Goodbye...see you on my other blog!

Thank you for staying with me through this journey of pregnancy and baby #8! I am now officially no longer pregnant...lol...and 6 weeks postpartum has come and gone. I will be switching back over to my normal blog, which will record the comings and goings of normal everyday life.

You can join me over there....here!

http://7blessingsfromabove.blogspot.com/ in case the link doesn't work.

6 Weeks! At last...this is supposed to be the magic date..?!

If that's true, why am I so tired? This morning I am bone-weary, melt-in-the-couch tired. I suppose it could have something to do with the fact that last night Charlie didn't go to sleep until 12:30, then woke up at 4:15 and nursed 'til 5am. Then I had to wake him up at 6:30 to nurse 'til 7am so that he would be fed and sleeping while I took the kids to school. Once he went back to sleep, I made their lunches and got them all up/dressed/fed and off to school.

Last night I made up a list of things I wanted to do today, and actually most of them were/are things that just need to get done anyway. Like tidy the house, 2 loads of laundry, etc. I was going to come home, nurse the baby, then just dive in and really get some things done. I was also going to try to just drink green smoothies only today - I've been eating way too much chocolate, and baked goods/sugar and my body is crying out for a detox.

But none of that even happened. I am so tired. All I can do is kind of just sit here, after putting on a movie & giving the kids 2 & 4, fruit snacks. Even Charlie is still in his carseat on my bed sleeping....I should be waking him up and feeding him so he'll stay on his loose schedule. I SHOULD be sleeping, actually, but getting woken up multiple times by the kids just is more torturous when you're so dead tired than staying up is, so.

In my mind I see that it's 6 weeks and my clothes are tighter than ever, and it's time to start working out again and dieting. Or at least eating clean and maybe throwing in a couple of fasting 'til dinner days per week. But when I wake up, and I know I have to exercise and I know I have to eat clean and there is NO chocolate in my future that day it's like I have nothing to look forward to. I'm barely able to cope as it is, with so much required of my time.

But I'm not complaining, I'm content where I am for now - I did give myself until February 1st to just kind of take it easy in the whole losing weight department and it feels nice not to have the pressure.

I remember though, that 6 weeks is the turning point alot of times - the whole blurry fog starts to lift. And in Charlie's defense, he did almost sleep 4 hours last night! He NEVER does that, and the fact that he's starting to sleep longer at night is a very cheery thought! He's never had his days & nights mixed up, his little life is just all the same, every 3 hours like clockwork. But it'll sure be nice when he starts sleeping 5-6 hours at a time. I'll never take sleeping all night long with no interruptions for granted again! (you'd think I would have figured that out by now after having 7 newborns previously, ha!)

I am longing to go running these days. I think because it doesn't really feel like exercise to me, it's more like an enjoyable walk in that it doesn't require hurculean amounts of effort like lifting weights does. The temps have been in the mid 30's which I know is not as freezing as some areas in the country, but for here it is FREAKIN' COLD to go running! But it's not really that, so much as it is the darkness. I LOVE running with the music cranked to some upbeat tunes. It's super exhilarating and gives a rush like nothing else (well, drugs maybe - just having finished giving birth!). And I really don't mind running in the dark, our neighborhood has lots of well-lit streets. HOWEVER I don't feel comfortable running with music, in the dark. And that takes all the fun out of it!

So - waaah on that account. I'm trying to figure out how I can still run, but the only time really, is after the kids come home from school at around 4pm. Hmmm. Me thinks that is just too much of a wild and crazy time to have Rachel babysit. Ah well, I suppose soon enough the days will get lighter earlier and I will have more sleep under my belt so I can get up before everyone wakes up and go running. I did that often last spring/summer and it was DIVINE. Glorious sunny spring mornings! DEF on my "to do" list again.

5 Weeks + 1 day Postpartum - glimpse of a day in my life (more added)

Today has been so wonderful! I think God delights in doing that to us sometimes - we have these fears and thoughts about how it will be, based on what we've experienced in the past and then of course we tend to amplify it into what if I have an AWFUL night's sleep and then I STILL have to get up at 6:30 to get the kids to school? What if Charlie won't nurse when he's supposed to and ends up screaming for like 45 minutes in the bedroom and on the way to/from school because I can't stop to nurse him in the busy bussle of things?

Charlie slept for 3 1/2 hours straight last night! I think that's a record - from 11:30-3am...so, so nice! Too bad Jack4 came in my room with a bad dream at 2am, lol...that's just how it goes though. My thought is that if Charlie can sleep for longer than 2 hours at a time once, he'll do it again! Not that I'm complaining really, though - I think the whole reason why I have a good supply of milk (ok, maybe the beer and oatmeal are helping too?) is because he religiously nurses on both sides every 3 hours for half an hour. Like, on the dot. Or sooner. It's nice to see him gaining!

Anyway, so at 3:30 he was finished nursing and fell asleep right away, then didn't wake up again until 6am. So nice!! I was able to sleep then, until 7:15 because I did all the prep (clothes & lunches) last night. When he fell asleep once finished at 6:30, I gingerly and tentatively put him in his carseat all cozy and ready to go, and thankfully he fell asleep promptly. I was a bit nervous about that. So when we left at 8:15 for school, I just grabbed his seat and put it in the car.

I was able to get the kids up (soooo tired they were, they've been on a majorly late to bed/late to get up schedule for the entire Christmas break!) and go about our normal pre-baby schedule/routine. It was a bit hard for them, they were kind of confused because I do things like I always have, and not how they were starting to get used to DAD or SISTER doing them while I was MIA.

Of course Grace7 refused to eat her cereal (omg lol, O totally wrote "sister" and left it that way for an entire day! No, I do not force my children to cannibalize!) because I put uncooked oatmeal in it (standard for our family, they've grown up on it and she knows it), and shoved it down the table length where it sloshed and spilled. Hmmm. Then Isaac9 was found back in his bed, although fully clothed, covering his head and entire body with a blanket saying that his leg hurt. Hmmm. Just normal stuff, you know.

On the way to school none of them fought which is a huge miracle - they almost always do. We are in tight quarters in our car and are even more so now since we've added another little body in a big fat carseat. Ha ha!

After dropping the four older ones off at school 8 minutes away, I headed back towards a different school 4 min away to drop off the Kinder, then back home to nurse the baby for half an hour while watching Mommy & Me with Jack4 and Harmony2. Harmony was pretty fussy (sick) but I tended to her as best I could and proceeded to...drumroll...do my very first workout without a big heavy belly! LOVE LOVE LOVED it - I went realllly light because 1) I'm obviously not in shape and 2) I don't want to be majorly sore tomorrow. My normal workout calls for 9 different exercises done 10 reps each, then repeat 3x. Today I did every single one, but only did the first set of 10 reps, and with 8lb weights only. Very light compared to before, but I still can feel it for sure. I mean, I definitely have not done ANY pushups since like, 4 months pregnant. Ha ha!

Only problem, wow, I really just do not have ANY extra time with the baby and exercise (which means extra showering) and taking the kids 3x per day! Yowza! It's like everything fits into these little time slots and if I follow what I'm supposed to do, I have only time for those things. NOTHING extra. Like right now I am blogging but I should be tidying up the morning tornado mess, it's the only time I have in the whole day until after the kids come home from school.

After my 30 min workout, I went to take a shower and oh yeah, forgot that the main bathtub (I didn't want to use my room's bath becuz baby was sleeping and I knew the littles would totally wake him up) was plugged. So I got the drain-o, and it said to wait 15 minutes for it to work. So I was like hmmm...what should I do while waiting? I surveyed the disaster that was the bathroom and decided yep, clean THAT. So I worked on that for about 20 minutes and it felt so great to get that done. (I HATE cleaning bathrooms, it's one of my majorly hated jobs lol!)

Jumped in the shower and then quickly dressed, then to the kitchen to make my oatmeal for the morning. While it cooked, I unloaded the dishwasher while Harmony2 helped me. Oh no, look at the TIME! I have to go get Marie5 from Kinder in just 10 minutes! If I'm even just 5 minutes late they have her wait in the office and I have to bring all the kids in to get her. Can I gulp down the oatmeal? Aargh!

Got distracted reading my friend's birth story (soooo cool, Annalise!!!) while eating bfast and barely got there in time, then back home to nurse for half hour, then make lunch for the 3 littles, and now I am here. It is 12:40 now and we have leave to get the kids at school at 3pm. It's going to be tricky now, figuring out how to get them all down for a nap so that I can sleep too....!

But I am thankful for today, it was been wonderful to be back on a schedule again!!!!!

Edited/added at 9:15pm

Well, days can't be ALL perfect, right? The rest of the day involved a nap for me for 1 hour and 20 minutes! That was awesome. After the kids came home from school I was involved in things like locking myself in the bathroom to nurse to keep the 3 kids ages 5, 4, 2 from continuing to fight, tease, and cry and climb all over me while nursing. Sometimes I just have to retreat and block everything out otherwise I'll go crazy.

So that was one of those times.

DH was also gone all night - he's still not home, so it was pretty stressful. Especially dinner time when everyone to some degree is crying or yelling or trying to talk to me and I'm trying to make dinner while a couple of them are practicing rollerskating IN the kitchen. Which is pretty small to begin with, but the only hard floor we have in our home. Oh...and the baby was laying on the couch crying too. lol When it rains, it pours but in all fairness when the sun is out it really shines too!

So now I have the task set before me of making lunches, laying out the clothes, and getting the baby to sleep so I can also sleep. Oh, and telling the kids to settle down/get back in bed/you already had a drink of water/stop teasing. Aaaaand I get to enjoy a beer while perusing pinterest.

Just sayin'.

Life's simple pleasures become more pleasurable when they only come in snatches! ...but snuggling with Charlie is pretty awesome too. =) He's currently snoring on my shoulder, lol.

Yes, my phone camera is crappy but -- hey, don't knock it...I'll get an iphone someday!