Baby Juggling

Tuesday April 5, 2011

Some mornings I wake up and I just know it’s going to be a good day. The sun will be shining, the birds will be chirping, everything will be good.

Today was not one such day. In fact, today was one of those days when you wake up and kinda sigh and think to yourself, “there go all my plans!” You see, I woke up while Dan was getting ready for work to Max crying. I changed his diaper and before I could even start nursing him, Dexter was crying too. I figured that although it was only a little after six in the morning, the best option would be to nurse them at the same time downstairs, and after they had fallen back asleep I would also doze.

They had other plans for me. My entire day consisted of what I call “Baby Juggling”. One baby cries so you do what you have to in order to calm him – nurse him, change him, rock him, etc. Just as he is settling, the other baby begins to cry. So you set down the first baby and you do what you have to in order to calm the second. As he is calming down the first starts crying again. And thus is BabyJuggling. Sometimes they give you a brief quiet moment. Sometimes they stress you out by both crying at once (how fun!) but mostly it’s the back and forth game.

So I got a drink and settled into the rocker chair and accepted that the dishes would remain undone, and the laundry would stay in piles. Instead today was all about comforting my sons. The frustrating part of today was that there was nothing I could do to calm the boys down. I tried everything in my limited book of knowledge – diapers, rocking them, showing them interesting black and white patterns (this is a new one, and usually works!) bouncing them, Gripe Water, gas drops, even nursing them wouldn’t calm them down. The only thing I could figure out is that maybe they had headaches. I had one and I spoke to Dan and my mom, and they both also had headaches. The weather has been doing some crazy things around here lately and it wouldn’t surprise me if it was causing havoc to them as well.

So today was just one of those days. Luckily my MIL came over and watched them so I could sneak a little nap in, and when Dan came home we went for a ride and they settled quite well. They are actually snuggled up in their rockers now asleep! All I can hope for is a good day tomorrow.

Later Days,

Meghan