I must of woke up way too confident this morning. I woke up with the thought that today was going to be great. Relaxing, fun and a good catch up day. Both kids are home from school because it's Martin Luther King Day. Boy was I wrong....
This is why God makes children so cute. Because when they're bad, you don't kill them.
All I wanted to do was put away the three HUGE baskets of clean laundry....
To the average person, that doesn't seem so difficult, right?
But to the person who has 3 children ages 5 and under, and a few dogs thrown in the mix, a simple task becomes almost impossible to finish.
At one point and I am not even exaggerating...
There was one child crying because she didn't want to clean up the HORRENDOUS mess in her closet that she made, the middle child was sitting on the toilet, screaming (over and over) "Mama come wipe my butt", the 3 month old baby was in his swing crying because he pooped himself, and the dog was at the door barking to go out. (Can you blame her). And all the while I was determined to put this laundry away.
Once everyone got tended too, my laundry got put away and the dog got let out, I sat down to feed the baby and I had to laugh. If I watched something like this on t.v., I would have laughed the whole time.
It's so different raising the third child then when you raise the first child. With the first two, we had them sleeping peacefully in their own bassinet by the time they were a couple of months old.
The third baby is so different.
He will only sleep through the night if he is either in his swing, or in the bed next to me, only after drifting off to sleep while nursing. Every time it happens the alarm bells go off in my head.
I think, he is going to be so spoiled that he will never sleep in the bed alone. In my mind I think, oh this is going to make things so much more difficult in the future.
But my heart keeps telling me different.
In my heart I know he is much more needy at night because of all of the caous during the day.
With the other two kids it was so easy to give them all of the attention that they needed during the day the moment they asked for it. With the third child, I am running almost every single day to pick the kids up from school, or take them to their activities.
In between that I am trying to tend to our pets, the house, the laundry....
I am also trying to get meals ready, exercise and then just finding time to play with the other kids and give them the one on one time that they need.
Sawyer is such a patient, non demanding baby during the day. He doesn't mind when I have to interrupt a nursing session to help a hurt child, or to get him bundled up because it's time to pick Jaylee up from school.
So when evening comes and the other kids are fast asleep in bed, and everything is done and put away and I finally sit down on the couch and pick up my knitting needles, his little eyes pop open and he thinks, "Ahhh now it's MY time, I have been waiting ALL day for this"
Every child is different, and every child has different needs.
I am going to live moment to moment.
If he needs to be snuggled to fall asleep, so be it!
If he wants to rock to sleep in his swing, DONE.
If that's the only way that he and I can get a decent nights sleep, so be it!
These baby moments are going to go by so fast that I need to treasure this time.
Soon enough I am going to have to chase him down to steal kisses from him. Now he loves them.
Peace and love....
