shopping for baby girls to a lot more fun

Today I stopped by Old Navy to return some jeans that were way too big for little Lance and happened to walk through the clearance sections. I got my first taste of how much fun shopping for girl clothes can be. I was overwhelmed by all of the options, there just seemed to be so many different styles of clothing for girls instead of just color or screen print variations like on a lot of boys' clothing. I guess the other thing is that I found a lot more girl clothes that I liked, right now I am not a fan of a lot of the boy clothes Old Navy is offering right now (polos with diagonal stripes, they bother me, I want to straighten them) and all over screen printed hoodies and other teenage styled clothing (I want Lance to look like a toddler unfortunately he will be a teenager before I know it). I could have gone crazy buying up tons of clothes for next year that she may or may not wear based on how fast she grows, but I did buy a couple of pieces because I couldn't resist. Girl clothes really are cuter and a lot more fun to shop for then boy clothes. Before Lily I didn't even really look at girl clothes too closely because I wanted to be content with my boy, and even now I am still so programmed to look at boy clothes that I immediately go to the boy side before looking at the girl side. After my experience this morning, I now understand how some moms can get carried away with clothes for their kids, especially if they have girls, it is fun to dress them up. Though I am not much of a girly girl, but I look forward to dressing up Lily especially since nice, cute things get wasted on a toddler I know who looks for the nearest mud puddle and jumps in.

it is one of those days

I should say one of those mornings, but fortunately things are looking better, both kids are asleep, I should be too, but of course now that they are asleep I am fully awake, earlier when I could barely keep my eyes open they were both awake.
Well the setup for the rough morning occurred last night. Lance didn't go to bed until 10, way too late especially since he was up at 6:30 this morning. It could have been earlier, but I was too comatose to notice the exact time of his arrival, my main concern was trying to help him into the bed which meant lifting him up and over myself and Lily, not an easy task when you don't want to wake the sleeping beast (Lily who I had successfully gotten back to sleep without having to get up and feed her). Once Lance was in bed he started jumping all over us, poking us with those bony elbows of him and demanding juice. I gave up trying to sleep and got up. I knew right away it was going to be a long day when Lance got upset because his juice was watered down too much. After breakfast and some play time I was able to get Lily to sleep (why do babies fight falling asleep? especially when they sleep so much is beyond me) and headed upstairs to get a shower, I had such a rough time getting up I missed my showering opportunity before Jeff left. I quickly hoped in the shower and figured I had time to get some stuff done before Lily woke up again, well I was wrong. Lily was screaming by the time I was out of the shower, so much for a nice long morning nap. I got her calmed down and wrestled with Lance to get dressed and dealt with another breakdown from lack of sleep (by this point, he had broken down multiple times). We watched some of Sesame Street and then I started to fall asleep, but unfortunately both kiddos were awake so no nap for me. I had to get something from my mom's so I packed up the kids and headed over. I didn't want to bring both kids inside so I ran in quickly to get what I needed. Lily unfortunately dislikes the car and was screaming by the time I came out two minutes later. I was tired and grumpy from dealing two overly tired kids who did lots of crying (I don't know what is going on with Lily but she has been quite the crier lately) and decided I would swing by and pick up lunch so I wouldn't have to make it since Lily was finally asleep. I got lunch for Lance and I and headed home. Got home and realized that not all of my food was there, I was frustrated, put everything back in the car, called Jeff and headed back to retrieve my missing lunch Jeff met us and we ended up eating lunch together, well actually Jeff ate with Lance because I was in line most of the time waiting for food since I let Jeff have mine. After quickly eating we headed home. I went to get Lance out of the car and that is when I noticed that he had pulled off his shoe and was squirting juice from his juice box into his shoe. That in itself is messy, but since he was wearing crocs with lots of holes the juice was all over his legs and shorts and car seat. I got everyone inside, wiped Lance down as best I could, and changed his clothes. We go through so many clothes in this house: Lily poops out or spits up all over her clothes at least once a day, I get poop and spit up on me (3 times I had to change yesterday thanks to Lily spitting up all over me), and Lance well he thinks his shirts are napkins and towels to absorb liquids, I hate doing the laundry and these kids make it an almost daily chore. I got Lily to sleep and set up the computer I borrowed from my mom to get some work done while hopefully both kids slept. Of course, since today is not my day, the Internet kept going out and I wasn't able to get anything done at first and Lance didn't want to sleep so he was constantly trying to type and use the computer himself. At one point I was sleepy and thought I might lay down and sleep, but Lily woke up just before I could get Lance asleep so once again, sleep evaded me. Fortunately I have been able to get the research I needed to do done and I am pretty sure I am ready for swim practice tonight. Before two kids there was barely enough hours in the day to get things done, now that there are two (and I have a job) there is not nearly enough hours to accomplish anything sometimes especially with Lily who has decided she is only content when being held, just like Lance was. So though everything seemed to be going downhill this morning, Lance is asleep, Lily is for the most part content at the moment, I am halfway done with the work I needed to get done for tonight, I just can't think about all the things I wanted to accomplish today. I would love a full time nanny, no I like being with my kids I want a personal assistant/housekeeper, yeah that would be nice.

a job

What was I thinking?
I must have had a momentary lapse of judgment when I said yes.
I didn't look for this job, it found me.
It is only part time and once I get paid and get into the swing of things I might think it is great, but until then, I am kicking myself.
On the positive side, I get to bring Lily and Lance if necessary.
On the negative, it is a dinner time and most of the evening which is usually family time.
Another positive, it is only till February.
Positive: adult interaction
Negative: out-of-town trips (gone all day)
Negative: I have a 5 week old baby I am trying to handle (thankfully she is a decent sleeper thus far)
Positive: location is in walking distance
Positive: it pays money! (unlike my full time job- domestic engineering)

The Job: Assistant Swim Coach to a small private college
Practice is Monday through Friday- dinner time which makes things rough, but I don't have to get a sitter for Lance (positive), but I still have to cook, clean, etc (negative).
There are only 7 swimmers which is very manageable compared to my previous experience with high school swimming (40-50 swimmers). The swimmers so far seem very nice, low key, good students and will make the job fun and not a chore.
So this could turn out really good or really bad, only time will tell.

4 weeks really fly by

So Lily was born 4 weeks ago to day, by the time I post this is will probably be the exact same time. 4 weeks have really flown by. I remember with Lance the first four weeks seemed to tick by so slowly. Lily is a pretty good sleeper which helps time fly by, she went 6 hours Saturday night which would have been great if I would have slept the whole time, but I was up and ready to go at her normal 1:30 feeding. She was back to every 3 hours last night which I have surprisingly adapted to. It is amazing how you can adapt to broken sleep, I never thought 3 years ago that I would be able to survive because I was an 8 hour a night girl, but I guess having a first born who didn't sleep through the night consistently till 17 months and then stopped this past summer gets you use to lack of sleep. These last few weeks have really flown by because I can do so much more this time around. With Lance I was still pretty sore, exhausted, up all the time at night and doing little things was hard like walking down to the end of our street took all the strength out of me and this time I have been going places, taking walks, going to the park, etc. I also have a lot more confidence this time around, I am not afraid of taking her out and I can handle her crying better. I have a hard time remembering what it was like to be hugely pregnant and life was just the three of us. I miss the ease of going out (especially in the evenings), going to the park with Lance (and not holding a baby), I miss not having to sit down every 3 hours to nurse, I miss my belly (maternity clothes don't fit the same and my old clothes don't fit), but I don't miss the heartburn, not being able to eat so much (I love eating and food right now), and being uncomfortable most of the time. Four weeks, I just can't believe it. Tomorrow is my follow up doctor's appointment. I am kind of sad to be saying good-bye to my OB and the nurses that I have seen on a very regular basis for the last nine months, it will be strange not going to an appointment for a whole year, that seems like such a long time (and who knows if I will ever be back on a regular basis again). I will be going to the pediatrician on a regular basis, but they aren't as nice and friendly as the OB's office and a lot of people there are sick and not there for something positive. So four weeks down, countless more to go.

for the most part she is easy

"They" say that all babies are different and if your first was difficult your second will be easy and vice versa. I know that there are exceptions to the rule, but so far it is true. Lance was a very particular baby, ate a lot (every 2 hours), slept little, would cry if anything was not exactly the way he wanted it, hated all baby equipment (swings, vibrating chairs, car seat, etc). Lily in comparison, is a very easy, content baby, she will hang out in baby stuff, she does not scream every time we put her in the car seat (she does sometimes), she sleeps pretty good ( i sometimes have to wake her up to feed her), she doesn't have a scream that will send you into a panic, she is for the most part a very happy baby. We kept waiting for her to wake up and become like her brother, but after three weeks, though we have our moments, or should I say our hours from 6:30 to 9:30 every evening, she has not become the difficult baby we were expecting, though there is still time. We have been able to take her out a few times, Target, Panera, the playground (me being germ freak made sure no one touched her and she was tucked away in a sling the whole time) which we could never do with lance. Lance fortunately loves Lily and is always a big help when he can. Fortuantely she is a good sleeper and I have had some one on one times with him which I really missed our first week home. Today we are having issues because Lily seems to be extra demanding (she wants to eat every two hours) then add in Lance who did not sleep well last night and we have a recipe for disaster, oh did I mention it is suppose to rain today too, so little man might not get the outside time he needs daily. For the most part things are going better then expected. We have had our issues with nursing, why is something so natural, so hard??? Last night I finally got her nursing on my "bad" side without it hurting, so hopefully things will get better, I hate this beginning, learning stage. I keep telling myself I can do it, I did it with Lance and we can't afford for me not to, formula is so expensive! 3 weeks down, 11 months and 1 week left! I must set smaller goals. Lily is having a hard time going to sleep, must go help.