Wednesday, January 18, 2006

All by myself...

Even though Dylan is over two weeks old now, I have never had to take care of him and his sister alone. My mom was here for about two and a half weeks (some before, some after the baby was born) and she helped out a LOT. She basically took over taking care of Elizabeth so I could recover from birth and take care of Dylan - a huge task in and of itself.

But, mom left on Saturday morning, leaving me with two kids and just the hubster for support. Don't get me wrong, he's a great dad, but he's not so good with the cleaning up after himself, cleaning up after kids, and just plain cleaning up side of being a parent.
He did take Elizabeth over to see her cousins on Saturday so I could try to maintain my sanity for a bit while I transitioned into parenting two kids with no grandma help.


Sunday we had family over, and of course, everyone wanted to hold the baby and Elizabeth played with her cousins so, it wasn't a stressful day either.
Monday I had to be on my own. I had to take Dylan into town for a checkup, and at this point I had not been behind the wheel of a car for over two weeks. But I figured, I know how to drive, this will be easy.
Then it started snowing.

So here I am, wrangling two kids, in the snow, first time alone with them both, first time driving in half a month, it was a trying experience. I actually changed her diapers while breastfeeding him. I got her dressed while breastfeeding him. I was impressed. We did end up leaving the house about a half hour later than we needed to, but it all turned out fine. I didn't crash the car or lose a kid, though Elizabeth slipped and fell twice in the docs waiting room. She was fine though.

Yesterday was my first full day at home with two kids, doing chores, feeding cats, feeding kids, trying to remember to feed myself. I was moderately successful. I did some laundry, I cleaned the house up, I fed everyone nearly on time! I didn't get to vacuuming up the 8 pounds of crumbs in the family room carpet, but maybe today?
I actually even squeezed in some work while the baby was napping and Elizabeth watched cartoons.
When I think of it, I did have a very successful first day, I might have even done too much because I am fricking tired today.
This morning I'm mainlining coffee and fighting to stay awake...I see a nap in my future!

4 comments:

Freebird said...

It will get easier, I promise. You just need to get your groove going. It'll happen.

cube said...

Hang in there. It will get easier.

Jessica said...

Every day it gets easier. I get more and more used to multitasking, organizing my time and appeasing both my crazy children.
I just have to remember to give them each lots of love and attention.
She *gently* reminds me when I forget, so I'm not too worried about that!

Jessica said...

BTW: I did end up napping (aka passing out on the couch) after both kids fell asleep in the afternoon...it was glorious.