The Weeds

If I squint a little bit, I can see out of the weeds.  

They aren't as thick as they were a few weeks ago or even last week, and dare I say there may even be a path or two with some flowers along them.  Which I know Henry will pick, and Nelle will follow suit and pull a few herself, because that's Henry's latest.  Picking flowers and then presenting them to me like they're a treasure.  Of course they are!  Especially when he plucks them off of the mums by our front sidewalk that just started blooming.  At this rate, we may have one or two measly petals of red left 

in time for Halloween.  Or next week.

Truth be told, this has been the easiest transition for our family thus far.  (If you ask me, going from no kids to one kid is the hardest, although Henry as an 18-month old and a brand spanking new Nelle was pretty terrifying those first few days alone by myself.  Somehow singing songs to him wasn't quite as entertaining as it for Nelle this time around.)  I'm already used to playing zone defense by myself during the week, and Andrew and I often times parent one against the two so the other can make a mad dash to the store, pick up the tornado debris left by the tots, do dishes, whatever.  

What we didn't account for was June having colic AND acid reflux, and I spent weeks three through seven of her life thus far running her to chiropractor treatments three to four times a week with alllll three kids (you can picture what a disaster that was at times) that absolutely cured her colic, and then working on her reflux that just seems to be managed better by medicine at the moment.  (If you ever have a baby with colic, this treatment is the real deal.  I'm happy to share more if you're interested.)  

Poor girl actually started showing signs of colic at one week old, and most days I spent all day desperately trying to get her to nap, typically failing despite an ongoing circus of getting her to sleep, only to have her wake up five minutes later because of needing to burp, or spitting up, or hiccuping.  And around and around we went.  She and I constantly smelled of spit up and vomit.  Nelle still says "spit up all OVER!" after hearing me comment on June's state throughout the day, and besides wrapping her babies up, trying to get her dolls to burp occupies most of her mothering time.  Which is a lot because big sis is very much a bossy little mama herself right now and goodness her brood of dolls and stuffed animals sure is needy.  

June was miserable, and nothing really seemed to help except for holding her 

all. the. time.

And sometimes not even that.

She'd be overtired by the end of the day, and so would I.  Like beyond tired.  Like I no I wasn't showering regularly, and sometimes I couldn't remember if I brushed my teeth that day or not, and I know most days I hadn't brushed my hair, and our house was constantly in a state of disaster with landmines of dirty diapers hidden under piles of clothes that needed to folded and put away or maybe just washed again, never mind the random scatter of books, toys, clothes, etc. that got carted around in the kids' 

shopping cart and never put back. 

Two weekends ago I feel like we turned a corner, and I told Andrew I feel like we had our baby back.  She's smiling and cooing all the time, happy to watch the zoo that is our daily happen around her, watching Henry and Nelle as they flutter by, 

most times stopping to talk to her, kiss her, rub her head, talk to her, 

and maybe steal her blanket because obviously Nelle needs those for her own babies.   

(Like I said, she's got her hands full.)

 

These first few months move so quickly, especially because I'm about six weeks into my busiest time of year.  I'm soaking up all of June's newness feeling a little bit like I lost some of those precious few weeks, including weekend naps on the couch with her, and trying not to yawn too much when she needs to eat in wee hours of the morning because soon enough (soon, right?!) she won't need me then and those little moments between just the two of us will always be shared just as they are during the day with Henry and Nelle sitting right next to us, reading books, driving cars along my leg, and Henry leaning over to kiss June and saying, "I love our baby!  She's sooo cute."  

She really is.

So yes.  On to greener pastures.  With less weeds.