Layout Image
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Quilts

Archive for preparation

Last-minute changes

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (2)·   November 14th, 2007

In my previous life, before twins, I was always a planner. Long-term and short-term, I’m a scheduler. A list-maker. Spontaneous is not my strong suit. By and large, this is a good thing when you have infant twins. If you are going to get anything done at all, it requires advance preparation. So you can imagine my irritation when someone else messes up my plans.

Last week, it was the cleaning people who come to my house every other week (a must for any new mom, I think). They usually come every other Wednesday around 10:30. OK, no problem. I can plan to be out of the house then. A long walk at the pond if it’s nice, or a trip to the mall if it isn’t. I make plans with people to meet them. And then, at 10:45pm the night before, I get an email asking if it’s OK to come at 9am instead of 10:30. Um, NO! Honestly, less than 12 hours’ notice is poor form under any circumstances. But with two babies, it’s impossible. Can I even start with the fact that I only got the email because I was up at 3am? Ugh.

Today, it was my OB’s office, yet again. I had an appointment at 3:45 this afternoon (just a checkup, nothing interesting). Not a great time of day, since that can be a fussy time for the babies, but I don’t tend to have a lot of choice in the matter. The other bummer about having the appointment today is that it was unseasonably mild and sunny today. A great day to leave the house. But I am loathe to do more than one outing in a day, if I can avoid it, since it can seriously mess with our routine. And so I planned my day around this lame excuse for an outing. And then, my phone rang at 1:45. My doctor was home sick. But had hoped she’d feel better by the afternoon, which is why it took them so long to call me. Two hours before the appointment (by which time I’m in final preparation mode… I know who needs to be fed before we get into carseats, etc.).

Not cool! I mean, I’m sorry she was sick. She’s a nice person and all. But come on! That was my whole day! I could have used my one outing in the morning, when the babies are happier. I could have gone to the mall or out to lunch. But no, I did laundry, saving my outing for the stupid appointment. So, I was crabby, and then the babies got fussy. Since it was still sunny and about 60 degrees, I plopped them in the stroller and we walked for an hour. For the first half, Daniel started crying if I dared stop moving. Ugh. And there aren’t a lot of good places to walk near me, since most of the streets are dead ends (makes for a boring walk, back & forth), and the ones that aren’t are pretty busy. But walk, we did. And I wasn’t even feeling much less crabby until we got home, I pulled down the blankets I’d hung over the stroller to block the sun and wind, and both babies were calmly awake. Ahhh…

DSC_0006

At least the dog didn’t complain

DSC_0010

Comments (2)
Categories : Making life easier
Tags : NaBloPoMo, preparation, walks

Finding the rhythm

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (2)·   September 20th, 2007

This is my third solo week with the twins, after having quite an onslaught of visitors last week. For as much as being alone makes me really appreciate it when I have extra hands, the converse is also true. Having a (very) full house for eight days has also made me realize that I actually sort of enjoy being on my own with the babies. It’s hectic and stressful at times, but it’s nice to only have to worry about the three of us, and not wonder when other people are coming by or what they’ll want to do.

I’ve also gotten pretty darn good at getting us all out of the house when we want to. To do it well, though, takes some advance planning. If we’re going somewhere, the ideal time to leave is immediately after both of them have eaten. But that means by the time they start eating, I need to have already decided what we’re going to do and prepped/packed for it. There is very seldom a spontaneous trip outside of the house. But I do generally manage at least one excursion per day, whether it’s a walk around the neighborhood or an organized event.

For instance, I started a developmental class/group at a local maternity center yesterday. It was a blast, and I’m really glad I’m doing it and looking forward to next week. But the class starts at 9:30am, so I knew I should leave the house by 8:45. There was no earthly way I’d shower in the morning, so I had to shower and pack my diaper bag (change of clothes, blankets, burp cloths, diapers, food, etc.) the night before. Then, after they ate at about 6:30am, I could begin final preparations. Get everyone (including me) dressed, diaper bag and stroller in the car, drive a few towns away, extract all of us and our stuff from the car to the center, get settled… it’s a production. Several of the moms expressed astonishment that I had gotten out of the house with two babies, that they had a hard enough time doing it with their singleton. And I’m sure that’s true, that they find it a challenge to leave the house with their baby. That said, I doubt most of them started planning the outing two days ahead of time.

So yes, I make it out of the house with the babies nearly every day, pretty much unless it’s raining. And some people seem to find that impressive. But this “impressive” feat is necessary to my sanity. I had very real concerns before the babies were born about how I’d do at the stay-at-home thing. I worried about being out-of-my-mind with the combined chaos and boredom of taking care of two pre-verbal infants. And that worry is not gone. But so far, my plan to be proactive about seeking activity is paying off. Sure, the fact that they still eat roughly every three hours tends to make the day blur quickly by. But one outing a day is enough to make me feel downright busy.

So, impressive? I don’t know. Definitely not effortless, but also not that difficult with a little advanced planning. And absolutely worth it.

Comments (2)
Categories : Newborns, Out and about
Tags : mom and baby classes, preparation
   

Got to pay the bills!

Archives

Search

Grab My Button



NaBloPoMo – November 2011

NaBloPoMo 2011

Superhero Photo E-Course

Alltop, confirmation that I kick ass

How Do You Do It?

Add to Technorati Favorites

Goddess in Progress
Copyright 2006-2011 All Rights Reserved
iThemes Builder by iThemes
Powered by WordPress