Insanity of Life with Newborn #6

The baby is changed, fed, burped and laid down... success!

SHHH!! Don't move or talk to loud. She's finally asleep! 

Waaaaaaaa!

Another 2 hours pass and again, baby is changed, fed, burped, asleep. 
My husband is snoring next to me, and I can hear a couple kids breathing loudly and some beds squeaking as they toss and turn in their slumber - these old hand-me-down bunk beds have really run their course.  Even when the house rests it's never fully silent. The deep breathing, the fan humming, the darkness comforting. I finally rest my head and fall asleep.

Several hours later I hear the grunting and squeaking of my newborn at the foot of my bed. I know I have a few minutes before she starts crying to be nursed. I lean over and glance at my phone. 2:30am. I got a good 2 hours of sleep. Waddling to the bathroom I hear my 4th born begin to talk in his sleep. He's woken up with nightmares almost every night since he was about 9-months old. I tiptoe back to my room hoping not to exasperate him in his dreaming state.

I nurse Evelyn, lay her down, pray she stays asleep and start to pump. As I pump I drink the remainder of my water, take my Pregnancy and Breastfeeding Tincture and PMS tincture and browse Pinterest just to stay awake. This cycle repeats 1-2 more times before her 8am feeding at which time both my toddler and 4-year-old are already awake and "dying of starvation."

I quick go downstairs, grab some bananas, use the bathroom, grab some cold coffee out of the pot (hey, I'm desperate...), and hurry back upstairs to nurse the baby. I feed the boys bananas while I begin my nursing/pumping routine. Thankfully one of my older 3 kids wakes up and can start getting the boys ready for the day. Also, thankfully, I put some steel cut oats in the crock pot the night before and they're all set to get dished up.

Half asleep I make my way downstairs, baby in one arm, two containers full of breast milk in the other, and the other two girls carrying everything else I need but don't have enough arms to haul downstairs.  Then I blink. Sometime between waking up, wiping my toddlers butt, changing the baby from spitting up and blowing out, brewing some hot coffee, nursing again, feeding myself some breakfast, and getting the girls settled in to do their reading with me, I look at my phone and its 12pm - noon! 

No wonder the toddler is so crabby... it's lunch time and we just finished breakfast.

I brushed my hair at 6pm.

I changed my bra for the first time in 3 days at 8pm.

Here it is 11pm and what am I doing?

Listening to the quiet sounds of snoring children... and blogging...

not sleeping... blogging... 

Motherhood is strange.

Insanity sometimes.

I don't think I'll ever think straight or be able to truly focus on anything... ever again.

But I can't tell you how much JOY I have being able to proclaim that I am a PROUD mother of 6 beautiful children. 

I love them, my husband, and most of all my Jesus who gives me the strength, patience, endurance, peace, joy, and selflessness to do this insane thing called motherhood.