Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Painting the town red (really, Painting the Kitchen Purple)

Charlotte stayed home sick today. She was running a 103.8 temperature yesterday afternoon, and coughing, but by the time we arrived at the doctor's, she was neither coughing much nor feverish. We paid a $10 copay to be told that she probably has a virus, and to call if she gets any worse. I spent most of the appointment time with a kid on each leg, as both wanted to be held, and then I had to nurse Trystan before he would consent to returning to his carseat for the ride home. While her brother had a snack, Charlotte opened every drawer in the exam room, and then tried to wander out into the hall, leaving the door wide open behind her (not that I'm that shy about breastfeeding in "public", but other people sometimes freak out if they glimpse a little skin). That turned out to be the theme of the day: While I feed the baby, Charlotte tries to get into trouble. Today was my first attempt at handling both kids at home without help. Lucky me.

Charlotte fell asleep in the car on the way home for about 10 minutes, which she would later decide to count has her day's "nap". At home, she requested to paint with stamps--she has a craft kit that includes some craft paints, sponge roller, foam stamps, and paintbrush. I pulled out her supplies for her and set her to work on her little table, and then Trystan woke up and wanted to eat. In hindsight, I should have known that he would be hungry when he woke up (as I'd only given him half a feeding at the doctor's office), and should have planned accordingly. Just a note to any other mothers attempting to entertain a toddler while breastfeeding a new baby: activities involving paint are NOT a wise choice. Charlotte managed to paint her paper, her table, the floor, herself, her white sweater (which I'd actually taken off of her beforehand), and several of the kitchen cabinets with a pretty combination of pink, purple, lavendar, and turquoise. To be fair, she didn't actually try to paint anything but her paper, but she dropped her paint tray (a paper plate) at least once, and then opened up cabinets to find a clean towel to wash her hands with. I think she mistook the white sweater for a towel initially.

I attempted to coax Charlotte into a nap in the afternoon, but she wanted to snuggle, and then the baby wanted to eat at the same time, and Charlotte ended up wandering off to play with toys. I attempted to enforce "quiet time" where Charlotte had to stay in her room "quietly" for half an hour, but a poopy diaper cut that short (did I mention that she refused to use the potty all day, and so I ended up doing diaper changes on two kids?).

I took Charlotte to the park near our neighborhood to run off some energy. I don't think that pushing a toddler in a stroller while carrying a baby in a sling exactly counts as "exercise", but nor is it probably high on the list of recommendations for recovery from a c-section either. I'm tired. Thank goodness my husband got home early and took Charlotte to the grocery store to pick up dinner fixings, so I had at least a few minutes of quiet. It wasn't exactly downtime, as I ended up checking email with Trystan in my lap, but it was something. Speaking of which, the kiddo who's back in my lap seems to need both a diaper change and possibly to eat again.

3 comments:

Amanda said...

Everyone around here has those dual strollers. Might be worth looking into, if Charlotte's not ready to walk.

BriteLady said...

I've thought about that. That would get us up to 4 strollers to find homes for when they're not in use, which I'm a little reluctant to do (regular stroller, umbrella toddler stroller, jogging stroller, possible dual stroller). If there are two parents around, we can use one stroller per kid, or at least divy up the pushing vs slinging duties. We'll see how much of an issue it is in the next couple of months as the weather gets warm and we're out walking more.

Amanda said...

Little Man lost the use of his stroller shortly after the girl was born.