Author: Melissa

This week was Ellie’s turn to do the “Morning News” at school. Every day, someone gets to share something with the class and draw a picture for the class newsletter. This is what Ellie shared:

Yup, that is my life in a nutshell right now. Feeding the baby. Taking care of the baby. So funny that she has picked up on that and decided to share it with everyone.
Although, she could have said that “Mommy is really grumpy still” or “Mommy is drinking wine again!” or used the word “Boobs” or something.

I feel like this week is the real test. We’re back to our normal activities: Bible Study, Ballet, etc. Husband will be traveling. Our meals from church will be ending so I need to start cooking again. I have to sign the kids up for swim lessons and we’re deciding about summer camps and activities. I don’t even know what I’m doing tomorrow, nevermind in 3 months!
One minute I feel ready to take on the world – I am going to kick this week’s butt! –  then next minute I feel like crawling into my bed, pulling the covers over my head and staying there because I am so overwhelmed by it all. Every time I turn around, there is a kid wanting something or needing help. Ellie and Grace have been bickering all day about the pink My Little Pony. It all seems tied to sleep. If I have a good stretch of sleep that night, I feel okay. If its a night like last night when Colin wanted to eat all night long, its a bit harder to get perspective 🙂  Although all 4 of us took a nap this afternoon, which was a piece of heaven! But then I was suddenly crying for no apparent reason. Grrrr… hormones.
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On a brighter note, we had a GREAT weekend. Friday night the girls slept at a friends’ house and we enjoyed a night with just Colin. It was wonderful!! We got some extra sleep and lots done around the house. (A piece of our fridge fell off on Friday. That was just my week last week.) 
We also did some research and discovered that the camera the kids broke was only worth about $70. We bought it 3 years ago for like $400. So depressing. But good for them, since we are now not quite so annoyed at them. So now Husband is busily researching cameras. Because we simply can NOT get the same camera for $70. Why would we? Not when there are new, better, more advanced cameras out there.
Boys.
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Speaking of spending money, I need a new cell phone. My phone now holds a charge for approximately 5 minutes.  Any suggestions? I was looking at the Razr – in PINK of course – but I’ve heard that they aren’t that great. Anyone have one? What about the Motokrzr? Why do these phones have such weird names?
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Despite all my hormonal emotions, I am completely enamored with this baby. Seriously – I could sit and stare at him all day. His sweetness makes my heart hurt.

So my friends are taking the girls away! Until Sunday! Today I am dropping them off at a birthday party and picking them up at church on Sunday. How nice is that? Hopefully I will be a much nicer mommy when I get them on Sunday.
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Husband came home last night and handled the whole camera-incident with much more grace and calm that I could have. He handled it beautifully. I was very impressed in my haze of sleep-deprived rage.
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I feel really bad for my girls. I feel like they are bearing the brunt of my sleep deprivation. I’m pretty patient with Colin, seeing as he’s 10 days old and very little and cute.  But the girls seem to be seeing most of my impatience and grumpiness. I feel bad. I’m glad that they get to go off with their friends this weekend and have fun and get away from grumpy mama. And that grumpy mama can get some sleep.
I’m trying to be really loving with them and giving them extra hugs and kisses and love. But I don’t feel like its enough.

One of my children just took our nice Sony digital camera. The one that takes videos and stuff. And dropped it. DOWN THE STAIRS. And BROKE IT.

Aforementioned child is sitting in her bed. And will probably still be there next Tuesday morning when she has to get ready to go to school. She is well advised to keep away from me right now, since Mama is extremely angry. So angry, that I am not dealing with her and instead have told her through clenched teeth “You just wait until your daddy gets home.” And may have implied that she was in “big, BIG trouble.” Or something along those lines. I don’t remember, since I was concentrating very hard on not exploding.
So, here you have the very last picture taken by our trusty old camera. Before its trip down the stairs, before being smashed on the hardwood floor. Its of the girls’ fish tank. This is one of many final pictures on the camera they are not supposed to play with. And confirms that BOTH of them were playing with the camera, since there are pictures of both of them. And of Colin, who they woke up. And of their room. And of the hallway. Which is right next to… the stairs!

Please bear in mind that all this happened when she was supposedly taking a nap.
I need a drink. And a vacation. And $400 for a new ^(&#ing camera.
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Then when I am getting them ready for bed, I find out that during today’s “nap” they also put pink lipstick on all of their girl stuffed animals. So I am taking a break from scrubbing the face of the Dalmatian Ellie got for her birthday. And did I mention that two days ago, one of them drew on our new Pottery Barn duvet cover with a gel pen? Seriously, my head may explode very soon.

My husband warned me that I may be making enemies with that last post. So perhaps I should write about something else.
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We found out yesterday that Husband is being sent on a business trip next week. His new boss suggested that he consider it. Then he called me – very timidly – and asked how my day was going and stuff. I immediately said, “Where do they want you to go?” He – even more timidly – asked what I thought. I said, Sure. Its only for 2 nights. Then he went into a meeting and realized that the “suggestion” that he go was merely a gesture, since he is supposedly leading the training sessions. Humm…. Doesn’t sound like much of a “suggestion” to me!!  Whatever, New Boss!
The good thing is he’ll take the red eye home Thursday night and get Friday off. The bad part is that I will be completely on my own with three children for over 48 hours. I’m already planning to put them in afternoon care at preschool – for my sanity’s sake – and we’ll have meals delivered by wonderful church people. But I’m a little nervous. Oh well. As long as the kids get to school eventually. Even if its at 10:00. When school started at 9. Should make for some good reading for you people, though.
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We’re back to the doctor this morning for Colin’s weight check. Hopefully the doctor will be happier this time. He’s eating a ton and seems healthy enough… We’ll see. I accidentally let him sleep for 4 hours last night. I’ve been setting my alarm for every 3 hours to feed him and I guess I turned it off and went back to sleep, where I had a dream that I got up and fed him. Imagine my dismay when that dream was interrupted by a screaming, hungry baby and I realized I still had to get up. Its amazing what 3.5 solid hours of sleep can do for a girl’s outlook on life 😉 
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UPDATE: He’s doing great! Weighed in at 8 pounds 3 oz, which means he gained an ounce a day! Yay, Colin!!

I got on the scale this morning. Yes, I had a baby last week so that was probably dumb. But I was very curious. I am proud to report that in the last 8 days I have lost… are you sitting down?… 22 pounds!! 22! Pretty good start. Especially since I have been doing nothing all week except nursing and eating everything in sight, since I am ravenously hungry all the time. Admittedly, some of that most of that was baby and baby-related materials, but still… not too shabby!!

Think the remaining 13 will come off  next week? 😉

So things began on Easter Sunday on the way home from lunch with friends.
Husband said, “It’d be great if you could have the baby tonight.”
I said, “Stop by the drug store and I’ll try to get things going.”
So we picked up some castor oil! Good ol’ faithful that brought Grace into the world 😉 Mixed it into a McDonalds milkshake and drank it down at 5:30. At 6:30, almost on the dot, I started having contractions about 10 minutes apart. I was walking around the house, cleaning the bathroom, packing up the hospital bags in case this actually worked… By 9:00, they were about 5 minutes apart but not really hurting very much. At 11:00, I called my doctor. They were 3-4 minutes apart and were really starting to take my breath away. We called friends of ours who were going to take our kids and told them we were coming over! Husband drove the kids over to their house while I got our stuff ready to go and at around midnight, we left for the hospital! Yay for castor oil! (The strange part is that I had no of the usual, um, side effects of castor oil. I took it and went right into labor! Weird.)
They put me right in a room and put me on a monitor. I immediately started breathing easy, since the nurse told me they would not send me home without a baby 🙂 Then they told me that my Strep B test had come back positive, so they needed to slow things down and give me an IV of antibiotics. (Wait! Slow things down??) So I had antibiotics at 2am and 6am. Around 4am, I decided I had had enough of this ‘slowing things down’ nonscence and was getting a tad tired of “breathing through the pain.” (Whatever.) I was getting really tired, having been up for so long, and I was worried that I wouldn’t have energy for later. So I got a lovely epidural. That was wonderful. Did I mention it was lovely?
Then the fun started around 6. My blood pressure started falling and shooting up randomly. (Like going from 70/30 to 140/110 or something). I felt dizzy and nauseous and was making my husband very nervous. That part really sucked.
Things seemed to level out around 8:00, so the doctor broke my water. Yay! About 2 hours later, contractions were so strong that I was breathing through them with an epidural! (Can you imagine if I hadn’t had one? Good Heavens, I would have died.) Then I told them it was time to push. Two pushes later, I heard a gush of water or something and the doctor said “STOP!” I opened my eyes and suddenly, there he was! The doctors gown was barely on, the nurse didn’t even have her gloves on yet, but this little guy was not going to wait! He was a tad blue and didn’t cry for a minute or so, since his lungs were still filled with fluid that normally gets pushed out when they are being born. But then he seemed to pull it together and start to scream properly!
So that’s it! The doctor put me back together – again, thank you, epidural doctor – and we had a beautiful, perfect baby boy!! Here’s his first, slimey picture!

Today things are looking more rosy.

Colin had a great night. Woke up every 3 hours, he was fed, changed and back in his crib in 30 minutes where he went right back to sleep with minimal fussing. He’s much more alert this morning and looking better. We’re not feeling as paraniod as yesterday evening. I think we were just really tired and feeling a tad overwhelmed for some strange reason. 😉

Husband is taking a day trip to see a surgery so ‘ll be on my own this evening – another first. Good part is he is here helping this morning since its not until 2pm – I have yet had to get all three kids (and me) dressed, fed and out of the house for 9:00. That will be tomorrow’s challenge. I’ll have to start getting ready at around 5am! Oh, and we do have some help – I wasn’t lying to the doctor! Church is bringing meals and we have friends who want to take the girls this weekend so we can get some sleep. The girls are in afternoon care today, so they’ll be at school until 3:00. I am really looking forward to some good naps and some one-on-one baby time!