On Friday, April 21st, I decided to start a journal. Here is the sequence of events that let to my decision.
It started out as a wonderful day. Natalie and I got to sleep in... and when we woke up... Daddy and J.D. had made waffles and the house smelled delicious. Fridays are typically my favorite day of the week... it means we survived another week... Jason is off... and we have a great family day. Well, on this particular Friday, Jason had to go to work.
So- I got an uninterupted shower (another small wonder in the life of a mother of children 14.5 months apart). And, we got ready to go to Tumble Tots at 12noon. We made it... on time, I might add. J.D. is the King of the Class. He knows how to play on everything... runs and runs and runs and runs for the whole 45 minutes. At one point, he stopped - turned bright red- then composed himself and started to move on... well, any mother knows what just happened... so I grabbed the diaper bag and we were off to change a diaper (mind you, I have been carrying Natalie in the Bijorn this whole time, too). When we (yes, Natalie and I)- got J.D. settled on the changing table - I asked him to hold his shorts. And within a matter of 3 seconds he had forgotten my request and threw them over his head... only for them to land in the toliet- 2 POINTS I exclaimed and he clapped! Needless to say, J.D. finished out the tumble tot session in a t-shirt and a diaper (his little butt with a picture of elmo on the diaper was too cute to watch run around the gym).
Tumble Tots came to an end... and we were off... off to the OB/GYN for my post partum check-up. I kept feeding J.D. in the car - as to keep him awake so that maybe I would get a nap when we got home too. Didn't work. As we pulled into the parking lot at the doctors office, I turned around and watched the eyes roll back in the head and heard a sigh that clearly indicated much needed sleep had been achieved. Okay... I can do this - I told myself. At almost the same moment J.D. fell asleep, Natalie woke up SCREAMING and turning purple- the look of dire hunger for her. I loaded screaming, hungry Natalie and fast-asleep J.D. into the double stroller and we were off for the appointment.
In the doctor's office, they took me back right away... not sure if it was the double stroller, the sleeping 16 month old slumped like a wet noodle in the front of it... or the screaming, turning purple 6 week old baby that got me fast-tracked at the doctor's office- or maybe the combination of all three. Doesn't matter- I was just glad to go straight back to the triage station. This is where they weigh you, take your blood pressure (ha, mine was a little higher than my normal rate- wonder why), and ask you 'important questions' like (what type of delivery did you have, how much did she weigh, etc... wasn't a doctor from their practice the one who delivered this child anyway????) I am trying to answer their questions- get a screaming, turning purple baby out of a car seat and hooked onto me to feed her... and the 19 year old nurse wants to take my blood pressure- 'just a minute' I asked... I hooked Natalie on... the nurse took my blood pressure and then said... let's go to a room... we started to move, Natalie came unhooked and we showered both baby and doctor's office with a good spray of milk- well, if you can't do it in an OB/GYN office -where can you?
The appointment went fine. All was calm. We got ready to leave, exited the doctor's office (on teh second floor), went to the elevator and low and behold the elevator stopped working sometime between us arriving and that very moment. I parked in 'egypt', it was starting to rain and I had a now awake 16 month old and again a screaming, turning purple baby. I just laughed! Who would have guessed that I would be faced with this today... So, we strolled to the stairwell... took Natlie in the baby carrier, put J.D. on the hip, went down the industrial flight of stairs, made our way to the car- LOCKED the children in the car- praying that no one would notice and ran back up the HUGE flight of steps, carried the double stroller down the stairs, got in the car, nursed a baby and headed to McDonalds for a Diet Coke, Quarterpounder with cheese and french fries... I figured I earned it today! I needed that 'break' McDonalds promises :)
And, on my way home, I decided I needed to start journaling. There were just too many things to laugh at...
We went downtown to go to lunch (with two babies... it was an adventure). We also had some time to feed the ducks.
In our backyard, we watched J.D. and Kayla play while Mamaw and Natalie enjoyed the sunshine. Natalie loves her Mamaw! They coo... smile... and Mamaw says "ah goo".
As you can see, Mamaw came with a black eye (and a bum shoulder). But, she is still more effective than an army of 10 when it comes to playing with kids. Did I mention that she has done almost 11 loads of laundry! She is amazing!
