First Week

This marks the end of the first full week of my new "job".

 

Along with my two kiddos, I have kept a friends 11 week old.

 

I will be keeping Rylan until School is out later this spring.

 

Throughout the week I have discovered several positives and several challenges to this new job. I thought I would list a few of each.

 

Positives

• Presley is a Mommy's girl through and through, so she is having to learn to share. Brady is old enough to understand he has to wait a little and he is super independent, so this has never really been an issue with him. 
• We have to stay home every day. I am not great at staying home every day, but honestly Presley does much better when we do. She adapts when we don't and it is fine, but she is much better when she is on her little schedule. 
• Brady is learning to play with his toys. He has always been pretty good about playing alone and with certain toys, but he is doing much better playing with all toys in between other activites.
• Crock-pots are my best friend. Dinners have been much easier, because I have put a lot more planning and forethought into it. I have to or it won't get done.
• It gives me a little income!
• It makes me be a little more structured. I like structure, but it is easy to just do what you want when you want when you don't have to leave the house or anything particular to do each day. It is easy to fall into that weekend mentality all day. Not so easy with 2 babies in the house.
•  My gas tank stayed fuller this week, because less running around during the day. :)

Challenges

 

 

• 3 kids, 2 under a year old, is a lot of work.  They all have different needs. If I am able to get a free, uninterrupted 30-45 minutes to clean up and get things together, we are good. That is waaay more challenging than you might think.
• It is no secret that carrying babies can make you sore, but alternating 2 babies has really done a number on my back. I know it will get used to it. I honestly felt like I ran a half marathon at the end of several days this week. Ha!
• I feel so dirty! I have tried to take a shower in the morning before Rylan got here or the night before every day, but by 11 am. I feel so gross. Between spit-up, continually washing dishes and bottles, changing tons of dirty diapers, and sweat from running around all morning, I feel so gross.  
• Presley's desire to crawl and get into wverything is greater than her ability, therefore, causing many falls this week. It is challenging especially when it tends to happen while changing Rylan or feeding him his bottle. Otherwise she is handling it quite nicely, well except when she tries to grab his face or pulls the playmat on top of him trying to get closer. :O
• Staying home all day every day is probably my biggest challenge. I really am not a fan. It affects my mood. 3 days we got out of the house almot immediately after he was picked up and one other night was church night. So I only stayed home ALL day, all day one day. Ha! Told ya not good at that! Ha!
• Momma is tired. It consumed me earlier this week. I didn't expect to be this tired. I feel a lot more rested today. It could be the 2 coffee's and Mt Dew I drank, but one can't be sure. Ha!
• Brady is used to sharing the attention. However by the end of the week, I think he was tired of being cooped up and was craving some attention. I try to play games with him and interact with him during the babies morning nap. I think when the weather warms up, this will be much better. It has just been too cold and windy for baby ears and hands outside. Hopefully soon...

 

 

Overall, I think we will manage just fine. Some days are smoother than others, but that isn't any different from our "regular" life. I have to be very smart with any free time. I also should probably go to bed earlier.

 

I am really enjoying Rylan. He is so snuggly and sweet. He is easy to calm down and figure out. There is also something really nice about the fact that he goes home for a few hours, then comes back in the morning after we have rested. He has fit into our little schedule nicely. I think it is safe to say we will miss him when his Mommy is out of school for the summer and it has only been a week into it. :)

Rylan's daddy got off work early, so we made a quick trip to the park and Starbucks after he left.