The day started out okay, although early. My little sunshine, Natalie has had a rough week. She has been so congested that she can hardly breathe. Several times over the past week, I have had to hold her upright while she sleeps. Okay, so I have really enjoyed that part but the sleepless nights are starting to take their toll. Yesterday, she screamed blood curdling screams when I tried to put her down for her late afternoon nap. I called the nurse at the pediatrician's office. She suspected fluid in her ears and suggested I bring her in first thing this morning. I gathered us all up at 7:45 this morning...no easy feat these days...and off we went to Savannah. Natalie fell asleep before we left the end of our street. This was good!
At the office, the Nurse Practitioner declared everything fine. Probably just a cold but nothing in her ears and not RSV. This was terrific news but I still know that Natalie is not feeling well. She is a little more cuddly than normal and wants to nurse often. Despite this, we head over to the mall. They have a wonderful Santa there. Authentic. He is there every year so our pictures are consistent. It has been a big question of whether or not to do the Santa thing with the kids but we decided to go ahead with it. Many of our friends don't do it because they don't want to have the kids think that if Santa isn't real then Jesus isn't real. Both of us love Christmas and haven't been traumatized by the Santa experience. We will certainly explain a little more each year but for this year, we are going to just see how it goes. I do think we are going to have a birthday cake for Jesus though. But I digress.
Because of finances, we haven't had formal pictures of Natalie taken. Many of my friends and family haven't even see her. I was the obsessive Mom today trying to get the pictures just right. The individual ones shown here are great and I was pleased. The one with the two of them together was just okay. I have decided that it might be impossible to get more than one child in a picture to all be smiling AND looking at the camera at the same time. If you do see one, it has to be edited. By the time we finished, there was a line behind me and I am quite sure they were thinking I was some kind of nut. I will probably never see them again so I guess I don't care...much.
After the pictures, the day kind of went downhill from there. We stopped for Mackenzie to play in the children's area and I decided to nurse. The congested nose means that Natalie was having a hard time nursing and she decided to let all 16 people in the play area AND half the mall know she was pretty ticked about it. She wailed while everyone watched. While I don't mind nursing in public, I do try to be somewhat discreet. That is almost impossible when you have a thrashing, screaming baby in your arms. I am pretty positive that about 10% of Savannah saw my breast today. Gotta love that! Again, I will probably never see them again so I don't care...much.
In the midst of the screaming, thrashing baby, Mackenzie comes running over to me and asks if I have a pull-up for her. While there was a time she would have a bowel movement in the toilet, it has passed and she has decided that the best method is to torture her mother by having a complete explosion in a diaper. I can't even begin to tell you the times I gag trying to get it changed. UGH! In her defense, part of the reason we reverted back to diapers for BM's is because for the longest time, we had constipation issues. It was agonizing to watch her go through the pain of not being able to go and then finally having to give her an enema because she couldn't (So, as I type this, I am realizing that changing a diaper isn't as bad as giving an enema so it could be worse.). At home, she goes and gets her own diaper and then just tells me when she is finished. At least we don't have dirty pants issues. That would be worse! When she started her Mom's Morning Out in October, I attended an Open House and several of the Mom's said their child had this issue. That did help me realize that it was common and normal. Okay. I digress again.
Screaming, thrashing child. Three year old that needs a diaper. Savannah catching glimpes of my chest as I am trying to fix it all. What fun we are having. My "solution" is to head to the van. I can give Mackenzie her diaper and feed Natalie there in peace. Doesn't that sound good? I tossed both girls in the stroller and headed for the door, with Natalie screaming the entire way. Smile! Smile! Smile! Everyone around you understands, right? We make it to the van, get the diaper on and settle down to nurse. NOT! At this point, Natalie is on the verge of hysteria and I can't get her calmed down. Like all good Mom's, I screamed at Mackenzie for something stupid. The entire 15 minutes of waiting for Mackenzie to totally stink up the van is accompanied by blood curdling screams. All the while, there are 3 police officers standing across the parking aisle from our van watching us. Although it was cold outside, I had to periodically open the van door to actually get air and not aphixiate the three of us with the diaper issue. Are we having fun yet?
Then...I remember. I had purchased some personalized Christmas ornaments in the mall and was supposed to go back and pick them up. I get out of the van, change the diaper, open the tailgate and unfold the stroller, load the underwearless child and the screaming baby back into the stroller, smile at the 3 nice police officers and head back into the mall while all the heads around me turn to see what is making such a ruckess. I am not sure if it was the blast of cold air or the bright sun but within a few minutes, Natalie calmed down...for 20 seconds. Then, she screamed louder. I got the ornaments, went back to the car and prayed. I couldn't do this by myself. I finally prayed and asked God to calm me down and help our situation. Why does it take so long to remember to do that?
It took a few more minutes but Natalie finally latched on and nursed. All the crying had exhuasted her and she fell asleep quickly. I apologized to Mackenzie for losing my temper, buckled her in and we were on our way back home. I will spare you the details but 4 messes later (an entire salt shaker, green jello spit on the floor, a whole bottle of water on the coffee table (so she could play in it) and something else which I can't even remember within one hour just about sent me to the moon again. Not to mention, my annual cookie party is 3 days away and I don't have a Christmas tree or a single decoration up. I am starting to feel stressed.
As I am typing this, I can hear Natalie in the baby monitor shaking a doll with bells inside. It sounds a lot like Jingle Bells. Even she is in the Christmas spirit. Once again, I need to learn something from my 5 month old!
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