5/16/12

I'm Back!

So it's been a while.  And after a few tough days with Finn I decided I needed a way to release the stress at the end of the day, and then I remembered... oh yeah, that is one of the reasons I started blogging.

To catch up... we now have a beautiful 6 week old baby girl, Camille Suzette.  We were having the hardest time coming up with a girl name.  If she had been a boy, I'd had that name picked out for a long time: Dashel James.  I'm still in love with that name.  And in all honesty, am kinda mourning the fact that most likely there won't be a kiddo of mine to own it.  But we decided on Camille because we just both liked it.  And Suzette is a combination of my name and my favorite Aunt's name.

I have found having three kids to be easier than I thought, BUT having the ages that I have are a bit overwhelming.  Finnley and I are butting heads a lot - she is in a whiny, fit-throwing, constant question-asking stage which I have sadly let get under my skin.  I'm working really hard on my patience with her.  Trying to look at things in perspective, remember that although she is the oldest... she is still 3.

I could probably work with her better if I wasn't at the same time dealing with Lawson being 2.  He has the normal 2 year old fits, gets into everything he shouldn't... acts his age.  My biggest problem with him is I find myself yelling at him a lot because I don't catch him doing whatever it is he is doing until last minute.  Then it is just a gut reaction - but I would really like to teach myself another way to react to his actions - some do require the higher volume to distract him before he gets hurt, but most of the time I could just calmly redirect him.

And again, I could probably be more successful at catching his actions before it got to the last minute gut reaction stage, if I wasn't constantly feeding, changing, rocking a new born.  Camille is actually a very easy baby.  But she is very clingy (which I consider a good thing).

So, although I'm trying to help correct their behavior - fits, fighting, whining..., I think I need to put how I do things as a priority.   I've been pretty stressed and hormonally imbalanced for the last few months, and I think that has been the norm, and they are learning from it.  Maybe if I teach myself to speak calmly, react slowly, patiently listen they will start copying that example.  I do not need 3 little mini versions of my stressed out self!