Chasing Three: 2 Months

As you may have noticed, this weekly "Chasing Three" posting is not happening. I do still want to include it in my line up, but I barely get my weekly shower chores done around here, so committing to a weekly anything extra is just not practical. I do want to keep the blog up to date on my experiences as a mommy "chasing three", however, for a couple reasons:

First, it's nice to have it chronicled somewhere... and there are several friends and family who read. This is for you... especially those of you I don't talk to on a regular basis!

Second, I'm hoping some terrified mommy of 2 with one on the way will find their way over here and have the opportunity to read what adding a third little to the mix really looks like. Sorry it's not all roses, but at least you know the reality! It's really not as bad as I would have expected in those last days and weeks of this last pregnancy though.

And as a bonus third... it's a place to share my journey with Elimination Communication! I may throw some extra EC posts in here and there with fewer Chasing Three posts to use, but we'll see. I may just sit and drink a glass of water. (Hold a sec... that sounds good!)

So here we are...



Chasing "Babies"
We've had several opportunities to do family outings in the last couple weeks. More on that later, but it has been a great time for us to be together as a family... even with the rough edges that come with such events.

School has been even more out the window as we haven't done much at all aside from reading... and even then, I'm often guilty of falling asleep while I read. Tornado has taken to stroking my cheek gently when he notices my speech slurring or that I've stopped altogether... in a non-stopping place. I am grateful for two things in regards to school these days... one is that I can live such a "flexible" life and the other is that no one is keeping track. I have several years still before our state even cares! Someday we'll ease into something disciplined!

My big goal this week has been to get the kitchen table nice and cleared, and to clean it up after each meal. This way we can actually use it... and on the spur of the moment too. If kids want to color, cut, or whatever, now I can say "get in your chairs" instead of "Mommy has to clean the table first". Much more likely that we'll actually do it.

While waiting is still our reality, we're also starting to feel a flow to the days. There are still days when no one sleeps much and we just survive our way through, but I'm working on being more intentional so that things happen in some kind of order. Of course this doesn't mean I'm not nursing while stirring spaghetti sauce or having the kids sit on the floor until I can get to them... but maybe, just maybe, we're getting better about it all.


Little Man
My nights have been stretching longer and longer most days as Little Man stretches closer and closer to the ever coveted "sleeping through the night". In fact, I'd say we've had one or two days when that has happened. I'm not sure I slept through the night, but we'll get there. Of course I still hear everything... or almost everything... and when he fusses through a light sleep period, I wake up thinking he wants to eat. By the time I'm upright and getting ready to grab him (or returning from a quick trip from the potty room) I'm awake enough to really think about what I'm doing. Look at the clock. Think about how long it's been. Decide to lay down until he's really upset. Yeah, that's sounds good. Laying back down! Most of these times he's back asleep within a couple minutes. I do believe he sleeps and self soothes better (at night anyway) than either of my other two at this age. It's a blessing to not be rolling over half a dozen times a night to re-insert the pacifier when I could otherwise be sleeping.

He's continuing to grow, though this last week or so slowed down quite a bit. I'll be watching that. (How grateful I am for the infant scale we bought this time around!) He's also been smiling a ton. Very social smiles. Especially when I'm changing him. He just lays there on the counter and smiles up at me. I just love it. He smiles. I smile back. He smiles back at me. We go on and on. (All the while I'm needed in the other room by someone, but whatever.) I'm also starting to hear little noises, but they aren't distinct enough to call them cooing just yet.



EC'ing Department
I'm not going to lie... it hasn't been going well. I am far from my "I can officially say that more poops go into the toilet than go into a diaper!" statement, but I'm working to not be discouraged. Right around the time of my last update, the whole family got sick... all of us! It was brutal. Poor baby, he and Sweet Pea had it worst of all. A six week old should not get a cold. I was only sort of thankful that it wasn't complete with a runny/stuffed up nose. At least I could have helped him with that. No... all his congestion was in his throat and maybe his chest area too. So sad. We found a way to prop up his mattress so that he wouldn't end up in a heap at the bottom by morning and so that he wouldn't be in any danger of suffocation. That helped some. Add some Vicks (I'm hoping to have a more natural remedy next time, but there is little time for such research when everyone is sick) and we were doing the best we could. His eatting was ok (I'm hoping the sickness is why he didn't gain much weight) but he was also swallowing a lot of flem! This makes for some yucky, and more frequent I might add, poops! In some ways ECing helped this, but he also didn't seem to be able to wait as long, so we had lots more diapers to clean up.

Other than the sickness, I'd say that my tiredness/laziness has also been hampering our progress. We keep at it though, giving him some latitude when he just wants to fuss (read: scream) instead of potty in the potty. I'm working at doing it enyway when I don't feel like taking him to the potty. I'm always sorry when I don't! Always! Hopefully I'll be more encouraged next time I report in!

Labels: As it happens..., Chasing Three, Raising Children

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 8:00 PM