Friday Randoms - Why the hell I am tired all the time

When I first had The Good Daughter, everything was new and shiny and exciting. I was hanging out on a pregnancy chat board and reading mommy blogs and soaking it all in. It was pretty popular at the time to post a 'day in the life of' post about your schedule.

Since the blog was still mostly a food blog, I didn't post anything and now I have forgotten just how TGD and I made it through the days alive. So I think it would be interesting to document my typical day with both TGD and The Good Son so I can look at this later and grin uncontrollably that things have gotten better or shake with rage they have gotten worse.

So what a typical day looks like juggling a 3 year old, 2 month old, work and a house:

3:30 am - Up to nurse TGS. Catch up on some tv that will keep me awake, like the Republican National Convention or dick around on my phone

4:30 - put TGS in the co-sleeper and crawl into bed

4:36 - get kicked in the face by TGD as she performs the snow angel in the middle of our bed

6:30 - wake up to TGS grunting away like a pig looking for truffles, nurse him again

7:00 - put TGS in his swing, pump to build my freezer stash of breast milk, make coffee, unload the dishwasher, wipe down the kitchen counters

7:45/8:00 - TGD awakens. Make breakfast, let the dog out, TGD feeds the dog, let the dog in, tantrum #1, eat breakfast, clean up the dishes and the table, tantrum #2

8:30 - get everyone dressed, teeth and hair brushed, hands and faces washed, (on a bad day - tantrums #3-5)

8:45 - get our shit and get out of the house, drop the kids off with the strangers that raise them

9:00 - work, dick around on the internet, drink some coffee, pump a few times, take the dog outside, work

4:00 pm - pick the kids up from daycare, run to the grocery store or another errand

5:ish - get home, kick TGD outside to play before tantrum #6, throw a load of diapers in the wash, strap TGS into the moby, cook dinner

6:00 - eat the shit I made, tantrum #7-9, clean up the kitchen - again, switch over the wash to the dryer, throw another load in the wash, kick TGD outside again

6:something - nurse TGS again

7:15ish - switch the wash over to the dryer, take the dog for a walk, check on TGD running loose in the wild streets of suburbia

7:45 - get TGD in the tub, tantrum #10 , get her out and into jammies

8:00 - read a book to TGD and then one more book

8:14 - and then just one more fucking book

8:20 - tuck TGD into bed, hugs and kisses and goodnight

8:21 - reassure TGD there are no monsters or scary guys

8:22 - no, there are NO scary guys

8:23 - yes, i am sure

8:24 - i said no monsters, ok? the dog eats monsters

8:25 - love you, g'night

8:30 - nurse and put TGS down for the night, fold laundry, clean, pack bags and lunches for tomorrow, take the dog outside again

10:00 - watch the news

10:08 - fall asleep on the couch

11:30 - wake up to nurse again

12:15 am - crawl into bed to find TGD stealing my pillow

Are you tired, b/c I am fucking exhausted.

Week 23 of the Weekly Organization Challenge

This is week 23 of The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenge! This week focused on the medicine cabinet.

Currently we keep most of our medicines in the kitchen. We keep the most used - cough syrup, allergy meds, heartburn meds - in the cabinet with the drinking glasses. We keep the other meds in the kiddo cabinet.

Even though this area is grouped in with bathroom organization, you aren't supposed to store medicine in the bathroom since steam will break them down. I chose to store them in the kitchen since it is the most popular room in the house. I keep the medicines in a basket on the top shelf so no littles can get to them.

We don't tend to get sick all that much but The Good Husband seems to get hit with allergies often and one cold per winter. So we have mostly cold and allergy meds in the medicine basket. I like to group the meds together, so in this case allergy meds in the back, cold meds in the front.

If we were sick more often or had more people in the house that needed more meds, a simple way to keep them organized would be to have separate baskets for each type of meds - allergy, cold and flu, tummy issues - with labels on the front to identify them.

Organize along with me in The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenges

Breastfeeding Mother's Survival Kit

Now that I am experiencing all the joys of caring for a newborn again, I thought would share with you all the things I found that helped me survive the first few weeks nursing a newborn.

First, claim your territory. I personally like our single chair and footstool in the living room since it provides the most support when holding The Good Baby. So I plant my ass in the chair and everyone else can go away. I like to hold my babies, so I fill the DVR with The Walking Dead episodes and settle in for 12 hours of cuddle time with the baby.

Next I have gathered several essentials for the breastfeeding new mom and kept them close in a storage box. Since my ass is planted for a good chunk of the day, I need things I will use within reach, so I don't have to put the baby down and get up or ask The Good Husband and hear him bitch.

So what do I have in the breastfeeding mother's survival kit?

1. Lanolin - ohmygawd does breastfeeding hurt like a motherfucker in the first few weeks. Having a newborn Hoover on your nipples 12 times a day can lead to cracked, sore and bleeding nipples. Remember that time Tara Reid was at a Puff Daddy party and the strap on her dress fell down to reveal a really bad boob job that looked like wolverines had been gnawing on her tit? Yeah, your nipple will look like that. Slather that bitch up with lanolin and it will help.

2. Painkillers - b/c, let's face it, lanolin just won't be enough. If you have pushed your kid out of your vag or through the wall of your abdomen, you will be in pain. And the kind folks at the hospital should give you pain meds. You might worry about taking them and how it will effect your supply but let me just say - TAKE ALL THE MEDS. Seriously. Take them as often as you can until they run out.

3. Snacks - for the next few weeks, most of your meals will consist of things you can eat with one hand. Keep some shit, like this and this on hand.

4. Fenugreek - just to make sure your milk supply is at a healthy level.

5. Vitamin D drops - this is something new to me in the three years since I had The Good Daughter. but since I don't want TGB to get rickets or scurvy or whatever, I give him the drops.

6. Mylicon - your baby will probably be more gassy than your 80 year old uncle Jack and will fart louder than him too. but since you don't want to see your baby in pain with a belly full of gas, give him some drops at each feeding.

7. Spit up rags - the same immature system that causes your baby to have farts and explosive shits that will clear a room will also force stuff out the other end. be prepared to be puked on. it will remind you of college, only this time I hope you don't ruin your favorite shirt.

8. Boob therapy - you know that lanolin you have on hand for your sore nipples, well the rest of your boob will hurt too and you will need something to soothe it. Thera Pearl 3 in 1 Breast Therapy (the purple cloth, next to my phone on the photo) is an amazing product. You can heat it up to help with pumping or you can freeze it for when you are engorged and feel like you have 15 lbs bowling balls on your chest.

9. Nipple helpers - Latch Assist is another great product if you have flat or inverted nipples. I'm sorry you now know too much about my nipples.

10. Smart Phone - nothing sucks more than being up at 3 am and falling asleep while nursing your baby. You wake up in a panic thinking you might have dropped your baby or worse. So keep your phone on hand to keep your ass awake in the wee small hours.

11. Reading Material - for when you have watched all of The Walking Dead. A few breastfeeding books I have are this one, this one and this one. My aunt gave me that Supper Nanny book. I don't know if that is a passive aggressive comment on how we have done with The Good Daughter or not.

12. Snot sucker - you know that bulb syringe they give you in the hospital? Yeah, that ain't sucking shit out. Get this. Seriously.

13. Bink - I know this is controversial for a BFing mom, but I think they are a life saver.

14. Remote - once, while on maternity leave with TGD, I couldn't find the remote and had to sit through a marathon of Rambo movies. It was a horrible experience and whenever I hear Stalone's voice I get PTSD. Don't let that happen to you.

15. Boppy pillow - since both kids were c/s babies, I nursed them in the football hold for the longest time, while my incision healed. The boppy was a huge help in getting everyone comfortable and on the boob.

16. Baby Tracker - to help you keep track of the shit. literally.

Since you are BFing a baby, it is hard to see how many ounces they are eating a day. The best gauge is "output" aka shitty and pissy diapers. You will be told to keep track of how many of each your baby is making and that will tell you if they are getting enough milk.

Now normally you would think you would be able to keep track of that on your own, or remember the last breast you used to nurse, but in the dark haze of sleep deprivation you won't. Trust me. So I have created this tracker to keep track of how often you nurse and which side, when the baby sleeps and yup, how many pissy and shitty diapers you change in a day.

This will help you start to see a pattern over time. When TGS was up every two hours for the first two weeks, I thought he was broken and - holy shit! I don't remember your sister nursing this much - but when I checked her trackers, I saw that she was nursing every hour.

If you are expecting a new baby or just had one - Congrats!! You will get to sleep again sometime. You can also download a copy of this template here.

Week 22 of the Weekly Organization Challenge

This is week 22 of The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenge! This week focused on the bathroom. 

In our house we currently only have two bathrooms, one guest/kids and the other the master bathroom. This post focuses on the guest/kids bathroom since it is the one most people in our house see.

 And like every other room in the house, this one isn't painted or decorated yet either.

We totally fucking suck in that department.

But it is organized and this is how:

Next to the sink, I keep a basket for washcloths and guest soaps. I am running low on the soaps right now, since we haven't stayed in a hotel and I haven't had the chance to steal any, but this thing is normally full.
 

 

I made sure the kids have a place to hang their towels so wet towels don't end up on the floor. I used the command hooks again, this time in a brushed steel color to match the hardware.

I also keep the shower curtain closed for two reasons - one, it allows the plastic liner to dry thoroughly every day after The Good Husband or kids use it; and two, it allows me to hide the baby bathtub and kids toys that live in the bathtub. Let's face it, no one is going to come over and just happen to take a shower. There is no reason for anyone to be in there without advance notice, which would give me time to get the toys out.

However, people are over on short notice that need to wash their hands, so I keep out hand towels and soap in a pump bottle since most people are turned off by the idea of using bar soap.

Organize along with me in The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenges

Week 21 of the Weekly Organization Challenge

This is week 21 of The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenge! This week focused on the linen closet.

I don't have a linen closet. Sad trombone. 

I have a laundry closet that I want to turn into a linen closet some day. I do have some linen closets that I love.

Like this one

 source, via pinterest 

and these

source, via pinterest 

but I have nothing so awesome in my house yet. I do however have some tips on how to keep your linen closet organized:

~keep three sets of sheets for each bed in the house (one for the wash, one for the bed and one for the drawer)

~group like items together - kid towels and washcloths, guest towels and washcloths, etc.

~keep seasonal items towards the back or in a less used space

~store bulkier items on the top shelves

~store medicine and first aid in the closet and not in the bathroom

~store the flat and fitted sheet in the matching pillow case to keep items together

Next week we move out of the laundry room and into the bathroom!

Organize along with me in The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenges

Week 20 of the Weekly Organization Challenge

This is week 20 of The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenge! This week focused on laundry baskets and hampers. I grouped this under the laundry room but in actuality we don't keep hampers in the laundry room. We keep them in the master bedroom closet. 

And there is a legitimate reason for this.

If we kept the hampers anywhere other than the bedroom and maybe the bathroom, clothes would never actually make it into the hampers. They would gather on the floor until laundry day and we would look like a house auditioning for Hoarders: Buried Alive.

Like I have said before, you have to work with your natural habits. No one in our family would take their clothes off, walk into the hallway, open the laundry room door and place their clothes in the hampers. No one. And to try and force us to do it would just result in someone screaming at 8:30 on a Tuesday night, "Sweet fucking, 8 pound, 4 ounce little baby Jesus, lying in his manger, can't you pick up your damn clothes?!?"

Not good.

But I do think hamper systems like this one I saw on Pinterest, is a good idea. I even think if we had something like this in the bathroom or bedroom, we would put our clothes in it all the time.

But for now, we just have the hampers on the floor in the closet. When we re-do the bedroom closet, we might update our system then but for now, this is what it is.

Organize along with me in The Good Wife's Weekly Organization Challenges