We are firmly entrenched in the rituals of our summer days. The four of us or eight of us, depending on how you want to look at it, move through our summer days, living each one as we did the day before. The only nod to one day being different from the next is whether or not I head out in the late morning to work, or if I stay home. Otherwise, the days blur together, run together in a haze of sunshine and heat and the surreal nature of the weeks before you are expected to give birth.
While some might find this boring, we tend to be a very ritualistic family. There is a comfort in the overall structure remaining constant, even if the individual activities alter from day to day.
The alarm goes off at 5am every day of the week. This alarm used to get me out of bed. These days, I roll over with no small amount of difficulty and turn it off and there I remain until either an overfull bladder antagonized by the little baby girl head pressing upon it forces me up and out of bed or I hear the boys beginning to stir to a point where I can no longer ignore them (read: screaming and roaring at each other at the top of their lungs, to the point where I know this is echoing onto the street below).
Moose generally gets out of bed with the bleating of the alarm and leaves me to listen to NPR through my drowsy, I-hardly-slept-at-all-last-night-you-can't-really-expect-me-to-be-awake-yet-can-you haze. If I'm on top of my game, I've set the coffee up to brew at 5am. If I'm a slack, which is happening more and more these days, I've left it for Moose to take care of.
Eventually, I do get out of bed and pour myself the modicum of coffee I allow myself to still drink, which is about 1/4 - 1/2 of a cup, get dressed and head upstairs to get the boy wonders up and out of bed. Sometimes there are baths. Sometimes there is just a good deal of silliness as they say 'nooooo' to every single t-shirt I pick out until I finally give up and give them three choices.
This always works, by the way. And why I do not do it from the outset, I'm not sure. I think it is because I am too groggy-headed upon first waking to have my game plan set.
Giving Max morning meds and dose of water, overnight diaper changes, attempts at potty-going, NPR listening, dressing, choosing shoes, changing bedding on beds, gathering laundry: all this occurs before we had downstairs to truly begin the day. The other very important thing which must be done is to decide what we are going to do. For Rowan, this inevitably becomes the chanted mantra of, "bus, bus, bus, bus...." For Max, "Big park" or "Pump Park, or "Kid Park" or "School" can all be heard falling from his lips when my question of "What should we do today?" is uttered.
Lately, we've taken to preparing breakfast and eating it on the road. Generally this means cereal for Rowan and a flour tortilla slathered with homemade refried beans and a tiny bit of cheese, melted, rolled up and cut into pinwheels for Max. By on the road, I mean either at Piccolo park (aka Kid Park) or in the stroller as I try to get my exercise in as early as possible and we head towards one of the other various parks and usually a store or two on the way.
The goal is to be out and about as much as possible before I either have to work or before it gets too hot to want to be out in the world.
In the late, late morning, usually between 1030-Noon, Moose takes over for the rest of the day and the day is mostly my own to nap-through or work-through or cook-through or organize-through..... at my leisure.
Lately, in the middle of the night when late pregnancy insomnia holds me in its grasp, I find myself thinking about how our life is about to change drastically and dramatically. This little structure we've built, which works oh so well right now, is likely to experience a huge shake-up as soon as I give birth. I'd like to believe I'll be able to birth Aurora naturally and that a long, protracted "C" recovery will not be necessary. But, you never know.
If the latter is the case, things are going to be tough for a bit. Not that they won't be tough anyway, but being limited in your ability to lift things and/or climb stairs is, quite frankly, going to be a bitch.
For now, I am doing everything in my power to ensure that natural delivery. The midwife gave the ok to exercise to my heart's content beginning at 35 weeks, which is Tuesday. Apparently, I want those contractions happening. We need to get things moving in the right direction.
And maybe I am just kidding myself that a natural birth will make things easier on us.... but I can continue to hope, can't I?
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