Last week we had the pleasure of welcoming the newest member of our family to the world! Miss Lottie was born via Emergency C-section last Thursday and we have spent the last week adjusting to our new roles & recovering.
The boys absolutely adore Lottie. Jr is always asking to hold her and Ted shows her off to all of his friends. They are not as thrilled by Mama’s recovery & inability to do her usual Mama things (bedtime, carrying kids, playing outside, etc).
I have been recovering well (I think) considering I’ve never had a C-section before and was completely unprepared for what that would be like. I’m still pretty sore, but I did just have major abdominal surgery (Did you know they cut through 7 different layers of tissue? 7?!) so I guess that’s typical. I’m hoping to get back to some of my regular daily activities this next week. I really miss walking Ted to school and putting the boys down for bed.
Michael was gone for CTE the last 10 days. The first week we did great! Our routines held us through the transition and helped keep things from feeling too ‘different’.
There were some moments of big emotions and missing Papa, but overall we were on top of things. Until both boys got sick. Then everything hit the fan. Ted was out of school for 4 days, due to an on/off fever. Neither boy was sleeping well, so neither was I (which is extra awful when you’re 37 weeks pregnant). We were blessed enough to have my Mother in Law visiting those 4 days, so we weren’t totally up the creek, but it definitely threw us off.
Now that we’re all feeling better, and Michael is home, we are ready to have a fresh start into our routines before Baby Girl gets here & throws it all out of whack again!
So many exciting things in the last two weeks! We found out where we are moving: Ft. Bragg, NC. We are very excited because it is close to Michael’s family and the boys will be able to spend more time with their cousins. Now we are preparing for the move, and I’ll have more detailed blog posts about those steps coming up.
Our other exciting news is we found out that our new baby is a little GIRL! Michael is over the moon and ran around announcing it to everyone he saw. I’m still processing having to change my language from ‘the boys’ (see above) to ‘the kids’.
Baby girl will be joining us in October!
We have continued fighting the War of the Fleas, with moderate success. I haven’t managed to completely eradicate them yet, it takes a bit more time & energy than this solo mama has. But we are making steady progress. Chester is fed up with me constantly brushing him, multiple baths a week, & getting haircuts every other week. But I know he’ll thank me when they’re gone.
In this series I will be sharing the current challenges I am facing as a mom of an (almost) 4 year old and (almost) 2 year old.
They get along, most of the time..
The last 2 months have been the first time in my life that I am a SAHM with both kids home full time. Last year when Michael was deployed, Ted was enrolled in an Early PreK program, so I only had Jr at home. So this has been a whole new world for all of us. There was definitely a learning curve, which is why I took a few months off, but now that we’ve found our groove, we’re ready to go!
Our most recent adventure has been potty learning. Yikes. I kept putting it off and putting it off, even though Ted showed signs of readiness before we moved to Texas, because I knew we had SO MANY changes coming and I didn’t want to be constantly dealing with regressions and feeling like we were failing. But after a new brother, moving, Michael deploying, starting a new school, moving again, Michael coming home, Michael leaving again, and another move coming up, I decided that it was not worth waiting for stability because we’d be waiting forever. Overall, it’s going well. Jr is also very interested, even though he isn’t quite ready yet. But we’re rolling with it and involving him in the process as much as possible.
Best friends
This week we (by we I mean, I) implemented some new routines/goals around the house. It has helped tremendously to have the house in better shape. My goals are to do a complete load (wash, dry, put away) of dishes and laundry every day. I have struggled with this because with only 3 people (do the toddlers count?) we don’t make a ton of dishes or a ton of laundry each day. So I got into the habit of waiting until everything was full before I washed it. This became a problem on the days were I was overwhelmed, tired, or just plain ol’ ran out of time to get it done when it NEEDED to be done. Then it was intimidating knowing there was SO MUCH that was piled up. Now, even if the dishwasher is only half full, I run it every evening. This has allowed our kitchen to be a more hospitable place, where we (I) want to cook. It also frees up my brain space to do more with the boys. I have found myself to be a better mother because I am less stressed. Surprise, surprise.
We have been making a point to spend as much time as we can outside every day. It is getting to the point, in Houston, where the unbearable heat/humidity of summer is quickly approaching. We go on walks, go to the park, or play in the backyard every day. We’re even planning a picnic lunch for next week! The benefits of getting outside are innumerable. So far this year we have logged 94 hours outside, using the 1000 Hour app. I admit that I’m not the best about filling it in every day, so we probably have more. My goal for is 750 hours for the whole year, which is just over 2 hours a day. We easily hit more than that on days that we are at the zoo, at the park with friends, or swimming at Grandma & Grandpa’s house. But there are days where we are lounge, or it’s storming, so we don’t get outside much, if at all.
Cheese!
I am excited to share more of our everyday adventures with you here! Mom Diaries posts will be every other week, so I’ll see you here in May!
Living in Plaid 