Truths pt 1

Motherhood means that you are the last person to get your needs met, always.

This is not necessarily anyone's fault. Some of it happens out of necessity. Babies needs are automatically prioritized. Some of it we do to ourselves. "No I'm not really that tired, dear. You go take a nap." I have definitely said this to my husband when I was probably more tired than him.

Regardless of why it's happening, it's a truth of motherhood. I will nearly always put my babies and my husband ahead of myself. Moms everywhere do it,too. Your needs come last. Unless you are with your own mother or your sisters. In those moments, relish the fact that you can shower, wear clean-ish clothes, and eat real meals at real meal times without guilt. Because if you mother is like mine, she makes sure your needs are met. Now why does that sound familiar ;)

Success!!!!!!

Yes, I know that's a lot of exclamation points, but I have accomplished something truly awesome.  Well I think it's truly awesome, anyway.  Here's the story...

My wonderful husband has a business trip this week and I do not feel up to handling the twins on my own for that long.  I'm sure I could do it, but it's entirely likely that I'd be reduced to talking to myself and eating cold cereal for every meal.  Instead I am at my parents' house for the week.  I think it was the wise choice.

In order to get here, though, I had to make the four hour drive alone with Little Man and Honeybun.  Normally we would drive up all together on the weekend, but Little Man had a doctor's appointment that couldn't be rescheduled.  

The drive went just fine, as long as you're cool with an hour of constant fussing and ten minutes of full-on screaming at the end.  I was so glad to have my sister's help when we arrived.  She unloaded the car while I fed babies and then made the two of us a delicious grilled pizza dinner.  I should have taken pictures, but I was too tired to think of that at the time.

I'm inordinately proud of this little accomplishment.  I feel it bodes well for my future freedom and our future adventures.

P.S.  It it possible to put a pacifier back in the mouth of the screaming baby in the rear facing car seat situated behind your seat while driving.  It's just not comfortable. 

The Most Stressful Thing I Do

I never thought that my most stressful regular activity would involve a tiny pair of nail clippers.  The two times a week that I trim Little Man and Honeybun's nails are the most stressful 30-40 minutes of my week.  They aren't too bad about it, but when you're trying to cut the world's tiniest fingernails any movement throws you off.

I used to stress out about everything, and if I didn't have a legitimate cause for stress I would worry that I had forgotten one.  Now I stress out about fingernails.  Oh how the world has changed!

Little Man

So the last post established that my daughter will henceforth be known as Honeybun.  My son will now be referred to as Little Man.  I'm not sure why or when I started referring to him as Little Man, but I've been doing it most of his existence.

He is an adorably chubby and happy child.  He started out pretty clingy and averse to sleeping on his own, but he's outgrown that.  He desperately wants to suck his thumb, but can't quite get it yet.  He rolled over for the first time at two months.  He's much more even tempered than Honeybun, but he will typically start crying if she goes on long enough.  We think he gets concerned for his sister.  He's such a joy of a baby and I'm  excited to see how he grows and develops.

Honeybun

So I have infant twins, one boy and one girl.  Henceforth I'll be referring to my little girl as Honeybun and this post is just about her.  She's sitting in my lap helping me write this post, which really means that she's occasionally kicking her foot at the iPad and creating interesting words for me to correct.

Honeybun is an adorable little girl, when she wants to be.  When she's in a good mood she smiles, coos, plays, and snuggles so sweetly.  When she is not in a good mood she screams.  Honeybun can produce unbelievable shrieking screams for an unbelievable length of time.  Luckily, she's becoming happier and happier as she gets older.  She's truly the best and most beautiful daughter I could ever ask for, and I'm so excited to watch her grow and get to know her better.

Beach volleyball

Why do the female beach volleyball players have to wear such tiny uniforms?  I understand that it's a sport that began on the beach where the women playing it were wearing bathing suits, but really.  These women are Olympic athletes and they should be able to play in a pair or shorts if they prefer.  There are literally regulations about how large a beach volleyball uniform can be.  It seems to be a rule that half of your butt has to hang out, and these athletes don't even have big butts.  Plus, the tops aren't that big either.  I don't think I could be a beach volleyball player because my top would not fit in the uniform top.

The whole thing seems ridiculous.  The men don't have to play beach volleyball in speedos, they get to wear shorts and sleeveless jerseys.  Even on a sunny day in August, London can't possibly be a comfortable place to wear a bikini.  I wish the powers that be in beach volleyball would let the athletes have more choice in their uniforms.  If they want to play in a tiny bikini with their cheeks hanging out in the breeze that's fine, but if they want to don some under armor or a pair of shorts, let them.

Colds

Before I had babies I almost never caught a cold.  I've been known to skip the colds my husband brought home.  I worked with school-aged kids for two years and only got sick once.  Since I got pregnant I've had 4 colds in less than one year, two of them in the past month.  Nine months of pregnancy plus recovering from a c-section and the exhaustion of taking care of newborn twins has destroyed my immune system.

The real problem with these last two colds is that I can't take my usual medicines because I am nursing and I need to be alert enough to take care of my sniffly babies.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Little Man and Honeybun are also on their second colds in the past month.  My poor babies are waking up every hour or so because they cough and sneeze and snore and lose their pacifiers.  This means that mommy is up every hour or so.  My husband offered to help, but the best way to keep him healthy is to let him get as much rest as possible so I'm trying to do as much of the waking up as I can.

Here's hoping this cold is over soon and that it doesn't infect the only healthy person left in our home.  One sick mommy and two sick babies should be enough for one family.  I just have to hold out until the weekend when Daddy takes care of his babies from 5am until 10am and Mommy has a nice, long, uninterrupted sleep.