The All-Consuming Laundry

I've titled this blog "Thoughts on Motherhood" only because I am a mother, but it's really going to be about my views on parenting and my experiences. I don't want to take away from fatherhood in any way; I know so many great dads out there. And dads are in the thick of it just as much as us moms are.

This morning I sit typing and drinking my smoothie while my beautiful son lies sleeping in his bed upstairs. I can watch him on the baby video monitor and this is such a peaceful time of day for me. I do like being up early now that I'm a mom (I know some people think that's crazy). But, in the morning, everything is calm and with the baby still asleep I can get a lot done. Also, I have a chance to talk to my husband and see him out the door with a fresh, homemade smoothie. When I was pregnant and sleeping until 8 every morning I didn't get to do this. Then when I let the baby be my alarm clock, I was groggy and cranky. Getting up a couple of hours before him allows me to wake up mentally and physically, have something to eat or drink, work-out, get some housework done, etc. If I wait until 8pm when he goes to bed, I'm usually too exhausted to care or even try to get much done.

One of the first things I do in the early morning is start a load of laundry. Ahhhh, the ever increasing amounts of laundry when you have a baby. I've come to the conclusion that I will never ever again be 'caught up' with laundry until maybe when he goes to college. That's okay; I've come to accept that one or more of the bins downstairs will always have clothes waiting to be washed.
Laundry takes more time with a baby (or kid/s). When it was only me and my husband I would just toss in some clothes, add the detergent, push a few buttons, and voila! Not so, my friend, when you have little ones in the house. You must painstakingly go through each piece of clothing and check for possible stains, spray those stains with some kind of stain remover, and toss into washing machine. It feels like it takes forever. I've narrowed it down a few seconds by using Tide pods or another brand of this same idea. It's a bit quicker - just toss in the pod instead of pouring out the right amount of detergent, pouring into machine, and rinsing cup out. Our kid is 4 months old and we've already gone through 3 1/2 bottles of Shout spray. Maybe that seems like too much to some people, perhaps I am an avid sprayer, but I want to get it out the first time around, not send it back through.

Right now my laundry room is in an unfinished basement - not cool, not pretty, and kinda creepy. But, my dream is to have a fabulous, fancy laundry room some day. It will be so much more fun to do laundry with a cool laundry room - I may even enjoy ironing. Right?