Family of Five- The Real Story

 Zane and I are enjoying our sweet Lili, but lets face it, adding another child in our family makes things busy and crazy.  In hind sight, I'm glad we were in Utah as long as we were because it made Lili's first month with us easier.  If we had been home, Zane would have been in the office working instead of working from home and I would have felt pressure to try to keep our lives as normal as possible in the Christmas season doing all our traditions and most likely wearing myself out.  Instead, being in Utah gave us a break and time to enjoy our little girl.

January was a whole different story though.  Zane went back to work and of course busy season started.  This meant I did dinner and bedtime by myself and tried to support a husband who was very stressed out.  I think I may have been more supportive in years past.  Thank goodness Zane is so patient with me.  Poor guy would come home from his 12-14 hour day exhausted and then run around the house trying to figure out how to best help me (I just can't seem to stay on top of washing bottles and laundry!)

 I decided to start my preschool up again for two reasons.  Lili was doing great and slept a lot and the boys were bored and driving me bonkers since the weather/Lili kept us in doors.  Lili has been an angel all through preschool and between my helper (I pay a home school girl to help me teach) and myself, we are able to keep Lili away from the kids and potential illnesses.  The problem with preschool is it makes me busy.  At night when I finally get the kids to bed and am ready to crash, I have to clean the house instead to get ready for the next day.

Overall, Lili is a great baby, but she doesn't like the car seat, swing, or bouncer.  She sleeps a lot, but when she is awake, she can't be put down.  (She also can't be put down because her brothers will be all over her.)  Thank goodness for my Moby wrap.  It keeps Lili up right and from spitting up and protects her from her brothers who want to hug her, touch her, hold her, carry her....

 One thing I have learned is to involve the boys in taking care of Lili.  They also wanted wraps!

I attempted one outing with all three kids in January.  Dallin started TaeKwonDo again.  Our first class ended like this: Lili screaming in the carseat while spitting up, I'm trying to comfort her and get her comfortable so we can leave, Dallin running around crazy, and Gavin sneaking out and running around in the parking lot (luckily it was empty.)  I got plenty of stares that day.  Feeling like a failure, I decided to take the kids for a walk.  I felt like I could be successful in this endeavor.  The weather had finally turned beautiful (this is why we live where we live...for the beautiful winters).  Our walk to the park was successful besides the fact that the boys kept wondering why all the other moms brought lunches and snacks for their kids.  Lets face it, if I stopped to pack lunches, it would have taken me an hour and we would have never left the house.  (That is something else about having a third.  I'm late to everything!)  So besides the no lunches thing, taking walks is something I can do.

 

 With Lili coming, Dallin has actually matured in lots of ways.  He is a great helper and very in tune with Lili.  He will be the first to run into her room to put paci in when she is crying.  I use to fight Dallin with doing simple things by himself (getting dressed etc) because he liked the attention of pretending he couldn't do things and having me help him.  He keeps surprising me by being more independent.  He is still wild and full of energy so again thank goodness for the nice weather so he can ride his bike.  After asking me to do something for him and my reply of not right now because Lili is crying, he said, "Mom, babies are hard huh."  I just hope he remembers that until he is married!

While I was trying to hurry and fix lunch so that the boys were occupied while I fed Lili, Dallin decided he didn't want to hear Lili cry anymore and took matters in his own hands.  He didn't want to sit and hold the bottle, so he got creative.

Gavin loves, loves Luli.  He talks about her constantly and wants to be where ever she is.  He also is full swing in his terrible twos.  He loves to yell "no" all the time and throw some great temper tantrums.  Gavin thinks he is the Hulk and likes to tackle anyone.  He also decided that he no longer will be the little kid that gets picked on and is fighting back (this is a great thing but a surprise to Dallin and his cousin Carter).  While in Utah, Gavin started having poopy diapers.  After not having to change his poopy diapers for six months, I didn't want to start so we attempted potty training again in January.  Having a new baby and potty training probably wasn't the easiest thing, but this time around Gavin was ready and he is now potty trained! 

Tummy Time is a favorite for the boys.  Gavin carries around the blanket announcing it is tummy time multiple times a day.

Gavin trying to hold Lili's hand and laying on her while she is eating.  I'm sure she is constantly thinking, "Leave me in peace!"

Looking back over January, I realized I was pretty cranky.  I would wake up exhausted every morning to two boys with 12 hours of sleep jumping all over me.  It really bothered me that I couldn't stay on top of the laundry (Lili's laundry is crazy because she spits up so much), cleaning, and the dishes.  There was a constant battle of Lili's asleep so I could pick up the house or take the boys outside.  It should be an easy decision but dinner has to be made, clothes washed, and bottles cleaned.  Then there is the guilt of not spending enough time with the boys and not spending enough time holding Lili.

To sum up January, having three kids is hard.

February though is quite different.  First I decided to work really hard to not be cranky.  I realized that Zane never worked a Saturday throughout January which is a first in 8 years.  I should have been really grateful for that.  This goal is going well since Zane is also not working nearly as much right now for a busy season (another first in eight years) and is home in time to help put the kids to bed.  Lili doesn't seem to be in as much pain when she eats and spits up and actually liked her swing the other day.  I'm also getting a little more sleep at night and trying to exercise a couple of times a week (I stopped all exercise back in November when we found out about Lili and life got crazy.  Exercise makes me feel good so I really shouldn't drop it.) 

I think I will survive having three kids.

The boys behaved for this picture.  Normally when I'm feeding, one kid is trying to climb my back and another is trying to feed Lili/ hold her hand/bug her in some way.