How I Do "Me" Time

So, when you become a parent you hear non-stop how important it is to have "me" time. Boy is it important, and not always easy to get. One of the most relatable quotes I've read is "Nothing is as hard as helping a person develop their own individuality, while struggling to keep your own." I feel I've been able to create a great balance for myself. A HUGE chunk of that has to be because I work still so I'm able to get away for a good part of the day (and listen to podcasts, watch shows, watch YouTube videos, etc.) and when I come back, I'm super mom! Or maybe I just like to think I'm super haha.

Now I have a great routine that really helps me feel refreshed each day and I thought I'd share what I do:

Sunday nights I get laundry folded and (my stuff) put away. I leave the girls' clothes for the next morning and get it done during some down time during work. Do I wish I could get laundry done all in one day like I used to? Sure, but I work with what I've got. Plus, I watch a couple episodes of a new show or a movie.

Mondays I usually do something good for my brain. My grandma was recently diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia and with that being hereditary I would like to make sure my brain is as healthy as possible for as long as possible. I usually do a puzzle, read a book, do some sort of puzzle book (crosswords, sudoku, etc.), and things like that. Eventually I'd like to add in some learning into this. I'm interested in learning coding or another language. I also use this as an alternate night to work on any projects I need to get done

My most recent project I actually finished

Tuesdays and Thursdays I work out. I do this while watching a new show so that I'm more motivated to actually do the workout. I love the endorphin rush and feel having workout nights is VERY important. Larry is on kid crying duty so I can just escape to the basement, get it done, and then shower and relax for the night (it's GREAT at getting out my end of day energy too so I'm usually exhausted on these nights and sleep SO good).

Wednesdays I do some sort of computer thing. I update blog posts (add pictures and publish), clean out my old emails, things like that. I love to watch Gilmore Girls, listen to podcasts, or something else I'm familiar with on these nights to have on in the background. Once a month Larry and I also have a game night we switch off who picks the games each month and it's nice to have that together as well.

Fridays are my new movie nights. Usually, it's my Netflix DVD. Getting to watch a new movie and get some yummy snacks...it doesn't get much better than that!

Saturdays are our movie date nights. These might be my favorite nights. We pop some popcorn, get some drinks and candy, and sit down to whatever flick we've picked. Again, we tradeoff who gets to pick the movie, but it has to be one we both agree on so that we are still entertained. It's nice to cuddle up together and usually we have time after to talk about the movie or some article we read recently or whatever we want afterwards. We might even watch the cinema sins video on the movie we watched too.

Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays (other than game night ones), and Fridays I also do a face mask. I scrub my face clean with a rubber scrubber to make sure it's super cleansed and then I do a face mask that washes or peels off or I'll do an eye mask with a chin lift type strap, or some of those biore nose strips. I love those little spa nights! It helps me with my skin care goal I've had for the last little while.

In the end I feel very happy with my routines, and it really helps me feel the balance that becoming a parent makes you crave. At least for the type-a kind of parent that I am haha.

3 Months (weeks 9 - 13)





Compare/Contrast: I started the month still feeling pretty sick. The Zofran helped me have good mornings so I could get a lot done then, but usually by dinner time I'd be wiped out. It seems to be a bit better on weekends, I think it's because I eat non-stop during the work week and that doesn't help (if I get too full it's not the greatest feeling). My smelling has been WAY off too, everything smells funky and I actually prefer light floral/girlie smells to other ones (with my others I was WAY more against any scents).

Oh and my emotions this time...holy moly! I cry over EVERYTHING! One day I was crying over the thought of Gwen having a brain tumor and having to shave her hair off and how she's always so happy, but that would probably break her a bit...I was full on bawling! I cry over any movie just because I can I guess. I know I've mentioned being emotional in previous pregnancies, but I'm pretty sure this one takes the cake.

Also, tomatoes are a HUGE craving this time. I love having tomato soup all the time. I also can't drink too much of anything. At first I liked chocolate milk, but got over that quickly. I was drinking Gatorade to at least help with dehydration, but could only have the grape G Zero kind, and that got old quickly. So my favorite thing to drink is cereal milk. I'll put a tiny bit of cereal in a bowl and then FILL the rest of the bowl up with so much milk. I'll let the cereal sit for a minute and then eat it, and then chug the milk. That is a new one haha.

My dreams are different this time, all of them are very vivid and more normal. I normally have very weird dreams so I know it's a dream, but these normal ones throw me off because I can never remember if it really happened or not.

One big difference this time around is Cara started school and she brought home ALL the fun germs which means all of September I've been fighting some sort of cold on and off. Then I had to get my 2nd shot and so for one whole weekend I was fighting pregnancy nausea and exhaustion, a cold that was giving me a cough (to the point of throwing up) ESPECIALLY at night so I wasn't sleeping, and then the reaction from the shot. It. Was. Miserable!!

Best Moments This Month: I started feeling better enough that I could get things done so I started filling out my planner again and getting calls made and stuff researched - that feels GREAT to be productive. I've even been able to do a couple loads of laundry each week. And I was able to actually go out to dinner a couple times (it was nice to be out so late and not feel too sick).

 

It wasn't a super productive month, but we did clear out a lot of food from the freezer this last weekend and I was actually able to eat a bit more which was nice. 

 

I was also VERY happy to have my home doppler during my sick weeks. Each check showed the heartbeat in the 130s (lower than the other babies, but the fact that it didn't go lower or anything didn't make me worry). 

My superstitions: keeping the pregnancy test
And wearing this necklace to each appointment

Oh and I can't forget the couple of movie nights I was actually able to stay up for. There were about 3 nights I was able to watch a movie with Larry (granted they had to be in the bedroom so I didn't stay up late and then have to climb stairs to the room). And most of the movies were actually good ones so it didn't feel like a bad reason to stay up late.

Staying up for a Packer's Game with
My girlie also is nice!

What I'm Looking Forward To: more appointments to confirm things are going good, feeling better so I can start doing face masks (and maybe even some hair masks to help that too) and also so we can spend afternoons on weekends doing things too. I also get excited with not knowing gender and finding out when he/she is born, but to be clear I'm feeling 1000% this is another girl. Which I guess works because we actually have way more girl names we like than boys - and none of them are repeats from last pregnancy lists so I'm really surprised we have found ANY we like haha.

I also can't wait till I feel like I can drink water again, I get SO thirsty some days and I'm running out of options as to what tastes good and I can drink a lot of so I don't get dehydrated. I wish I had documented that a bit better with my last ones, but that's an odd thing to document.

My Parenting Truth

Hello,

So I've wanted to write about my thoughts on parenthood for a while now. I've honestly felt that parenthood has been different for me. I've been lucky, it's felt a bit easier (of course, this was BEFORE Lucy was born haha). 

With Lucy here now, I can say I was definitely granted some unicorn children. Gwen has been a great sleeper since day 1. Cara was a good sleeper for being woken up every 3 hours to eat throughout the night for MUCH longer than was needed, but she always went back to sleep pretty easily. Both ended up being finger suckers and so it was easier for them to self sooth. Both girls were bottle fed from early on so they slept through the night pretty early too. We didn't need to do too much to help them get to sleep or had any eating troubles. 

That being said, parenthood hasn't been rainbows and unicorns either. As I posted on Instagram: "Motherhood is the craziest, most contradictory thing ever. You want to sleep in, you want more freedom, you want to stay out as late as you can (or used to), and you want quiet moments...but on the flip side you don't want to miss any moments, or boo boos to kiss better, or times they learn something new (whether a skill or word). You want to complain about all the tantrum and attitudes, the teething keeping you up, the messes they make, and the neediness, but you wouldn't trade these amazing little humans in for anything in the world. I absolutely love being promoted to mom, it was the best (title and life) change ever!"

I strongly prefer to look at any difficult moments as new "challenges" rather than parenthood being hard. My favorite quote from a movie is to say I'm happy every day, maybe not all day every day, but every day. Every day these girls bring so much happiness to my life. I love knowing I get to create new memories with them and do everything I can to make sure they are as well rounded as possible. I hope we can provide them many things that pique their interests and can sign them up for as many hobbies as they'd be interested in. I hope they never have feelings of wanting to do something, but feel they can't. 

I also hope I can look back at my new sleepless nights with great fondness haha. 

My favorite moments, being a mom, are the moments I can teach them something. It might be something fun, like how to draw or doing flashcards with shapes and colors. It might be something not as fun, like patience and how to deal with frustrations and tantrums. I'm very much looking forward to more moments of learning with them.

Anyways, that's all I had to share, I'm sure it's not as helpful as I hoped, but the main take away is to look at the learning moments as great moments to connect with your kids, teach them something, and help them through something. Thanks for listening.

Pregnancy Round 4

So, every single pregnancy I've said "this is my last one" while going through the first trimester...then I hit the second trimester and all those thoughts go out the window. That being said, we've discussed 4 being our final number for a bit now and so I'm officially planning this being our last baby and want to document WHY this first trimester is SO hard so I don't forget so easily:

Before I'm pregnancy I was able to:

• Get ALL laundry washed, dried, folded, and put away/hung up every week.
  
• Have 1 night a week to read a book or do a puzzle.
• Work out 3 nights a week.
• Shower and dry/straighten my hair after the girls went to bed.
• Have a couple movie nights a week.
• Have 1 game night with Larry each month.
• Do some sort of face mask 3 times a week.
• Stay up till 10:30, easy!
• Meal plan for the whole month at once.
• Get dressed like a normal human being (pick something out of my closet and put it on).
• Pick up after myself each day.
• Clean one weekend each month.
• Give my kids a bath 3 times a week.
• Do an activity each night after dinner with my family.
• Have a family date day once a month.
• Go out to dinner.
• Cook dinner and eat whatever I want and however much I want.
• Watch whatever show I was in the mood for and would listen to podcasts during work.
• Drink 90-100 oz of water each day.
• Light a candle or turn on a scentsy each day to make the house smell less like cats.
• Change diapers whenever it is needed.
• Have Larry rub my back whenever it was sore or just wanted a back rub.
  
• Had sex on a regular basis
  

In the first trimester I:

• Can barely do the 2 loads of laundry that are absolutley NEEDED to be done each week...and it hardly gets put away.
• Wear the same 5 dresses each week, so that has to be washed, but then they just get thrown on the floor of the closet for me to pick through each day.
• Am LUCKY to stay up till 9 each night, and that's only to watch a couple episodes of Modern Family and then pass out. So no face masks, no working out, no late showers, no game nights, nothing! 
• Miss reading so much, but I haven't been able to for a couple months now. I'm starting to feel like I can do it for a bit before bed soon.
  
• Can't even THINK of working out, the idea of moving at all, let alone a bit more strenuous movement, turns my stomach by itself.
• Have to shower during the day because even if I could stay up later, I can't be standing too long. And my hair is strictly air dried every time these days.
• Have only just BARELY started being able to watch a movie with Larry on Saturday nights, but it has to be in our room so I don't have to climb stairs late at night.
• Have found that meal planning or eating whatever I want/however much I want is out of the question. I only have about 2 days of guaranteed food cravings, after that it's a guessing game on what will make me feel better. I can't have water (it has no taste so it turns my stomach) so I would start with putting flavoring in the water. When that made me sick I turned to chocolate milk. When that stopped working I turned to gatorade (to get the electrolytes since I am BARELY drinking 32 ounces, if I'm lucky each day). When that made me sick I turned to some juice and milk in my cereal each morning (the only way I can drink milk). For snacks, I'll find something that works for a few days and then I start associating the snack with my nausea so then I have to find a new snack. And that cycle goes on and on for a long while. 
• Also can't even cook dinner, the smell of it turns my stomach, so cooking dinner is out. So Larry ends up planning dinners on a whim each week.
• Have to leave all my wrappers and garbage in whatever room I'm working out of some days because I just can't even function enough to clean up. And actually cleaning the house or doing dishes? Out of the question, the energy required is too much...the house is a HUGE disaster.
• Have found that helping with the kids (bathing, playing, diapering, etc.) is SO difficult. I am just to the point where getting them set up in the morning (feeding, changing, and cleaning up their dishes from breakfast or getting Cara to school) is doable, but that's about it. I can also make lunch real quick too. But by dinner, I'm no longer any help. I can't go anywhere near their diapers. And their energy, ESPECIALLY at bath time with the sound of the water running, has made me throw up a few times. If they fight dinner, I'm down for the night. They just have so much energy and it's SO hard just laying down and watching Larry do EVERYTHING. Like getting them ready and put down for bed. He's a super dad!
• Know that because dinner time is my official "stay on the couch" time, going out to dinner or having a family date day is too hard. Which sucks, because I love going out to dinner!
• Have found that the TV shows thing is the weirdest part. I was watching a few shows in the beginning of my pregnancy and when the sickness kicked in the idea of watching those shows turned my stomach. I could ONLY watch Snapped for a while. Then I could finally add in Modern Family and Snapped went away. Now I can finally watch shows I've seen before, but nothing new. I also couldn't watch any action/scary movies for a bit, so only funny/rom com type movies. And podcasts are SUPER out because I can't just listen to something, I have to be able to watch it.
• Can't handle candles, scentsy, body spray, deodorant, lotions...nothing with smells in the beginning! Then the smell of the house was making me SO sick so I had to start adding in a very LIGHT layer of febreeze in the rooms and let it settle before going into the room.
• Can't even STAND to be touched so sex and back rubs are completely out. Larry has gone through this 3 other times so he gets it, but when I'm really sick he gets so lost on how to make me feel better without rubbing my back. He's also a touchy guy so I have to keep telling him not to rub me. And he completely understands about the no sex stuff, even though it makes me feel even worse.
   

So now in the mornings I get up feeling decent so I get as much done in the morning (getting the kids ready during the week or running errands/picking up/going grocery shopping on the weekend). During nap time I will also nap or just relax while I can. After nap time it's a 50/50 shot I'll feel decent enough to do ANYTHING not on the couch. I have to be REALLY careful of what I eat each day...it's a ridiculous balancing act (I can't be TOO full, but I also have to eat enough so I don't have an empty belly too quickly). 

It's no ride in the park or piece of cake. I think because it's my last one I just want to rush through this awful first part to get to the 2nd trimester...when I usually feel SO much better and can just enjoy all the rest of my pregnancy (or maybe because it's my 4th time I know what's coming). I want to soak it ALL in, but I also want to feel like my normal self and get back to feeling a little bit productive again.

Labor Day Weekend 2021

So this might be the first time I've really done activities for the full Labor Day Weekend. I mean we didn't do the typical camping trip or anything, but we had a lot of fun! Especially since all the plans were thought of/made last minute AND I'm still feeling pretty sick so it was really a gamble.

So back on Friday, Larry mentioned taking the kids on a hike for the weekend. I, laying sick on the couch, told him to have fun to taking the girls on his own because NO way was I up for hiking so he mentioned going to Bridal Veil Falls since it's not a real hike and the girls had so much fun we he took them by himself last time and I hadn't ever been, but always wanted to go. So I told him that sounded good and I could probably handle that. So Saturday we waited till after nap time, got the girls in their swim suits, and drove over to the falls. It was so pretty and I was so happy to go. Granted, I was dressed like crap because I just didn't care (I'm too sick to care to look good) so I feel like people must've stared at me, but I don't care. The girls had TONS of fun and it felt good to be there. The only problem is I can't drink water right now so I brought a little juice with me, but ended up being SO thirsty I was sipping the water we brought with us and it wasn't the best feeling towards the end. It was still a fun day and I'm glad we got to go out.

While we were sitting around on Sunday I thought it would be a fun weekend to go to the zoo. The girls were talking a lot about seeing animals so I figured they'd love going. I checked reservations to see if any slots were open for today and I saw it was all wide open so we made plans to go after nap time. The girls loved seeing all the animals. We rode the train and the carousel this time (well I stayed off the carousel, of course), but the girls seemed to love both rides. I got really thirsty and sick while we were there so I had to get a slushie drink to help and that felt so nice. We didn't get to see a section of the zoo because they got distracted with the playground area, but as long as they had fun that's all that matters. We got home and had dinner and I was able to relax the rest of the night. 

Only way I was getting through so much walking (juice)

Now that the weekend is over I'm going to go relax, go to bed early and recoup from a busy weekend. It was hard being sick, but the sacrifices were worth it!

Cara starts school

 Today has been a big day! Cara started school (pre-school).

Yes, I wrote the date wrong.
Also, her "when I grow up" says costume seller/superhero

She only goes 2 days a week, but it's 2 full days (it's at a daycare) and she has been looking forward to this for so long. She was nervous when I was driving her over this morning (especially realizing she's going by herself), but once she saw the playgrounds to play on she got excited again. When I picked her up she was telling me all about the friends she made and how much fun she had playing outside. I'm so excited to see how she does in the weeks and months to come. She'll only be going through next August and then she'll start Kindergarten, but I think she's going to have so much fun and love it!