everyday Ann

living the ordinary seeing the extraordinary

Taming the Chaos

I have officially been doing the mom gig now for three years and very much still trying to figure it all out. Having gone from zero to four kiddos in 2 1/2 years people ask us how we manage and do it. To be honest I feel like I am oftentimes just winging it and praying for the best. Of course feeling like we are starting over with the addition of each new child. (Did I mention the boys are now praying for twin sisters, should I be excited or terrified?!)

In no particular order here are seven ways we have found helpful to keep the household running smoothly, semi-organized and mostly stress-free.

1.  Tidy up daily. If you walk into my house at any given moment during the day it will look like a tornado went through. Before dinner we do a quick pick up, everyone chips in and dad may never know the disaster that hit. Never go to bed with a sink full of dirty dishes. This is something that doesn’t bother Aaron, but instantly is a mood killer for me to wake up and see a sink full of dirty dishes.

2.  Stick to a bedtime routine. Regardless if Aaron is working late or not, getting ready for bed begins at the same time every night. The boys know what they need to do, so if I am flying solo I can be getting the little ones ready at the same time.

3.  Everyone knows the expectations. This applies to both behavior, discipline and also chores around the house. The boys have a couple of assigned chores that they know need to be completed before privileges.

4.  Meal plan. I really dislike grocery shopping, even more so now when my only options are to go on a Saturday when the store is chaos or with the littles in tow during a weekday. I make sure to plan out enough meals so I only have to get groceries every 7-9 days. I take a look at my meal plan the night before and decide what I will be making for dinner the following day. I also always include a couple quick and easy meals to go to if need be.

5.  Make lunches the night before. The boys bring a lunch everyday for school and no matter how early I get up my planned prepped time always disappears by someone or something needing attention. Yeah, their sandwich may not be as fresh, but it saves a lot of unneeded stress in the morning.

6.  Take a timeout. We all know there are always a million things to do; dishes, meals, cleaning, laundry, bills, etc. I have found that allowing myself some R&R while Grace and Caden take their afternoon nap has helped fuel me for the rest of the day. It doesn’t happen daily, but at least a few times a week I ignore the mess and do something I enjoy while they sleep.

7.  Have a cleaning and laundry schedule. At the beginning of the week I write down what needs to be cleaned. I have a rotating schedule, so not all of my cleaning happens in the same week. Example my floors only get vacuumed every other week unless needed otherwise. For laundry I don’t have a set day, but I am pretty consistent about throwing a load of wash in every day in order not to fall behind. I cut myself a little slack and allow one laundry basket of unfolded clothes, but never more.

I would love to hear some of the ways you tame the chaos!

Join Kelly for more. Happy Friday!!

Motherhood is Messy

A picture of my living room. Toys, baby gear, laundry and a Christmas tree that still needs to be put away. While in the dining room there are coloring books and crayons spread across my half scrubbed floors and a crusty peanut butter sandwich on the table from lunch.

Running a bit behind schedule per usual, but excited to be going to a newly joined mom’s group. I gave the toddler a quick bath and turned my back to pick up the crying baby, when I hear “ahh poop, poop Mama, poop”! I turn back around to a bathtub filled with poop. Poop floating everywhere!

I finally decide to work up the courage to attend weekday Mass flying solo. Hey, the toddler did great this past Sunday wanting to walk up to Communion and back. How quickly things change. She won’t budge as she reaches her arms up to be carried and her bottom lip begins to quiver. I bend down to pick her up, baby in one arm and toddler in the other. A minute later my shirt is wet, massive spit-up all over my shoulder. I left the burp rag in the pew, not that it mattered much anyways my arms were full. We must have been the site to see balancing kiddos in both arms while covered in spit-up. Humility.

Last minute nursing session and a just filled dirty diaper to change trying to get out the door for doctor appointments. Coats, hats, lost mittens found, baby bundled, carseats buckled and we are off. I glance down and notice that my once clean pants are now streaked mustard yellow with baby poop.

Motherhood, days of poop and spit-up being the norm. Being surrounded by crying babies, screaming toddlers and fighting kiddos. Learning to live with messy floors, unwashed hair and little sleep.

Realizing it is acceptable to serve frozen pizza for dinner with a side of broccoli and call it a well balanced meal. Allowing your kids to wear uniform pants to school that were dug out of the hamper that morning because we have fallen a little behind on laundry.

We are wiping tears, giving hugs and shaping souls. Embracing all of the baby coos, children’s laughter and the I love yous. Trying our best and wondering if it is good enough. Daily facing our shortcomings and relying on grace to see us through. On our knees praying and hoping they will maybe turn out okay.

Motherhood is indeed messy. It is not for the weak or faint of heart. In the business of making saints on the front lines of life and truly being sanctified in the process.

Two!

My little miracle is two and fully a toddler complete with expanding her vocabulary, copying everything her brothers do, throwing tantrums and capturing our hearts with her sweetness! Seems like it was only months ago that she was born.

She looks like daddy, but has mama’s personality both the good and the bad. She is often found “doing laundry” by putting clean clothes in the wash machine, putting away everyone’s folded socks in her dresser and dragging clean clothes from the dryer across my dirty floors. Two going on twelve rummaging through my dresser bedecking herself with all of my necklaces and applying a little blush when mom isn’t close by to see her sneak it.

A little mother hen taking care of her baby dolls with lots of rocking, shushing and nursing. Of course her favorite baby is Caden who she literally loves to pieces and says “my baby” when her brothers get too close to him. She loves to hold him and “help him” roll over. Thankfully there is only a 7 pound difference between her and Caden otherwise she would be snatching him up and carrying him all over the house. He is usually the first person she greets in the morning standing up on the side of his crib, “Hi baby Caden!!!”

Everyone ask where the red hair comes from and comments on her smile. She is all mama’s girl and extremely shy until she warms up. She is the answer to Kolbe’s prayer, who began praying for a baby sister as soon as he could speak English and has her daddy wrapped around her finger. My sweet girl, you are a beautiful gift! Love you to the moon and back!!

 

The Grand Entrance (continued)

Thought I wouldn’t keep you in suspense too long, although we know how the story ends! Providing the link in case you missed part 1 and want the details.

Around 2:00pm the doctor came in and suggested we start pitocin seeing my body wasn’t getting things moving on it’s own. I was nervous, I guess more having a hard time putting my trust in the doctor. My doctor was out of town and all of the possible dangers of having a VBAC were racing through my head as I had to sign multiple waivers that morning.

Pitocin it was, hoping it wouldn’t take much and baby would be here in no time. The minutes turned to hours and the hours continued to pass with absolutely no progress other than painful contractions every 3 minutes. This baby wasn’t coming anytime soon and I was missing my babies at home. The nurse said visitors were welcome, because I wasn’t even close to having this baby (her words of support were not encouraging)!

I was worried about Grace as she is definitely a mama’s girl and had never been away from me for more than a few hours. Reality was she was fine and I was probably the one having withdrawals being away from her. Around 6:00pm and still no progress my parents brought the kiddos up to see me. They also brought dinner with for themselves and Aaron and enjoyed delicious smelling burgers while I sat on my birthing ball breathing through contractions and sipping a bottle of juice, the closest thing I could get to consuming calories. The boys were pretty disappointed to get to the hospital and still no baby, longest day of their life.

Shortly after they all left I started feeling really nauseous. I decided that after being up and moving for 15 hours I should try to rest a bit, perhaps that would help because I felt like the moving was a lost cause. The feeling of being nauseous didn’t go away and around 8:00pm I began throwing up every 30 minutes. The resting thing wasn’t happening and the nurses just kept cranking up the pitocin.

Around 10:00pm and still no progress, loved hanging out at 3cm, I decided to try some pain intervention. I opted for Nubain, because no way was I getting an epidural. After the nurse gave me the first dose, which was suppose to be the most effective, she told me that one of the side effects is feeling nauseous. Really, as if I needed to feel more nauseated, perhaps she should have told me that before administering the medication…and it did nothing to help with contractions.

When I was still only 3cm at midnight, now 19 hours later, I was all in for the epidural. Bring it on! It worked like a charm and it was so wonderful to finally have some relief. I was also able to rest and sleep a little. My only regret, I wish I would had gotten it sooner! Not feeling much of anything, I started to feel some pressure around 1:30am. The nurse said I was at a 9 1/2 and we would be pushing soon. My reaction must have had said it all as the nurse said she had never seen anyone so excited and eager to start pushing!

The epidural continued to be my life saver mitigating the pain during pushing. The doctor hadn’t been in the room long and I asked how many more pushes were needed to get this little one out, because I was getting exhausted. She said I was almost there but it would definitely be more than one push. Well next push guess who made their debut…sweet baby boy!!

As the doctor turned him to face Aaron and I so we could see the gender, my eyes filled with tears and I started shaking. It was one of the most miraculous moments of my life. As they placed him on my chest, he literally took my breath away. Breath-takingly beautiful, truly a miracle as I held his fragile yet perfectly formed body against my own. Aaron said I was shaking like he does after he shoots a deer when hunting. Nice comparison.

A full 22 hours after my water broke, Caden Joseph arrrived at 3:00am. Well he didn’t have a name the first two hours and we didn’t decide on the spelling until they needed it for his birth certificate an hour before getting discharged. In all my prepping for his arrival the name was the one thing we weren’t set on until seeing him, but it fits him perfectly.

Prayers were answered in so many ways, because I didn’t want to be induced and so badly wanted a successful VBAC. I now have a great appreciation and admiration for women who have given birth all natural and many more than once, you ladies rock!

The Grand Entrance

Finally getting around to Caden’s birth story. I will try to keep it contained in one post so it doesn’t become shy of a novel.

I was certain that this baby was going to come early especially with my progesterone levels never elevating nearly as high as my doctor would have liked to have seen. With that in mind I started prepping early, making freezer meals in June and purchasing baby supplies and packing bags in July. Little did I know that this guy was going to be almost an entire week late, making the pregnancy seem like it lasted forever going 7 weeks longer than I did with Grace.

Fast forward to 40 weeks, still very pregnant and 1/2cm dilated. I was pretty nervous going over my due date, but knew that with trying a VBAC we couldn’t induce when I wasn’t even a 1. To help ease some of the anxiety the doctor had me go in twice that week for the baby to be monitored to ensure everything looked normal. This little man past all the tests with flying colors and I progressed to 1cm, woohoo! So we continued the waiting game.

The game plan was I would be induced at 41 weeks, which was a Monday. Although if I hadn’t progressed any further come 6:00am Monday morning, the options were wait a few more days, c-section or try to induce and hope for the best. Heading into the weekend I was a wreck. None of the options sounded good and I was struggling to find peace with having to make a decision come Monday morning.

Trying to distract myself from the “what ifs” I rounded up the final items for my hospital bag Friday night and made some notes for the sitter. I went to bed feeling a few contractions and struggled through the night to sleep. Nerves and the contractions kept me awake most of the night, nothing consistent enough to signal I was in labor though.

I had just laid back down in bed at 5:00am when my water broke. Excited, nervous and panicked all at the same time. Wow, this baby was finally going to come!!

My contractions still weren’t any closer together, so I jumped in the shower and ate a small breakfast because I knew they wouldn’t let me touch food once I got to the hospital. The boys were ecstatic when they woke up to find out what was going on and wanted to know how soon the baby would come. I told them by later that afternoon, in my mind I thought no way would this take longer than 12 hours.

We finally made our way to the hospital around 8:30am, with the contractions still sporadic. The doctor checked me and I was barely 3cm, so I made it my mission to not stop moving. I walked the hallways so many times that one nurse commented, boy you sure are ambitious. We even did 12 flights of stairs only to be locked out of our floor on the way back down. Slightly embarrassing taking the main guest elevators robed in hospital gowns. And still…no progress.

(I guess this will have to be a two part post, it has turned into a novel.)