" or "so I've heard" or "yeah, he's already grown so much." I know they mean well,  and they're probably just wistfully thinking about when their children were this young, but I guess it's just odd to me how often random strangers comment about Ezzy. Like I walked into the store today, and immediately one of the checkers just exclaimed "His cheeks!" I assume she meant his chubby cheeks are cute, but again, what do I say to that? "Yeah...his cheeks!"? or "Thanks?" or look the other way and pretend I didn't hear (which is Joe's normal response)? Maybe being around a baby who only yells nonsense at me all day long has dampened my ability to have small talk with adults.

Disneyland Part 2: Tips for Taking a Baby to Disneyland

Nursing on the Disneyland train.

LOVE love love Disneyland at Christmas.

Santa requested a picture alone with the cute baby.

"What's in this basket here?"

"Wait. Who the heck are you??!?"

He got his dad's half smile.

It's almost 2014! So I figured I'd better finish up any blog posts pertaining to 2013 so I can start the new year with a clean blogging slate. As promised, here's the rest of our Disneyland pictures (see Part 1 here) and a few tips I learned about taking a baby to Disneyland.

Pre-kids, I thought it was crazy to take a baby to Disneyland. It's expensive, they won't remember it, and they probably won't enjoy it anymore than watching cartoons in the living room at home. That said, one of my favorite things about Disneyland is that people travel from all over to visit the happiest place on Earth, which means I get a chance to visit with my out-of-town friends and family. So when Gangy and Grampa made their yearly b-day visit to Disneyland (Grampa's bday), and they gifted Joe and I with some Disneyland tickets, of course we were going to go and hang out. Before we went I did tons of Googling on tips for taking a baby to Disneyland, what kind of supplies I should bring with me, and what rides I would be able to take Ezzy on. Honestly, I didn't find a ton of helpful stuff on Google, so here's what I found out through my own trial and error from three days at Disneyland with a six month old.

1. Travel with at least two other adults, but three is better. That way there's always someone to watch the baby while the other two ride the big kid rides. And it's better with four because you can pair off and nobody gets left alone for too long. Also, four pairs of arms are helpful if you have a baby that's not too thrilled about the whole stroller thing.
2. Bring a stroller. At first I was hesitant about bringing a stroller for a few reasons: 1 - I usually carry Ezzy around in the Bjorn carrier, and he's never ridden in the stroller without having a meltdown, and 2 - it seemed like a hassle to push a stroller through the crazy crowds. However, nap time would have been impossible without the stroller, and a napless baby is a bad thing for everyone involved. Also, when we were carrying Ezzy, the stroller was a handy way to cart around all the extra baby goods that are involved in our lives now. Which brings me to #3.
3. Pack like you're moving to Disneyland, and store all the extras in a locker. I brought two backpacks, one for carting around with me and one for the locker. In the one I carried with me, I had two packs of baby food, about five diapers, half a package of wipes, a changing table liner, a hoodie (for Ezzy), a cardigan (for me), a blanket, a scarf (for me), toys, my wallet, and mittens for both of us. The other backpack had: more diapers, two extra outfits (including hoodie and socks), more food, and another blanket. The first backpack was plenty, and other than my coat which was stored in the locker, I didn't really need anything else. However, if I hadn't brought it with me, I'm sure Ezzy would have had a diaper blowout and needed a change of clothes, or some other minor catastrophe would have happened, so I'm glad I brought everything I did.
4. Rides: I really thought I'd be able to bring Ezzy on some of the rides and he'd be fine. I was wrong. In case you're wondering, babies can go on any of the rides without a height requirement. So that's most of the ones in Fantasyland, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Winnie the Pooh, It's a Small World, the train, Little Mermaid, several of the ones in Bugs Land, plus a few others that I know I'm forgetting. The problem is that, with the exception of It's a Small World and the caterpillar train in Bugs world, all of these rides are loud, dark, and scary for a baby/small child. Ezzy screamed on Winnie the Pooh and Little Mermaid, and he slept on the train (though I think the dinosaur part would have scared him). So yeah, it turns out Disneyland is more dark and scary than the happiest place on Earth if you're under 3. Which brings me to #5.
5. Lower your expectations regarding what you'll get to do in a day at Disneyland if you're bringing a baby. Ezzy and I spent three days at Disneyland, so I thought I'd get to ride a decent amount of rides. At first I had grand plans of wanting to go on: Pirates, Haunted Mansion, It's a Small World, Toy Story, and Buzz Lightyear. And I thought those were lowered expectations compared to how many rides I'd usually knock out in a three day period. Wrong. I rode six rides while I was there (aka - an average of two per day). So, my advice would be to pick two favorites per day, and anything on top of that is icing on the cake.
6. Broaden your horizons. Of all the times I've gone to Disneyland, I may have watched a parade from start to finish once or twice. It's not normally my thing to stake out a prime spot 90 minutes before the parade starts, but when we had a sleeping baby and time to kill, that's exactly what we did. Ezzy woke up just as the parade was about to begin, and he LOVED it. His face lit up while watching the dancers and hearing the music and seeing the giant floats drive by us. I'm sure he would have loved watching the World of Color too, if that wasn't past his bedtime. Also, I almost never ride the train at Disneyland, but it turned out to be a great place to nurse Ezzy and bypass the crowds.

So, while this was a different Disneyland experience than what I'm used to, I loved it all the same. We got some great pictures with Santa, we got some quality time with Gangy and Grampa, Joe and I had a mini-date on the Haunted Mansion where we spent a whole 45 minutes without Ezzy (a first for us!), and we got to enjoy all the Christmas decor, because nobody does it up for Christmas like Disneyland. Thank you Gangy and Grampa! I'm already looking forward to our next Disneyland adventure.

Mom Life: Way too Excited Bout a Full Night's Sleep!

Ezzy slept a full ten hours last night! I was really excited when he started sleeping seven hours right when he turned four months old. But him sleeping seven hours is the equivalent of me sleeping 4-5 hours, since he usually goes to sleep around 9:00 and I go to bed between 11-12. So last night was the closest I've gotten to eight straight hours of sleep in the last four and a half months. And what's even better is that for the first time ever, instead of waking up to him crying, I actually heard his cute little baby laughs coming from his room. When I walked in he had turned himself around and was having a nice little chat and giggle with the wall.

The only downside of getting this much sleep is that I woke up in a soggy, breast-milk soaked shirt. A welcome trade-off, if you ask me. And then to make life even better, I got some morning snuggles in with this guy:

Happy October!

Joe's mom sent this to me. Sad but true!