Life with 2 under 2

My son turned 2 today. I’ve graduated from being a mom of 2 under 2, to 2 under 3... Yay me! Seriously, keeping boys alive is hard work, I deserve a pat on the back! Just this morning already he fell off of the recliner and almost busted his head on a dumbbell. Why are boys so reckless? Hopefully that's the extent of his dangerous shenanigans today. 

I've been reflecting on the past year, he and I have had a lot of changes in our life. We welcomed his new baby brother to the world, and we moved into a new house. They are both amazing changes but we are both still adjusting. In fact, we all are. I also am a bonus mom of two older children, and before my boys came into the world, it was just me and them. So if they wanted to get up and go to pool or beach, sure! 

I have them all summer & I had major anxiety when I was pregnant about how this summer would go. I didn’t want to bore the older kids to death because I knew we would Be home for the majority of the time, I would be recovering from my C-section, learning the new baby & getting back into the breastfeeding routine. How am I gonna to take care of everyone and keep everyone happy without having a nervous breakdown? Also, it’s summer it’s HOT, realistically I cannot take a newborn to the pool or leave unattended. The eldest helps with both babies but she’s 12 she’ll only focus on them for so long before she’s over it.

Now we have to think about the activity we want to do & usually the answer is no. I like to think I’m a Super Mom, but venturing out with 4 kids to do various activities alone, c’mon that’s a lot to handle! It’s hard enough going to the grocery store with everybody. So unless it’s been a group activity with other parents around this Summer we’ve all been pretty much indoors. There’s been a lot of screen time. We as moms feel guilty when there’s too much technology & not enough books & crafting... but some days Sanity > Entertainment.

With just moving into the house too we’ve been busy still working on things here in & around the house & yard. Hopefully soon we’ll be fire pit, water slide & kiddie pool ready! Thankfully we live in Myrtle Beach, where summer lasts until November!

The ages of our kids are 12, 8, 2 and three months. The older kids are pretty much doing similar activities now. They want to be on the go! Water parks, Theme Parks, all the parks!! The younger kids are not ready for their level of activities, obviously.

There’s definitely pros & cons to having the baby’s close together in age. The biggest Pro I think, is the fact My toddler and newborn will grow up together learning similar things around the same times. Like swimming, bikes, reading, school etc... I think it’ll make Mommin’ a lot easier when they are coloring and looking for bugs and being dirty superhero-ninja boys at the same time. Also they will always be in the same schools which to me is a huge relief. 

Another pro is I’m not out of my baby-zone meaning I’m still used to catering to my toddler’s every want & need, so it’s been overall easy to adjust to taking care of the newborn. My toddler has been sleeping through the night since about 1 year old. But during the day it’s his constant Whining & Pleading, and me deciphering & pleasing. So to have to add one more human to cater to has not been much of an adjustment. I would not have wanted to be starting over with all the newborn duties while I have a kid in school. It’s easier to just get this part all done now.

I’m tired. REM sleep is rare. There’s a lot Of crying... usually just them, sometimes me... I get all my steps in on my Fitbit because I don’t get to sit down more than 5 mins at a time. My coffee is ALWAYS cold. They aren’t on the same napping schedule yet. (Right now the toddler is asleep & the newborn is wide awake, at least he’s entertaining himself). I am 100% sure I can change a diaper with my eyes closed. Someone is ALWAYS touching me. 

There’s times when I’m nursing the baby and the toddler is laying on me or rubbing on me. Sometimes the toddler is mad because you’re focus is on the baby & you can’t handle their need right then. Queue the tantrum. Someone always wants something from me, always. Did I mention keeping the house clean & everyone fed too? HUGE SHOUT OUT To all the single moms out there doing this alone because if it wasn’t for my hubby & me being able to escape to my bathtub with a glass of wine & some Epsom salt sometimes, I’d pass out from exhaustion! 

Let me lighten this back up for y’all. It’s not all doom & gloom. There’s a ton of beauty in the chaos. Watching how they change each day. How the toddler is learning new things & catches on so quickly. How he loves his Momma and gives me random kisses. How the baby has started to smile at me now. How all the siblings love each other. 

We are in our forever home, which I didn’t have as a kid so being able to do that for my boys... It all melts my heart and I wouldn’t change a thing (well except the lack of sleep, I’d like some more of that). Having baby’s close together can be done. And it can be easy! It seems that from what I’ve witnessed with other Momma’s no matter when you have your baby you’re never truly prepared anyway. Each child is completely different. So If you want more than one I recommend having them close together. Get all the baby duties out the way within a few years, once they start to develop their own interest & grow into their personalities it gets easier. Also, when they can get their own snacks & turn their own tv on!

We will not be having anymore babies (Daddy & Momma wanna enjoy ourselves when we’re old & gray... hopefully in Aruba). Now the focus is on teaching these ones to be good humans who love God. If we can accomplish that it was all worth it!

Postpartum Weight-loss Update

Hello everybody!! I have not fallen off the face of the earth... I have had A LOT going on in my life in the past few months. Other than the obvious of having the baby we also bought a house! Leave it to Hubby & Me to try & conquer two Huge Life changing events within the same month! I was literally laying up healing from my C-section while he was unloading the U-haul, painting and cleaning the new house. It’s been two & a half months of chaos.

With the help of family & some awesome friends we got it all done. Without someone passing out from exhaustion and/or stress. We’re settled in officially (still have work to do on the house but we have forever to do that). Now I’m just trying to get used to the new baby routine while keeping the other 3 kids satisfied.

I have not done a update on my weight because along with some other weird items that went missing, like the vegetable peeler... my scale was one of the items that decided to be lost during the move! I think my husband tossed it so I would stop driving myself crazy. But he says he doesn’t know what happened. I have yet to buy a new one which, I’m OK with! It’s been kind of nice not jumping on the scale every few days. 

My last blog post, I weighed in at 227lbs. The last time I weighed on a scale was at my mother-in-law’s house about a week ago, and I weighed 215lbs! That's a significant loss! I reached the goal I set out in that post by mainly watching my carbs, with no major workouts other than some dumbbells here & there.  Nutrition > Exercise.

Please ignore dirty mirror, it's the perfect height for toddler hands.

I am trying my best to stick to a low-carb diet. It's not always easy when you have kids who snack all day, and have 7 kinds of Ice Cream in the freezer. We had a convention to attend out of town, before the convention I did great with my eating! Wanted to make sure I didn't feel bloated while there.

There's this place we love to go in Columbia, SC called Kiki's Chicken & Waffles, we're only in Columbia once a year for the convention so we always go there, and this year, we went twice! Yes, it's that good! Worth every mighty carb! So since then for a week I have fell off the Carb wagon. Started back full force yesterday! Thankfully I was only off track for a week. I am however, so tired of starting over. I have stopped and started my whole life. Never consistent. I'm sure I've probably even said the same thing in previous blog posts! Tired of hearing myself say out loud the same things over and over “I’m gonna do this”... “I’m going to do that”... I actually do, do it, for quite a while but then it stops. I come from a long line of people who love food and I inherited that trait for sure. I wish I could be one of those folks who LOVE to workout & view food as fuel. But I’m not. Food is my friend. Food is fun & amazing!

I don’t hate working out but these days I’m wore out from Mommin'. So adding in workouts seems almost impossible. I telling myself it’s my “me-time” and hoping it gives me a boost of energy to deal with the day to day. So for now I plan to start back by doing some walking around my new neighboorhood & sprinkling some Zumba & light weight-lifting in. 3-4 days a week, as my energy allows. As you have seen, my most important factor is my food, so I have to make sure I stay on top of that, more than the workouts. 

I’ll check back in with a weight update every month or so. My first goal is to hit 200lbs when I see that on the scale I’m throwing a party! I haven’t seen 200 or less in 12 years! That’s so crazy! I’ve never calculated that until this moment! I have seriously struggled my whole life, 32 years, with my weight. Minus a year or so when I was a toddler haha! I highly recommend folks to do a low-carb diet. Not nose-diving into Keto, which I tried for a couple years, before it was cool! It was too restrictive for me to be happy with long-term. I have found that Cutting Complex Carbs is something I can live with. It’s time for Momma to get fit. I gotta keep up with these boys!