I was a brand spank'n new mother. Right at the rip 'ole age of 24. Magdalene, my sweet 1st born was a great sleeper since the moment she was born. Don't get me wrong, she had some great awake time with many friends telling me with awe, "Man! She sure is an alert baby." but when she was tired, she slept! We formed a good pattern like a week after she arrived: sleep, play {aka look around}, nurse, and then more sleep. She is quite the OCD type right out the gate; everything in order ;O)

Even at night Maggie would sleep great 6 hour stretches {after our pediatrician told us paranoid parents to stop waking her to nurse every 3 hours}. We all, Matt, Mags and I were sleep'n GOOD! Tons of people at church, mainly our students would say, "Wow, you guys don't look like most new parents...all tired and crabby." NOPE. We didn't! Thanks to the unnatural sleep of newbie parents. Then it happened. You knew it was coming. Our glorious Magnadoodle began a period of colic. That evil thing parents dread. Baby crying for seemingly no reason. Yeah, That!

My baby girl Magdalene was maybe 7 weeks old and she suddenly turned into this sob fest on a nightly basis. We couldn't nurse her enough. We checked diapers, kept lights low, sang, rocked, patted, played classical music, walked, nursed some more. Nothing was working. I'm embarrassed to admit that this only last maybe a week and we couldn't handle it anymore. I passed out, unused to this not sleeping stuff and Matt dealt with the girl. It was the night before we were supposed to take our youth on a trip out of town for Go Cart Racing. We Had To Sleep. Some tie during the night, Matt decided he was being of no use and laid Mags in her crib, rather than her cradle she's always slept in next to our bed, and planned to set an alarm for 5 minutes to check on her.

You guessed it, we woke up to the sun, me flailing about wondering where they baby was and Matt jumping to his feet sprinting to the other room. He returned faster than I'd even seen before baring our sleeping baby girl and said, "Oh my gosh. I'm terrible. Feed Her. Feed Her." I nursed as he frantically began getting ready for our youth trip. We'd made earlier plans for our pastor's wife, Sally to watch her for the day. Once we were both dressed, baby packed, and still 1/2 asleep we rushed to Sally's around the corner. We explained what had gone on that week as an apology for our uncharacteristically crabby baby. She reassured us she was a veteran and sent us off without a second thought.

We went, drained, on the trip and enjoyed ourselves as much as a mother worrying about the endurance of a friendship after leaving someone with a colicky baby. He made it back to the church and I immediately jumped into our vehicle and waited impatiently for Matt to make sure all the kids made it home alright. When we finally rolled into the driveway at our pastor's house there they were. Pacing the driveway.

"CRAP!" I thought, "She's never gonna talk to me again." As I got out of the jeep, Sally, holding our content Maggie quickly said, "We're fine. We just came outside a minute ago. We needed some fresh air. I don't want you to think anything's wrong. We weren't pacing waiting on you!" I didn't believe her. I just knew my kid had screamed her lungs out at my friend and we just happened to catch her as she'd snuck outside eagerly awaiting our return.

Well, four years later and I know Ms Sally was Not lying to me. I've learned how wise those words were, "We needed some fresh air." I wasn't very teachable as a fresh mamma {still not most days}. Sally continued that day with, "I did this with all my kids. It helped calm them down; I don't know why it works, but it does." There are some days that we are all at our wits end! And no, I'm not talking about the Wit's In from Adventures in Odyssey. Ya know the day. I've share mine many times here. There are many days when we are all at each other over nothing. I'm referring more than a hockey official and my selfish desires just make me want to yell at everyone because I can't seem to accomplish anything. Many days, we just need some fresh air! Stay-at-home-mammas, I KNOW it's tons of work to get people out the door much less finding the perfect time between naps, meals, and schooling to go out but it's worth it!

Our yard sucks. I'm just gonna put that out there. The entire neighborhood floods into our backyard during heavy rain and between the mosquitoes and poison ivy combo-ed with my fair-skinned allergy filled kids, we can't use it. We have found ourselves in our driveway many a day. I don't like the clean up after letting them "plant gardens" and pretend to make ovens out of giant holes they've dug in the front yard but it's worth it. We live on a cul-de-sac but our driveway is steep so it has taken some trial and error. Tomorrow I'm going to share 2 big tips I've discovered to ease this option for sanity as well as keep everyone safe!

Have you ever tried stepping outside with a crying baby? It usually works! How about a toddler or preschooler?
Any other stress relievers out there??