Expectations

Normally I save this blog for happy, fun kid related stories.  Well...I need to vent so skip this post if you don't want to read it.

While out in public with Eli lately I'm noticing that kids are brats.  Hmm...Could it be because their parents allow them to wear pajamas to the supermarket?  Could it be because they've never heard the word "no" in their lives?  Could it be because the world is changing and kids have been put in charge?

It's driving me bananas!!!  We try to instill discipline in Eli.  Everyday.  All day.  We work on teaching him right from wrong and how to behave.  It's a 24 hour/day thing.  It doesn't stop.  It doesn't always work.  He has moments of greatness where I beam and moments of disaster where I hide in the closet with a jug of wine (OK.  No wine.  I'm still pumping). 

At the supermarket today we were waiting in the deli line and Eli wanted a piece of cheese.  Normally when it's not too packed, the deli lady will give Eli a piece of cheese after she's done slicing ours up.  I explained to him that it was busy and that the lady might not have time to give him cheese.  All the while a lady with a youger guy (2ish maybe...I forget what those look like) is feeding her kid cheese out of the deli bag.  I have issues.  We know this.  I don't think it's right to teach your kid that it's ok to eat food you haven't paid for.  She also walked through the proudce section like it was her kid's personal buffet and handed him an apple.  Umm...hello???  When did that become ok?  So Eli saw this precious little guy munching on cheese & apples and asked again for some cheese.  I explained loudly that we don't eat food that we haven't paid for because it's STEALING.  She probably thought I was nuts.  I am nuts.  We know this.

Eli is also attending a Blue Ribbon school.  It's not the reason we signed him up.  It's Dave's alma mater, but it was recognized as a blue ribbon school this year.  Their expectations are insane.  He gets homework everynight and we do it.  We also do practice book pages.  Every night.  He has to do extra practice book pages if he brings home messy work or unhappy notes on his papers.  I'm sorry.  Is this too much?  We're paying for this school to push him.  If we're not pushing him at home too, we're wasting our money.  I'm a teacher.  Allbeit, not at a blue ribbon school, but I'm a teacher.  How embarrassing is it when my kid acts up or does sloppy work?  Am I pushing him too much?  Is it terrible that I expect him to be polite and gracious and respectful?

I know I'm rambling and I'll probably delete this post tomorrow, but I feel like kids need to be held to higher expectations and that they shouldn't wear their flippin' PJ's in public!!!

5 Months Old!!!

The boys hit the big ol' number 5 today.  It's blowing my mind how quickly it's flying.  I feel like I'm busier now than ever and I'm totally dreading the back to school grind that's creeping up on me.  To honor our beloved Sox who sent pitchers & catchers to Spring Training today, we had a themed photo shoot.  Bring on the boys of summer!!!

Nate-Ben-Sam

Always need a tushy shot!!!
N-B-S

All 4 of my favorite boys
Eli
N-B-S

Bumbo Time
S-B-N (maybe)

Working out our head contol & trunk stability
S-B-N

Payback's a .....

Once a month the girls from my work get together at the country club near school.  The last two months I've brought the babies because it's a relatively germ free zone and we've got a private room.  This month I ventured out again, all 3 babies in tow (all by myself).  It's been pretty snowy & icy & gross around here lately and I noticed a big patch of ice behind my van when I was leaving.

While I was backing up, the traction felt funny.  I thought it was the ice and called Dave on my BlueTooth.  Then while I was driving through the parking lot, I remarked to Dave again that the parking lot was icy.  He got off the phone quickly because he was having a "Guy's Night" with Eli (aka playing Rock Band).  I kept driving out of the parking lot and onto Main St.  (This isn't the norm, I usually take a short cut.  At night though, I take Main St. because there are street lights and I can see better.)  After less than a block I decided it was time to pull over because it wasn't ice, there was something wrong with the van.

I pulled into the defunct Rite Aid parking lot and parked right under the light.  I got out to see...a flat tire.  Not just a little bit out of air...totally flat...pancake flat.  That explains the traction issues. 

Did I mention is was 19 degrees with a wind chill of -25?  (maybe an exaggeration on the wind chill, but it was really cold). 

I called Dave again and scared the padoodles out of him.  He thought I had been in an accident because of all the ice.  He tossed Eli in the truck and headed out to rescue me.  I knew I'd been waiting at least 20 minutes so I decided to get all the equipment ready for him so he could just change the tire & we could get going. 

I started reading my owner's manual to figure out where the jack & tire are and got out of the van.  (remember the cold & wind???  It was impossible to read a book out there).  I managed to get the jack dislodged & upon further reading discover I have to fold down the rear seat to take out the spare tire.  Ummm...I have 2 babies in the rear seat.  It's too cold to take them out of the car.  What am I supposed to do?  We did the carseat Hokey Pokey.  I put Nate in the front seat, Ben on Eli's booster seat in the 2nd row, & Sam was on the 2nd row carseat base.  I didn't want to take out the bases from the back row because that would have been horrible.  I squeezed myself into the spare tire slot and tried as hard as I could, but I couldn't bust the wing nut off the tire.

I got back in the van and had to wait for my knight & mini knight in shining armor.  While waiting the babies started crying...all of them.  I started to panic.  I racked my brain to think of who to call.  I called a school friend, Joanne.  She lives nearby and is familiar with my "issues".  Not to mention, she has a warm house, more than 1 vehicle, and a husband who (I'm assuming) knows how to change a tire in case things didn't go so well.

Dave arrived shortly thereafter.  Joanne arrived right after him.  Eli and I waited in Joanne's car.  Dave changed the tire lickety-split.  We thanked Joanne profusely and headed home.  All in all it was more traumatic and inconvient than anything.  We're very thankful that it was an easy fix and we all survived.  Except for the mini-panic-attack I was calm and thought things through.  Whew!!!  Let's not have that happen again please.

Was this payback for me going out and having a good time with friends???  I hope not...

2 Sets of Twins...Quads???

So recently we've noticed a new addition to the trio.  Sven.  Sven is Ben's good twin brother.  Ben is the "evil" component.  I haven't mentioned it much, but Ben is a screamer.  Literally.  He screams.  He screeches.  He is an unhappy baby 75% of the time.  We can't get anything done.  He needs his binkie, he needs to be held, he needs to be entertained.  He doesn't do well just sitting around looking at the sights and hanging out.  So now we have Sven.  Sven sits (more like lies) and coo's, and laughs, and hangs out, and looks around.  He's happy & funny & a pleasure to be with.  We don't know how long our foreign exchange baby will be here, but he's welcome to stay as long as he'd like.  Maybe we'll even start speaking Swedish.

Bottle Prep

Every day the boys eat at least 5 times.
6 AM
10 AM
2 PM
6 PM
10 PM
This is of course, if all goes well. 

Nate & Ben eat 4.5 oz and Sam eats 5 oz at each feeding.  This equals about 75 oz of milk per day.  I'm currently pumping about 60 oz per day.  We've been dipping into our freezer stash which has been a life saver.  I'm hoping to make it until March when the boys are 6 months old.  I'm getting a little panicky that I'm going to run out.  Formula won't hurt.  Right?

We've been making all the bottles at once for the entire day and then putting them in the fridge for when we need them.  We make 65 oz at a time.

Lined up and ready to load.

The pitcher is the key.  We need to mix breastmilk with formula

to increase calories.  There is a mixer inside the pitcher.

The top shelf of our fridge is soley dedicated to

the boys' meals.

The dryer racks for all my pump equipment & milk

storage.  I have 4 sets of pump equipment.

The top rack of our dishwasher.  We wash whenever

we have 12 bottles ready to go.

Free Money

I recently started using Ebates when I shop online. No Joke! I've been getting checks in the mail. My first was for $2. I had signed up right before the quarter ended so I didn't get much. Now I've got a check worth over $20 coming to me in February. I've also gotten a $10 gift card to Target (my fave store!!!). It's real. I can't stress it enough. I've turned a few people onto it, but if you want to check it out...click here ( or the button on the right)...I'll get referal credits & more free stuff! Woohoo!!!

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Thanks!!!

Nate's Surgery & Hospital Rant (pix added)

Before I start the rant, I'll let you know that Nate is fine.  He rocked his surgery.  He had a left inguinal hernia repair & exploration on the right.  There was nothing on the right after all, but better safe than sorry.  I took tons of pictures which I'll add once I do an upload.
Here's the rant:
I don't have a lot of experience with surgeries.  Eli's had 2 and the only 1 I've had was for my c-section.  I could only compare this to Eli's experience at LGH.  Nate's doctor was awesome.  I think I just ran into some grumpy people having a bad day.

When we got to the hospital, we checked in and were seated in a waiting room.  There were tons of people in the room and some were in johnny's.  It turns out this is where everybody waits...patients, friends, families, etc.  I don't know how it's o.k. to have people waiting for surgery in wheelchairs & their hospital gowns among the guests.  That just seems weird.  We waited in this room for 2 hours.  Yes, 2 hours.  When Eli had his surgeries, we were led to his room where he'd be staying.  The nurses came in, did his vitals, got him changed & we hung out and watched TV.  This was what I was expected.  This is not what I got.  I needed to pump.  There was no way I was going to pump in this overcrowded room.  Dave asked the receptionist and I was shown to a small room that looked like a dr's office.  OK so pumping crisis averted.

Finally we were brought into the "holding cell".  This is where the nurse took his vitals & we chatted with his dr & the anesthesia people.  Nobody ever gave us a play-by-play or let us know what was going to happen.  They took him away...no gown just his diaper and a blanket...and we went back to the waiting room.  I had to pump again but now the room was pretty empty to Dave set up a barricade and I was all set.  There was no food allowed in the waiting room and I was too much of a nervous Nelly to go downstairs to eat.  We waited for the dr to let us know Nate was done.  This was an hour and a half later.  It is now 4ish.  We haven't eaten since 10.

We went to the recovery room.  We were told Nate would be there about an hour.  He needed to wake up, have some pedialyte, pee, etc.  We waited, and waited, and waited.  Nate fulfilled his end of the deal within an hour.  We kept waiting.  They kept telling us "15 minutes.  They're cleaning his room upstairs."  We kept waiting and waiting and waiting.  It's now 8 o'clock.  The new nurse came on shift & I lost it.  I was exhausted.  I had to pump.  Nate needed to eat.  Luckily Dave ran and got us some cardboard sandwiches.

We got ushered upstairs quicker than anticipated b/c I lost it and Nate was bawling looking to eat.  Now earlier in the week I had called the pedi floor and asked about his bottles.  He takes breast milk mixed w/ formula for the extra calories.  I was told to bring his formula, but I wouldn't be allowed to mix it.  The dietician had to mix it.  OK.  I brought the formula.  I had some milk.  Where's the dietician to mix it?  Oh, it's 8 PM and there's no dietician on call.  Hmm...what's Nate going to eat?  They told me to mix up some straight formula and just give it to him.  OK.  I didn't bring the recipe or the stuff I need to mix his milk so I just gave him the straight formula.

This is just how it continued.  Dave had to leave to go home to the other boys.  I stayed with Nate.  His overnight nurse was less than warm and fuzzy.  I was miserable.  Nate was miserable.  His morning nurse tech was amazing & I'm thinking of sending a letter to the hospital about her.  In the long run, Nate never had any breast milk.  His dr was furious and apologized for the beaurocracy.  It was a big mess and I don't wish that experience on anybody.  It was like they'd never had an infant patient before.  They didn't even have the right size diapers for him.  No formula on the floor.  Like I said, it was a mess...I'm just glad we're home and Nate's ok.  Yikes!

In recovery.  Had I known we would be there for 4

hours, I would have packed a lunch...

In his room.  Looking at his toys.

Rocking the cutie patootie hat and trying to eat his IV.

Yes that is my IPod in the back.  He needed

lullaby music...poor guy...

Finally asleep!!! (briefly)

These are his "boo boos".  We get the bandages

removed at the dr's this week.  (Yes, that's

a face cloth covering his package.  He's very shy.)