Uncle! Mercy! Wave the white flag...

I don't know the official battle cry for surrendering to three kids, but whatever it is we declare it. After 6 weeks of 24/7 with no professional help we give up. We hired help. Natasha starts next Tuesday for a few hours each week until Clay goes back to work full time at the end of July and then she will be closer to full time when I return to work in late September. I need sleep. I need a shower that lasts more than 3 minutes. I need to eat sitting down and with no one in my lap. I need to go to the grocery store alone. Not every time or everyday, but some of these things some days...maybe...well, a girl can dream...

Clay is working 8 to 4 or so, Kayla is going to adventure camp at her preschool and the babies are working me over at home. To get all of us air, I started walking the neighborhood in the morning . It takes a full hour to get all three of us dressed and ready, 40 minutes to walk and an hour to get us back into the house, changed and settled. By then half the day is gone and I am shaking from hunger (because I only ate 3 courses of breakfast - its an absurd amount of food I am consuming, but that is a different problem) and desperately longing for that allusive shower previously mentioned.

I admit it, I feel like a parenting failure that I can't do it all alone, but I am thankful I have a job with great maternity benefits and a husband that surrendered before I did (so he can't complain about the money!) Natasha tells me that out here it is offensive to call a professional nanny a babysitter, so nanny it is (I would call her a hot dog if she would come help me) and I am thrilled to imagine the moments ahead when someone else gets puked on. (Read: Karsen still has reflux issues).

At this 6 week milestone I would like to announce amazing accomplishments -- like Kennedy can roll from front to back and both babies can sleep a 5 and half hour stretch from 9:30 to 3 and Kayla can name reptiles or spell them -- but I am too tired to really indulge in the amazing blessings that I am drowning in and can only promise you that I will try to get your formal birth announcements there before Christmas.

Our kitchen update is almost done (no, we did not plan for it to still be going after the family expansion) and the guest room is completely available. You are invited to come hold a baby... while I collapse. For now, I have to run as Kayla tells me every single day here birthday is "almost tomorrow" and I have yet to plan a party (with pink cupcakes with chocolate in the middle and butterfly cookies and 2 pieces of candy...). Its my one goal for today. This is the best I could do for pictures, I will try to get some more soon.

I admit defeat,
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A whole Month!

I can not believe that we have all survived our first month as a family of 6 (you have to count the darn needy dog)!

Today was the one month check up. Kennedy weighed in at 9 lbs 4 oz (50th percentile) and 21 1/4 inches long (75th percentile). She is long and lean and strong, but we still call her floppy woppy because when she gets comfy, she just crashes and won't do a thing to hold herself together. Karsen, is our chunky monkey because she is the cuddliest butterball you can hold. She weighed in at 10 lbs even (75th percentile) and 20 1/2 inches long (50th percentile). As you see, they continue to insist on all things being opposite. But, the percentiles are great and we continue to be astounded that they are larger than most of their singleton, full term counterparts.

Now, I don't want to jinx it so dare I admit that after living through several nights of letting the girls get off the dual schedule and winding up awake every 1.5 hours or so, we have had 2 consecutive nights of 5 hour stretches (10-3) of sleep. It has to be the first time I have been horizontal for 5 hours since the two pink lines appeared. Surely such sleep is sacred. I do try occasionally to heed that repetitive advice you get from every single sympathetic person who insists you should "sleep when they sleep", but in all reality the moment two babies are quiet and asleep there is a hierarchy of needs - bathroom, drink, food, laundry, mail, etc. - that never dwindles in your 15 minutes of free-handedness to allow nap time before someone needs something again. When the allusive "nap" thing does happen, it is nature taking over and sleep catches you while holding a baby, a water cup and leaning in some strange position on the arm of the couch. Which is my new definition of multi-tasking. Wouldn't CEB be proud.

My grandmother visited this weekend. At 80 with now 6 great grand kids she was a lot of help rocking babies while Brian entertained Kayla and we celebrated the 4th of July with the girls first trip to the beach.

Here are a few pics to prove that everyone at our house is alive, healthy and while severely tired, happy. Maybe not everyone - check out Kennedy's expression when Karsen the cuddle bug moves over to hold on to her...again.