I would love to be able to tell you that all here at our place has been sunshine and roses.
But no.
Four children is tough. Especially with a newborn and ensuing sleep deprivation. Especially with three children - three and under. Especially with children number 2 and 3's penchant for hitting, biting, pinching and pulling each other's hair.
I worked out today that the issue is sleep. When you are rested everything seems possible. When you are not, everything looks daunting. Feeling overwhelmed and anxious trumps calm and on top of things. Everytime.
The thing that has been the worst is my responses to the challenges. Sleep deprived - I yell too much, I don't think clearly, I make bad choices and get my priorities wrong. And then I feel guilty/stupid for doing so.
Oh yeah baby.
Anyway - I have blogged tonight. That makes me feel good. I love blogging as it is for me, about me - it is like public journalling where you don't know your public.
Some pictures to indulge me and you.
My growing S - just had his first injections. He is 90th percentile for length, 75th for weight. Perfect boy.
Train fiend E. Oh lordy, sleep times are hard for us now. In and out of bed. And so late! 8pm some nights or later. If I drop his daytime sleep, he is miserable, yet with it - he struggles to go to sleep at night. He is my challenge at the moment - hitting the terrible twos right about .... NOW.
T and D enjoying the cricket. School holidays has been fabulous for Mr T having late nights up with us. It is terrible for his routine, but we all love it. He is such a delight and enjoys sport like us.
Nanna and Tom playing monopoly express.
Budding patisserie chef W. Licking the bowl. On the counter.
D went and had his 'snip'. So that day he went back with his Dad to their place to recover and rest, and ensure he wasn't jumped on by the kids. Nanna came to help me - very long day for her! Here she is nursing Sammy.
You know how I said E is fighting sleep? This day he refused to go to his bed. So he fell asleep at the kitchen counter!
W and E love their brother S so much it is beautiful, and dangerous. Overenthusiastic shall we say.
In the last week we have been plagued with medical issues.
Six people in the family...
Three days.
Five GP visits.
Two specialist visits.
One trip to Emergency in the ambulance.
The last item was for T's broken arm. AAAAAGGHHHHH! So awful for him. Worse for me, emotionally. And also bad for cricket season, tennis, swimming club and ..... PIANO.
Finally - a picture of S's first bottle of expressed breast milk. It was W's orientation day at kindy and I was away for two hours. So I successfully (I am very proud of myself) expressed 100ml of milk pretty easily. I am a happy mammal. And I love the cuteness of Dad with bub and bottle. I have this photo for each of my four boys.
Labels: Blogging, breastfeeding, Grandparents, Groundhog days, keeping it real, Large Family, Newborn, parenting, Suzuki piano
