This morning at 5 a.m. was the official one-month mark since baby #5 arrived. It has felt like the opposite of the saying that “the days are long but the years are short.” I feel like the individual days have gone quickly. Blink and it is 10 p.m. again and I’m trying to figure out if I got to everything in short spurts of time between feedings and pumpings and various other kid and work obligations. On the other hand, Christmas seems like a lifetime ago.
I am doing my best to continue to spend time with the other children. This morning, by some miracle, I managed to get one-on-one time with everyone. I fed the baby (of course). I sat with my 7th grader while he had breakfast. I took the 4th grader to a before-school activity. I stood at the bus stop for a few minutes with the 2nd grader. I drove the preschooler to his school. One result: I was at T-plus 3.5 hours after waking up before I actually finished my breakfast. (I did enjoy a pleasant two cups of coffee while reading — I could have eaten breakfast in there instead, so I suppose that was a choice).
I try to reflect, at the end of the day, on what went right. This helps me not feel so scattered (and there is reason to feel scattered: I started writing this short post at 8:45 a.m. and did not finish until mid-day). This helps me dwell less on what went wrong too — and there are a multitude of options in this category as well. One slightly funny one: the 5-year-old discovered the real word that people mean when they say “oh fudge” and he started yelling it over and over again. He also blatantly cheated in our game of Candy Land. Nice. But there’s usually something positive in the three categories of career, relationships, self. Yesterday, I wrote a draft of an article for a publication I’m excited to be writing for. I took the 5-year-old to his karate belt testing. Just me and him. He was excited to have me there and waved and smiled at me in between counting in Korean and doing his kicks and punches (and not dropping f-bombs). I went for what the step tracker on my phone said was a 2.4 mile run. I really feel like it was farther than that (I’m not *that* slow) but what do I know. It’s nice to be able to run outside in January.
And in between all this I served as the sole food source for an infant who is going through a growth spurt. So life continues along, and we have made it through the first month. And then, before too long, the baby will be cheating at Candy Land. It all happens in time.
You know this, Laura – the first few months can be a really tough time. I admire your ability to get as much done as you have been! Your kids are lucky to have you.
@omdg – thank you for saying that. I really appreciate it!
The baby is so gorgeous that it almost makes my ovaries hurt. He still looks like a newborn minus the redness/wrinkles. Hope you are getting lots of cuddle time.
@Sarah – ha! He is fussy enough that he is definitely not making my ovaries hurt at the moment.
I love the sense of humour you always bring to your writing Laura. That last sentence reminds me of a conversation I had with my SIL recently. I’d seen someone on Instagram mention that she couldn’t wait for her daughter to grow up and have her first joke, her first kiss, her first lie etc. My SIL and I agreed almost immediately that my nephew’s first lie was “No poo”…. which probably isn’t exactly what that Instagrammer had in mind!
@Katie – they do lie pretty early! I try to laugh about stuff – it’s the best option, usually.