I just can't believe that it has been nearly 4 months since my last post! I guess it should be obvious to everyone that I am a ridiculously busy Mum!
Colin and Emily turned 1 on July 27th and their birthday had me thinking back to where we were 1 year ago. So many things have changed and our lives have become far more predictable and routine. When I think back to those early days all I can remember is trying to nurse two babies out of their state of jaundice, recovering from my c-section and trying to give Nathan as "normal" of a summer as we possibly could. It was a good night if Clinton and I both got 2 hour stretches of sleep at a time and a total of 5-7 hours total (broken in chunks) was pretty common for the first 2-6 weeks. The sleep deprivation was brutal but we knew that it would be a relatively short time in our lives that we would have to push through. Around 5 weeks of age I started feeding them 100% on my own through the night since I was healing well and Clint was able to get some pretty good nights of sleep. The compromise was that I would try to nap each afternoon when the babies were asleep and Clint would play with Nathan (usually outside) so I could get some rest. We were also pretty lucky to have both of our moms nearby to help out with everything in the first month and that took a lot of pressure off of Clint to do everything else around the house.
As we approach the anniversary of their due date (August 21st) it is amazing to think of all that they have learned in the last year. It just a few more days or weeks I'm sure they will be walking. If I am being 100% honest, I'm not doing a whole lot to encourage it! The longer they are crawling around the longer I can keep what little sanity I have left. It is amazing though to see their little faces when one of them stands on their own, takes a step or two, signs a word to me or even attempts to actually communicate with words. Pretty soon they will be chatting up a storm and running around like crazy animals. Christmas is going to be really interesting this year!
Since my last post our family of 5 (plus my mom) travelled to Ottawa and area to visit family. It was a quick 4 night trip over May long weekend but was so worth all of the effort to get there and back. My grandparents (who also had boy/girl twins) were able to meet Colin and Emily and visit with Nathan for the first time since he was 6 months old. Family showed up from hours away just to see our "litter" :-) It was an excellent excuse for us to all get together again. It took me well over a week to pack for the 4 nights we were gone and another week or more to recover from it all! A girlfriend of mine asked me if I would do it again and I said "I'd do it again so that my grandparents could meet them but I won't be doing it again until they are MUCH older". It all went quite well considering we were travelling with an almost 3.5 year old and almost 10 month old twins but it really was a lot of work. And I realized on this trip why they tell you to get to the airport so early - in case you have 3 kids under 4 you will absolutely need every moment to get to your flight on time. We literally just got to the gate and it was preboarding time!
Once I recovered from that adventure it was time to get super busy leading up to Stampede. Since I volunteer with the Talent Search Committee there were many things to organize and prepare for the Show during Stampede. This year I took on more than I had in the past and was more than happy to do so. It's not that I don't love being a wife and mother but I love the feeling I get from being a part of something that has nothing to do with that other part of my life. It gives me an opportunity to have adult conversations about non-childrearing things and allows me to use my brain as well. I often tell people that there is never a shortage of things to do when you are a full time mum but the work is so not glamorous. It is nice to have somewhere to be that gives me the motivation to wear make-up, do my hair and wear regular clothes! I hope to have even greater responsibilities next year and look forward to the challenges that committment will present to me.
I was supposed to attend a workshop to train as a Childbirth Educator at the end of June but that fell through and should (hopefully) be rescheduled to this fall. I took on 3 clients as their doula and have attended one birth so far. The next one should be any day now and the one after thant about a month later. It is an extremely gratifying experience for me to be there for a woman as she labours and then births her baby. There aren't too many jobs out there that allow you to witness a miracle at the end of a very long day! I have decided to not make huge attempts to market myself for the next couple of months as I am finding that being on-call is quite a challenge when you have 3 small children. I hope to use these first 3 births towards my DONA certification and will likely only take on about another 4-7 mamas within the next year. I just want to ensure that any clients I do take I can give them the support that they need and deserve :-)
We have camped 3 times so far this year and hope to get out once more. Camping with 3 under 4 deserves a post all on it's own so I will have to get on that someday soon.....
So, what's next? Nathan starts school in less than two weeks and will be taking his first unparented swim classes this fall. He was in an outdoor soccer program this summer and seems to really like it. I took him yesterday for the first time (it is Clint's thing) and he did a great job so I think we will maybe look into doing soccer again soon too. He will be taking a music class in November/December as well and will get to make his own musical instrument. I so look forward to seeing what he creates :-)
More to come soon - if I can find the time!!!
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