And I thought getting out of the house was fun!

I remember the days when both boys were finally home after 7 weeks, how excited I was to have them home and how even more excited I was to take them out and show them off (and even if I didn't want to show them off, there was really no choice on my part - see freak show post below). Well, fast forward three months to the present day and you will see that my excitement in taking them out has been replaced with pure disdain.

Now, it's never easy getting a newborn out of the house, and most new moms will attest to this. And, I bet you can imagine how much harder it is to get out of the house on time with not one infant, but TWO which can be tremendously difficult. You're still getting used to the idea of getting not only yourself out of the door, but also another (or more, in MOMs cases) tiny human being. Who in fact needs so much stuff, you may as well be packing yourself for a week-long vacation! So the shear fact that you can get out of the door no more than an hour after you anticipated is an impressive feat in and of itself in the first few months.

After a few months of practice most people are able to adjust to the fact that their new baby (or babies!) takes x amount of additional time. Say you want to leave at noon and you know that you would need 1 hour to get ready previously to having the baby, now you give yourself two hours of prep time (of which the baby takes up 1 hour and 55 minutes of that time, because of course, you never have an hour to get ready anymore, you are lucky if your shoes match and your hair doesn't look like you just got out of bed!) because you have learned after the 50th time of being late somewhere that you need to start earlier! And at this point, I have annoyed myself with my tardiness since I was a very punctual person pre-babies!!

Well, in my case, we pretty much have an idea of how long it is going to take to get us and the boys ready and out the door in a timely fashion. We even arrive pretty close to on time (plus or minus 5 minutes, you gotta give us that now!) for any and all appointments. But what blows my mind more than anything now, is how stressful it is to get out of the house. Whether we are going for a walk or to meet people for drinks...it is the most draining experience of my life! And this happens on almost a daily basis now, and will be daily when Matt goes back to work at the end of the month. You would think it would get easier, but it never does and I am convinced that just the act of leaving the house will drive me to an early grave. Here is a typical getting ready scenario, say we have to be out of the house by 12:00 for our "appointment":

10:00AM Announce that I am taking a shower, hubby proceeds to watch boys
10:15AM Take Shower (after catching up on email, which I can never do at home)
10:30AM Make-up, hair, & Pick out clothes to wear (which won't go on my body until 11:55)
10:45AM Take over baby watching duty so hubby can shower & shave
11:00AM Feed Babies
11:30AM Pick out clothes for babies to wear, make sure that babies are finished spitting up
11:35AM Change baby #1 into their going-out outfit
11:36AM Take off outfit because baby #1 has spit up all over himself before a bib could be put in place
11:37AM Put on going-out outfit #2 and remember to put on bib once outfit is pulled over head
11:40AM Put baby #1 on floor gym/swing/jumparoo to occupy while dressing baby #2
11:42AM Change baby #1 bib because he has proceeded to soak it with projectile spit-up
11:45AM Baby #2 changed and ready, placed with baby #1 to play
11:46AM Check to make sure diaper bag is fully stocked with 10 back ups for everything
11:48AM Check car seats to make sure each one is equipped with spit-rag, binkie, and blanket
11:50AM Hubby & I change into our real clothes
11:55AM Place baby #1 & baby #2 into car seats - screaming commences
11:56AM Hubby has to change shirt because one or both babies projectile spit-up on him
11:58AM Take babies out to car - screaming finally stops when they are moved
11:59AM Lucy escapes out the front door, hubby goes after her, I put babies in the car
12:05PM Lucy is caught and returned home
12:08PM I am about to go crazy in car because babies refuse to stop screaming
12:10PM We pull out of the driveway!!

This is pretty much the average situation that we have to endure just to get out of the house. It is simply the most stressful, emotionally draining thing I have to do. And if we do manage to get out of the house on time, we are still so stressed from the activity that we are not on speaking terms for the first 5 minutes of the car ride! I exaggerate, but thankfully we are taking it in stride and only about 25% of the time are we not speaking to each other...which means 75% of the time we make a great team!

It amazes me more and more how much children change your life. I remember the days when if Matt and I wanted to get out of the house, we just went (sure there were at least 10 wardrobe changes then, but that is just par for the course!) and could be wherever we need to be! Thanks to our boys, this is a much more challenging exercise than I ever thought possible. So, please be patient with us...we have every intention of getting there, it just might take a little longer now!!