This is reality

Today Josiah is 2 weeks old! =)  Today Kaylee started first grade. Today Brian went back to work. Today has been...stressful!!
This isn't going to be a post completely full of complaining...but it may seem like it. ;) My morning was so bad that I came home and had to sit down and smile because I know that THIS is reality. Believe it or not, God has a purpose in my bad morning, and I made it out alive. =)
So first things first, I'm up every 2-3 hours feeding a newborn. Last night was a good night, and I got to sleep for 2 1/2 hours twice! Everybody was awake by 7 am, which worked out because I had to take Josiah to the doctor. Or so I thought. We get up and eat, and I get everyone ready with about 30 minutes to spare, so we started on school. I left the house thinking "Oh yeah, I got this, it isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be". Then we got to the Dr office and after signing in I realize that my appointment isn't this Monday, but NEXT Monday! Great, I've made a trip across town for nothing. It is NOT easy loading and unloading 3 kids, especially when one of them is a newborn. I didn't want to waste the trip, so I decided to go ahead and do Josiah's pku at the next plaza over. So we get all the paperwork done for that and I'm waiting to be called back when Kaylee starts pushing on her brother and fighting over the toy tables in the waiting area. Sometimes I wonder if she didn't successfully make it out of the terrible twos. ;) So she is in time out beside me and I hear Josiah make a poopy diaper. I thought, "No big deal, I'll just change him when they call me back". They called me back a few minutes later, and as I was taking him out of the car seat I realize that the poop is running down his leg, and is now all over my shirt!! I go to grab the wipes out of the diaper bag only to realize that someone had taken them out. So poop is everywhere and I have no wipes. I wrap a burp cloth around him so she can go ahead and stick his heel so I can get him cleaned up. I tell Kaylee and Bubba to sit down in the chair so they aren't in the way, and of course that means push each other and fight like crazy. It took forever for her to finish the pku (or so it seemed, probably because I was stressed). I wet some paper towels, and strip him down and clean him up. I asked Kaylee to hand me the bags for dirty diapers and somehow when she was putting it back it opened and the roll of bags went across the floor, so I had to roll it back up to put it back in the bag. Meanwhile, the lady is standing outside the room waiting to call the next person. I get everything cleaned up and ready to go and head to the car. Kaylee helped me by buckling Bubba up, but she accidentally pulled the seat belt too far and it locked. As I'm driving off Bubba starts freaking out about it. I told him that I wasn't going to pull over, so he would just have to wait a few minutes until we were home. Josiah decided he was hungry, so he screamed most of the car ride home too. As I'm driving home feeling like my head is going to explode with 2 screaming kids in the back, I stop and realize, THIS is real life. These moments matter. Having multiple kids is not always easy, and it is not always pretty. Somehow, you survive though, and ultimately enjoy it. So we get home and I go to take Josiah out of the car seat only to realize that he had pooped all in his car seat too! So I had to change him and clean him up again, pretreat all of the clothes that had poop on it, change my own clothes and clean up, and start back school with Kaylee. Then, Bubba pooped in his underwear. He wasn't feeling well yesterday, and had a bit of diarrhea, so today it wasn't a lot better. I think I've reached my max on cleaning up poop today. But, we got almost through all of Kaylee's work for today. She enjoyed it, and I did too! Lord willing, tomorrow will be less stressful. If not, I know Gods grace is sufficient, and He will get me through. When we attended the homeschooling conference last month we listened to a speaker named Todd Wilson. One thing he pointed out was that Jesus said in Matthew 11:30 "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light". We need not stress out or think things are impossible. That has really stuck with me. This morning may have been rough, but I'm thankful still.

On to happier news, I'll update on Josiah. We took him on Friday the 12th to the doctor and he weighed 7 lbs 10 oz. He had gained 10 oz since we left the hospital on Tuesday evening, which is a good thing. He had a little bit of jaundice, but she said as long as he was feeding and pooping well, it didn't need to be treated. He has been doing great! The first few nights he slept 4-5 hours at a time. That quickly wore off and he has been waking me up every 2 hours pretty consistently. After feeding and changing him, that only leaves about an hour and a half before he is awake again. Somehow I still have energy to get through the day...that is obviously a God thing! He doesn't cry as soon as he is hungry, he will root around for awhile, whimper a bit, and give you plenty of warning before he lets out a full on cry. He is already a Momma's boy. He almost never poops in a wet diaper. He waits until we change it and poops almost immediately after we get a clean one on. He sleeps through the chaos and noise of our house, I guess he is used to it now. ;) He is a sweet, sweet baby and I am so very thankful for him!