I Painted My Nails

One would think that upon return from a refreshing Mom's conference that birds would sing as I wake in the morning and help me as I tidy up my house.  It would be appropriate to think all is well in my role as mom.  Ah, but it isn't so.  I feel like I am digging myself out of an avalanche with a kid-sized shovel.  I am so glad I heard Jen Hatmaker say, "Glean God's Word in the morning because by midday you may have run out of God's Word from the day before."  Too true. 
Today was not a good day for Tres.  She very much likes rules, guidelines, order, a plan.  Does she sound like anyone you know? :)  And with these likes comes anxiety when things do not go well.  Enter me.  Her mother.  The one who has a life goal of being places on time.  I'm 33 and it's still a life goal, hence, I do not get to places on time.  Something takes over me when I know there is a deadline, a time frame.  I begin to think I have all the time in the world.  What is my problem???  Needless to say, we were late today.  I mean, LATE.  The kids made it in the school door in the nick of time.  However, on the way home I realized it's Wednesday.  Library day.  Guess where the book was?  By the time I got home and emailed the teacher that I had forgotten Tres' book, her teacher had emailed me saying Tres had tried to hold back the tears as long as she could but she was terribly upset about forgetting her book.  When I arrived at school at lunchtime (yes, lunchtime.  it took me that long to get dressed, baby fed, etc.) I noticed Tres was eating a hot lunch.  Strange because I had packed her lunch in a mad rush this morning.  Obviously in the panic of getting in the doors on time this morning, she forgot her lunch in the vehicle.  I had to love on her at lunch because her poor fragile heart just about couldn't take all the craziness. 

Well the whole avalanche feeling comes from the fact that I feel like I'm not making any progress in the cleaning of my home because I'm doing the same basic jobs over and over.  However, today was a little like a slap in the face or a good kick in the pants because tonight my kids were in bed on time, their clothes are ironed for tomorrow, and lunches are ready, waiting in the fridge, and backpacks are by the door.  Tomorrow will be a better day.  Right?

Oh, and by the way....How did this turn into

this???? He will be 9 months on Friday:(

 

Thought I'd throw one in of Dos for good measure.  Here he is at the Cub Scouts.  It's official, he's a Tiger Cub.

 

The Latest...

Uno is playing football and I gotta say, I'm impressed.  Growing up, me and my siblings always played sports but football just seems so rough.  My words of wisdom to him?  "Run baby, don't let them tackle you."  So much for me promoting the "tough guy" approach.  He's in middle school and it amazes me how quickly the time flies.  I can still remember him in a car seat or carrying around a sippy cup. 

Dos has turned into this little man. Over the weekend, I hovered close to a public restroom that he went into by himself.  Upon his exit, he saw me and said, "Mom, I'm not a baby."  To me he is.  He's my baby.  My tall, seven year old baby.  He's my deep thinker.  The one who keeps me on my toes.  The one who's really not gonna care what the crowd does.  He marches to the beat of his own drum.  He's HUGE into Ninjago and often shares with me the latest "true potential" that a particular ninja possesses.  What's "true potential"?  In fact, I would like him to tell me what my "true potential" is.

Tres, oh my Tres.  If stars could dance in one's eyes, they would dance in hers.  She is a rare jewel.  One that lights up a room and her spirit is so fragile you don't want to do anything to crush her.  She's a dancer now.  In fact, tonight she shared some of her mad skills.  My prayers nowadays consist of "please, Lord, don't let me laugh while she's dancing".  It is a laugh of joy but I know she will interpret it as me laughing at her.  The intensity across her face while she recalls her dance steps is what makes me smile.  This girl is giving it her all.

And my baby, Quattro, I kiss on his cheeks so much I truly think he has grown annoyed.  He's saying "bye, bye, bye" now and sits up.  He loves our dog, Maybelle.  Out of the whole family, I believe he may like her best with Bama, the lab, running a close second.  Quattro will be 9 months this week.  And he has rolls and dimples in all the right places.  A truly pleasant baby.  I love him. 

When An Object's in Motion It Stays in Motion

I may be a little far reaching here to try and incorporate some physics into the blog, but hey, it's what I bring to the table:)
The work of a mom is constant.  I'm not sure when there is a down time.  And truth be told, I like knowing I have a job to do.  That there is a task at hand.  What I do not like is the hamster wheel of my daily tasks.  Having said that, I have a plan.
I pin numerous articles and tidbits on organization.  Might I add here that I am fascinated that I can learn new things DAILY?  So for today I learned two things: 1.  NEVER use water when cleaning a bathroom.  Dry, clean rags only.  2.  Decorative contact paper on a soup can will be my new pencil holder.  Oh yeah, I can tell your impressed.  However, all my pins really only support my existing knowledge of what needs to be done.  I simply need to do it.
Starting tomorrow, I will use Flylady's zones to help me take one day each this week to tackle that "zone" in a detailed manner.  Flylady has her 5 zones and I have added some to her guidelines.  So, if there are five work days and five zones then I can do a little deep cleaning of each zone while the kids are at school.  The first zone is out of luck considering the kids were out of school today and I had this "Aha" moment today. 
My Five Zones:
1.  Entrance and Kids' Room
2.  Kitchen and Toy room
3.  Living Room and Laundry Room
4.  Other Kids' Rooms and 2 Baths
5.  Master Bedroom and Bath

According to the above list, tomorrow I will be working on my kitchen and toy room. The two most challenging rooms in my house.  Okay, if truth be told the toy room and the laundry room would be the two most challenging rooms in my house due to their amazing ability to collect STUFF. 
The goal for tomorrow is "get in, get out, take no prisoners!"
Wish me luck!

Unpacking

Coming home from a trip usually means my bag will sit at the foot of my bed unpacked for a week and I will pull from it what is needed but never fully unpack until it's long overdue.  Well I just got home last night so if I unpack the bag tomorrow, I won't be doing too bad.  Besides my physical bag to unpack I feel there are a LOT of "nuggets" of wisdom I am to unpack from this conference. 

I believe the last women's conference I went on was in 2005.  To say that this dot MOM was needed would be an understatement. I believe half my fulfillment came from laughing with my friends. 

 

There are several women authors that spoke and I have found some new people and books to love!  Jen Hatmaker has got to be my new favorite.  She spoke in a main session then I attended one of her breakout sessions.  Wow!  She's good and funny and right to the heart of Christianity.  I enjoyed hearing her tremendously.  Jen shared her recent journey of adoption.  She already had three biological children and added two children from Ethiopia.  I have so many notes from her.  I wrote as fast as I could because she was saying such good stuff.  She said she's come to the point of asking, "Why are we blessing the blessed?"  Meaning there is a WORLD out there that is in poverty - reach out.  My current goal is to show and foster generosity in my children - in our community and globally.  I have some ideas but will wait til another time to post.  Another speaker asked, "What 5 things do you want your daughter to possess?"  As I listed the five things out, the speaker added, "then make sure those five things are in you."  Ouch!  I realized much of my focus has been on the exterior but what I want, I mean REALLY want for my children, are the things that can only be found on the interior, their hearts.  My prayer for my kids, husband, and myself is that our character reflects the character of Christ.  This will be a long and difficult road but I believe one that will be well worth it.



Dog Tired

Feel like I have a toolbox full of ideas on how to be a better mother. The conference was fabulous!!! I'm very thankful for this weekend but am TOO tired to share a thing. My bed is calling my name:)

dot MOM

I'm at the dot MOM conference in Birmingham. I can not tell you what this conference means to me. I would liken it to a cool drink of water after a marathon. I am here with three of my girlfriends and love being around other moms who are doing life and in some of the same struggles as I am. I look forward to the memories and hope to have more to share later.

Down to the Wire

So, I had every intention of posting earlier but just did not happen.  And for those of you who will ask...I did log my calorie intake today and I did walk.  But to be honest the food consumed needs to be healthier picks.

I will head out of town tomorrow.  This will be the first time in nine months that I have been away from husband and children.  Actually, it's probably been longer than nine months but I really can't remember when was the last time.  Once I'm finished blogging, I'll need to go pump.  Numero Uno will be in charge of feeding little man and I really hope I have enough milk in storage for him.

As crazy as this may sound, my first real conversation about nursing an infant came from an old boyfriend's family.  Crazy, right?  Now knowing me and my love with big families and farm living, you can understand how fascinated I became with this guy's big Catholic, chicken raising family.  Plus they were Cajun to boot!  I remember his father telling me (after I had seen a home video in which the mom was nursing her baby while the family was doing something - can't remember I was in shock of seeing a woman nursing) that nursing an infant was the most natural thing in the world.  He must've seen the look of sheer horror on my face like something terrible was going down.  Please understand, I was raised in a family where nothing related to being a female was discussed - nothing.  I'm sure there is a reason for this - I do not know the reason, but I'm sure there is one.  And what a married couple did together was called "it".  So suffice it to say I was clueless about breastfeeding but immediately curious.  Fast forward six years to the birth of Dos and I wanted to breastfeed.  My sister pioneered the way in my family as she has for many things and she was a success at breastfeeding.  Naturally, I thought it would be just as easy.  Not so.  I had read all kinds of materials (okay,one book), attended seminars (okay, one seminar which was recommended by the hospital where I would give birth), and talked with my sister.  Now my sister was working at the time of her first child and pumped ALL THE TIME.  When she used a breast pump, she would get between 8 - 10 ounces of milk.  She told me to only buy the Medela pump and I forked out the big bucks for it and just knew this was gonna be easy peasy.  When I pump, even now, I get two ounces out at best - 2 ounces!!
By the time Dos was six weeks, I was supplementing formula.  I gave up when he was four months.  Now there is a plethora of advice you will get when nursing (or when you're graduating from anywhere, getting married, or are pregnant) and honestly some of those women scared me.  I heard nightmares of how they just nurse their baby anywhere and every hour and a half.  EVERY HOUR AND A HALF?  What kind of life do they have?  Well that was not gonna be me.  And it wasn't. 
When Tres came along I was determined to do better and I did.  I nursed her completely, no formula, for the first five months.  I still remember when I stopped.  It was the day she turned 5 months old.  I thought she wasn't getting enough milk. 
Quattro will be 9 months next week and we're still nursing.  My goal is to nurse til he's one.  We'll see how it goes but I'm proud of myself for making it thus far.

So what made the difference?  What did I learn?  I'll share with you.  Take it or leave it.
1.  Do not let your newborn sleep past the 3 hour mark.  Meaning, feed your infant every 3 hours, counting from when you first started feeding him til the next feeding.  For example, if you fed your baby at 6:00 a.m. then you will feed again at 9:00 a.m.  I learned to wake mine up and it actually worked to regulate their metabolism and as they got older this helped them to sleep LONGER.  Trust me, I've used it on three babies.
2.  Your newborn needs to do three things in this exact order: eat, wake time, sleep.  DO NOT let him/her eat, sleep, then wake time.  It will mess with their long lasting sleep schedule as they grow older.
3.  Drink half your weight in water in ounces.  Let me explain because when I first heard this I thought I would need to drink 80 bottles of water a day and had no clue as to how I was going to accomplish this much less do anything else.  I weigh 160 pounds; therefore, I need to drink 80 ounces of water a day (or 10 glasses of water a day).  It helps.
4.  If your milk supply is feeling low, drink Mother's Tea or it may be called Mother's Milk.  It contains certain herbs that stimulate milk production.  DO NOT start this until after baby is born.  The night before I had Quattro, I made this tea, bottled it up for the hospital and began drinking it shortly after he was born.
5.  TRY, TRY, TRY to not put a lot of pressure on yourself to be a perfect, breastfeeding mother.  Tell yourself (as I often do), "It's gonna be okay.  We (meaning me and baby) can do this.  I got this. Just relax."
6.  Find a quiet spot to nurse each time.  I've found that Quattro will eat better when it's just me and him in the rocker.  He is easily distracted by the other four family members and two dogs:)
7.  Make a "Nursing Caddy" for your quiet spot.  A friend gave me a diaper caddy and I wasn't sure I would use it until another friend suggested I make it my Nursing Caddy.  It was a HUGE help during the first few weeks of nursing.  It contained: hand sanitizer, back up pacifier, wet wipes, lanolin (NEVER LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT), nursing pads, diapers, feeding schedule charts, ink pen, thermometer, blue nasal suction thingie, hand lotion.  This bad boy was a lifesaver.
8.  It is okay to veer away from the schedule every once in a while.  There have been times when it has been less than three hours and little man is fussy and I'll nurse him.  But I will caution this has been the rare case.  You do not want to get into the habit of feeding every hour and a half to two hours. 
9.  Enjoy.  It is the truth what you hear from so many women: this is some of the most beautiful, precious bonding times you will have with your child and only YOU can share it with him/her.