A day in the life of Mommy

12:02 am. Reading proofs and I can't keep my eyes open anymore. Decide to go to sleep and set alarm for 6:00 am. to finish proofing before Graham leaves for work.
3:55 am. Wake to Nolan crying. Reswaddle him, check for diaper leaks, give him his pacifier and stumble back to bed.
4:25 am. Nolan crying again. Go in and calm him again and head back to bed.
6:45 am. Wake to Nicholas over the monitor "Mommyanddaaaaddddddyyyyy". Wonder how I managed to not hear the 6:00am alarm. Go get Nick up, put him on the potty, then head for the kitchen to make his cup and breakfast.
6:55 am. Realize I am leaking milk all over my t-shirt and I am not wearing breat pads.
7:00 am. Pump 8 ounces!! My most ever!
7:25 am. Nolan wakes up, nurse. Give him his vitamin, reflux meds, and constipation meds. Grab a cup of coffee and quick bagel.
7:45 am. Ask Nicholas multiple times if he has to go potty. He adamently says no. Nicholas stays in the living room while I bring Nolan into the bathroom with me (in the infant seat) while I shower.
7:55 am. I'm enjoying a wonderful, hot shower with shampoo in my hair and soap all over when I hear Nick run into the bathroom saying, "I need to go potty Mommy! I'm ready now Mommy! Oh, Mommy, I'm going potty now Mommy!" Covered in suds I run out of the shower and put him on the potty (despite his protests of going on the big potty rather than the small potty that is out in the living room).
8:00 am. I quickly finish with my shower as Nolan has now begun to get fussy. Fussiness quickly escalates to hysterical screaming as if in pain. Worry that he is in pain due to constipation (he is on meds due to not going for 2 whole weeks and now it's been 3 days without while on meds). Give him a supository (fun!) He continues screaming and nothing is consoling him. Walk laps around the house with him in my arms while he cries until he suddenly falls asleep (way before naptime) and I put him in his crib.
8:45 am. Break up a "fight" between Nicholas and Baxter over their spots on the couch.
9:00 am. Spill my powdered blush all over myself and the carpet. Vacuum up makeup.
9:30 am. Nicholas has to potty again but is too late. Put him on the potty. Finish getting myself and Nicholas dressed and ready, bags packed.
9:45 am. Wrap birthday gifts--realize I have no birthday wrapping paper and reuse some gift bags.
10:00 am. Wake Nolan, get him dressed and packed up and boys loaded into the car for the 40 minute drive to Kennedy and Maddie's birthday party that started at
9:30 am. Half way thru the drive it occurs to me that I forgot to put on breast pads and any moment my breasts will let down and leak all thru the only shirt I have. If I wait to get to Courtney's house, I'm pretty sure I'll arrive with 2 large wet circles on my chest. I find a CVS and stop to buy pads, dragging a whining Nicholas and thankfully a quiet Nolan in to the store. By some miracle, I manage to get the pads without incident. (Five minutes later, I feel the let down.) We arrive at the party 1 hour and 30 minutes late!
11:00 am. During the party, I must put Nick in time out 3 times for various tantrums. At one point he starts crying and says he is sick and his tummy hurts. He turns pale as a ghost and we rush to the bathroom thinking he's going to throw up. Thankfully nothing happens though and in a little while he is back to playing.
12:30 pm. Head to Chick-fil-a with Courtney, Kennedy, and Maddie. Things go surprisingly well despite Nolan not sleeping and being a little fussy. Spill lemonade all over diaper bag as I'm getting back in the car. Worry some more that Nolan has not gone to the bathroom despite supository given at 8:30 am. Call doctor.
2:30 pm. Arrive home, put Nick to bed, nurse Nolan. Receive call from Doctor saying I need to take Nolan for x-ray to see if he has a blockage in his colon. Call Mom to have her come over and stay with Nick while he sleeps.
4:00 pm. Arrive at Children's for x-ray. Pray. Wait in waiting room for 1 hour. Hold a screaming Nolan still for x-rays. Pray.
6:00 pm. Get good news from doctor that the x-ray was normal. Make dinner for family. Deal with Nick's 3 poopy accidents in his pants (or rather, watch as Graham deals with it as I hold Nolan).
7:30 pm. Get both boys in bed and breathe a sigh of relief.
8:30 pm. Go to grocery store. Eat ice cream :)
10:00 pm. Update blog, pump, and hopefully go to bed soon for it to all start again...
Sometimes you just have to laugh (and pray) through the crazy joys of motherhood!

Potty training pro

Just want to update on my pottying pro! Nicholas is doing awesome with the potty! Yesterday Kaki came to visit and I decided to venture out for the first time. We went to the library and sat for storytime. Nicholas went potty there at the library and kept his pants dry the rest of the time, even when we went to lunch afterwards! Today was a real test as we met his friend Eli at the Burger King playground. I thought for sure there would be difficulties as he'd have to stop playing to come potty, he'd get stuck up in a tunnel when he needed to go, or he'd get mad when I'd try and make him go. But he did great! He came and told me 3 times while he was playing that he had to go!! He's a superstar!
I've also discovered that Nolan is quite picky when it comes to pacifiers. He has a certain kind of nipple that he prefers--the NUK kind, and he sure gets upset if you offer him another kind. I'm adding to my to do list to stock up on that brand as these many others that I have are worthless for him. He's also taken to a certain soft blankie as his lovie. It is so adorable! When he's awake and in the swing or the car seat, he loves to put it over his face and suck on the silky part. He literally does a little sigh of relief when you give the blankie to him. And then when he's sleeping since he is swaddled and can't use his hands to cuddle with it, I just lay it to the side of his head and he rubs the side of his face into it and nuzzles up close, again sighing with comfort. It is the cutest thing! Thankfully, this blankie is a lot nicer to look at than "Puppy" and holds up well in the wash. I'm sure it'll be sticking around for a while--we'll have to come up with a good name for it!

While I wasn't sleeping...

You may be wondering where I've been this last month. Well this certainly has been such a challenging month and unfortunately I don't feel I have handled it well. The last two posts shared some of those beginning challenges and things just got worse from there. I started having suspicions on Tuesday the 16th when the family was over for Gami's dinner, that my milk supply might be low. Nolan was having real difficulty nursing. By Thursday night I realized how seriously low my milk supply was and that poor Nolan was starving. Just when we had started to make some possible progress on the sleep training, I had to start nursing on a 2 hour schedule and pump around the clock too. Plus I had to feed him in the middle of the night again until my milk came in. It finally started to improve slightly that Sunday, however it still wasn't a great supply of milk and we struggled through all of the feedings. I typically had to give him a bottle after feeding him as he wasn't satisfied and was just so upset. The waking in the night seemed to get worse too and he was up all the time, sometimes every hour. Naps weren't happening either and I was a mess. Basically he screamed during feedings and whenever he was supposed to be sleeping!! Finally after 2 weeks of this not improving (Friday 3/26) I called the doctor and explained the problems we were having. He told me that everything that I was describing was reflux and to put him on Prevacid. Well then Nolan threw me for a loop and that evening suddenly the feedings went perfectly, it felt like my milk had finally come in and was satisfying him and he did great Friday evening and all Saturday. He then slept through the night on Saturday night (an Anniversary gift to his Mommy and Daddy!) until 5:30am! So I started thinking that maybe he didn't have reflux. Then things started getting bad again and by Tuesday we decided to try the Prevacid to see if it would help. Another change that we made this month was to give Nolan a bottle at the last feeding at 11pm in order to make sure he goes to bed with a full tummy. With both the medicine to help his reflux pain and the full bottle, he has finally started sleeping at night!! Friday morning he slept till 5:30, Saturday 6:30, and on Sunday morning he slept until 7:30 without even crying once!! What a happy Easter gift! Sunday night he woke up twice because our little Houidini got out of the swaddle. But overall he's doing so much better and after a few nights of sleep, I finally feel like I'm starting to come out of my fog as well. Maybe I'll be able to manage my life again! I have literally had to put everything on hold this month. I really felt God telling me that I need to prioritize my family first and my other responsibilities need to come second. I apologize if I have neglected friendships, thank you notes, Bible studies, email, phone calls, bridesmaid responsibilities, etc. Here's hoping things will get better and stay that way!
Things that I've missed blogging about this month:
Graham and I had a wonderful 6th anniversary! We started the day with a family breakfast at our favorite local spot--Loren's Cafe and then had a fun shopping outing at the mall. By the way, Nicholas is so cute now about weddings and getting married ever since Kristin's wedding. That morning at breakfast I told him that 6 years ago Mommy and Daddy got married. He looked at me and pointed to himself and said with great excitement "Mommy, I want Nicholas to get married too!" Now whenever he sees me dressed up wearing a dress or even just a nice outfit, he'll look at up at me and say "Mommy, are you getting married?" That night Graham and I celebrated by having a wonderful dinner at The Village Tavern and then shopping at the Christian Bookstore and Target for the boys' Easter baskets (yes we are very much parents!). Then I had a great 29th birthday (my Golden birthday--29 on the 29th). Mom and Nolan and I went shopping while Nick was at school and that was lots of fun because Mom bought me some really cute dresses and a sweater. That night the family went to dinner at Sugo's. Papa was so sweet and he treated me to a lobster dinner!!
Easter festivities were wonderful too. Nicholas really got into Easter this year. On Wednesday we colored eggs with Mimi--Nick LOVED coloring the eggs. Then Thursday, he got to go to school for a makeup snow day and they had an easter egg hunt. On Saturday we got together with our Sunday School class and had a picnic and another egg hunt. On Sunday he woke to find his and Nolan's baskets and the Easter Bunny had also left a "Happy Easter" message with little bunnies and carrots on the glass door. Church was a wonderful celebration of our Lord's Resurrection and then we went to Mimi and PopPop's for more egg hunts (both inside and outside) and a delicious Easter dinner!
If we didn't have enough on our plate, I decided to potty train Nicholas this week while on Spring Break (talk about a wild and crazy Spring Break 2010!!). I borrowed a book called "Toilet Training in Less than a Day". I studied for my final exam and stocked up on all of the supplies I needed. Monday came upon me quickly and I was so nervous that it was going to go awfully and be a disaster. We started out with a potty training doll and Nicholas first taught the doll how to potty, thus learning himself. He had three accidents in the very beginning while we were still in the process of teaching the doll, but once he got on the potty himself and had his first success, he did wonderfully! On Monday he peed 12 or more times in the potty and had 2 BMs in the potty with only one accident (while he and Daddy were outside playing). Today was day two and again he did great! I'm so proud of him and he too is so proud of himself. I wonder how we will ever leave the house though as he seems to have to go every 15 minutes! But I can't even express how wonderful it is to not change his diapers.
Sweet Nolan is all smiles and has the best laugh these days. It's so much fun to make him laugh. Oh, and I got a surprise photo shoot for his 3 month pictures. Can't wait to share those when we get them! (Hopefully I'll post Easter pictures soon too)