Sleeping Habits of Babies

It's always a wonder to  me.  How this baby sleeps through the night from almost birth.  How that baby takes regular naps throughout the day until age 4 with no qualms or problems.  How some babies can sleep through anything and some startle at the slightest sounds.

Having had two babies of my own now, I know no more than I did with the first one.  I thought that I made some mistakes with the first one - I held her ALL the time those first few weeks when she slept so much.  She was just too cute to put down!  And I thought that made her a bad sleeper, because let me tell you, from then on out she didn't sleep unless you held her.  She also didn't sleep through the night until 7 or 8 months...

So this time around, I did my best to not hold my baby boy.  And I made sure that the grandmothers who came around and offered me SO much help also didn't hold him all the time...there is plenty of time to spoil him later, not right after birth!  I followed all the right steps, rocked him to drowsiness and then put him down to fall asleep on his own, didn't feed him until he was asleep, and for a while I thought that it was helping.

Yet sometime around the 4th month or so, I realized that he wasn't a good sleeper either.  Just like his sister.  Maybe it's something in my genes.  My mom will probably tell you that it's just payback...to say that I was not a good sleeper would be the understatement of the year, if not the century! 

So here's my latest question...how can such a horrible little sleeper like Jax sleep right next to my husband on his nights to take him?  I ask this because my husband snores like a freight train.  A freight train comin' round the bend and all.  I can barely sleep next time to him some nights...and have to use ear plugs most of the time. 

So how does my little horrible sleeper sleep so soundly next to him? 

It's a question that I'll be sure to ask one of these days...I'm sure there's an angel up there somewhere who can answer me! 

Sleepless Nights Lead to Drunken Dressing…

This is just a public service warning to all readers. This is NOT a test. This can actually happen to you…be warned.

So I mentioned the other day that Jax has thrush. And that I wasn’t sleeping. Yeah, not a fun end of the week and weekend for me. Monday morning wasn’t any better…and Tuesday pretty much sucked. But the angels smiled down on me Tuesday and cleared up the majority of the Thrush and my baby boy slept that night.

For the first time in almost a week.

Yes, you read that right. Tuesday night was the first night since last Thursday night that I’ve slept for more than an hour at a time. I’ll kiss the feet of whatever Saint helped me out…seriously. Surely there’s a Saint for Mothers of Young Children? Anyone heard of that?? If there’s not one, then let’s find someone and appoint them…or however that works, let’s make it happen.

Anyway, back to my public service warning.

If you are operating on less than 3 hours of sleep (for the fourth night in a row) then you should maybe, just maybe, take a few extra minutes in the morning as you’re getting ready. Especially during the dressing portion of your morning. That extra minute or two just might save you a world of embarrassment later on during the day. Sure, my embarrassment was for me and my eyes only, but that’s just a fluke. It could have been worse.

Here’s what happened. I rolled out of bed on Tuesday morning, just barely coherent. I was beyond exhausted…tired of life, tired of one sick/fussy baby in particular, and really tired of being the favored parent. It’s not all that it’s cracked up to be, trust me. (I speak from experience. Twice.) I immediately jumped in the shower before the little jerk sweetheart could wake up and demand my attention and managed to get through the showering/brushing teeth process in peace. Amazed at my good luck, I snuck out of the bathroom to find my clothes and rushed back into the bathroom to get dressed.

It would be nice if I was less honest here and I told you that I got dressed in the dark bedroom. That would give me more of an excuse. But I can’t lie. I got dressed in the brightly lit bathroom. But I was still very sleep deprived.

I had black pants, a cutesy top and of course, my bra and underwear. Everything went onto my body in a hurry because I still needed to dry my hair, and if I could also manage to do that without waking the little man…it would really be my lucky day!  Color me shocked when all goes according to plan. He sleeps until I actually have two free hands to get him out of bed with and a few minutes to devote to his every whim and fancy.

Let’s fast forward to the afternoon: fix breakfast, take baby to day care, drop big kid off a elementary school, fight traffic, get to work, work on several things and nothing at all at the same time, go to lunch with hubby and come back from lunch.

Whew! Exciting day, huh? Well, sometime around the middle of the afternoon I had to go to the little girl’s room. Yes, I had already been several times throughout the day. No, I didn’t notice anything amiss during the other visits. And I really can’t tell you why this visit was different. Either way, this time when I was in the restroom, I happened to look down (because where else do you look while you’re in the restroom?) and noticed something odd about my underwear.

Yes, it was mine.

No, it wasn’t from the dirty pile.

But…oh wait…yep, it’s on inside out.

Hmmm…what to do now? Change it and flip it right side out after wearing it the wrong way all day long? Or just leave it alone because the work day is almost over anyway and then you’ll be at home…and who really cares if your panties are on inside out at home?

What to take a guess at my course of action? Well, knowing what you know about my energy level on Tuesday I think that you’d be safe to assume that I left those puppies just like they were. They weren’t hurting anything. And you couldn’t tell from the outside of my clothes that my panties were on inside out. Only I knew. And now all of you.

Because we can all use a good laugh every now and then. Go ahead, you can laugh at me. I did, that’s for sure!

I mean, who puts their panties on inside out except for drunk, college girls? Apparently moms who aren’t getting any sleep do! Or better yet – who doesn’t notice until almost 3 o’clock in the afternoon? It’s not like I hadn’t gone to the bathroom 3 or 4 other times that day…I had…and I didn’t notice.

Yeah. That’s when you know you’re tired. That’s when it might be a good idea to try to go to bed a few minutes earlier. Or to wear some ear plugs. Or to suggest to the husband that it’s HIS night on baby duty…any of those options will help you get your panties on correctly the next day.

Then again, I didn’t do any of those things Tuesday night. But you can bet money that I took an extra 30 seconds Wednesday morning to make sure that I had them on right side out this time!! LOL!

What crazy thing have you done when you were going through a sleepy phase? Surely I’m not the only one to have a “wardrobe malfunction” or make cereal with coffee instead of milk or something equally as funny…share with us and we’ll all have a laugh!

The Progression of a Tired Mother...

This is how I felt yesterday after one restless night of sleep (Friday) and one night of little to no sleep (Saturday)...

And maybe I looked a bit like this...

And that wasn't too terribly bad. But then last night hit. Another night of little to no sleep. Followed by a morning where I had to go to work. Which means that this is what I looked like getting up out of bed...

And here's what I looked like at work today...

Too bad that I don't actually drink coffee. I think that it might have helped me today. The good news I left work at lunch today, which is why there is a post during the middle of the afternoon. Hopefully I'm about to fall into a nice, deep sleep where I get lots and lots of rest...here's to hoping!

Oh, what's that? You want to know why I'm not sleeping. Hmmm...let me sum it up for you...I think that I can do it in 5 words or less. Jax has Thrush. Yep, I managed it in only 3 words - go me! I'll write more about it later...finding images was hard enough...wish me luck sleeping!!

source for images (1, 2, 3, and 4)

Calling All Moms! Nighttime help, PLEASE!!!

dash-dash-dash. dot-dot-dot. dash-dash-dash.

Or is it dot-dot-dot. dash-dash-dash. dot-dot-dot?  I can't remember...either way - HELP! 

I have a problem.  Well, I probably have many problems, but this is one that I think that you can help with.  I  have a heavy-wetter at night...and I don't know what to do about it.  He goes through diapers during the night like they're going out of style, and I'm at my wits end about it all.  I think that this could be "part" of the problem with his bad nighttime sleeping habits...he keeps waking up because his diaper has leaked again and who can blame him for being mad about it?  Not me! 

We use disposable diapers...go ahead, castrate me for it.  It's our choice and worked well for me before.  Jenna never had these leaking overnight problems.  Jax likes the Huggies Little Snugglers/Movers best, and during the day they work fine.  But at night?  I always have to change him at his nighttime bottle just to try to avoid the mess, but lately he's not even making it until then...the diapers are leaking sooner!  At first I thought that it was happening more often because he was growing out of the size 2 diapers...so I moved up to size 3.  They work fine during the day, but at night...every single night...they leak on the front since he's a tummy sleeper.  And sometimes they leak on the sides when he's snuggled up in his swaddle wrap.

So what should I do?  Try a different brand?  Try a different style (Huggies makes Snug and Dry vs. the Little Movers)? 

The other options that I've looked at are overnight diapers, but I can't find them in a store under a size 4...so that's out.  And then today, I was catching up in my Reader and saw this post where she talks about what they do at night...should I try cloth diapering just for the nighttime absorbency tricks that are possible?  And if I do go with cloth diapers...where the heck do I start?  There are so many options and brands and inserts...I'm truly overwhelmed!

What do you recommend?  Surely someone out there has a recommendation...what do you do for your nighttime diaper situation?  Thanks for any input you can offer me!!!

That Little "S*&t!"

Now, before I go off and offend anyone's sensibilities, let me first print out a disclaimer.  In Texas (and maybe other parts of the South) the term "little shit" is used almost like an endearment.  You say it with a little bit of softness and laughter in your voice...like a nick name.  Kinda like when you call a really good girlfriend a bitch.  You say it with love, laughter and respect...for the most part.  And sometimes there's a little frustration thrown in for good measure.  But either way, it's not really meant as a bad thing...especially when you're referring to your children. 

But let's be honest...they can be little shits sometimes.  And Jax was a big one last night.  Let me tell you about it...

It really started last Friday.  In case you missed the news flash, we've been fighting ear infections for almost a month around these parts.  And the Friday before last, we ran our last fever...until this past Friday.  That night, Jax was waking up more than normal...as in, after midnight it was every 30-45 minutes more than normal.  And that's a lot.  I just kept giving him his pacifier and trying to unwrap his snuggle wrap and all of my normal tricks, none of which were really working.  At 2am, I gave up and brought him into our bed and that's when I won the Mother of the Year award for the 48th time...he was hot with fever.  Burning up with heat.  I dosed him with meds and we fell into a somewhat fitful sleep.  I was sure that it was his ears again. 

But the next day, he was fine.  I talked with Brent about taking him to the doctor to get his ears checked, and we both decided that we would just wait for Monday to roll around.  (We had a two-week follow-up appt aready scheduled.)  During the day, he was fine.  At night, he was a handful.  Restless, tossing and turning his head and running a low fever at night.

This continued for FOUR nights...and that's when I reached my limit.  I typically handle the nighttime stuff since Jax prefers me at night and it's usually not this bad.  But after four nights in a row of little to no sleep, I needed a night off.  And like the great husband that he is, Brent stepped right up and told me to take a whole Tylenol PM and to sleep in the other room.  He gave me the best present ever...a good night's sleep.

Of course, by the time that it came around, I was willing to take half of the night shift, if he needed my help and I instructed him to wake me up around 2-3am.  That's when Jax normally wakes up to eat and he typically won't take a bottle from Brent at night.  (I don't know how Brent arranged that with him...but I'd love to know the secret!)  I went off to bed as instructed and slept like the dead until around 3:15am.

I woke up then, knowing that I would hear a cry sometime soon.  I remained in a half awake, half asleep state for about 30 minutes and then realized how much time had passed.  The thought of him sleeping through a feeding was just too strange for me, so I came all the way awake and went to check on him.  Obviously he had woken up at some point during the night and wanted to be unwrapped from his Snuggle wrap and laid on his tummy.  He was sleeping peacefully, and Dad was snoring in the bed across the room.  I made my way back to the upstairs couch, close enough to hear him cry out and far enough away to fall back asleep.

Except that I couldn't really sleep for wondering when the heck he was gonna wake up.  I mean, I kid you not...it's been every 30-45 minutes for FOUR looooong nights...and the first night that Brent takes a shift the kid is sleeping like a log???  You've got to be kidding me!  I laid awake, dozing off every once in a while, but still checking my phone for the time until I gave up in frustration around 5:30am.  At that point, there was only one thought running around in my head...

"That little shit!" 

He would choose this night of all nights to sleep through the night for the first time!  The one night that I have off and he had a chance to show Dad what the nighttimes are like for me and he sleeps, well...like a baby.  Once again, that little shit.

Even though I say that, y'all know that I've got all of my fingers and toes crossed and I'm praying like heck that it happens again tonight.  He slept from about 8:30pm to 5:50am and took a bottle and went right back to sleep...that would be heaven if it became a regular thing.  Seriously. 

And if he doesn't do it again?  Well, he'll still be a little shit...but for different reasons.  Just remember, he's my little shit...which makes a world of difference and I love him to pieces.  Oh, and if he doesn't sleep through the night tonight with me?  I'm putting Brent on permanent nighttime duty!  LOL!

BEST Post Forgotten...

If you’re a fellow blogger, here’s a quick question for you: do you ever write the BEST post you’ve ever written in your head at 2am…and then can’t remember the gist of it when you wake up for real? Does that happen to others?


‘Cuz it happened to me last night…I promise that I had the best post ever going on in my head around 2am…I was even making myself laugh with my wit and charm (that’s not me being conceited, I was really funny!). Then again, it could have had something more to do with the late hour and little sleep that I’d gotten. Maybe it wasn’t that funny at all, and that’s why I can’t remember it all.

Oh well, I just wondered if it happens to others too…that’s all.

But what I do remember? I stumbled across the best idea ever. Ever. Here it is, let me share it with you so that you can all agree that I am onto something here.

Jax wakes up to eat at night. Shut it, I don’t want to hear stories about how your angel slept through the night after two months…that’s not the kind of support this parent needs right now. I love your children, and am SO happy for YOU, but let’s not go down that road right now, ok? K, thanks! So anyway, when he wakes up to eat, I’ve learned (the hard way) that I need to change his diaper at that time too. It just makes things easier, and I’d much rather change him before he leaks than after. Our routine has always been that he eats (because he’s screaming and who doesn’t want that to stop ASAP?) and then I change him and then he goes back to sleep.

Most nights, this routine works for us. Lately, he’s gotten all talky-talky during this diaper changing time and he babbles at me non-stop for a few minutes…it’s the cutest thing and I get the biggest kick out of it. The last few nights though, he’s been up a lot. Like every 30 minutes. Not fun. We think that it’s his top two teeth coming through and the doctor assures me that he’s totally healthy in every other regard (yes, we’ve checked his ears) and to “just relax, they should cut through sometime in the next few weeks.”

Umm, excuse me? Did you just say “weeks”?

Yeah. I didn’t misunderstand. Kinda wish I had, though. You see, I’m not sleeping much, and I was sorta hoping they would come on through in the next few days…but that’s just me.

Anyway. Since he’s been up so much, there’s been a lot of co-sleeping going on. Cut me some slack, I’m tired. And it just happens that around his feeding time, he’s in our bed, so instead of getting up and sitting in the rocker while I feed him, I’ve been feeding him in the bed. (It’s cold outside, maybe you didn’t hear…) I guess maybe it’s the angle that he’s laying on the bed or something, but when he feeds in the bed, he’s more than capable/willing to hold his own bottle, which he doesn't try to do when we're in the glider. Which means that my role falls from feeder to supervisor of feeding…which translates to me shutting my eyes “just a little bit” and “resting” while he eats. Nice, right?

But the diaper still needs to be changed. The last two nights, I’ve let him finish eating then I change him like normal and put him back in his bed to sleep. But last night? Last night I came up with an idea, or plan of action, that can only be called brilliant. Why I didn’t think of this sooner, I have no idea…I’ll blame the lack of good sleep. It’s a handy excuse.

Are you ready for it? Last night, I changed his diaper while he fed himself. No crying, no fussing, no fighting me while I tried to get the 127 snaps closed again…why do they insist on so many little snaps??? They’re fine during the day, but at night? Oh man. (I also just bought 3 sleepers that ZIP all the way up…yeah, I’m catching on! Better late than never, right?) So he’s up there being a big boy, holding his own bottle with both hands, not requiring me to do anything…and I’m down below getting him undressed, changed into a new diaper and redressed with the least fussing/movement/kicking I’ve seen since he was running his high fever almost two weeks ago. Nice.

This is one of those things that you have to look forward to when they’re feeding themselves. One of those things that should be in all the baby books that you read…well, maybe it is in one of those books. I don’t really know since I quit reading those books halfway through my first kid. I sort of figured that I had the hang on things this time around and didn’t feel the need to try to read them again. Maybe if I had, I would have seen this idea somewhere and been doing it for the last month that he’s been able to hold his own bottle. Once again, better late than never!

I felt like such a genius that I thought up a whole post (or two) right then and there on the spot…which I promptly forgot about when I got an additional 2.5 hours of straight sleep - helped along with half of a Tylenol PM. That’s another one of those secrets that no one tells you about – drugs. Use them. Not abuse them, but use them to help you. Tylenol PM is what is getting me through the days right now. I take half of a pill after I feed him at 3am, and the next 2-3 hours of sleep that I get is deep and really restful, allowing me to go to work and be productive. Somewhat. I’m still tired, but not as tired as I would be if I wasn’t getting that one good stretch of sleep!

I should start a list of things that no one tells you regarding motherhood, huh? Both of these would be on my list: change the diaper while he/she is feeding on his/her own when he/she reaches that age and dose yourself with half of a Tylenol PM to get a good stretch of sleep on the really bad nights. Because you will probably have them at some point…and those would NOT be better late than never. Have them sooner and get it over with – that’s my motto!

It’s Late…


I know that I owe you guys a 6 month post on baby boy…but to be perfectly honest, I’m beat. Like bone-tired. I can’t even tell you why for sure, lots of little things, I guess. Also, I can’t remember what his height was at his check-up last week (most of last week is now a blur in my brain!) and the papers are upstairs…which is a LOT of work right now, just in case you’re wondering. And what’s a monthly post without stats? Not that great, if you ask me. So we’ll just brain dump for a moment if you don’t mind.

I’m so tired. Not because Jax kept me up last night…his sleeping pattern is slowing going back to normal or pre-sickness/ear infection state. Which is a GREAT thing, believe me! So I’m getting plenty of sleep…but maybe that’s the problem. Last night I slept hard…like sleep of the dead sort of hard…and when he woke up to eat, I felt like I had already slept all night. I guess that my body thought that it was time to get up, even though it was, in fact, NOT time to wakey-wakey.

So this is how I know that the Arctic Blast cold front hit our house at 3:21am precisely. Because I was awake and playing cards on my phone to try to go to sleep (it’s totally ok for you to admit to this too…) when the house started shaking and the windows started rattling. It stayed that way for an hour…and to someone who’s a really light sleeper there was no hope for sleep while this was going on, even if my mind had been so inclined to go nighty-night. Which it wasn’t. That’s probably why I’m so tired now…

Do you have a game that makes you sleepy? Both Brent and I swear by our card games and one of my friends at work swears by Bejeweled to make her go to sleep. Just wondering what your go-to game is for inducing sleepiness. You know, just in case insomnia strikes again and the cards aren’t doing it for me…

Mentioning the Arctic Blast. I’m sure you know by now that most of the US is covered in snow. Including places in Texas. Not yet in Austin, but it’s like 18 degrees outside here now. Can I just say “What the hell?!?!” It’s not supposed to be like this in Texas. At least not in the Southern/Central part where we live…sure the twenties at night…but the teens during the daytime? No thank you. You Northerners can have your coldness back anytime you’re ready to take it back, I’ve had about enough. And according to our weathermen, “enough” is actually coming into reality on Saturday when it’s supposed to be in the 60’s temperature-wise. Yes, you read that right. From 20’s-30’s for three days back up to the 60’s this weekend. That’s crazy Texas weather for you!

Since the weather patterns are swinging so wildly this week – I walked before dinner on Monday in Capri work-out yoga pants because it was 80 degrees outside…to the Arctic Blast for the middle of the week…and then back to the 60’s this coming weekend – hello Sickness! We’re all taking extra vitamins and breathing treatments to try to stave off another visit to the doctor. Not that we don’t love her…we’ve just seen her enough to last a while, thanks!

Last but not least, maybe I’m the last one to catch on here but this meal-planning thing might be something worth considering. I’ve been reading this blog about how she manages to feed her family delicious, home-cooked meals 6 nights a week on just $250/month and how she plans all of her meals. I’ve been a skeptic about this process for years (I mean, how can I know on Monday that I’ll feel like eating Beef Stroganoff on Friday?!?!) but maybe, just maybe, I’m going to admit defeat and accept what the masses already seem to know: Meal planning works. Not only do you use up the strange ingredients that you buy for one dinner faster when you plan to cook something else that also uses that ingredient during the week, but I actually bought 4-5 meals worth of groceries yesterday for less than $70, and those are meals that will leave leftovers so will actually account for a few lunches or other meals. (You know, just in case the city of Austin shuts down for the ice/sleet that MIGHT hit us tomorrow!) That’s amazing to me…coming from someone who goes to the store for each meal, spending $20-30 per trip…

I’ll be honest and not blame that mental slowness on my state of tiredness…it’s more laziness on my part, I’m sure.

Anywho…so that’s about all I’ve got for you today. Sorry it’s sort of boring. But really, send me your “sleepy game” suggestions! And let me know if you meal plan and like it or not…I might cave and start doing that on a regular basis…you know, like a grown up!

1 + 2 + 5 = 1

Do you like my math skills?  I excelled in my math classes when I was younger, I promise...and I worked in accounting for a few years...shocking, huh?!?!  Let me break down my little equation above so that it makes sense to more people than just me...

1 Ear Infection (still...this is the third week!) + 2 (or possibly 3) Sleep Deprived People + 5 Medications
1 VERY CRANKY 6 mo old!!

Yep, you read that right.  If you remember we went to the doctor the week before last and found out that the poor little guy had not one full blown ear infection, but another just below danger territory.  So we went on antibiotics and treated it as best we could.  It seemed to go away and clear up, except for some strange almost flourescent green eye booger things coming out of BOTH of his eyes.  I was slightly worried about that, but since it looked like the goopey stuff that starts coming out right before you get pink eye, and we already had medicine for that from when we had it a few months ago, I just treated that too and went ahead about my business.

And then he turned 6 months old over the weekend, which means that we had our 6 month check-up yesterday.  Ironically, on Saturday night he was up screaming for a few hours, and I wondered if maybe it was his ear again.  But he wasn't running any fever and he seemed very happy the next morning, so we slept in and took it easy...especially knowing that I had a doctor's appt for the next day. 

The irony part comes in when we're at the doctor's office and the check-up is going well, until she grabs the little ear-looker-thingy.  Yes, that's an official medical term - look it up!  She looks in his right ear first, which was the one that wasn't quite as badly infected and made good noises.  Then she moved on to the left side...and the good noises stopped abruptly. 

Yep, we're still infected. 

Or maybe not all the way infected, but according to the doctor "it should look better than it does."  Which doesn't really tell me anything.  So we're on antibiotics again...along with a few other things.  This is where the 5 in the equation comes in...

We're taking Cefadrin for the ear infection.  We're dosing his eyes twice a day with Vigamox to stave off a pink eye infection because his secondary tear ducts aren't fully developed yet and that's what keeps leaking the freaky-looking mucus stuff.  That's also a technical medical term.  Because the Cefadrin gives him really bad diarrhea/upset stomach we're also taking Florastor to offset that symptom.  And just to make the party more fun, the doctor wants us to keep up the steroid treatment for his cough/rattle for the next 30 days.  The good news is that we can drop down to just doing the breathing treatments once a day of the steroid Budesidine. 

Yes, if any of my readers are actual medical people, I will apologize for butchering the spelling of any/all medicines.  You know what I'm talking about, it's close enough.  Remember...I'm sleep deprived.  I won't apologize for the vast amount of medical technical terms that I used...LOL!

Oh, and just to make the party MORE fun...he got 5 shots yesterday.  And he's been running a fever since midnight of at least 102 degrees.  So we're at home today...bunkered down and trying to weather the worst of the storm.  The good news is that he's sleeping alot...two hours and counting right now.  So the laundry's getting done, the kitchen got cleaned and the living room floor got vaccummed.  At least something productive has come out of this sick day!  I hope that your day is better than mine...mine can only get better from here.

Best. Husband. Ever.

He understood that I was hurt.

He tried to help me out with the world’s best back massage.

He stayed up half of the night with the little one so that I could rest and try to get better.

When none of the above worked, he plied me with drugs and sent me back to bed.

No joke. Really, he did. And it was H-E-A-V-E-N! Literally the best thing since sliced bread. There are some disadvantages to living with a wounded veteran but the quality and quantity of free drugs is NOT one of them!

Let me start at the beginning. I don’t know how it happened, but at some point last week, I threw my back out of whack. I sat on a heating pad for three days at work, and really thought that things were getting better. But by Saturday I couldn’t sit up straight or stand and hold Jax for any length of time. Notice that I didn’t say for any long length of time…there was NO length of time that I could stand and hold him. Which just stinks when you have a little one.

Anyway, we did everything that we could think of on Saturday to give me some relief and try to fix my back. I even took half of a pain pill when I went to bed (not taking the first shift of the night – Sweet!) and attempted to lay “just so” to give my back and break and time to heal. Sunday morning I woke up and it was worse - even though Jax had a great night and I was able to sleep without holding him for the first time in almost a week.

After taking one look at my face and the lack of posture that I was sitting there with, Brent went off in search of his muscle relaxers. He hasn’t had to use them in several months, and it took him a little bit to find the bottle. It took longer to convince me to take one. I mean, what if they needed me? Did he truly understand that taking one of these would knock me on my ass? Seriously – Tylenol makes me sleepy…this was really going to send me to la-la land. Did he get that I wouldn’t be available to help if Jax got fussy? And did the term “I’d be out for a while” translate the same from my head (a while meaning at least 4 hours) to his head?

These are all questions that I asked out loud. Don’t laugh. Sometimes you just have to be crystal clear.

In the end, after getting laughed at and being told that he wanted me to go and sleep and rest, we compromised and I took ½ of a pill.

And I slept for FOUR HOURS.

During the middle of the day. Between the hours of 9am and 1pm.

If you don’t have an almost six month old at home, you can’t possibly get how rare and wonderful this really was. If you do have a little tyke at home, then you totally understand where I’m coming from and concur with my vote to name my husband Best Husband Ever.

It was bliss.

And it actually did help my back. When I woke up, my back was still stiff and knotted up a bit but it was much less than before and by that evening after another ho, soaking bath and a good night’s sleep…I’m almost all better in time to go to work on Monday morning. (I say almost because who really wants to go to work on Monday mornings? Not me!)

So do you agree with me that he did the most wonderful thing for me? Even if that wonderful thing involved giving me drugs, which normally would NOT be a good start to a story? I think so…what other things has your husband/fiancée done for you to show you how much he cared? I’d love to hear about it! That reminds me to tell you about the time that Brent made the sun go away for me…but that’s a story for another day!

Five Months

5 months…150 days, give or take…150 nights of little sleep…time flies when you’re having fun, huh? There are days that it seems that time drags on and on…and then there are the days where time seems to be moving at warp speed. Days when you don’t know if you’re coming or going between feedings…and days when you cherish something close because you know that the time of them doing this or that is coming to an end soon.

So many changes are happening in Jax’s world right now. He’s learning so much, being exposed to so many new things, and going through some rough little pains as he moves from the “baby” stage to the “infant” stage of this first year. Looking back at my daughter, I thought that this time passed so quickly, as I suppose that it would eight years later. This time around, at 34 years old, time seems to be moving a bit slower. Maybe that’s because I know what to expect and am anticipating the change? I don’t know. Either way, it’s an exciting time in our house right now, that’s for sure!

I decided that I might need to organize these monthly posts a bit…Lord knows there are days that I need help remembering my own name, much less all that I’d like to cover in these posts! So here goes:

Stats – Weight/Height, etc.: We don’t go to see the Dr until next month, so I’ve just got guesses. I think that he’s grown about an inch in length from last month and put on maybe a pound or two. It seems to me that he’s “evening” out where his weight is…like his height is catching up on his weight gain, which is a good thing!

Bedtime: 8-8:30pm. Our routine is to start feeding him around 7ish at night, then he gets a bath right before 8ish and is out and dressed and ready for bed shortly thereafter. Some night vary, depending what’s going on, but he does MUCH better when we manage to stick to that schedule…and we’re all about doing our part to help him sleep at night!

“Wake-up!” time: This month I’ve seen a marked difference in his waking time. He managed to drop down to one nighttime feeding within the last two weeks and due to that, he’s up and awake a little bit earlier, usually between 6-6:30am on most mornings. On the weekends, I can sometimes convince him to “sleep” a little longer by bringing him into our bed, but that doesn’t always work. I’m not really sure why he wakes so early now…he’s not hungry, he’ll wait until closer to 8am before wanting his bottle, but he’s awake – happy and playful at this time! He usually does poop right around 6:30-7am, so maybe that’s it!

Naps: Jax still takes about three naps a day, ranging anywhere from short “cat naps” lasting about 30 minutes, to longer stretches of sleep that might run an hour and a half. There’s usually one long nap and two shorter naps in a day…and we’re trying really hard to keep him awake in the evenings, in the hopes that making him tired helps him sleep better. Hey – don’t knock it…I’ll take whatever help that I can get!

Bottles: He takes 6 ounces in his bottles now, eating 6 times each day. Four during and throughout the daytime (about 3 hours apart), one right before bedtime and one around 2-3am.

Meals/Solids: Jax started eating solid foods this past month – with much success! I had started him on cereal with juice a little before the magical 4 month mark, in hopes that it would help the sleeping situation at that time (it didn’t), so starting solids was somewhat easy. We’ve almost finished all of the 1st simple foods with no allergic reactions to anything yet. At this point, he’s taking a tablespoon of fruit in his 3 tablespoons of cereal (along with juice) in the mornings around 10am and then he’ll eat anywhere from a jar and a half to almost two full jars of baby food in the evenings around 7pm. We always start with the vegetable, to make sure that he finishes that one, and then if he finishes or doesn’t finish the fruit, that’s ok. Only one time has he come close to eating both containers. I’ll have to do another post about the joys/pitfalls of making my own baby food (which I DID do for the first few weeks)…let’s just sum it all up by saying that I now support Gerber wholeheartedly. Oh well…

New Foods: Everything! Sweet potatoes, apples, green beans, bananas, squash, peaches, carrots and pears.

Developmental Milestones and “Firsts”: Oh goodness – SO much is happening and changing for Jax right now. He babbles constantly – the teachers all remark on how much he talks for a baby of his age. Of course, none of it is more than baby babble and sounds, but it’s SO cute! And the noises range from quiet, soothing baby sounds/babble all the way to listen-to-me-women-I’m-talking-to-you types of conversations! He can make all sorts of noises, but the newest is figuring out how to make the “b” sound (which is just funny watching him struggle to get it out!) and he’s figured out in the last week how to blow bubbles with his spit. Yes, he’s very advanced – we’re perusing collegiate applications at the moment! Just kidding.

In terms of mobility, he’s freely moving back-to-front and front-to-back and attempting somewhat of an army crawl while on his belly.


He can hold his massive head up for quite a while now, although I haven’t timed it, and turn each way to see everything all around him.


When left alone on a pallet on the floor, 9 times out of 10 he will NOT be in the same spot 5 seconds later when you come back. He can turn a full 360 degree circle on his back to see that much more. He’s figuring out hand-to-eye coordination fairly well as he’s now able to pick up what he reaches for I’d say about 50% of the time. Of course, once the object is in his grasp it goes straight to his mouth…just a little taste test to figure it all out, I suppose. After not liking his high chair so much the first week we tried to use it, he’s settled himself into it and has discovered how fun it is to make toys and spoons fly off of the tray…of course, this is a total accident when it happens, but it’s funny none-the-less.

Another new trick? He’s almost sitting. By himself! He started this about a week or so ago (which was right on time according to when his big sister did stuff – she sat a week before she turned 5 months) but was pretty wobbly. Now he’s starting to correct his positions and brace his hands out to catch himself when he starts to topple over. Am I ready for this stage? Yes and no. Yes, because what a cool age – I remember this being when Jenna got really fun. No, because I remember with clarity this stage…and although lots of fun, I needed an extra head to watch her with and an extra limb or two to keep track of her and hold her down. I missed the immobile stage once she got to the mobile stage…so I know it’s coming.

And oh my goodness - we've got hair! This might not sound like much to you, but Jenna (and I) didn't have hair until almost 3 years old...check out all the hair...ignore the dazed and confused look on his face...



Favorite Toys: Exer-saucer is still a go-to favorite. But he got a new toy from Aunt Tiffany this past weekend that might eclipse the exer-saucer given some time. It’s a long caterpillar with chimes and rattles and all throughout it that is soft (read chewable) with lots of little doodads on it. Loves it. Oh, and then of course, there’s his hands and feet. He plays a lot with his feet when they’re uncovered and bare…not so much when they’re tucked away in sleep n’ play outfits, which amuses me, and makes for fun diaper times!

I think that covers all the main stuff. We’re entering a new stage – the mobile stage – and we’re so psyched about it! Apprehensive, nervous and excited all at the same time. Lucky for us, he’s sleeping so much better at night…we’re going to need the energy just to keep up with him soon! And being only 5 months old, he’s still my little snuggle man at nighttime…that bedtime feeding is still my favorite time with him during the day (other than the early mornings when he’s so extremely happy!) and I don’t even mind the 2am feedings since he’s such a snuggler during that time too. Of course, what mom wouldn’t mind getting that extra 30 minutes of sleep, I’m not gonna lie to you…but I enjoy the snuggles too!

Where, O Where Has Sandy Gone???

Logically, in my head, I know that I’ve been a little MIA from this blog lately…like the past two months. But I didn’t really realize how little I’ve been around, until I was trying to fix a button on my sidebar and noticed that I have only posted 7 times in December. And I think that it showed only 9 posts for November. Dude, I used to post each day!


So what happened?

I guess the best explanation (which is usually the simplest) is that I’m tired. Having a baby is hard work…and I thought that I was doing so good right after Jax was born when I still posted almost daily. Sure, I did good then, but start the teething process, prolonged sleep deprivation as it became four months of little sleep, add in a few rounds of sickness and I just disappear! Whew!

Well, I guess that can be another goal of mine for the New Year that is right around the corner…to be “here” more. Mentioning which, am I the only person who doesn’t know what happened to my 2010? I mean, I feel like I’ve just gotten used to dating things with the 10 on the end…and now I have to re-adjust to putting an 11 instead?

Well, hopefully things will improve. Jax is becoming congested again, but the glories of having a nebulizer at home is being able to start the breathing treatments a little earlier this go round. Maybe before he gets too bad. He’s not getting worse, so maybe it’s working…but who knows? And remember when I wrote last week about a little “surprise” or early Christmas present? Well a couple of my readers (who are smart mommies) knew exactly what I was talking about – or they came close, anyway.

Jax dropped a nighttime feeding!

I didn’t want to say anything for fear of jinxing the whole darn thing, but he went from two feedings during the night down to just one feeding. And I can’t honestly tell you why he changed. When it first started he was still taking in the same amount of solids during the evening as before, but whatever did the trick I’ll take it! Now (about a week later) he’s eating one whole container of vegetable solids each night plus about half of a container of fruit. Maybe once he gets to the point where he’s finishing both containers (fruit and veggies) then he’ll drop that last nighttime feeding. Keeping my fingers crossed…

Either way, I’ll take one nighttime feeding between 2a-3a any day over one at 1a-2a and one at 5a! It’s not a perfect process yet…some nights he still wakes up around 12:30a-1a and cries for a little bit, but I’ve learned that he’s not really hungry right then. He’ll take his pacifier (even if he doesn’t like it at first) and eventually settle back down…you just have to be patient. It’s not the same sort of cry that he gives at 2a-3a when I know for a fact that he’s starving and “needs” to be fed NOW!! Ask any Mom out there…she’ll back me up – there IS a difference!

So it’s been a week now…and I couldn’t be happier. Some nights he doesn’t even do the waking up early thing so I actually get more than 2 hours of sleep in one stretch…something that I almost can’t remember doing before! Like I said, I’m still looking forward to the night when he doesn’t have to be fed at all, but I’ll take what I can get for now and be completely happy with it. I’m trying not to be too greedy and ask for more…but it’s hard!

So that was my big surprise. Not that great of a surprise to some of you ladies…but still a welcome relief for me. Now if I could just channel this “extra” energy that I’m getting from more sleep into wrapping Christmas presents and finishing up the teachers’ gifts, I’d be good to go!!! LOL!

Fairies? Good or Bad?

I honestly can’t remember…I know that a fairy godmother always does good things.  But maybe pixies sometimes cause trouble...something is niggling the back of my brain telling me that not all fairies are good fairies…but maybe that’s just too many romance novels read! 

Either way, whatever the good kind are called, the one that controls when and how long your baby sleeps apparently made a visit to my house last night…and I welcome her back with open arms any night that she wants to put in a repeat appearance!

You see, something snapped in me the other night.  It happened when precious baby boy woke up at 11:15pm demanding to be fed.  The irrational, sleep-deprived mother in me reared her ugly head and said “Oh, hell no!”  Especially since the normal, sane, rational mom in me had only been asleep for about an hour at that point…but seriously, something just snapped in me and I was like “you can scream and cry all you want, but it is NOT time for you to be fed yet!”  And that’s precisely what I did.  I let him cry.

Now, before anyone gets their panties in a wad about me letting my baby go hungry, I will tell you that he had eaten a full 5 oz bottle less than three hours earlier.  There is NO reason for him to be eating again so soon.  And yes, it was his hungry cry.  But for whatever reason, it did not tug on my heartstrings this time.  I’ve been doing a lot of reading about sleep training and such as he’s approaching that all-important 6 month mark and I would really, really like for him to be sleeping through the night by that point. 

So I gathered him close, crawled back into bed with him in tow, and just let  him cry it out.  Well, technically it’s not a true cry it out since I didn’t leave him on his own to self-soothe and cry all alone in his crib.  But remember, his crib is in our room (we’re out of available extra rooms in our house) and letting him scream and cry in his crib is not as pleasant as letting him scream and cry right next to me in my nice, warm bed.  You see, I can offer him the pacifier every few minutes to try to soothe him…which I can’t do if he’s in his crib.  But I still call it cry it out, since I did nothing else to soothe him.  And I would wait a few minutes between pacifier offerings each time.  

Somewhere in the forty-five minutes of endless screams and wails that ensued, I decided that I had hit the jack-pot of all mothering ideas.  I would force him to eat on MY schedule…that’s what others have been telling me to do for weeks now, I guess I just wasn’t ready to do it while he was so sick and congested.  But he’s all better now, and not cutting a new tooth, so there’s no reason to eat so much at night any more.  I thought in my head that I would feed him at 1am and 5am for a few nights.  He could wake and cry and do whatever, but I would hold firm.  Then the next week (or a few days later) when he adjusted and became used to that schedule, I would length it a bit.  Make him stretch to 1:30am and 5:30am…then 2am and 6am…and before we know it, he’s down to just one nighttime feeding.

Genius, right?  Well…genius for me and our situation. 

So you want to know how it’s going, right?  I guess that I would say at this point (knock on wood) it’s going well.  That first night he cried for 45 minutes, slept for an hour, then cried for another 20 minutes before he got fed.  Went back to sleep in his own bed after being fed.  Woke up about an hour too early and cried for about 15 minutes and then slept until feeding time.  The second night went even better…he again woke up at 11:30 (WAY TOO EARLY!) but only cried for about 5 minutes and then settled down for another hour’s nap.  Woke up about 25 minutes before feeding time and screamed until I gave him a bottle…but I was strong and waited until 1am.  Then he slept straight through until 5am, when I was ready to feed him without a peep from his crib. 

Last night?  Night #3?  He slept until 2am.  And then again until 5:30am.  With not even so much as a whimper in between.  Of course, it probably helped that since he didn’t finish his last bottle of the night after eating what solids we could get into his mouth, we woke him up right before we were ready for bed at 10pm and made him drowsily eat the last half of that bottle.  He was barely awake, went right back to sleep…and then let Mommy sleep for a 4 hour stretch. 

Nice. 

So whether it’s a sleep fairy…a fairy godmother of sleep…or a sleep pixie…she can come back and see me again tonight if she wants.  I’d even put out some homemade bread or cookies if that would guarantee me a repeat visitor…whatever it takes, right? 

Bring it on…please…pretty please?!?!

Four Months

Where has the time gone, Jax? This last month passed in a blur of doctor’s visits, breathing treatments, sleepless nights and a sick household. It really seems like just the other day that I was writing out your 3 month update…oh well. Time flies when you’re having fun, right? Right!

Despite the sickness and exhaustion that have plagued our house this month, you have been such a trooper Jax! Being sick is never easy (just ask your Dad!) and you handled it like a champ, just getting fussy a few of those days. Luckily for us, your stuff was mainly congestion and there were just a few days where you ran a fever and felt really bad. Hopefully, we’re all on the mend now!

What are you doing this month? EVERYTHING! LOL. In the past few weeks you have discovered SO much…your hands are still your favorite thing to chew on…although you’ll gladly chomp away on most anything, including everything that is within your reach! Blankets, burp cloths, my fingers, sister’s hair…just whatever you can get your hands on – you’re not picky. That’s probably because in the last month, you cut not only your FIRST tooth, but also your SECOND tooth! You are a drooling, smiling, little snaggle-tooth baby these days…chomping happily away on whatever you can reach!


Speaking of your reach, it’s getting better and better. You’ve figured out some of your toys this month, including a rattle and how it works. You’ve also discovered that big sister and I have hair and you think that it’s SO much fun to pull on! We, of course, don’t agree with your definition of “fun.” You’re doing better in your Bumbo chair, not quite so top-heavy…and you’ve moved on up to your Exer-saucer this past month, which you love, love, love! And we love that you love it…those 10-15 minutes that you’ll sit in it a few times a day give Mommy/Daddy the helping hand to rinse off dishes, sweep the floor, fold laundry or just relax if we need a minute.


Little guy, you’ve also discovered your voice. You are a little chatterbox…telling us what-not and all…sometimes you make noise just to make noise and other times you “conversate” back and forth with us. We can make your day if we’ll speak baby-talk right back at you…it’s like you’ve found your long-lost friend and you really get to talking then! The teachers at day care are constantly telling me how impressed they are at your vocal abilities at this young age…I smile and tell them that you come by it honestly!


Sleep? Well, that’s still a struggle for us sometimes. You do NOT sleep through the night yet, won’t even think about it. You usually wake up sometime between 12:30a-1:30a for your first nighttime feeding and then want to be fed again anywhere from 3:30a-5a…it just depends on many factors. You do still like to sleep in your swaddle blanket, although I’m wondering if we need to start seeing if you can sleep without it. And you still take really good naps during the day…usually a good, long nap either at 11a or 2p…and then short cat naps the rest of the time. It never fails that if I get you to sleep while we’re getting dinner ready, you wake up as soon as I try to eat my first bite! It’s like you know when Mom’s about to eat and you say “Oh no you don’t!”

We’re branching out a bit on your feedings…trying new things to see if you’ll sleep better at night, but you just keep right on reminding us that you’ll sleep through the night when you’re good and ready to do it, and that’s not yet. You started cereal this month…both rice and oatmeal. You prefer the rice cereal, and you like it mixed with apple juice better than formula. Some nights you’ll take almost the whole tablespoon that I mix up…other nights you want nothing to do with it. Since you’re not sitting upright on your own yet, it’s taken me a bit to figure out this whole feeding business. You wiggle around a LOT, and even food won’t keep you still. You always start off in your Bumbo chair for our feedings, and quickly move to my lap. (I don’t know what I was thinking buying a high chair that doesn’t recline…I clearly wasn’t thinking!) By the end of the feedings, we’re usually both covered in cereal and bath time has become much more intense due to the cleaning that is now needed. I can’t wait to start you on real food this next month…you’ve done so well with cereal…and I’m hopeful that real food will help the sleeping situation, but I’m not crossing my fingers or holding my breath!

Jax, you’ve started to laugh this month. Real laughs that are prompted by something specific are so cute! You smile all the time, but you smile the biggest for your big sister…you love her SO much right now. She loves you too, but she’s really ready for you to start talking in real words…not a day goes by that she doesn’t tell me what you were trying to say…it’s so cute. Your feet are a little ticklish, but the best spot to get that laugh out of you is low in your sides…that’s the golden spot that will make you wiggle away from me and laugh the hardest!

Mentioning wiggling away – I nearly forgot! You learned how to roll over this month. You can go from your back to your front and also go back the other way…but you don’t do it on command. It’s totally when YOU want to do it (much to Grammy’s dismay) and no one can entice you to do it if you don’t want to do it. It’s been nearly a week now since I’ve seen you do it, but I know that’s just because I’m watching for it!


I think that sums up the past month…there were fewer pictures this month since there were just fewer days when we felt like taking pictures! Sorry. You’ll still a cutie pie, and if I’m not mistaken, your hair is thickening up a bit and your eyes will turn colors this next month…can’t wait to see those changes!


Love you, baby boy!

Missing???

Well, hello there!  Yes, I've been missing in action...maybe you've noticed and worried about me?  Maybe you haven't...either way, we're alive.  But just barely.

Y'all, my house is sick.  My WHOLE house.  Is. SOOOOOO. Sick.

I have had it twice now, I think.  Brent's had it at least once.  Jax (the main instigator) is also on his second round, except this round is kicking his little butt.  This time he had to go see the doctor.  And get chest x-rays and a nebulizer came home with us. 

He's got croup. 

Uggghhh...just hearing that word gives me shivers. 

And he's running fever, so that means no day care. 

Do you know how hard it is to take care of a baby when he's sick and YOU'RE sick?!?!  It's no fun...

I'm exhausted.  Mentally, emotionally and physically.  Brent's in the same dark place.  We both look like we're on our way to a funeral half of the time...but maybe things are improving.  I hate to even type that for fear of jinxing myself.  But he's not running fever today, and I haven't given him anything for the fever since 1am this morning...so cross your fingers that he continues down this better path. 

We need to work full days so we don't lose our jobs.  We need sleep.  We all need time to heal and get well.  Maybe we need that the most.  I took two vitamins this morning...just in case.  LOL! 

I hope that your week is going better...see you soon...maybe.

Baby’s First Tooth

Yes, you read that right. No, your eyes are not deceiving you. We have a tooth. Which explains SO MUCH regarding the last few weeks…

It explains the drool, which really wasn’t as bad as I seem to remember, since I kept telling Brent that it was going to get worse when he started teething.

It explains the bouts of crankiness spread here and there when he’s an otherwise totally happy child.

It REALLY explains the lack of sleeping. The loss of the sleep schedule and everything else that happens at our house between the hours of 8pm and 7am.

So, in one week, we’ve managed to learn how to roll from back to front. We can also roll from front to back. We’ve cut our first tooth. And…yes, there’s more…wait for it…we got up on all fours yesterday.

Once again, no, you didn’t misread that statement. Your eyes are still not playing tricks on you. But my eyes are a little weepy and my mind is going ninety miles a minute. Why, you ask? Because he’s not supposed to do these things yet. I thought that I had a few more months to enjoy this stage. The still a baby, but more like an infant stage. The stage where you can put them in one spot and when you look back (after taking your eyes off for only a few seconds) they’re still in the same spot/position. Yes, I’m immensely proud of my son who seems to be ahead of “the curve” developmentally. But I weep for the parents who have to keep up with him! LOL!

I know that the books are just guidelines…points of reference, if you will. A guide to use for when a baby “should” or “can possibly” do something and not a hard and fast rule that something’s wrong if your little one isn’t doing ABC at whatever age. I also know that every baby’s different, each developing at their own pace in their own ways. What works to help one baby will not necessarily work for the next baby.

But like I told my Mom last night on the phone…I’ve already paid my dues with my daughter. You know how they say that you’ll have one child that is just like you? Well, that’s Jenna. She didn’t sleep. She walked early, skipping the whole crawling stage pretty much. I can’t honestly remember when she started cutting teeth (and I think that makes me a bad Mom!), but I would assume that it was a little early based on how she did everything else. I’m convinced that Jenna did all of these things early to A)pay me back for the havoc that I rained upon my own mother during my first year or two on Earth and B)provide my Mom with amusement. Seriously. I’m not kidding.

Then again, I guess that it’s better to be doing things sooner than I had expected rather than playing the waiting game of when is ABC going to happen? I know that my step-mother was so totally consumed with worry about her daughter (my step-sister) not teething that she took her to the dentist and asked them to do x-rays to prove that she did have teeth and she was just going to be a late bloomer. I can only imagine the look on the dentist’s face when she made that request, by the way…

So here we are. Ahead of pace just a smidge. We’re rolling over. We’re getting onto all fours. And we have a tooth. I’ll have to wait for it to push up a bit more before attempting to take a picture of said tooth for you…right now you can feel the corner of it easier than you can actually see it. Plus, to even get a look at it, you have to convince Jax that he doesn’t want to chew on his fingers for a few seconds…which is next to impossible! I suppose they taste good…

Can We Spell Rough – R-U-F-F?

You know how sometimes you think to yourself how it might be nice if one of the kids got a little bit sick so that you could squeeze in a three-day weekend?  What’s that?  You mean to tell me that I’m the ONLY Mom that’s ever had that thought? 

Now, to clarify, I certainly don’t mean to say that I would wish illness on my kiddos.  Something small like a cold.  They run a little bit of a temperature – just enough to keep them out of school and sort of tired, but not high enough so that there would be something really wrong with them.  No, you’re right…no matter how I try to say it, it just sounds wrong.   Well, don’t worry about hating me…I got what I deserved these last two weekends!

First off, Jenna got sick.  To make a long story short, she complained about a “bug bite” early during the week before last and I blew it off and chalked it up to the typical drama that goes along with my eight year-old girl.  (She’s sort of a hypochondriac…)  Well, by Friday it had gotten red and was hot to the touch, her whole throat was swollen and the actual “bite spot” was leaking pus.  Yeah, say it with me…EEEEWWWW!  Double eeewww.  After a quick trip to the dr office on Friday afternoon, I had the sh*t literally scared out of me when the dr uttered these words: staph infection.  I took the dr with the severity that the situation called for and Jenna got a double shot (one in each leg) of a strong antibiotic.  We made an appt for the following morning, and were actually pre-admitted to our local hospital in case she worsened over the night.  Oh wait…I was supposed to be making this short, right?

We went back to the dr on Saturday.  Followed again by another appt on Sunday.  We started oral antibiotics and a steroid.  She improved, and it turned out to be an actual bug bite and not a staph infection at all.

But it made for a pretty crappy weekend. 

Then you know about my week of sleepless nights…

And on Thursday when we picked Jax up from day care, they were concerned about the goop in his left eye.  He wasn’t running any fever…or maybe it was low grade, he wouldn’t keep the pacifier/thermometer in his mouth long enough to truly register…but he was cranky and seemed out of sorts.  I also noticed that the left eye seemed red and swollen.  I called the after-hours clinic and made an appt for the first thing the next morning with our regular doctor. 

We showed up…after an ok night…and found out that he has pink eye.  Nice.  So I got my Friday off of work, but had a sick little man to take care of.  He really wasn’t too bad…but still.  And then Brent got sent home from work for the afternoon since his boss was worried about Brent also having pink eye (knowing how contagious) it can be and so we were both home early.  Which was nice. 

But by today?  I’m tired.  I’m ready to go back to work to get a break.  He’s cranky, he doesn’t feel good, but doesn’t really feel bad either.  And the sleeping?  Oh last night was SO much worse than he’s been for the last 5 nights or so…

Oh, and he’s got a bad diaper rash from the antibiotics giving him diarrhea…like his little butt is so raw that it’s bleeding every once in a while sort of bad.  And we’re only on day 3 of the 10-day cycle of antibiotics…

But on a less complain-y sounding note – our boy can ROLL!!!  Yep, you read that right – he’s mobile.  Day care told us either Wednesday or Thursday that he was rolling from back to front, but the little stinker waited until today to show us his cool trick.  But we’ll one-up the day care ladies…not only did he finally show us how he could roll from back to front, but he also pushed WAY up on his forearms…AND…rolled from front to back.  Of course, I don’t really think that he meant to do that last trick since he looked as shocked as we did! 

But now that he’s done it once, it’s only a matter of time before he’s doing it all the time…which means that he’s mobile.  And no, I have no pictures of the great event since we were doing a bit of nakey-nakey time when he did this to try and treat the above-mentioned diaper rash.  Oh well, maybe next time I’ll take pictures and we’ll just let it be our secret that those pictures aren’t really the real first roll over pictures.

You know, sort of like when you dress your kids up in the outfit that they wore the first day of school two weeks after school started because you forgot your camera that day…since no one but you will ever know, right?  Note to the masses: that trick only works until the kids get old enough to tell on you…and they WILL rat you out.  Trust me on this!

So here’s to long weekends and going back to work on Monday mornings…I’ve never been so glad to see Sunday night!

We’re Like the Walking Dead

Those are zombies, right? I hope so…otherwise I just referred to my husband and I as dead walkers…creepy!

Anyway…my child doesn’t sleep. No, that’s not true. He does sleep. He just doesn’t sleep for longer than 4 hours at night. Seriously. That’s three feedings between 7p-7a. And that’s not so much sleep for us…since we share in the feeding duties now that it’s all formula all the time. I really thought that once we switched to formula that it would last him a bit longer than the breastmilk was lasting, but not so much. Maybe it’s an urban legend that formula is more filling?
Either way, Jax used to sleep from his 8p feeding (after bath time) until 2am. Like clockwork. You could have actually set a clock by that schedule. Then he would go from 2a until 5a…not so long, but ok since we got a good stretch of sleep during the first part of the night.  Then, without any warning, he switched the schedule up on us, as babies are prone to doing. One week it was 130a and 430a…and the next week it was 1a and 4a…and now some nights it’s midnight or even 1130p when he’s waking up to be fed that first time.

I don’t know what happened. I thought that it was the cold that did us in…you know, too much snot, not enough suckage with the booger-sucker-thingy? But he’s a lot better on that front and still hasn’t gone back to his old sleeping schedule. He’s gone as long as 4 hours…maybe 5 hours one night…but no more 6 hours stretches. And if he does (by some miracle) end up sleeping longer, it only happens one night…there’s no repeat or encore performance for us to enjoy.

So we’ve had to start sleeping in shifts. You know, one of us takes the first part of the night and the other goes into our extra bedroom (Tanner’s room) and sleeps like the dead. Then in the middle of the night, we swap. It works for us, except that there is a big disconnect with your spouse when you don’t get to sleep next to each other. And when you’re trying to do a 30 Day Intimacy Challenge, it’s even harder. I feel closer than ever to my husband, and can’t enjoy one of the best things about our relationship…sleeping together. In the literal or figurative sense.

I’m really not complaining, or I don't mean to complain. I understand that this is part of having kids...they don't sleep.  I was a horrible sleeper as an infant, a fact that my Mother reminds me of often. Especially when I’m complaining about how my own children are or are NOT sleeping. She tells me that I could speak in complete sentences before I ever slept through the night. At least I know that she understands, right? I suppose, except for the fact that back in those days, they at least let you do rice cereal or solid foods SO much earlier…heck, even with Jenna, the norm was to start solids at 3 months. Now, it’s 4 months if you’ve got a wayward doctor…but more likely 6 months if your doctor keeps up with his/her medical stuff. Lucky for me, I’ve got a 4 month believer…and I feel that Jax is ready as he stares at our food intently now when we eat.

But no one can tell you for sure that eating more than just formula/breast milk will satisfy their bellies and keep them sleeping for longer periods of time. I remember Jenna being a difficult sleeper. I want to say that she got better after starting solids…but mostly I just remember how bad the whole bed-time routine with her was. So I intentionally started sleep training Jax from a young age…and he does well with putting himself to sleep – I just rock him until he’s drowsy and then I put him down. He usually wakes up when I lay him down, but soothes himself back to sleep with either his paci or his fist (no, he still hasn’t gotten the hang of just the thumb!).

Given all of that, I don’t think that it’s sleep training that we need to do. When he wakes, it’s a hunger cry and he eats the whole contents of the bottle. I can’t increase the amount of formula in his bottles, because if we do, he doesn’t eat any more than he’s currently consuming so it’s just wasted formula. He’s obviously filling up when he’s eating...at least, that's how I interpret him not finishing his fuller bottles.

When it’s not a hunger cry we soothe what we can and let him cry out what we can’t soothe. I think that we’re tackling it all okay…but maybe you have suggestions for me? Maybe we’re trying too many different things?

I don’t think that it’s a growth spurt…as it’s been going on for almost a month now. That’s one hell of a growth spurt if that’s what it is! He’s starting to drool more and more, but I don’t think that he’s quite into a teething stage, so that isn’t the problem either. At least, I don’t think any of this is the problem…

Can you tell me anything to try that I haven’t already tried??? The magic crack baby blanket does still work…and he’s adjusted to using the larger ones now too…so I no longer fear the day that he outgrows that one blanket. And we’re also sometimes getting him to sleep without being swaddled at all. Sometimes he likes it, sometimes he doesn’t. We play it all by ear…

So what are we doing wrong? Or am I just destined to have those kids that just don’t sleep? I’m sure it’s payback in some form for all the stress that I caused my own Mother…don’t you just hate that evil woman? (Payback, not my Mom…just to clarify!)

Now I understand why some employers groan aloud when a woman employee announces that she’s expecting. It’s not just the pregnancy that you have to get through…or even the maternity leave that causes problems. It could be the first year of parenthood that so many parents get through on little to no sleep, barely functioning at their “day jobs” while drinking 18 cups of coffee just to get through the 9 hour day. Yep, that could be it!

Don't forget to click over here and enter the give-away for a $20 CSN Stores gift certificate...the entries are still fairly low, which increases your odds of winning!!  The give-away ends tomorrow night - 11/4 so hurry up and enter!

Where oh Where Has Sleep Gone???

Sleep has decided to hate me. He used to visit my house regularly…then I got pregnant. At first, he blessed me with sweet dreams and deep sleep. Then, when my belly grew to proportions that my body just didn’t want to handle anymore, sleep took a vacation. I understood, and even wished that I could go along with him. I knew that eventually he would come back, once the alien that had taken over my belly had vacated the premises.

Then I understood that sleep would stay on vacation for a little while longer once the alien was out and at home. I sympathized with him – who really wants to be around when there’s screaming and crying every few hours at night anyway. But sleep? He’s a tricky fellow…he showed up unexpectedly at my doorstep when the alien was just a few weeks old. He settled in and got comfortable. Sure, once or twice a week he would hit the town and party it up and not come back to my house until the wee hours of the morning, but who could blame him? He was working so hard the other nights…putting the alien into deep, restful slumbers that lasted for hours at a time…4 hours here…5 hours there. I couldn’t really blame him for taking a break one or two nights a week. We were still friends.

But apparently, I have unknowingly pissed him off. He left in a snit earlier this week, slamming doors and rattling the windows on his way out of my house. Not only did he leave, but he made an exit! Some people have the talent of making entrances…but sleep? He made one hell of an exit when he left. Since then, the alien apparently just doesn’t like to sleep. Not even the baby crack blanket can help. Oh, he takes naps…for like an hour or two. (Surely any time period of sleep that only lasts two hours is considered a nap, not actual sleep?) Then he wakes up. Screaming mad because his friend left.

Sleep, I wish I knew what we did to make you leave. I would apologize and say that I’m sorry. I would beg your forgiveness. I would probably even grovel at your feet. I would definitely give you the best room in the house, stock the fridge with your favorite drinks and the pantry with your beloved snacks, warm up your socks in the oven to keep your toes nice and toasty…whatever it took to make you the most comfortable at my house. That way you’d want to stay for a nice, long time. Forget those others that might need your services…my place is WAY better! I’m sorry to say it, but other parents can fend for themselves…if I have to beg, borrow and steal to get you back you can be sure that once I have you, you’re mine and I’m hanging on for dear life.

I thought you liked me – maybe even loved me. Do I need to shower more often? I can do that. Do I need to increase your payment? Take everything that I’ve got. Just please, please, please come back.

*Cue “Baby Come Back” music to play in the background…

I Came THIS Close

To giving up on breastfeeding this weekend. 

Like, put your pointer finger and your thumb a micron away from each other, so close that you can barely see any space in between the two, and that's how close I was to chucking the whole shebang this weekend.

But it's Sunday night...and I'm going to give it another week and see if that changes things. 

What's going on?  Oh, nothing much...except that the solution for getting my milk production up was to allow Jax to cluster feed all weekend, giving him no bottles, forcing him to breastfeed and therefore increase my milk.  That came from both his doctor on Friday and my doctor as well.  Great plan.  Excellent in theory. 

But what do you do when your child has decided that he doesn't WANT to breastfeed?  If the answer if not giving him any other food options, holding his head to your breast while he screams for 30 minutes (or more) until he finally admits defeat and latches on, or other such ideas similar...then they've all been tried in this household.  And that's why I'm about that same distance away from LOSING MY MIND.

Here's some stats for you:

Days on this plan: 2
Nights without more than an hour of sleep for me: 2
Times attempted to breastfeed and had to admit defeat and fix a bottle because I can't stand to see him go hungry: 2
The longest stretch that he slept last night: 57 minutes

To say this has been the weekend from hell might be the understatement of the year.  This is hard, ya'll.  I want to continue breastfeeding, but pumping alone is not increasing my supply no matter how often I do it.  No matter what supplements I take.  No matter what I eat in order to boost my calories and make more milk.  It's just not enough.  I need his cooperation for this to work.  Case in point - my last pumping session from earlier today when he wouldn't eat?  Double what it normally is at that time of the day.  So, having him feed from me clearly helps my body produce more milk. 

But what do I do when he won't feed from me?  I've accomplished most of it this weekend either by wearing him down or tricking him.  Since I use the nipple shields by Medela, I can put a little expressed milk between me and the shield in the cap of it, allowing him to "see results" of his sucking actions faster.  This seems to keep him from getting so frustrated, but it doesn't work every time.  And can you imagine trying to do this at 3am?  Yeah, I don't have to imagine it...I did it.  And I cried for an hour since it took almost an hour to convince him to feed and finish eating.  It was not pretty, I'm telling you.

And the worst part about all of this?  My husband who wants to help out, wants to give me a break, wishes that he could take Jax for one night so that I could get 4-5 hours of uninterrupted sleep (another stat for you - it's been over a month since that happened!) and I can't let him do that.  Because my body needs Jax to feed from me to help it make more milk.  Because I need to allow him to breastfeed. 

So we'll see how this week goes, but I'm making no promises about how much longer I can keep this up.  I'm running on fumes, and I have to be at work tomorrow, fully functional and productive.  I can't say that I will be able to keep up this pace.  Especially now that I can't substitute any of the feedings while I'm at home with a bottle. 

If that should happen, please don't judge me.  If I come to that point and I have to stop, please understand that I have tried everything that I could to keep my milk and increase it so that I could continue.  Please understand that making this decision will be hard for me.  Just as this weekend was officially, the weekend from hell.  Maybe a good night's sleep will make me feel better...here's to this next week being better than this weekend!