Travelling with 2

UGH!
First of all, Ben HATED the car - I mean screamed bloody murder from the time his butt hit the seat - so going up to Maine (6.5 hours without any stops) was not something we looked forward to.
But, we had to go up for a Memorial service for our Aunt - so we tried to figure out what we could do.

My friend brought over a Britax convertible seat to try out and he was like a different kid the second he sat in it! No crying or screaming or anything. I tested it for a few days with shorter trips and then made a 2 hour trip to my moms and it was HEAVEN.

So... off we went with a 2.5 year old and a 3 month old.

We broke up the trip in 2 stages - first I took the kids to my moms house (thank god it's on the way to Maine) for 2 nights and then Dave came on the second night to meet us and we left the following morning.

I love seeing our family. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it - but I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE what it does to my kids schedules.

Before we left - Katie was sleeping from 7:45 ish until 7:00 - 7:30 and taking a nap every day - Ben was sleeping from 10 - 4:00 every morning and waking up again around 6 or 6:30.
It was AWESOME

Then we went to my moms house and Katie didn't nap and Ben started waking up multiple times a night.

I figured... ok - can't be that bad - it will get better when we get to Maine.

NOPE! I couldn't have been more wrong.

While our drive up there was blissfully quiet with a perfectly content 2.5 year old who didn't act out AT ALL and a 3 month old who slept the whole time until we made our first stop in NH to meet Daves mom, the rest of the trip was torture when it came to sleep.

Katie refused to nap for probably 4 days in a row and had awful melt downs every night she did this which made it IMPOSSIBLE to go out to dinner. Ben woke up multiple times a night and wouldn't go back to sleep by himself so he had to stay in bed with me.

We went to a BEAUTIFUL 2 bedroom condo VERY close to Wells, Beach for our last 2 nights in Maine and I was in heaven. Everything was 2 minutes away and the weather was wonderful. (which never happens when we make it up there)

I was trying to enjoy it as much as possible - but on little to no sleep and constant nursing - it makes it kind of hard!!!

Then we went to bed - and the crib they gave us was the smallest crib I've ever seen - which meant Katie woke up for about 3 hours in the middle of the night and eventually fell back asleep in bed with me - while she was sleeping, Ben was awake - so it was awesome.

The second night it was the same.
There I was in heaven by the beach - with 2 kids in my bed - wide awake unable to sleep, nursing or trying to convince Katie that it wasn't morning time because there was light coming in through the curtains. Then we had cranky kids for our afternoons. Still, I thought it's ok - it's a mini vacation - it's no big deal it will work itself out.

Making a long story short - we have been back 5 days now and Katie is now waking up one or 2 times a night - not napping more days than she is and Ben is still waking up 2 - 3 times a night.
They both are up for the day between 5:30 and 6:00

So... as much as I love travelling and seeing people - I'm afraid we will be pent up in our house for the next few months because this stay at home mommy can't take it.

We were all ready to put Ben in Katie's room to share because they were both sleeping so well and now we are going to have to move his crib into our room so that they don't keep each other up and I am pulling my hair out every day around noon wondering if she will take a nap or not.

Does this happen to everyone's kids or just mine? And why does the fall out last for so damn long?

Katie wasn't this bad when it was just her and when it was just her - it was easier to handle - but since there are 2 now - it means I spend most nights awake because either I'm nursing him, or listening to her over the monitor.

Boooooo

Here is hoping that today is the last day we have sleeping trouble for awhile.

I love vacation - but I hate the fall out!

Totally unrelated - but made me smile a little today - Katie has taken to "feeding" her favorite toy... She lifts her shirt up and puts him sideways - at first I was kinda shocked and thought - oh crap - then I realized it's no different than a kid pretending to bottle feed...

How clean is your house?

Wow, I'm back and it feels like it's been FOREVER!

We finally moved into a rental house and let me tell you it's AMAZING!

It's a 3 bedroom - 2 floor house (beds and bath up - living, kitch, dining, down) Full backyard and driveway!! (no more moving cars for the street sweeper on Tuesday mornings!!!!)

But, it was stressful to say the least.

See, we had more stuff than we thought we did. We had more stuff than the movers thought when they did the estimate and of course the day of the move ended up being the hottest day of the spring - so it was misery all around!

However, we did it and we are in and now it's just a matter of getting this place all set up with our pictures hung and our patio/backyard set up and it will feel like HOME!

In moving, I realized something that I thought we should discuss and that is cleanliness.

See, I come from a long line of obsessive cleaners. My kitchen is swiffer mopped every other day, my floors always vacuumed, my bookshelves dusted multiple times a week. There are never poop stains in my toilet and the rest of my bathroom gets a once over at least 3 - 4 times a week. (especially with a potty trained kiddo) Her potty seat gets sanitized and wiped down all the time too.
(turn your potty seat over and take a look - it's GROSS)

I even wipe down the garbage can front, top and back if anything gets on it because although it's a garbage can, I don't think it needs to have garbage ON it... only IN it.

So, when I got here to move in, I was absolutely DISGUSTED to see the state of the bathroom and kitchen. I'm talking caked on grime. I spent the better part of an hour or 2 just scrubbing, bleaching and disinfecting these 2 small places so that I could feel good about bringing my kids in the house.

AND - the worst part is that there were 2 babies living here. One of which got baths in the tub that I had to bleach like, 3 times just for us to take showers in.

I don't get it. I'm finding the older I get and the more places I go, the cleaner my house looks to me.

Don't get me wrong - I can be messy. My drawers are a mess - socks with pants and shirts and panties all mixed in to heaping piles that you have to flatten to close them - however it's Clean - there is a difference. And, my room is the only room that stays messy. I make sure everywhere else in the house is clean every day. We pick up the toys every night, (Katie has been helping since she could walk and is very good about this) the kitchen is NEVER left a mess overnight and the kids room is always clean.

Is it too much? Am I the crazy one? I enjoy a clean house. I just found itty bitty little ants near the kitchen and am FREAKING OUT because I vacuumed 3 times this week and it grosses me out to think there is food somewhere I can't get to that is attracting them - so we are getting spray and I will continue to vacuum until they are gone.

Nothing skeeves me out worse than a dirty kitchen. And this kitchen had just been re-done with nice counters and cabinets and yet, the people that lived here apparently didn't care to keep it up.

Perhaps I clean too much - but it makes me happy. I guess that's why I never get overwhelmed with cleaning the house - because I keep it up during the week so it's never a crazy, time consuming all day event...

Is there anyone else out there that cleans like me? Do you feel my pain?? I was so overwhelmed with how gross this place was that I was almost in tears... granted, part of that is my crazy hormone in-balance due to breastfeeding, but I think some of it was warranted given the situation too!!!

:)

P.s. this is by no means a commentary on ANYONES house I have been to recently for the record... just a commentary on the GROSS people that used to live here!

Positives to Staying Home with your kids

O.k. in the insanity that has been the last 3 months, I have decided to write a blog on the positives on staying home because I do realize that there are a lot, otherwise I wouldn't be sacrificing working in order to do so.

So... here goes

1. You have less of a chance of missing all the firsts... steps, words, crawling, smiles
2. You get to stay in your pj's all day
3. You have full access to your fridge all day and can make whatever you want whenever you want and aren't limited to a cafeteria or a microwave
4. In the summer, you can enjoy some outside time and possible sprinklers, water table or pool fun
5. Your kid gets to set a schedule that works for them- I for one, let Katie nap for as long as she needs to (unless it goes past 4:30 because we like having some quiet time at night without her being awake past 8:00) and we never have to wake her up in the morning
6. You can run your errands during the day (well, when I had one kid I could do that, at the moment I am stuck doing my errands after 8pm when he's asleep for longer than 2 hours at a clip - but I hold out hope that that will change someday)
7. You can clean your house a little here and a little there. (I'm wicked crazy about cleaning and my house is ALWAYS clean. I'm talking lysol wipes on the garbage can opening clean - so this suits me well!)
8. You can cook yummy dinners without having to eat late. (although my meal planning lately has been crap - I will get back to it now that we're settled)
9. You can watch daytime TV - yeah, I said it - I watch Ellen and Rachel Ray sometimes - don't judge
10. You can go on the internet and use the phone without being monitored by anyone but your toddler
11. You can have play dates with your kids friends moms - which can be play dates for you!
    

So, please understand that I do realize there are a lot of perks to being a stay at home mom. I just wasn't expecting that number 2 would be so difficult and totally throw my leisurely lifestyle upside down. Having a kid that won't stay in a stroller makes a lot of the above difficult, but I know that someday - I will get back there:)

Happy Wednesday (I think it's Wednesday anyway)

Sorry - we moved - and it takes so much time:(

Hello all !

Sorry for the delay in posting! We FINALLY finished our move and it took longer and more out of us than we had expected. The people we are renting from were DISGUSTING and left all kinds of crap for us to deal with. Between cleaning like crazy and unpacking our insane amount of boxes, it's been a week and we still aren't completely done. I'm amazed at how gross some people are - and these people have kids and all I could think is their kids lived like this too:(

The good news is having all this new space has given us a new lease on life already! Having a backyard for Katie and a driveway and an upstairs and a laundry in the basement has already made us all WAY HAPPIER than we were in the old 2 family.
The bad news is all I can think of is - all of this work and it's only temporary - as we have a one year lease with an option to renew if all goes well.

So, let's hope it all goes well and we can make this place our home for 2 good years - then our deadline will be reached and we will have to finally decide what to do because I already told my husband - I never want to move again!!!

Other than that, we are still trucking here. I have decided that I pretty much hate the restrictions that breastfeeding has introduced to me. Ben still absolutely refuses a bottle and I'm not selfish enough to starve him to force him to do it - so we are at a stand off and so far he's winning. if I had to go to work or something, then I could see forcing it - but seeing as how it's just kind of inconvenient for me to be stuck here all the time, I have decided to cancel my gym membership and just cross my fingers that someday I can go back and run my errands after he's asleep at night.

He still eats every 2 hours during the day which makes my days very hard - but he sleeps pretty much every night at least 5 - 8 hours - so I guess I'll take it.

I just keep telling myself that tomorrow will be the day that he stretches out his feedings to every 3 hours - but so far - tomorrow hasn't changed:( and it's very difficult to do anything outside the house.

He also has decided to stick to his guns about hating being in the car seat - and every time we try to take him out - he screams until he has that awful raspy, hurty voice left and it's pure torture. I feel worse when Katie is with me because she doesn't really understand why he cries all the time and I don't want it to upset her. I have been trying to take him on short trips to see if he can handle it and every time I do - I end up insanely stressed out and depressed and he screams and cries the whole time - it's not good and it's not getting any better.

Good thing we have this nice, big house to hang out in because it looks like I'll be stuck here awhile.

what else?? I have decided that I need to start working PT online again - I wasn't sure if I was going to - but I decided I will feel better if I'm making a little money and it's good for my brain - so I am in the process of re-training myself for that as it's been since February since I worked...

My next big adventure will be one in cloth diapering - I have to decide which system I want to use and then start getting my supplies so we can see how we like it. I had a friend switch over and so far she loves it - in fact.. Kate, do you want to do a guest post for me????

Hope all is well with you all - I will post something a little more helpful and mom-ish when I get another free moment!

Perhaps some coupon updates! I have been keeping up with it and still absolutely love it. I ran out to shoprite the other day with no plan - just my coupon folder and ended up saving $56 between what was on sale and what I had coupons for and it was all stuff I needed to re-stock our house with food after the move.
Makes me feel good:)