I’m writing this post at 2pm on Mothers Day.
Today is the first day since we brought Isabelle home that it’s just us four. Tim’s mom left early this morning and we’re officially on our own, which is both exciting and overwhelming.
Isabelle is eight days old.
Clara is almost exactly 22 months old.
I ‘slept in’ until 8:30am this morning and woke up to Tim telling me that girls had made me breakfast. (Thank goodness Tim actually made the breakfast, because otherwise I would almost certainly have been feasting on dog food, which is the only thing Clara can reach in our cupboard.)
Clara had also picked out a bouquet of pink roses and had practiced saying “Happy Mommy’s Day!” It was adorable.
#Blessed
We decided (at the last minute) to go to the 9:30am church service and only got there 15 minutes late, which I’m considering a win.
However, Clara cried when we dropped her off at the nursery for the first time ever. And an hour later we got paged to go to the nursery to pick her up early. It was so sad for us because she usually loves her time with her ‘friends’! She’s been extra-clingy to Tim since we brought Isabelle home (she’s been pretty indifferent/angry with me, which is a whole separate issue), and I guess she isn’t quite ready to go back to some of her normal activities. I’m hoping this is a short-lived phase!
So while Tim was picking Clara up from the nursery, Isabelle decided to wake up and cry. Luckily, it was during the last portion of the church service, and we were able to get to a classroom to collect ourselves for a bit and to chat with friends and wish everyone a Happy Mothers Day. I was able to feed Isabelle while Clara clung to Tim like her life depended on it.
Then we changed Isabelle, who pees all over the changing pad every single time we change her. EVERY TIME. I don’t know why this happens because Clara never had this particular issue. It’s like Isabelle feels fresh air on her butt and instantly feels the need to let go of all of her bodily functions. It’s so strange for us. Anyway, we changed her pee-soaked outfit, cleaned up the mess, and finally made our way out of the church (a good hour after the service had ended).
(Clara, of course, tried to climb on the changing table, insisted on holding Isabelle, and generally whined her way through us attempting to change Isabelle and make our way to the car.)
I should have admitted defeat and gone home at that point, but no, I decided we needed to stop by a consignment store.
Rookie mistake.
We got to the store and discovered that Isabelle had peed/pooped through her second outfit of the day. (How did this happen a mere 5 minutes after we had just changed her?!) We then had to buy an outfit off the dollar rack so that we had something to change her into since we had only packed one extra outfit in the diaper bag. (We’ll be modifying our packing habits going forward.) I also bought a ring sling, because I really want to see if that works for us. We now need to wash that ring sling because Isabelle got poop all over that, too.
Clara, of course, whined her way through the store and made the whole experience generally unpleasant, as over-tired toddlers sometimes do.
Then, during Isabelle’s third outfit change (which took place in the trunk of our car), she peed all over the changing pad/the car trunk, again. Of course she did, right?
So Isabelle started crying. Then Clara started crying. Tim changed Isabelle while I explained to Clara that she doesn’t need to cry every time Isabelle cries. I’m pretty sure she didn’t understand or absorb a single word I said. Oh well.
We got home at 1pm, which put Clara an hour behind on her nap schedule. And that was before she decided to stall by insisting on holding Isabelle again.
Finally we fed her some peanut butter toast while I stripped down into my topless ‘newborn mom uniform’ to feed Isabelle.
Now both babies are sleeping and I don’t even have the energy to think about eating lunch. I may shower so I can wash my hair and take a Mothers Day pic with my two little loves, but that also may be too much effort at this point. I might just open a book and read for a while until one of these two girls wakes up and demands my attention.
Happy Mothers Day!
(I always feel like I’m supposed to end every motherhood post with “yeah it’s hard/tiring/draining but it’s SO worth it” but I’m going to resist the temptation to do that here, and maybe even going forward. Sometimes I think it’s enough to say “This is motherhood for me today. The end.” Plus, today didn’t seem especially difficult or tiring, it just is what it is – life with two under two!)
Update: Clara slept for one hour instead of her normal 2.5 hours. Oy vey.
