A Day In the Life (of a mom with four kids ages four and under!)

My last "Day In A Life" can be found here.

Today is Friday, February 26, 2016

Landon is 4 years old (5 in April)
Oliver is 3 years old (4 in May)
Trent is 2 years old
Rose is almost 6 months old 

1:12am-- Roses first wake up since going to bed at 7pm. This was AMAZING for Rose since she wasn't feeling well when she went to bed so I am glad she slept a longtime. Rose eats and goes right back to sleep! 

5:00am-- My alarm goes off for my Pure Barre class. I go get ready in the bathroom and I weigh myself as I have been doing every other Friday to keep an eye on my weight.

5:10am-- Rose wakes up-- she must have sensed me leaving! Ha ha, I nurse her and hope for Matts sake she goes back to sleep, but of course she doesn't. I wake Matt up when she's done nursing. We go downstairs and I make the coffee and Matt takes Lacie out and feeds her.

5:25am-- I rush out the door to class!

5:28am-- I get to the studio

5:30-630am-- I lift, tone and burn!! Take a quick picture with Sam, my friend and instructor and our whole class!

6:40am-- I come home to all four kids awake and being crazy! I scoop Rose up and take her upstair and nurse her. 

7:06am-- I transfer a sleeping Rose to her crib. Finally, I head downstairs to eat something and try to calm the kids down so they don't wake Rose. I also grab their clothes from their rooms that I had picked out the night before for them.

7:20am-- The boys get dressed and I pour myself a bowl of cheerios. I look at Lacie, who has been asleep all morning besides going out to the bathroom once, and I am so jealous. Lucky dog!

7:42am-- I  clean up from breakfast and do the dishes and after that I run the dishwasher. I go upstairs to rinse off and get dressed before Rose wakes up. Once I get downstairs, I make Matt his lunch and I ask the boys to go to the bathroom one more time before leaving for school. 

8:26am-- Matt takes Landon and Oliver to school. Rose is taking a record long nap (for her.) I take this time to throw in a load of laundry and play trains with Trent (ALONE!)

8:48am-- Rose is awake! I get her and change her for the day. We snap a quick picture to send to Matt and of course  Lacie is still asleep!

9:21am-- I nurse Rose before our playdate gets here and even get a few giggles out of her!! :)

9:33am-- Amy and her two kids arrive! I am lucky they are so close in age with Trent and Rose!! 

10:25am-- Our friends leave. I nurse Rose again and she seems sleepy, but won't go to sleep. I try to keep Trent quiet by giving him candy. Once I am done nursing, Trent helps me clean up the play area and then helps me move the laundry from the washer to the dryer (one of his favorite things to do!)

11:09am-- Trent and I head to Panera with Rose for a special lunch!

11:23am-- We arrive at Panera and have lunch. I was hoping Rose would nap in the car, but she didn't. 

11: 47am-- It is time to go pick up Landon and Oliver. I love, love, love their preschool, but I just wish they had carpool! Everyday I have to take Rose and Trent out of the car to go get them rain or shine and the hardest part is their classes are in two different buildings. 

12:08pm-- All strapped in and ready to head home

Oliver was upset about I forget what.

12:28pm-- We are home! The boys hang up their backpacks, jackets and put away their shoes. I give them the left over from Trent's mac and cheese because I ordered a large. I give them some fruit and water to go with it. I change Trent for his nap and change Roses diaper. Once I get Trent to sleep, I run downstairs and take Lacie out and feed her. 

1:03pm-- Nursing Rose again.

BABY FEET I love how she rubs them together while she nurses

1:17pm-- I have an Oat Mama bar! Once I finish that I make a clothing listing for Roses old orange tutu and  pumpkin headband. It is still available for anyone who wants it on my instagram! The boys finish lunch and I have them go to the bathroom and ask them to play quietly until its time to leave for Landons haircut.

1:52--I ask Landon and Oliver to get ready and put their shoes and jackets on. Rose has been awake this whole time by the way (ugh!) I wake Trent up from his nap to go and then we are meeting my parents for dinner at the mall!

2:03pm-- We are all in the car. I ask the boys to stay quiet because Rose really needed to nap and I was secretly hoping Trent would fall back asleep. 

2:16pm-- I look back so see (and I can't believe my eyes) ALL four of my babies ASLEEP! Landon and Oliver do not nap anymore. Sometimes, if we have had a very busy day, Oliver will fall asleep only in the car for a few minutes anytime after 2pm. 

2:34pm-- We are now late for Landons haircut! There was some traffic I wasn't expecting. Luckily my parents were already there and were able to get the boys in while I got the stroller and Rose out. 

3:07pm-- All done and Landon did very well-- all the boys love getting haircuts! Usually, I have them all get it done at the same time, but Matt had cut Trent's hair and Oliver had gotten a haircut recently. We walked around the mall to kill time before we go eat an early dinner. While walking around Oliver says he doesn't feel very well, so we decide to order our food to go. 

4:02pm-- We leave the mall and head home before there is too much traffic and say bye to my parents!

4:43pm-- Arrive home and I get the boys all settled in after they take off their jackets and shoes and put them away.  Rose slept in the car both ways to and from the mall and I realize she has only had one true nap today (ugh!!!)

5pm--Once everything settled down, I get everyone to the table and give them their food. We sit down and eat. 

5:45pm-- Matt comes home from work! He plays with the kids for a little while they run around the living room and dance to some music!

6:30pm-- I take an EXHAUSTED Rose upstairs while Matt changes Trent and asked Landon and Oliver to get themselves changed. They pick a show to watch and settle down. 

7pm-- I hear them brushing their teeth and getting ready to come upstairs while I am still rocking and nursing Rose who is pretty asleep at this point. I transfer her to her crib and go kiss the boys goodnight while Matt reads to them.

7:07pm-- I heat up Matts dinner while he walks Lacie and feeds her. We FINALLY have a break and can sit down and catch up on how our day was with each other. This is the time we watch one of our many shows together (American Idol, How to Get Away With Murder, Modern Family etc.) 

9:04pm-- Rose is moving around and I decide to head upstairs to go to bed and realize I never folded the laundry. Just a typical crazy Friday night at our house! Haha!

Body After Baby

It has almost been almost six months since I gave birth to our baby girl, Rose! I remind myself often how blessed I am that my body has gone through four pregnancies in five years! Being a mom to four little kids four and under is a workout in itself. Every evening I am exhausted mentally and physically.

My fitbit is worn every day and it tracks my steps which is usually between 10,500 and 11,500. Three days a week I go to Pure Barre class. This helps with toning and strength which are two things I would like to work on. I really am not concerned about loosing weight. I am currently 98lbs which is 14lbs down from when I gave birth. This might not seem like a lot, but I only gained 17lbs my whole pregnancy. Over all I am proud of my body, I worked hard to eat healthy and exercise my whole pregnancy and because of that I was down to 101lbs just two weeks postpartum. I just hung around 100lbs for the past few months until recently when I cut back on sweets. I don't know about other nursing mothers, but I have the BIGGEST sweet tooth while nursing. No chocolate is safe in our house! 

Originally, I had hoped to go to Pure Barre class three days a week and then on Tuesdays and Wednesdays go to the gym. I haven't been able to do that because Rose is an awful sleeper and I just can't right now. When it gets warmer out, I will take Rose on morning walks like I did when I was pregnant with her-- which I can't wait! I know I will loose these two or three pounds, but for right now I will not stress about them because I am too busy loving on my little girl!

Talking about Rose, if you follow my blog you will know I am still breastfeeding our five month old daughter. Nursing takes a lot of time and energy. I need to keep up my calories because of the ~500 I burn a day making milk. Constantly being busy it is not always easy to eat perfectly. I know I could always drink more water too. One of my tips to eating (relatively) well is planning ahead.

Here are some of the foods I eat:

I LOVE these Oat Mama bars! Recently I have been eating them for breakfast. If you're a milk making mama I suggest you check them out!

I got this at Panera and it was amazing!! Its egg white, (extra) avocado, cheese on a sesame seed bagel.

Apples with peanut butter

Caving into my sweet tooth with some organic strawberries and white chocolate

Baked salmon on organic brown rice with carrots

One other tip I have is to eat small and often. I know how it is when you're busy and before you know it it has been a few hours and your stomach is growling. It's important not to get to this point of hunger because you're so hungry you will eat anything you can get you're hands on good or bad. I do my best to keep a healthy small snack in my purse for if I am out and hungry. If I don't do this I know I will be driving thru the closest chick fil a for a milkshake and fries! I believe everything is okay in moderation. I'll occasionally have half a donut instead of the entire one. At dinner I will fill my plate with the chicken or salmon whatever meat/fish and veggies and then not much (if any) pasta or rice. A lot of "hunger" is actually thirst or dehydration so I will usually try to drink water before eating more. These are just little tips I have found that have worked for me to stay in shape after baby number four. I hope they can help you as well! 

Here is a picture of Rose because look at that face!!

Happy Friday everyone!

Rose||Five Months Old

Rose's four month update can be found here

Trent's five month update can be found here

Breastfeeding: Breastfeeding is still going strong. I nurse Rose on demand which this month has been a lot! Rose still does not take a pacifier or a bottle though she didn't scream and actually sucked on this one once-- but sadly hardly actually drank anything.. Hey, its a start! 

After Roses four month shots last month, she had a fever and was very fussy for about two days. After that Rose became an awful sleeper pretty much the whole month. She was waking up not really out of hunger, but to be held and cuddled. Rose needed to be close to me to sleep. It was rough, she was nursing only for comfort. I will talk more about her sleeping further down. 

When I was pregnant with Rose, I wanted to have a strong nursing relationship since she is our last baby and we do that is for sure! I have been pumping every few days to have milk to mix into her oatmeal that I feed her once a day. Since starting solids this month, Rose hasn't nursed any less which was something I worried about with Trent because of my supply. This is just the beginning of her starting solids though, so I do need to make sure I continue to drink a lot of water and keep up my calories because my milk is still her main source of nutrition. Normally it wouldn't be such a big deal because most babies take a bottle in which case I could just feed her all my stored breastmilk if she was still hungry after nursing. Since she gags and cries every time we try a bottle, it puts a lot of pressure on me to keep a good supply because if I were to lose my supply it would be a nightmare for everyone! I am happy and lucky that one of my very good friends will be taking my stored breastmilk for her daughter so it will be going to good use!!    

Personality: Even though Rose hasn't been giving me much sleep this month, she still wakes up in the morning anywhere from 4am-6am with a huge smile which makes it all worth it! This month Rose has started laughing mostly at Oliver --it is so adorable to watch them interact. Rose is the most stubborn and picky out of all our kids she's very set on her ways. I can't wait until her teenage years... not.

Brothers: Now that the excitement of our puppy Lacie has calmed down some, Rose is being fought over by her brothers all over again. Trent still gets jealous when Landon or Oliver holds her and wants me or Matt to take her from them. We are working on him sharing her better with his brothers. I mentioned earlier that Rose has been laughing a lot this month mostly at Oliver when he jumps around in front of her-- its too sweet to watch her interact with them!

Sleep (vent about sleep): Rose went from waking up about once a night, which I didn't even mind much, to waking up every two hours just like her newborn days! Usually, she wasn't even hungry. I would change her diaper and try to feed her, but she would get upset when my milk would come out. Rose just wanted to be soothed and comforted, I guess and doesn't have any other form of comfort but to nurse. For a while now, she has been sleeping on her tummy. That position is just what would make her sleep the longest. Since learning to roll, she would start out asleep on her tummy and then move a little, waking herself up and roll over not being able to get back onto her tummy so she would really wake up. I would try to just roll her back over, but then she would be too awake so I would have to nurse her back to sleep and then it would start all over again! With any of the boys, I would just slip in their pacifier and they would go back to sleep, but since Rose doesn't take one nursing her is her only comfort. It is hard some days I feel like I am stuck. I would be upstairs with her rocking her and nursing her to sleep for the fifth time while hearing Matt and the boys playing downstairs and I get frustrated because I want to spend time with them too.  I have to remind myself that one day I will miss this special time with Rose when she wants me and only me. Right now she needs me and especially this first year of life goes by so fast they grow so much in their first year. I need to just do my best to soak it all up because before we  know it Matt and I will be registering her for Kindergarten like we are currently doing with Landon (!!!) Just the last few nights, I have begun swaddling her and putting her in a rock and play chair just like we used to do with Trent. Since doing this she has been sleeping much better and only waking up once maybe twice. 

New this month: Rolling front to back, laughing more, occasional stranger anxiety, sitting with support, solids (she has tried oatmeal mixed with breastmilk and pears.)

Weight:14lbs 4oz  

Height: Not sure

Clothing Size: 6 Month
Eye Color: dark brown

Hair: Brown and straight

Dislikes: Pacifiers and bottles
Likes: Nursing, not sleeping, showers/baths with Mommy, being wrapped in my Solly wrap