When peace like a river attendth my way...
While kneeling down in front of our 3 year old, as I administered his inhailer, it occurred to me that I should follow the advice I was giving him. "Deep breath in...and hold...and breathe out. Repeat."
I think my breaths have been short and shallow lately. As I take on the added work and responsibility with a newborn and attempt to also keep up with our active 3 and 5 year old sons, days are long...it's funny that I wonder why I 'm exhausted at the end of the day.
My shoulders are always pulled up and tight, and at the dentist last week I was informed that my teeth have really worn down since my last visit from grinding and clentched jaw at night due to stress. That would probably explain my pain as I open my mouth to eat. My bite has even changed making it harder to chew.
With the "big boys" not napping anymore days have also become even LONGER without the afternoon resbit.
Just as we rearranged our house to make it much more usuable, I am feeling the need to look at our days and see how I can "tweek" it so that I can catch my breath in the midst of running back and forth from preschool, MOMS group (40 minutes or more in each direction with traffic), Bible study, playdates, ski lessons and nursing our newborn every 3 hours.
I know that next year with 2 kids in a half day of kindergarten and preschool I will have more of a chance to keep up more with some of my things I've put on hold...but until then, something needs to change.
Having 3 kids is stretching me very thin...I have no idea how my friends and sister with 4 kids do it!
So, deep breath in...hold...and out. Repeat.
Peace like a river flowing through my days seems unattainable but I'm going to see if I can get closer to that reality.
It's no wonder that I'm drawn to the tranquil babbling stream sound on our newborn's white noise sound machine!
6 comments:
Oh what a heartfelt post! Deep breaths sounds like a very good idea.
Can you consider having the children in room time for an hour everyday? I know the boys share a room, but maybe one of them could be in the office? We still have an hour or room time everyday single day - where NO ONE is allowed to talk to Mommy. This is my time to exercise or blog or whatever. If they do need something, I extend their room time by that number of minutes. We need to keep our sanity!
:) Thank you, sweet Kristen! I love your encouragement! I think I need to institute a block of time in the afternoons for me to workout or simply veg...
P up until now has not been able to have roomtime without falling asleep which then leads to him wanting "party-time" with T when bedtime rolls around.
I think he's probably ready to stay awake and be by himself by now.
Thanks for your encouragement!
Ha Ha! I'll let you in on a little secret - we with four kids are in the same stinkin' boat as you are! Our shoulders are clenched tight, we worry about how we're not doing everything and being everywhere for everyone, and we both wish away the days and hold tightly onto them.
I definitely feel your pain because my 2 year old doesn't take a nap anymore. So it is one big long day for us. My solice is that the little ones go to be very early (6:30 or 7). Think about that in your day. And yes, it is very important for me to break up the day into routine.
And now having a 7 month old - I'm here to say that the first 6 months are really really hard when you have a new baby and older kids. It truly takes 6 months to get into routine, get into the adjustment of a larger family, get into new roles, etc.
I know I'm not there yet at all, but I know that today when i sent my little darlings off to school (the 8 and 11 yr old), I breathed a deep breath and I don't feel nearly as stressed as I did 3 months ago and Lane is now 7 months old. So I can only imagine that I won't feel so under the gun as she gets older and our family adjustments are under our belt so to speak!
Love you sweet sister! Hang in there. I know the days are long and the nights are short, but all too quickly the days are gone forever. I look back and wonder where they all went. I found an over the counter mouth guard that is saving my teeth/jaw at night and definitely helping the sleep pattern! Talk soon.
Yes, you need to get a mouth guard ASAP, or you'll ruin either your tooth enamel or your jaw. If you have noticed all my cavities at my root line, it's from fracturing the enamel off my teeth from gnashing them. Grandma just gave herself TMJ, so badly that she needed that multi-year splint to fix her bite. Dr. Allen made a me a personalized bite guard (actually a couple of varying thicknesses), so I could have them as they wore out. The thickest one is still working after 15 years or something, so it's well worth the $75 it cost.
Three kids is rough, but it does get better. My youngest is almost 5 now and let me tell you, I am way less stressed! Mostly because I actually sleep all night every night. That makes such a difference, and I assure you, you will be there again someday!
As for your jaw, may I suggest you go to the chiropractor? My husband was having jaw issues and I finally convinced him to go. One quick adjustment and he has had NO jaw problems!
Hang in there, friend!
Post a Comment