Monday, June 02, 2008

Brave or Insane?

Today was my three-week checkup at the doctor's office. Can you believe it? Three weeks already!

Since Bob was at work, I had to load up all three kids and go to the appointment with them, all alone. No support team!

I got everyone dressed, no problem. It only took two hours!
I started with myself. A shower for me thank you! Then Benjamin woke up and got changed, fed and dressed. Then Elizabeth woke up and picked out her own outfit. I vetoed it and found her something that was less insane. I mean really. Pink jeans and a Fourth of July tank top...that's borderline crazy cat lady insane.
Eventually Dylan decided to wake up and it was his turn.
Dressing and changing Dylan is usually trouble. He's a runner and he enjoys nudity. So. Yeah. That was a bit of a struggle.
Then he cried because HE was ready to go but WE collectively were not as ready and he is very impatient.

We all got into the car happily and drove away.

Once we got to the doc's office, I unloaded Elizabeth first, then got the baby out, then unbuckled Dylan. He immediately starting hollering that he wanted "pops" and I still have no idea what he meant by that.
I told him we'd get "pops" later and tried to bribe him into the office with the promise of looking at the fishtank.
He draped himself on the sidewalk. I yanked him up and walked him to the office door. Elizabeth opened it for us and we all walked into the little glass entry room.
Dylan sat down and refused to go through the next door into the actual office.
Elizabeth ran into the waiting room to check out Nemo.
I opened the door for myself, Ben and Dylan and had to kick lovingly scoot Dylan through the door with my foot. He then promptly laid down on the floor right inside the door and started howling.

fun fun fun!

He did that for the whole five minutes we waited, jumping up to act normally just 30 seconds before the nurse called us to go back to the exam room.

He DID wait nicely and patiently while mommy got weighed. He usually runs away. And he even held hands and walked down the hallway to the exam room nicely. I was surprised.

We passed by my OB on the way and he said, "Wow mom! You're brave!"
I said, "I have no other options!"

The appointment went by quickly too, just a check on the incision to make sure I'm not oozing or whatever. I'm not. I actually checked it myself a couple days ago, it looks pretty good.

I was so encouraged by Dylan's great behavior (minus the whole having to kick him through the door situation) that I actually decided to take them all to Safeway to get some things that Bob forgot to get on his last shopping trip, aka, they weren't in the soda and chips aisle.

The Safeway trip started out great! Elizabeth sat IN the cart, Dylan got the baby seat up front and I held Ben in my left hand and pushed the cart with my right. I sometimes would use my foot to turn better or to get the cart going faster. I am a shopping cart sensei. I think I was moving it with my mind actually. Like Yoda.

Anyway. We got apples and strawberries and other fresh foods. We got tuna and cheddar cheese for tonight's dinner (Tuna Noodle Casserole, delish). We got SpongeBob and Disney Princess fruit snacks. Mommy got some Shiraz. I earned it.

We got up to the checkout area and all hell broke loose. Dylan refused to let go of his box of fruit snacks, which was really fine since we got two of the same kind.
Then I refused the "would you like help out with this?" SOOOO stupid!
Ben, who I was still holding, started fussing and rooting around. He tried to latch onto my arm. Not fun.

I paid hastily and got them out to the car, which I left unlocked both for ease of reloading the children and incentive to thieves to steal my piece of crap car. It wasn't stolen. Dang!
Ben went in first. He was hysterical. Rooting around, obviously starving.
Dylan went next. He had a mouthful of fruit snacks and kept yelling "Da babeeez ka-why-in!!!"
Yeah, Dylan, everyone within two miles of here knows that!

Somehow I loaded up the trunk with groceries and got Elizabeth into her carseat. Ben still screaming, we drove off.
He thankfully was soothed by the driving and stopped crying two seconds out of the parking lot. Nothing is more frazzling than driving while a baby screams!

Once we got home, I unloaded kids and groceries, fed Ben and he went to sleep. The older kids played outside with bubbles and then came in to watch "SpongeBob" naturally.
I even got Dylan's room picked up, finally!

Now the house is pretty quiet, but whew, what a trip!

So you tell me, brave or insane? Or both?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you seen that show John and Kate Plus 8? It's my new favorite. And you are almost there. As for the brave or insane, i'd have to say both. Insane to ever leave the house with all three of them when none are heavily sedated. and yet so very brave for considering it. you rock!

eaf said...

You've proven it can be done (brave) and now it will be expected of you on a regular basis (insane). Huzzah!

Congrats, though. Whew!

Bern said...

You go, girl!

Anne Marie said...

Nice job, Jessey. I had anxiety the whole time I read about the shopping trip- which is such a scary nightmare with TWO. Unbelievable that you did it so smoothly with 3. You need one of those front pack baby carrier thingys. You wouldn't even have to drive the cart with one hand anymore (though you sound like a champ at it.) Seriously, even my cheap-o "non baby bjorn" version worked great when shopping with a baby, they feel close to you, so they're usually pretty happy, and you can get things done so much faster!

Jessica said...

"such a scary nightmare with TWO"

So true!
Especially with the two year old boy. They don't LOVE shopping. Elizabeth looooooves shopping, she could shop all day. Dylan, eh, he gets crabby in the parking lot on the way INTO the store. Not good.

I do have four fakey Moby wraps --which is really just a 5 to 6 yard long strip of fabric that you tie around your body and stick the baby into. I've used it at home while vacuuming with excellent results!
I didn't want to spend the $50 on a real Moby so instead I bought 5 yards of four different colors of crinkle cotton when it was on sale at WalMart for $1 a yard. Voila! Four Moby wraps for $20! That's a 90 percent discount for those keeping score.

Since I wasn't planning to take a trip to Safeway, I didn't HAVE any of them with me. Which makes me think I should put one in the car just in case I go insane again.
Though I've already told Bob that me shopping with three kids will NOT be a regular occurence. It's a good thing, since I can barely fit the items I bought yesterday in the cart around Elizabeth...she's a lounger. That was a $40 order, our USUAL grocery order is around $200 sooooo, yeah. That won't work.

Maribeth said...

You're a brave one! I got to respect a gal who not only does one major task (doc appt) with kids but 2! I can't believe you swung the grocery afterwards...that makes you alittle insane. However everyone must eat and the fact that no one had a meltdown till the checkout is saying something. Also you're driving skills of a grocery cart with one hand...fantastic. I usually only try to manage that with a Starbucks in one hand and can't even do it. I can't imagine holding a baby. I would get stuck with the cart that had the one bad wheel...you know what I am talking about. You give me hope that IF I should somehow get pregnant again (would take a super sperm to make that happen at this point) that I maybe able to handle it.

Jessica said...

My secret to "success" with my particular set of three kids is very very low expectations!

If everyone gets fed at least once and survives the day, I've succeeded!

Everything else is frosting.