Bio-What?

A year ago I was a skeptic. Now I'm a true believer.

A friend of mine recommended we check out probiotics for our colicky baby. My husband thought they were some form of biological robotics. Yeah. They're not. The best "in-English-please" description I can give is that they're the good bacteria in our system. We have good stuff & bad stuff in our bodies and they're mostly in balance. When they're not and the bad guys are winning, we get sick. In a little one whose system is not mature, there's not a lot of the good stuff. So the idea behind giving probiotics is that you're adding more of the good guys to fight off the bad guys. [You've obviously come to the wrong place if you're looking for the scientific explanation!]

After doing a little research, I decided it was worth a shot. It's not medication, there are no adverse effects, and our pediatrician gave us the green light. So I put in an order for BioGaia infant drops and they arrived in 3 days. The packaging was amazing. It was like a gag gift - you keep opening and opening until you get to a tiny bottle smaller than your pinky. Then five drops a day (more difficult for a nursing babe) and see what happens.

I don't know what happens for other families, but what happened for us was incredible. Our Little Miss was crying 5 or 6 nights out of 7 for somewhere around 3 hours at a time. We'd run the bathtub, carry her around, bounce her, rock her - the whole bit. Then we tried the probiotics. And in that first week, she had a total of ZERO nights like that. It was amazing. She'd still get fussy, but not to the point of total hysteria. She was easy to calm down and relatively relaxed. I was shocked and hesitatingly hopeful. Daddy is always a skeptic - but I couldn't see how we could attribute it to anything else!

It's helped with my sanity and I offer this as hope for anyone else with the same issues!

Finally! Something we may have gotten right!

Why Do I Bother?

I do it because my husband has been eating Spaghettio's for lunch. It's not because I'm a glutton for punishment.

I do it because my Little Man only wants to eat Cheerios for breakfast. It's not because I enjoy carrying a screaming toddler through the grocery store while his baby sister wails.

I do it because getting out of the house once every few days keeps me sane. It's not because I want to see how many little old ladies will offer to help me this time.

I did it because the lactation consultant said I should try sage tea. It's not because I mean to torture my children. I didn't see the gate I slammed the carriage into. And I didn't mean to walk so fast that my munchkin tripped and fell. And how could I know that the baby would scream the whole way home while we crawled behind some old guy who thought that 20 was the new 35[mph]??

I do it because eventually, I hope, it will all seem normal. And normal sounds glorious these days.

When it Rains...

I know I've mentioned this before, but honestly, why does it all have to happen at the same time?? Fights with the landlord, broken dryer, and a car that screams for mercy when you put it into reverse. Someday, someday, life won't feel like such a roller coaster. For now, my eyes are closed and I'm screaming at every twist and turn.

Mission: Impossible?

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to go food shopping with your infant and toddler in tow.

Just getting out of the house seems to take a miracle these days. With our Little Miss Muffet screaming with gas pain, and our Little Boy Blue taking off his coat and shoes, it took us a good hour just to get out the door.

But then the grocery store didn't have the great cart with the car in the front - so Little Boy Blue was very blue. We tried an alternative - one where he could sit up high and face forward - but to no avail. We emptied our produce into a regular cart and resumed shopping. With LBB alternatively pushing the cart and grabbing things off shelves, I just sighed and thanked God that the Little Miss was still asleep.

And then, just like that, she wasn't.

We went into hyper-drive and threw all sorts of random things in the cart, all the while chanting "please be okay, please be okay." And for awhile she was.

And then, just like that, she wasn't.

She began crying like there was a knife in her side (I promise, there wasn't). At which point LBB decided he'd throw himself onto the floor and start crying "Mommy hold you!" Lovely. I scooped him up and dashed over to the check-out lines. Thankfully we found a short one. And ignoring my two screaming kids, I began throwing things onto the conveyor belt. Done!

I grabbed LMM out of her car seat and managed to calm her down. Only to notice of course, that LBB had decided to pull each and every toothbrush off the rack nearby. And there were quite a few. Back went LMM, dash went Mommy, "WAH!" went LBB.

I paid ($149?!? What did I toss in there?!?) and made a beeline for the door. Now I know why friends with two kids wait til Daddy's home to attempt to buy food.

Mission: accomplished. I think.

What a Lovely Shade of Gray!

I awoke this morning to find my 5th gray hair. It wasn't there last night. Which means only one thing - either a.) it grew overnight or b.) one of my seemingly-healthy brown hairs decided to change color. Whatever the truth of the matter may be, I am not excited.

Genetics

Everyone asks us who our new little one looks like. We search her tiny features to find what's recognizable as Mommy's or Daddy's. So far she has Daddy's eyes and Mommy's mouth.

Our little man has Mommy's eyes and Daddy's sense of humor.

He also wound up with two inexplicable habits from Mom and Dad. When he wants to be picked up he'll say "Mommy hold you!" just like I used to say. And when he settles down to sleep, he folds his knees up under him and sticks his little bottom in the air. Just like Daddy---used to do! Now obviously, these things weren't taught. They just sort of wound up in his genes. How does that even happen? Did Daddy's great-great-grandfather sleep the same way?

Makes me wonder what other bizarre behavior he'll display one day. I'll have no one else to blame...except Daddy of course.

I Have a Dream...of Dreaming

My biggest wish right now is to sleep between the hours of 5 and 7am. That's all. I will put aside my hopes for a better computer, my dream of getting a newer car, and even my earnest desire to move to a new house. All I really want ... is to sleep. Really.

Exercises in Futility

Since my recent promotion in Motherhood, I've come to realize that there are a number of things that I should not even attempt until such a time as either 1.) my children are fully able to walk, talk, and eat on their own, or 2.) I stop caring that no one likes to hear a screaming baby. Either way, it'll be awhile.

Here are some examples of exercises in futility these days.

1. Playing with my toddler: With our little one needing so much time and attention these days, it's hard to carve out special time for baby #1.

2. Cleaning the house: Yesterday I told my little guy that I couldn't play with him (see above) because I needed to do some cleaning. He pitched a fit that lasted for a good two hours.

3. Voting: I decided on Tuesday that voting would be a great way for the three of us to get out of the house. With much wrestling, we were able to make it out the door; however, when we arrived, my little man decided he didn't want to stand in line. Instead he wanted me to hold him. So there I was, with toddler in one arm, car seat in the other, diaper bag hoisted over my shoulder, in line behind the one and only smoker. When I finally shuffled my way up to registration, some nice little old lady offered to hold onto the car seat for me. Needless to say, my voting was done with no extra time to think.

4. Buying groceries: Since we were out anyway and had managed to survive voting, I decided to head to the grocery store. With Munchkin A in the part of one of those carts with a car on the front, and Munchkin B in her car seat in the cart-part, there was no room for food!

5. Going to the mall: My first outing with our new addition was to one store in the mall. This resulted in me breaking down in tears upon arriving home. The saleslady had so many issues ringing up my purchases that she wound up on the phone with managers of two other stores, and I wound up waiting for her for 45 minutes - with 9 day-old crying baby in my arms for the last 10 minutes of the nightmare. Now that I want to get us all out of the house, the mall seems like the best option. Except of course that I have no idea to get around with the two of them in tow.

6. Going to Target: Our first trip to Target was to get diapers and wipes. That's it. So when baby woke up and broke down when we reached the aisle with them, I knew it wasn't a big deal. We were all of 4 minutes from home. One thing I didn't account for - the woman in line in front of me paying with rolls of coins. Baby screamed while this saleslady opened each roll and counted all the change.

7. Traveling: We visited family last weekend and got all of...wait...oh yeah - no sleep. Little miss also decided to cry for a good 2 hours (or more, I don't really remember) before drifting off. She was the only one. That was the beginning of our little man's 4 day fever.

8. Sleeping more than 4 hours at a stretch: And really, 4 hours is pushing it. But with the little one needing to nurse and the older one cutting molars - well, let's just say that hubby and I should learn not to talk to each other in the middle of the night!

9. Eating: Truth be told, I do get to eat. Just not well. And it's often cold. But thankfully hubby has been cooking for us.

10. Blogging: Seems like a blatant lie, I know. But just imagine when I began making this list!