Spring fever

We are happy to report that both boys are doing very well. Nicholas got over his first cold and Alex has recovered amazingly fast from his pneumonia. The visiting nurse was out earlier this week and was astounded that she heard nothing left over in his lungs, they are completely clear!!! He's all finished with his antibiotics and his nebulizer medications so now its just getting the slow weaning back off the oxygen. We are thrilled to have them both be doing so well after a rough spell.

Mother nature has been very good to us as well. Last week she teased us with a rather warm day for this time of year (50's) and tons of sun. The boys and I were able to take our first walk of the season before one of Alex's appointments and it was so revitalizing to breathe in the fresh air, feel the sun on our backs and just be out and about for even a few minutes. The following few days were back to the chilly grayness so we were getting spring fever really bad. Well to be honest the boys don't really have an understanding yet of what they've been missing so its more me that has been looking longingly out the window and willing the warmer days to be here already, and for now they are. We have a beautiful week here with unseasonable temperatures. Today was nearly 60 with nothing but blue skies. okay now I"m sounding like a weatherman but whatever. It was just awesome. The sun beckoned me out all morning. The tricky part was the timing....

Now before I became a mom, I would often see parents out for walks with their little ones. They always looked so happy, refreshed. I couldn't wait to be one of them, I think I probably oozed envy as I watched them drift by from my porch. But the last couple days as I finally get to try out being one of those moms, I'm missing the mark terribly I think. How could something seemingly so simple end up being this complicated? I mean its just a walk, I used to just grab my sneakers, sunglasses and go. So I'm thinking whats the big deal of throwing in a couple of babies in the stroller and having at it. Right? Maybe I've just got to get this whole thing down but here's what my day ended up looking like:

Getting both the boys up, giving them their medicine, waiting the 20 minutes before being able to let them eat (should be 30 in a perfect world but hey, who's perfect? and have you heard my boys while I try to keep them waiting to eat when they are hungry? I think you would if you lived anywhere in my neighborhood) but I digress. Okay, so feeding time for both, today the menu featured sweet potatoes and some yummy mixed fruit. We then did some diaper changes and I'm all excited to just about get outside. I have planned it perfectly that we have enough time to get in a 30 minute walk, with time to get back, have our bottles and get down to nap time before  its time to be up again and physical therapy session starts.

I have the car seats ready (that fasten in the stroller), and I put Nicholas in his first. I fasten the straps, attach his favorite teething toy so he has something to nibble on for the ride, put on his hat and cozy his blanket around him and turn to do the same with Alex. The last few minutes Alex was making himself known, like what the heck is taking so long, what are we still doing here? I get his jacket on, switch his oxygen over to the portable one and snuggle him into the car seat with his blanket and teether. I get him all clipped in when I hear a familiar noise. This from down below. Well lets just say the antibiotics he was on has really threw his little system off and he's still getting over the side effects of that so its definitely not something I could ignore. Okay, no big deal. I got him back out, changed his diaper, got him dressed and put him back in the car seat all snapped in and warm. I have to fiddle with his oxygen monitor that at that moment was alarming and said he had no heart beat or oxygen reading (hmmm doesn't match up to my baby who is chewing on his hand and chatting endlessly). I throw that over my shoulder along with his portable oxygen bag and heave a car seat in each hand (definitely NOT as easy as others have made it look) as we head to the garage where the limo stroller awaits.

Except I hear another familiar sound as we are walking. Nicholas is coughing and something must have not sat right with him because here comes lunch back around. Not a lot but its not pretty either; never looks as good the second time around let me tell you. Really, I'm not making this stuff up. I haul both boys back inside, back to the living room near the changing table. I take Nicholas back out, change his sweatshirt, run upstairs to get a new one, throw that one on him, go to put him back into the car seat when i realize that it got messy too, so I run to grab a cloth to get that cleaned up, dry it out, and fasten him back in, back on with his hat, and his blanket and yep, am already getting tired.

So out we go again and the sun is still shining and I can hear others enjoying themselves on the street, walking their dogs and their babies and I'm all recharged again. We've lost a little time but thats okay, its still a beautiful day.

I'm lucky enough to have not one but two double strollers. One I keep in the truck thats very basic, I use for appointments, its light and VERY easy to use (idiot proof some might say). The other was a gift that I love. Its shiny and pretty and has more bells and whistles. Thats the one I have meant to take on walks in the neighborhood, the mall, etc. When the boys outgrow their carseats, its one that they will just sit in like big boys do. Well I used it very rarely last year after the boys got out of the NICU because.....well they had just gotten out of the NICU and as first time parents with babies with lots of health issues, medicines, and very little sleep, well we didn't get out so much before the weather started to change. So anyway, didn't get a whole lot of time to use the stroller. Anyway, I took the protective cover off of it (okay, garbage bag but in my defense, it IS protective) and went to unlatch it to open it and couldn't figure out where the heck the latch was. Seriously. Maybe I shouldn't admit that..... In my defense I didn't get much sleep the night before as Nicholas was up about every hour the first half of the night with teething pain and then Alex's oxygen alarm was on the fritz the second half of the night so I'm telling you sleep deprivation does chomp double digits off of your IQ, really. I'm not sure its only temporary and starting to worry. This situation isn't helping the matter but REALLY have you ever looked at one of these double strollers? They are mammoth, and all the gears and gizmos look alike and here I am seriously trying to figure out which one is the one that unlocks the whole darn thing. The boys are really starting to get peeved just sitting there watching me and i was afraid I was pulling on the wrong lever too hard and that I would just end up breaking the darn thing so there that beautiful double limo bus sat while we took the idiot proof stroller i keep in the truck. :)

After all of that we had about 15 minutes left to enjoy that beautiful sun before we had to get back for a nap and the boys therapy but it was a beautiful 15 minutes. I am certain I did not look like the carefree moms I swear all these years I've watched walk by my porch. I was already working up a sweat before the walk even started with lugging the boys in and out of the house and all the rushing around beforehand. I didn't have my makeup on, my hair was thrown up in a haphazard pony tail, and when I got home i realized I was even wearing some spit up on my jeans. How did every one else make this look so easy? Okay so maybe I'm talking about motherhood, parenthood in general, not so much just the walk. I'll linger on that one awhile i think.

Hopefully I will get more adept at getting them and all the stuff out the door, not to mention figuring out that limo bus. But right then, none of that seemed to matter. I enjoyed every single minute of it as I drank in the fresh air, felt the warm sun on my back and felt my feet connect with the pavement. I'm not sure if the boys loved it as much as I did but they weren't fussing or crying. Actually I thought they would be much more curious of the outside, and take a good look around but their eyes stayed pretty much fixed on me. I hope they weren't thinking what a mess their mama was, but hopefully instead of what a happy mama she was to be sharing the spring day with her two boys!!!

We couldn't help ourselves to breathe in a little more fresh air with Daddy when he got home: Except we had to make sure after we got our medicine that we got more food in, then bottles and then ready for bedtime sooooo tonight we skipped the walk and hung out on our porch instead!!!!

you would think that these are two of the most serious boys you'd ever met by our pictures but its the dreaded camera effect. They are all smiles as soon as I put the darn thing away ofcourse :)
enjoy anyway, we think they are gorgeous, serious faces and all!