When is mommy officially “off”?

Tara, over at The Young Mommy Life, recently wrote a post about when you feel your family doesn’t appreciate you. I have to say that I knew exactly what she meant in that situation and have definitely been there. However, my downfall is that I was never good at sharing and disclosing those feelings because I always have a sense of “I shouldn’t feel entitled to this” or “why do I really deserve that”.

Lately, I have been experiencing these feelings more often since I had my newborn. With needing to breastfeed him every hour, make meals for all four of us throughout the day, keep my toddler busy, and try to get some work done within the three hours that Dukey is off at school, I am exhausted by the time my husband gets home. Yet, I still manage to make dinner and get both of the boys ready for bedtime.

It is starting to get to a point where I am getting snappy and frustrated with everyone and am losing my sanity.

I can’t help but ask when will I get to “clock out”.

I am so in need of a spa day or something but, more importantly, I have to learn how to ask for help when I need it. I know I am not the only mother to feel this way but it feels weird to even think about asking for help.

When I ask for help, it makes me feel inferior. As if I am not capable of handling it on my own and even when that may be true, I guess I just have a hard time admitting it.

But, I am going to have to learn how to and enjoy myself. Doing so will help me to be a better me for everyone so it is most definitely needed.

Chime in and share your thoughts! What is your cure for work-a-mommy-holic?

Don’t Judge Me!

While I was walking down the street, I happened to overhear two neighbors talking to each other about me. One was pointing towards my house and I heard, “The girl has three kids for God’s sakes! I mean, you have to think about these kinds of things!” The other one just nodded her head and agreed.

This conversation, of course, just, as my old teacher would have said…’burned my cheese’.

These ladies barely ever say two words to me and do not know me from a can of paint! I was just so annoyed at how people try to taint a good thing.

Don’t get me wrong, I get it. I’m young, I don’t drive, I don’t work outside the home,  and…I have THREE kids (which, is like a “full house” nowadays). Granted, my husband and I did not plan Baby J and had we thought about it beforehand, we would most likely have decided against it. But, in the end, we chose to keep him and accept the responsibility that comes with it. So to make that comment as if it is a precursor of what is to come in the future is so…stupid.

Everyone has SOMETHING that others can consider a downfall or deterrent but no one can decide what that will entail for YOU but YOU. This will not be the last time someone will judge me but it surely won’t be enough to hold me back and make me fight for my dreams.

The Family Emergency Room

Hey blog family! I have had so much that I wanted to tell you but finding the time to actually get it out there is the problem.

When I first started this blog, Living in a Jungle, I was planning to give you a chronicle of my “crazy”life with my two boys. I had no idea that a year later, I would be adding another baby to the mix and would learn what a “crazy” lifestyle is really like! I am still planning to share my birth story with you guys but that will take a little time.

As for now, I wanted to allow you to come along with me in my journey from a family of four to five. When I was pregnant with Baby J, I researched blogs of mothers with three or more children to get a perspective of what this change would be like but, in my opinion, not many gave the nitty-gritty on that new adjustment. One website that helped me to understand this change the most was www.HavingThreeKids.com.

From some of the ones that I read, many said that going from two to three kids is the hardest adjustment…and from what I am going through now, I would seriously agree! Of course, it depends on the ages of the children but…I digress.

How I would explain this change is that it is somewhat like a family emergency room.There is usually a sense of urgency going on everywhere at all times:

Dukey: Mom, LJ (Poopy) won’t share this toy with me!

LJ: Aaaaaah, give it back!

Baby J: Waaah, waaah, waah!

This is all while changing a diaper so you’re rushing to get through it. Two seconds later, a fight breaks out and there’s screaming and weapons being thrown all over the room. At this time, you realize you have three choices: 1) holler loud enough to get their attention and make them stop or 2) try to maneuver yourself and the naked baby (hoping that he doesn’t pee on you) over to the fighting siblings and break it up, or 3) do nothing, let them scream and fight (hoping no one pokes an eye out) until they stop. I usually pick the third option, which often ends in the older two making up on their own and becoming best friends again.

However, just like in an emergency room, there are periods of tranquility when no one’s hurt and you’re just waiting for the ball to drop. Your kids are playing together quietly and happily and you’re able to sit back and watch them. When those moments come around, it makes those “crazy” moments of urgency seem insignificant (sometimes anyway, I will admit it does linger some days).

Even with all of that, despite the fact that I am always changing diapers, making meals, giving baths, wiping noses, helping with homework, or breaking up fights, I have never felt more complete and more needed.

Adding another child is a big decision that takes contemplating, but for me, I can say that it was a wise decision and a great blessing that I do not regret.

Nothing Like a Sweet Treat!

They say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. I don’t know about other women but I will say that the way to a pregnant woman‘s heart is definitely through her stomach, also!

After a long day at home with the kids while my husband is at work, sometimes the best thing he can do is bring a little snack for me to eat to help me enjoy that time to relax once I finally have it! I know that won’t be a great benefit for me after this baby comes since I will probably need LOTS more help for relaxation after endless breastfeeding sessions, cooking meals for me and my toddler while my older son is in school, and attempting to clean and maintain our house but, for now, it surely helps.

Yesterday was one of those days.  In the morning, I got up and cooked breakfast for me and my kids and then we walked to the market to grab something for dinner. By the time we came back, I was tired and really wanted to go to sleep but, of course I can’t sleep while Duke is up. I did that once and woke up to find his window blinds torn up and a picture that he had colored “hung up” on his wall with water.

I try not to let them watch too much TV so I let my Poopy (one year old) play in his playpen while I had my five-year old draw stuff until nap time. After all of that, it was still a repeat of the other day. However, this time, cleaning and making him exercise didn’t work. So I was left to spend the rest of the day feeling like a zombie and snapping at every little thing that went wrong. When days are like this, it seems like everything else around you starts to collapse and that was the case for me because I also stubbed my toe and burnt myself twice. I felt so miserable and tired. By the time dinner rolled around, I did not want to get up. But, surely God must have given me just an extra ounce of energy so I could use it to throw a little something together for dinner (Velveeta’s Cheesy Skillet: Chicken and Broccoli; yeah, I was desperate).

My husband called me on his way home from work to ask me if I wanted anything from the store, like usual. I couldn’t think of anything that we needed so I told him, no. When he got in, we all ate and I put the kids to sleep. When I came back down, he told me he had brought me some ginger snaps from the store. I started grinning like a Cheshire cat when he told me that! I ran to the cabinets and grabbed that bag of ginger snaps, laid some on a plate and poured myself a glass of milk to go with it….all of a sudden, I heard the angels singing!

Nothing like a sweet treat for a pregnant woman!

A Little Alize Anyone?

With two weeks left until baby is due and three weeks until my oldest goes to Pre-K, my energy and patience is surely being tested. Although the baby has dropped and I feel a little better in terms of being able to breath and move around a little more, I still have two busy boys to attend to and nesting syndrome that is taking over me so nap time is extremely important to me.

I have been so busy trying to do whatever I can in these last few weeks to recap whatever we went over during the summer and prepare my five year old for preschool. So everyday that I don’t have prenatal visits (which is every week at this point), I have been taking the boys somewhere. So today we went to the library to stock up on some more books to read.

I was nervous from the beginning because it is always an adventure to keep my one year old quiet. He loves to bang toys loudly and you never quite know when he’s ready to play catch until it’s a little too late and, “oops, sorry he just hit you in the face with that ball? Oh no”!

Luckily, there was another mom there with her three children and the youngest was the same age so I figured if he acted up it wouldn’t just be him so I wouldn’t feel as embarrassed. So all the kids are playing nicely until the mom’s one year old smacks another little girl in the face repeatedly with the toy he’s playing with while the mom is talking to someone else. When her older daughter hollers to tell her about it, the mom apologizes to the little girl and grabs her son telling him it is not OK to hit.

Of course, he doesn’t handle that too well so he begins to have a tantrum. She takes him outside to cool down and put him in his stroller but that’s when my little one thinks, “OK, now it’s my turn to act out”. So he starts throwing a ball that he’s found. Not to a particular person; just anyone he lays his eyes on. Then, my five year old thinks it’s OK to join in and toss the ball high in the air and all over the place, running with his little brother in the library. Nobody really notices because all the kids are pretty much doing something in there so the people in there have kind of tuned them out.

After I finally got that situation together, I let them sit down for a minute to eat some snacks (which were raisins that I had brought from home) while I checked out the books I had picked out for my five year old.

Now I don’t know if I ever mentioned this before but I don’t drive because I am still trying to get my license (I’ll save that issue for another time) so going to the library was about an 11 block walk from our house. Not a big deal when I am by myself or uh, not pregnant, but today I would have killed for a ride home.

My five year old was getting antsy and whiny so I knew he was tired as well. My one year old had already dozed off in his stroller. So at that point, I am happily waiting to get home so I can put them down for naps and take one myself. Little did I know, it wouldn’t go that way…

When my five year old is told to take a nap it is not unusual for me to have to repeat that and threaten to remove some toys or something in order for it to stick to his head and actually see him follow through but today no matter what I did, he would not take his nap.

I was so freaking tired at this point and was ready to just get a way and drink something, ANYTHING to just relax. (What’s worse is I don’t even drink!)

In the past, he would get a quick spanking and told to go to sleep but since I don’t believe in spankings anymore, I had to be a little more creative. So I decided to make him straighten up the living room and dining room. I figured it was something I needed to get off my to-do list so why not kill two birds with one stone and tire him out, too.

Afterward, he was still ready to go so I upped the ante and decided to have him do exercises like he does with his dad but until he was tired. After he did jumping jacks, push-ups, and sit-ups for about 15 minutes straight, he seemed really tired so I told him to go back in his room and take that nap.

It worked!

I was so relieved and even my one year old went back to sleep. So I was able to take my nap after all. Dinner will be pushed back a little late and probably bed time too but hey, desperate times calls for desperate measures right? At least a pregnant and tired mama can now enjoy her rest! 😉