mushy holiday commericials

Have you noticed?  This year's holiday commercials are all about pulling at your heart strings - they're so beautiful it almost makes me want to shop at Famous Footwear.  Almost.

 

I mean, talk about a bawl fest!

 

And just to give your eyes and ears a feast, if you haven't seen this Volvo commericial you're missing out.  It's probably the most incredible commericial ever made.

 



 

last week's shenanigans & postpartum raves

Gosh, I've got so much I want to write about, but it turns out that keeping two children alive each day keeps me rather busy!  Jeff just left to take Patrick to the sitter and Connor fell asleep on his lounger while I grabbed a quick shower.  Maybe it was my beautiful rendition of Crown Him With Many Crowns that serenaded him into a slumber.  Anyways, his cat nap is allowing me to type as fast as I can to get some of this down in a post!

So things got really, really hectic around here last week.  I was truly on the verge of a complete freak-out. 

Patrick was yelling all morning, climbing on the counter and helping himself to the snacks in the cupboard.  I found him multiple times snuck into a corner sucking on Connor's pacifier or snarfing down the entire dish of dark chocolate mint m & m's.  He's also been really great testing his limits and pushing me to a nervous breakdown by:  pulling my folded towels onto the ground, coloring on my area rug in the family room and turning the TV off when I finally get a glimpse of Love It or List It.  He's also been super sweet and super funny but we'll save that for another time.

Connor on the other hand has been...well, a newborn.  He loves to be held and sometimes I can only get him to sleep by walking around with him in the carrier.  I change his diaper at least 12 times a day and change his clothes half of that from spit up or pee or who knows what.  What is with the spit up?  I thought breastfed babies were supposed to be perfect - no reflux, no constipation, no issues.  I was going to entitle this post "101 Reasons Why Breastfeeding Sucks."  Because it does, it really does.  Once again though, it's amazing in a lot of ways.  Seems as though my days are pretty bittersweet, wouldn't ya say?

Anyways, I wanted to rave about some of the postpartum items I'm digging right now, some of them have saved our lives.  Number one on the list has been our Boppy Lounger.  Connor's not always hip on laying there but when he wants to stretch out it's perfect.  We've also switched him to the Arm's Reach Co-Sleeper which has been awesome.  We don't have a crib yet for him so this works perfect for the time being.  I moved it across our room so I can't hear all his grunts and snores (he's such a guy) - it was keeping me awake.  Other items:  the Earth Mama Angel Baby nipple butter was good, definitely better than Lanolin.  I only used it in the hospital and now and again after a shower because I just haven't had cracking issues.  I'm still looking for a nursing bra that doesn't make my boobs look deformed, but if you want one that supports like no other it's this Medela one that I ordered through the Gap.  One more item I'm loving right now:  Bumble and Bumble Straight Blow Dry.  I just don't have time to style my hair so I run this through my hair and put it in a Mom bun and all is good in the world.

Can you believe it's Thanksgiving week?  I'm so excited - we're having it at my sister's house this year with just my immediate family.  No drama, no ugly looks.  Just fun.  And my grandma's chocolate pie.

the first snow

What a surprise to wake up to snow yesterday morning!  I was so excited for Patrick to wake up so I could show it to him.  All morning he exclaimed Look at the snow!  It's so preeeeeetty.  He took his stool to almost every window in the house, stood up on it and looked out to get different views of it.

When my mom came over that afternoon we were able to get outside and play in it for a little while.  He loooooved the snow.  He kept stomping around yelling I love my new boots!  They're awesome!  For once I was stocked and ready to go with winter gear.  I picked up the boots from Old Navy last week during their gigantic sale and the coat came in the mail from babyGap just a few days ago so it worked out perfectly.

The snow has pretty well melted now but it still got me just a little bit excited for Christmas.  I've been thinking about how I want to decorate the outside of our house this year and I just want to go nuts.  Patrick's at the age where he is awstruck about everything - he would absolutely love to see lights everywhere.  I think the kicker would be some icicles along the entire rooftop, but our house is waaaay in the air.  I begged Jeffrey to let me rent a crane to put them up - he said yes, as long as it's free.  What are the chances of me getting a crane for free?  Waaaaa.

If I can't do the icicles then I am dead set on getting some sort of obnoxious Mr. & Mrs. Claus to put out in the front yard.  Or maybe a huge blow-up Charlie Brown.  Kidding about the blow-up.  I hate those things.  Actually they're not too bad at night, but during the day you look like you've got 14 random parachutes strewn across your landscaping.  Speaking of Christmas lights, it looks like this weekend there is going to be a warm-up in Ohio so you'd better get hanging!

the rhythm of things

Here we are, two weeks into it!  I feel like I should get a reward at the end of each day - something extravagant like diamond earrings or a John Deere gator.  My cousin (who has one little boy) called and asked "Is it crazy?  Like, can you do it?"  And I answered with a mighty "Yes!"

Of course it can be done, because it has to be done.  I have no other choice - I have two children that need fed, bathed, tucked into bed, played with and kissed on.  It's the greatest gift God could have given me.  There are a few hundred moments during the day when I don't see it as a gift, when all I can think about is how tired I am or how sick I am of whipping out my boobs, but the end of the day when they're both sound asleep in their beds and I have Jeff by my side, that's when it feels like a gift.

I'm thankful that we were all able to get outside the other night, even if just for a few minutes.  It wasn't windy, the sun was out and the temperature was mild enough for my wee one to sit snuggly in the carrier.  If I'm being honest, besides the sleep deprivation, not being able to go outside and play with Patrick has been the hardest part of having a new baby.  We love being outside and would spend an upwards of three hours outside on a given day, rain or shine.  Obviously a fragile little one can't bear the elements like my tank of a two-year-old, so it's been put on hold until he gets a little bigger.

For the most part, Connor has been such a wonderful baby.  Up until yesterday he had been sleeping most of the day, breaking to eat of course, and sleeping almost four hour stretches at night.  (A good swaddle is the difference between a half hour and three hours for this kid).  I've also been able to nap most days since both Patrick and Connor have been going down for naps at noon.  I seriously owe every minute of sleep to the Fisher Price Rock n' Play Sleeper - greatest invention ever.  (Although we'll only keep him in there a couple more weeks).

One huge accomplishment is that I broke my breastfeeding record!  A whole 13 days with Patrick has been trumped.  Even though I never considered nursing Patrick "hard," it's really been a breeze with Connor.  I let him nurse to contentment on one side and then offer the other (which he typically takes).  The pain and soreness from the first week has worn off, as well as any engorgement.  Unfortunately they're still the size of watermelons which makes for my new love on non-maternity clothes not so fun.  Connor hit the first growth spurt in the last 12 hours and he's been eating every hour and a half (OMG).  Because of a couple bouts of gas/tummy aches/digestive issues, I'm really having to watch what I eat.  As of now I am avoiding all chocolate (and anything else with caffeine) and peanut butter, although I doubt that has anything to do with the issue.  I'm just going with my gut on these things.  No pun intended.

I'm thinking of busting out the pump this week to start storing milk for when I go on a hot date to the local tavern with my hubs back to work.  I despise pumping - it's so unnatural and I feel like an alien with those shields on.  Patrick is going to be like Mom, catch the next rocket to Venus.  But when it comes down to it, I absolutely have to see Catching Fire on the 22nd (no ifs, ands or buts) and therefore have twelve days to make sure I have milk stored and that Connor can take a bottle.

So there you have it.  My maternity leave in a nutshell.  Nursing every two hours, playing "Dump the Load of Corn" with Patrick and looking forward to that beautiful glass of wine at the end of each day.