Helmet Head

When thinking about when to conceive, there are several factors that come in to play. First: Are we ready? Our answer was yes. Second: Do we want our children to be somewhat close in age so that they may grow up together? We thought yes. There are many other factors, but I think those were the first two that we asked ourselves. We were ready and we did want our kids to be close in age. Now, Katie is a different story. She's older, and didn't have any siblings to grow up with, and I think that has affected her tremendously. Corey and I didn't want that for the children we'd have together. HOWEVER..... The end result is not always what we had imagined.

We pictured Cooper, a baby boy or baby girl, cooing, playing together, and Katie being this great helper, wanting nothing more than to be the proud big sister of two. Ha. Instead, we have an eleven year old who is quite distracted with raging hormones, middle school and friends, a two year old who is hell bent on proving just what the true meaning of "terrible twos" actually is, and twin girls who, for the most part, have kept everyone on their toes with medical craziness and personalities that are so opposite you'd think they weren't related.

Having twins was a surprise for us, but we were excited beyond words. Twins can also bring on so many unexpected twists and turns in life, and you're rarely prepared for it. From the day they were born, everything was different. Feeding was different. Sleeping was different (at first, nonexistent). Even though everything became different after the girls were born, we all sort of slid right into the new dynamic and have worked it out pretty well. But, the unexpected still happens. Gas appears out of nowhere, in the middle of the night, and after one night of constant bouncing in the football hold, we're stocked up on Mylicon for faster relief. Next time, we're ready. Just when you think they're secure, surrounded by pillows on the floor, you look up and one has rolled over the pillow and is headed under the coffee table. It never ends and the anxiety of expecting the unexpected is KILLING me!

I blogged a couple months back about Mackenzie's head. She developed positional plagiocephaly - When the head becomes misshapen due to pressure on one area of the head. It's quite interesting. Twins have a much higher chance of developing this, and being a preemie boosts that percentage even higher - We had both factors against us. Luckily, so far, just Mackenzie has it. I took her to Portland in June to Doernbechers for a consult with a specialist. She confirmed it and instructed us to do 10 weeks of repositioning and home physical therapy to attempt to reshape her head on our own. We did it diligently, and we noticed her head becoming more round. But, before her appointment last week I knew there wasn't as much improvement as we'd hoped. At her checkup last week the doctor was impressed with the improvement, but she discussed what we already knew - It's still misshapen.

Yesterday I went back to Portland to an orthotics specialist to discuss helmets and such. The process was amazing. The specialist put a sock like thing with a cutout for her face on her head and stuck in this electronic node thing and put it on the top of her head. The sock thing held it in place. There was a cord from that node thing going to the computer. With a scanner gun, that looked much like a scanner gun used in a grocery store, the specialist began at the top of her head and scanned down the side of her face. He continued this on all angles of her head. I looked at the screen and I was amazed. For each scan he took Mackenzie's face began to appear on the screen. Then her whole head appeared....It was absolutely amazing. This machine had scanned Mackenzie's whole head structure into a 3 dimensional design on the computer. And it truly looked like her! With this scan, Mackenzie's helmet can be specially constructed for only her use, and will fit her head exactly. It was pretty darn impressive. So, yes, Mackenzie gets a helmet! It will take some getting use to, but it's going to help her to reshape her little head so it's somewhat round instead of "rhombus" looking. She'll be in it for 4-5 months, maybe less. I'm sure we'll get looks, lots of questions, and if Cooper continues on his little defiant streak, he might even try to head butt her just to see if he gets hurt.

Today I'm watching Coopers finger - He decided to grab a yellow jacket while I was in Portland yesterday, and the yellow jacket didn't want to be his friend. He got stung. But, we learned he's not allergic to them, and the only thing left from the incident is the memory. I suppose he won't be grabbing onto bees anytime in the near future. Now, if he'd just learn to quit riding our cats like a horse, we'll be in good shape!

So, now that alone play time is over for Cooper, I'm going to head in to play trains and tracks with him in hopes that he doesn't chuck a train at my head (Corey has a scar from a gash received from a flying train last week.) Now that I think about it, it's going to be a great thing that Kenzie has a helmet. Heck, maybe I should just get one for Rayla, too! At least they'd be safe from Cooper's attempts to make his toys fly to us!

Where credit is due

It's absolutely wonderful when I come across things, and people, that make my life easier. I don't go looking for things, but when they come up, it just makes me happy. Obviously, when you have a family as large as mine now is, you have to cut corners, improvise and do things in ways you never imagined. The cleaning habits change. The cooking habits change. The bathing habits change. Everything changes. So in my blog today, I'm going to praise a couple of things that make my life easier, and maybe it'll help someone else, too!

The dryer bar. OMG! That thing is just awesome. Bounce has a dryer bar that you stick in the dryer and replace every 3 or 4 months (Walmart). I'm at the end of the second month and it hasn't let me down yet. I was getting sick of finding dryer sheets stuck in my bra's, or in Coopers jammies. And, because I'm just anal about our clothes smelling good, and no static, I always stuck in 3 or 4 sheets. Corey HATED that. But now, I don't have to dig through the dryer sheet box, or fight away sheets stuck together, or gather up the hundreds of them floating through the house on laundry day. Just a little bar in the dryer that stays there. Aaaaaah.

The laundry hamper. With a big family this is a must. I have a steel supported (sturdy little sucker) canvas 3 hamper bag get-up that, when full, is exactly the amount for 1 load of laundry (Amazon.com). YES, a bag that does half the work. We sort darks, whites and linens, and when everyone's doing it right, it's just a breeze doing laundry. It's on rollers, so if someone's being out of line, I can just roll it into their room to be filled appropriately. Ha, super laundry hamper on wheels. I suppose if anything were to make this easier it would be that the hampers washed, dried and folded the clothes as well. But, that's just silly.

My triple jogging stroller. It's a Bebe Love EVO triple - (Overstock.com). And I love it. When I first opened the box I almost broke my back. I never imagined it being so big, and I didn't think it would be THAT heavy. HA. But, now that I'm using it regularly, it's just a dream. It's seats properly hold all three munchkins with deep separators, so Cooper doesn't punch a baby, and all three seats are equipped with the 3 point harness system. Yay! There is so much storage and the sun shield is nice and big. It's so easy to push, and now I have the folding and lifting and storing down to an art, and it's not so big anymore. I believe I mentioned in a blog some weeks ago about a trip to Walmart I took with the kids in the stroller. People were looking at me like I had peed myself, had my clothes on backwards, a booger sticking out of my nose and a bird in my hair. Seriously, it's an eye catching thing, but some people were just ruthless with their stares. Especially the super old folks, who were probably mulling over how incredibly larger that vehicle was compared to their wheelchairs. But in the end, I'd recommend it to anyone who has 3 kids who are stroller bound - Each seat holds up to 50 pounds, so we've got several years to go!

And lastly, but certainly not least, my in laws. I have praised her in past blogs, but seriously, I have got to have the best mother in law in the world. Unfortunately for the rest of you, she's not for sale! On so many levels this woman has made my life easier. With her giving, her caretaking, and sometimes even her cooking, she alleviates some of my stress and never hesitates to offer more. She's just an incredible person with the biggest heart in the world.

So, thank you Bounce. Thank you Overstock.com. Thank you Amazon.com. And, thank you Maija and Flip for making my life a little easier every now and again. Now I must head over to one of the two swings that sit in my living room, and feed little Rayla. That little stinker has to eat every few hours in the night. Oh well....Not everything's easy!!

My confession

It's September. I can't believe it's September. This summer has passed by as if it were a breeze, hastily moving to get somewhere. It's flown by so fast that I can't remember some of the things I've done during that time. That may just be my exhausted brain, however.

Motherhood is a joy. And motherhood is work. Yet, here's what I hear: " You shouldn't think of parenthood as a job. Just think of all those mothers who HAVE to work and put their kids in daycare instead of being home playing and oogling and googling over all their children all day long." Blah, blah, blah.....If I had a nanny, a housekeeper, a groundskeeper, a cook and a home health nurse, then yeah, I could POSSIBLY oogle and google at my children all day without biting my tongue, shedding a tear, yelling at the wall or throwing my hands up in an effort to convince myself that it's OK to give up for the moment. It ain't easy and in my case I've got about the craziest scenario imaginable to work with - That is, the craziest scenario imaginable within the realm of normal sane people, unlike the craziness brought on with J&K plus 8 or Octomom. No, it's not a job. But it's work, and if anyone wants to argue that they can visit my house for a day.

The first month after the twins were born life was crazy, but it was due to constant hospital comings and goings and not due to crying or hysteria associated with having 4 children at home. But, as the girls get older, our pre-teen lashes out more often, and our boy becomes more of a toddler, things are getting more difficult by the day. I am blessed today to have all three younguns sleeping at the same time, allowing me to do something.....So I choose to blog. Hey, it's been a month! In a usual day the girls will find a way to make sure that one of them is always awake to keep an eye on me. Not often do they sleep simultaneously....And rarely do all THREE sleep at the same time.

The girls are now eating solids, and I still have yet to find the groove to getting that done peacefully. I can never feed them fast enough, and more often than not, one girl doesn't like one of the foods she's eating. This result is a good, hefty cry that requires me to feed the other a little faster. If a free hand is here (Kate, Corey, Maija) I usually wrangle em' in to assist in the feeding frenzy - Dinner time at our house resembles feeding time at a Monkey exhibit in a zoo. Rush, rush, cook, spoon it up, stir, "hush, baby, hush", Corey grab this, Katie grab that, Cooper sit down, Don't throw that on the floor, pick it up! I'm already exhausted just thinking about it.

I more often than not get so caught up in other things that I fall behind on the laundry. I find myself with all three hampers, fully loaded, a load in the basket still waiting to be folded, and, heaven help me, a load in the washer that I somehow forgot was in there...Maybe a few hours, maybe a day or two. I know as soon as I open the lid! The dishes get stacked and sometimes I end up leaving them in the evening and doing them in the morning when I find I have an inkling more energy and am able to crash and bang without waking a kid or two. My bathrooms are neglected, as the time I spend in there is quick, no matter the business, and to clean them would take lots of hands and knees time with some pretty intense cleaners.

And finally, like clockwork, all children in this family manage to get sick one right after the other. Now, I don't know what's worse: Having all kids sick at the same time and just getting it done and over with, or having one sick for two days, then another sick for another two days and so on and so forth - Illness now lasts a week or more at a time instead of a quick 24 hour bug. Corey and I don't have time to be sick. Yet, still, we are.

I confess: This is the hardest thing I have ever done. I have let a baby cry for a while if I know she's not hurt and I am doing something that needs immediate attention. I have given Cooper cookies or snacks and plopped him in front of the TV just to induce a moment free of insanity. I have bitten my nails down to the core. I have neglected my husband. I have yelled at Katie over the littlest thing and slapped my hand on the counter to get attention. I have accepted that baby puke is just a part of my wardrobe now and I can cry at the drop of a dime.

Maija has been my saving grace this year. She was by my side with Cooper while I was pregnant, battling to keep the babies in as long as possible. And, she's been my right hand man in helping with the kids, even with last minute notice, during this summer while Corey has been busy at work with his cherry and pear harvests. I thank my lucky stars to have her be the mother in law I was blessed with. I couldn't have done it this summer without her.

It's no wonder that I have headaches, chest pain, and I look hideous. But, if anything, a little confession never hurt anyone and is probably good for my soul. I'm not perfect. I get tired, frustrated, mad, even furious at some of life's happenings. It's all a part of growing with this family. I learn something new every day and, though it's tough for now, I get my share of smiles from the heavenly little things that my children do. I love my life and wouldn't change it for the world......dirt, poop, boogers, screaming and all.