I’ve been out of work for a couple of weeks now. Thankfully, life is taking on a slower pace as this pregnancy continues to wear on me. I did manage to complete one goal for maternity leave already by reading an actual book, for pleasure! Wondering what else we’ve been up to?
Consignment Sale
I always hit up this one big children’s consignment sale that takes place in March or April. This year, the focus was on our oldest, Goofball, as we have lots of hand-me-downs for the other kids. He now has almost all of the clothes that he will need for the next year, including plenty of jeans, shorts, shirts, pajamas, new Star Wars socks, and a spring coat. Tornado picked out a couple of things. We also purchased a few toys for birthday presents, a brand new bike helmet, and some practically brand-new sandals for each of the kids for summer. We spent just over $200.
Trey’s Second Birthday
I can’t believe that little Trey is already two years old! We celebrated with a homemade cookie cake (for my little Cookie Monster) that was surprisingly easy to make and delicious. He is still young enough that we can get away minimal gift giving. I think he just gets excited to have something of his own, instead of just playing with his siblings’s toys all of the time. Trey really likes dinosaurs, so we picked him up a couple of cool ones from the consignment sale and wrapped them up. It was a very simple, but sweet, celebration.
Twin Preparations
The twins will be arriving some time in the next four weeks. I’ve finished their baby blankets and have been crocheting a few other things. We do still need to set up the crib!
People seem really curious about the vehicle we’re going to drive and when we’re going to move into a bigger house. We have the bus for transportation and plan to “make do” with our current three-bedroom home for as long as possible. Mr. Smith and I don’t spend too much time “hanging out” in our bedroom, so we don’t really foresee many issues sharing it with the twins for a while. Kids and parents used to all sleep together in one room, didn’t they?
Also, we’re still pretty stuck on names.
Money
My claim for short-term disability was approved! This provides such a huge relief, that we can depend on money that will continue to come in, despite me (the breadwinner) being out of work. I feel extremely thankful for paid disability and a paid maternity leave. Honestly, I’m not quite sure how I could possibly continue to work at this point. If not for these disability benefits, we’d be facing a major setback on paying off debt and/or I would have an extremely short maternity leave.
We pulled Tornado and Trey out of daycare. The money saved there pretty much makes up for the difference between the amount of my benefits versus full pay. Mr. Smith and I are working together to watch the two younger kids (Goofball goes to 1st Grade) while trying to get things done. My time with the kids involves a lot of reading books on the couch.
At the beginning of the year, I made a list of financial goals that were organized by the four quarters of 2017. Our goal for the 1st Quarter was to pay off our last credit card. We have continued to pay it down, but there is still a little over $1,000 left on it. We have enough cash to pay it off, but have been waiting to do so, because of the uncertainty involved with this pregnancy and early maternity leave. Once we are sure, we will pay this one off. We sure have come a long way when it comes to our credit cards!
The Bus
The weather has not been cooperating for Mr. Smith to start his work on the bus, so I don’t have any photos of our progress to share right now. The first step will be a really deep clean out of everything. He has to remove all of the decals and the stop sign. Then, he can sand it and get started with painting.
Easter
We tend to keep things pretty simple when it comes to celebrating Easter. Many families seem to turn it into another Christmas (ex. new bicycles from the Bunny). We enjoyed a free Easter egg hunt put on by a local church. Trey actually won a raffle for a cute little basket!
Mr. Smith was sick with a bad cold, so I mustered up all of my energy to go hide eggs with jelly beans in the yard on Easter morning. The kids received baskets with a little bit of candy and some things like bubbles and water squirters from the Dollar Store. We save the baskets, grass, and plastic eggs to reuse from year to year. The kids were happy with their treats. Also, we colored some eggs and made bunny cut-out cookies. The total we spent on this holiday was under $20.
My physical limitations continue to be very frustrating. There is so much I would like to do with this time, but find myself battling with pain, discomfort, and fatigue most of the day. I’m doing my best to be productive with small bursts of energy, but am really longing to meet these twins and start feeling like myself again.
Tell me, what have you been up to? Anything exciting that you’re looking forward to this spring?
I wouldn’t worry about sharing a room with the twins, I believe the new recommendation is that infants sleep in the same room as parents for up to a year. We ended up doing this anyway just due to our own DIY remodel, and had no issues. As long as you have the space in there for the cribs, I think you’ll be set. Then when all the kids are older I wouldn’t discount bunk beds,etc.
Hi Shauna! It will be a bit of a squeeze, but everything should fit. I got rid of some clothing and put everything else in the closet, so I could remove my dresser from our room. Goofball and Trey share a room right now and we use a loft/bunk bed with built in shelves and dresser drawers for the oldest. It has really helped open up more space in their room.
Hard to believe you’re due in the next four weeks. It’s so exciting!
Way to go on the daycare expense covering the gap. And I totally get you holding off on paying down that last $1K on the credit card. Having some extra cash on hand right now provides security.
I’m so sorry to hear you’re in constant pain. Hang in there. (I know that’s pretty lame, but I mean it.)
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Thanks for the encouragement Mrs. Groovy! I’m a mess of different emotions right now – ready, excited, exhausted, terrified, and a few others. But I promise to keep you all in the loop 🙂
Thanks for the update, Harmony. It’s hard to believe the twins are only a few weeks away. Best of luck. It can’t be much fun walking around with two human beings jostling inside of you.
Thank you Mr. Groovy – yes, the belly is getting very heavy. But having babies is one of the best diet plans. I’m really looking forward to the instant loss of at least 20 pounds!
I’m so glad you have some options with your maternity – having to have a very short leave after any baby is tough if it’s not your choice, much less if you have twins! I’m sure sharing a room with them will actually be helpful to you for a while during all the night wake-ups. We had JuggerBaby in our room for months, and cut it short partly because ze had such a hard time sleeping that our being up and about at all in our room after dark always disturbed zir, so we gradually moved zir out. But ze bunks with us any time we have guests because our place is quite small too. I’m always surprised when friends with 3-5 kids feel like they fit just fine in a house with no more than 3 bedrooms but I suspect it’ll be fine up until the teen years. We grew up four to a 2 bdrm apartment just fine, as did many of our family.
I hope you get more small bursts of energy – I know being in constant pain and fatigue is draining over time (chronic pain and fatigue sufferer here) and it’s so much harder when it’s combined with the usual energy needs of pregnancy and parenting the other kids. I’m sure you’re just counting down the days at this point til you get to meet them!
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Yes, I’m very thankful for my maternity leave. Hopefully it will be enough time to get into some type of schedule with the twins. Right now, I’m counting down the days until May. Ideally, they should keep cooking for a while longer, but then I am more than ready to meet them 🙂
They will need more room as time goes on, but right now they don’t really take up that much physical space when it comes down to it.
The small bursts of energy do come on occasion, and are pretty much the only way that I am getting anything done these days. I’m finding it helps to plan out small tasks to do when the energy comes.