I got to go to work today. Note I said "got to", versus "had to", which is a new one for me. In my pre-kids days I never overly enjoyed going to work. Sure, I had jobs I liked and felt challenged by, but I preferred doing my own thing on my own time. 8:30am arrival times at work never thrilled me (just find my old bosses - they'll confirm this). But now? Well, let's see ... I can stay home (and have another work-from-home day) and try to manage 8-month-old twins and a 3 1/2-year-old, or I can go to work and have, well, some peace, and time to relax. Who ever thought work could be relaxing? Any parent of multiples - especially baby multiples - will agree that anything other than being home with needy babies is relaxing ... really, anything. Eyebrow wax? Sign me up. That root canal I need? When can I schedule it?
Anyways, I went to work after talking with the new nanny (it's only her second day with us) and had a nice, peaceful day. I whittled my inbox from nearly 400 messages to just 19. Amazing. I used the "new mom's room" (I call it the pump room) to do my motherly duties while at work and I read Newsweek (aaaaah, I read Newsweek) over lunch and by about 4pm I felt whole enough to pack it up and head back home.
And back home, BAM! a house full of three young kids will hit you like a brick in the face. Just the noise level alone upon opening the door is amazing. So the nightly circus began: dinner prep, dinner time, bed time, and then the 'how much can I get done around the house now that the kids are asleep' time.
To orient you, Claire is the 3 1/2-year-old. Molly and Lily are the twins. Kyle is the husband.
Molly and Lily don't like solid food very much yet. In fact, they HATE baby food (sorry Gerber) and it took us months to realize this so now they are already eating "finger foods", i.e., those little pieces of "real" food we all eat. Molly's fine motor skills are better so food makes it to her mouth. Lily's our gross motor kid, so getting food to her mouth is a challenge. Lily is also a bit crazy (that's putting it mildly) if she's hungry, so I make sure to shove in a bunch of the Gerber foods she hates to make sure her calorie needs are met. Tonight she must have been tired (another thing that makes her really crazy) so she screamed and cried and choked on the Gerber foods I shoved in her and I got a lovely photo of her at the end of this fiasco.
Molly's unhappy time came when I tried to get the Amoxicillin in her (we call it "the pink medicine"). She's got an earache (Lily just finished her round of pink medicine ... everything seems to come in twos) and the blessed after-hours clinic (forget the regular doc!) fixed us up this past Tuesday night but now we're fighting the baby who doesn't want to eat anything but breast milk and a few finger foods to get that nasty tasting medicine in her. Sheesh. Who knew it could take 25 minutes to get 3/4 of a teaspoon of medicine in a baby?
Kyle announced he was headed back to work, so I was left with getting the twins and Claire to bed by myself. This is a challenge. I did it, but only by 'allowing' Claire a bedtime of 9pm versus 8pm. At least I left Kyle the dirty kitchen. One should not expect me to handle it all each day, but we'll get into that more on a later date. It's late, and I need some rest before Molly - who just WILL NOT sleep through the night - plans to wake me up twice and make me that much grumpier for my work-from-home Friday tomorrow. Urgh.
Welcome to my circus.
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