Favorite Moments Friday

Man I have been really bad at this whole Favorite Moments Friday lately.  In fact, my last Favorite Moments post? November 7th.  Yeah, I am bad.

So let's start with November: 

• Superman stayed with his first real babysitter so hubby and I could go to a movie.  It was fabulous! Then a couple weeks later the babysitter came back and hubby and I went to the Blazer's game.  It is so nice to have a babysitter that we can count on.
• I found out that I am pregnant with baby #2 and Superman is going to be a big brother!
• Superman started to teeth his molars this month.  They wouldn't come in till the end of next month, but the pain lasted all month long.
• We ditched the bucket seat and Superman is now in a convertible seat.  He is a growing boy!
• We headed to Kansas City for Thanksgiving.  It was so much fun to see Superman play with his cousins.  We also went and got family pictures taken...they turned out great!  The only downside to the trip was having to fly with a little one that really just wanted to get down and play and not stay seated in our laps.  Thank goodness for direct flights.

December 

•  Teething is driving me insane and causing Superman so.much.pain!  
• We started two new traditions...going to the Oregon Zoo's Zoo Lights and Portland International Raceway lights.  The Zoo Lights was super cold, but a whole lot of fun.  Superman liked the lights more than I thought he would, thus making the experience that much more enjoyable for us.   The lights at the raceway were also a lot of fun.  We tried taking Superman out of his car seat so he could see them better, but he just wanted to play with the door.  So I put him back in his car seat and angled his mirror so he could see them.  It worked out great.  Next year he will be big enough that I can flip his car seat around to be forward facing just for the trip around the track. 
• Christmas time was so much fun! We went and cut down our own tree.  It was so blistery cold, but it is a tradition that I love.  Decorating the house confused Superman at first.  He wasn't sure what to make of it all.   Christmas day was also a lot of fun. He loved all the paper and the boxes....oh the boxes!  He loves his new toys, but for a while he just wanted to play with the wrapping.  We also went over to my husband's aunt and uncle's home for Christmas dinner and he got to play with his cousins.  I find it fascinating how much he wants to play with the big kids (although he did have some love for his cousin that is 4 months younger).  
• He has begun to throw everything!  He throws things out of his crib, out of his play area, and food onto the floor.  We are trying to ignore the behaviors that we don't like, but it is so hard when he throws food onto the floor with two hungry (they would say starving) dogs in the house.  We started putting the dogs upstairs while he was eating, but that is a big pain.  The thing that seems to work the best is just taking the rest of the food away and saying "all done".  If he isn't done? He reaches for the food and we help him eat by giving him one piece at a time.  Hopefully he will give this fun new game up soon!
• Superman has 2 new teeth! The two top molars have poked their way through...finally!  The one on the right poked through on Christmas eve and the one of the left on Christmas day. 
• Superman is SO.CLOSE to walking independently.  Prior to Christmas he had taken a couple steps independently, but not without a lot of encouragement.  On Christmas morning he was leaning on a box on blocks and all of a sudden just let go and stood on his own.  He fell when I started to freak out, but since then has stood independently many, many times. 
• S is beginning to feed himself with a spoon.  We have to put the food on the spoon, but he takes over from there.  Needless to say meals have gotten a bit more messy, but I love that he is becoming independent!
• He helped me put his toys away!  Tuesday night my husband was about to bring him up for his bath and I asked him to help me put the blocks in the bucket.  After watching me, he began to throw some of the blocks in too.  Once we were done, he took a couple out and threw it back in, probably because we made such a big stink every time he threw one in.  

Superman turns 1 on Sunday.  I can't believe it!  This year has gone by so quickly.  I have changed so much in that time, I hardly feel like the same person.   I am going to take some time this weekend and write Superman a letter for his first birthday.  Check back on Sunday to see it!

Baby #2- 10 weeks

December 11, 2010
How far along: 10 weeks 

Baby's size: prune

Symptoms: nausea, nausea, and more nausea

Sleep:  Yes please!  :) Sleeping pretty good at night and have been more tired during the day too.

Total Weight Gain:  total down 4 pounds

Maternity clothes: I wore some of my maternity shirts this week when I was feeling super bloated and icky.  I also threw on some maternity pants one of the days as well.  I think I am probably getting close to having to make the switch, but not quite there yet.

Best moment this week: Had a quick ultrasound at the doctor's office to make sure there is still a heartbeat and it was there beating away.

Movement: too early

Food cravings: nothing really sounds good

Gender:  ?????

Labor signs: none

What I miss: feeling better

What I'm looking forward to: being able to tell people- although as I mentioned last week there are a bunch of people that I see regularly that now know.

Weekly Wisdom (aka what I learned this week): Feeling dumb this week.

Milestones: nothing

Emotions: still riding the emotional roller coaster

Tandem Nursing:  
Supply: about the same
Pain: not really anymore
Nausea while nursing: I had a horrible bout of nausea on Sunday.  I thought I was going to throw up for sure, but was saved by the nausea goddess.    
Positions for nursing: cradle hold
 
 
Till next week!

Baby #2 - 9 Weeks

December 4, 2010
How far along: 9 weeks 

Baby's size: green olive

Symptoms: Went to the doctor because of the pain.  They did an ultrasound and didn't find any reason for it.  I am still getting it, but the nausea with it is diminishing.  Unfortunately, the nausea in general is getting worse.  I am also getting more hormonal. :(

Sleep:  Pretty good minus the one night that I spent on the floor in Superman's room because he was teething and had what I would consider insomnia.

Total Weight Gain:  lost another 2 pounds this week...total down 4 pounds

Maternity clothes: I bought a bella band because I can't find my one from Superman.  Even though my pants seem to have plenty of room in them, when I am sitting I prefer the button to be undone...kind of like I just had a huge meal.  I feel huge!

Best moment this week: Had my first ultrasound of the pregnancy!  The baby is in gummy bear shape now and has a heart rate of 178 bpm!!

Movement: too early

Food cravings: peach yogurt has been yummy....and I have been living on goldfish crackers.  I have my first real food aversion- granola bars....makes me gag just thinking about it.  It is a super weird one for me to not like since I lived on them since Superman was born.

Gender:  ?????

Labor signs: none

What I miss: feeling better

What I'm looking forward to: being able to tell people  (although I have let it slip with a few people and then the instructor at my boot camp asked me when I was due in front of everyone so they know now (I told her because I was supposed to)). 

Weekly Wisdom (aka what I learned this week): I am a wimp when it comes to nausea.

Milestones: seeing the baby for the first time on the ultrasound

Emotions: riding the emotional roller coaster

Tandem Nursing:  
Supply: dipping... :(
Pain: Yes and No...sometimes I get lucky and it doesn't hurt when he latches on
Nausea while nursing: not every time, but on my particularly more nauseous days nursing made it worse.
Positions for nursing: cradle hold
See my post here about how I am so over breastfeeding right now. 
 
Till next week!

Breastfeeding Blues Part #2

If you didn't read the first part of Breastfeeding Blues, please go read that first here. 

December 6, 2010
So I saw Nancy and (like always) she made me feel so much better!  She said to keep nursing morning and night, give him a bottle of breastmilk/whole milk before each nap and forget that the feeding after the naps ever existed.  She said if Superman continues to hurt me when I am feeding him, to "vote him off the island" and give him a bottle.

She said it all so matter-of-factly that it was hard to add the "but I want to breastfeed till he wanted to stop", but I did.  Her response was that he is going to get breastmilk till he is 1 or almost 1 and that is good enough...that if I had to stop today that it would be great, that he will be just fine.  I don't know why hearing it from her made such a difference, but it did.

Update on December 30, 2010: Since I haven't posted this post yet and I really don't want a 3rd post of all this, I am going to just update what is going on here.

Superman was all good for a few days and then decided that he didn't want the bottle before naps.  I would then spend the time from when he woke up till it was time to nap again, trying to get milk in him.  So not the way I want things to go.  I tried dropping snacks and that didn't really help at first.  Finally I started giving him the bottle downstairs, letting him drink a few ounces and then bringing him up for his nap.  My sister suggested giving it to him while we read stories and that worked pretty well too.  What I have learned is that he will take the milk downstairs, while getting his diaper changed, and while reading books, but as soon as I start the real bedtime procedures like closing the blinds or turning on the white noise...he wants nothing to do with the bottle.  At first I was frustrated by this, but now I love that cuddle time. He settles in with his head on my chest and we rock as I sing his "night, night" song.   Occasionally he doesn't drink all the milk so when I get him up from his nap I usually bring the bottle back up with me and sometimes he wants and sometimes he doesn't...either way not a big deal.  He is getting plenty of milk now and I am much less worried about this whole transition.

Breastfeeding Blues - Part 1

December 3, 2010

I am beginning to hate breastfeeding. No, wait. Actually, I think I actually hate it right now. I hate the pain that comes with Superman latching on. I hate the feeling that I being completely drained each time. I hate that I am once again worrying about supply and weight gain.

So what to do? What to do? Give up completely? Try and push through with some of the feedings and supplement with others? Just keep plugging along and deal with it all later.

Fortunately, I have about 60 3oz. bags of pumped milk in the freezer. I am currently breastfeeding 6 times a day. So enough milk to last about a week if I completely give up.  There is a problem though...I feel really strongly about breastfeeding for at least 1 year and really wanted to breastfeed till Superman wanted to wean (not when I wanted to). So even though I am really, really close to that year, I feel like I am failing, like I am letting Superman and myself down.

This all makes me want to try and stick it out, but that doesn't help the fact that I cringe every time Superman goes to latch on. So I wonder what it would be like to just nurse less. Maybe I could take those 60 something bags, drop two nursing sessions a day and make it the month easy peasy? (I say hopefully).

I guess this decision is better than some of the alternatives and I shouldn't do anything drastic anyway. Stay tuned to find out what happened!

Update: After I wrote this I decided that my husband's plea recommendation that I go see the lactation consultant was a good one and made an appointment for Monday.  I will write another post with an update after the appointment.

Baby #2 - 8 weeks

November 27, 2010
How far along: 8 weeks 

Baby's size: raspberry

Symptoms: Still having some pain near my ovary..seems to be coming and going and doesn't hurt too badly. Since we were on vacation I figured if it didn't get any worse, I wouldn't worry about it.   Think I will probably call tomorrow.  Oh and I have been more nauseous this week than I have been so far.

Sleep:  My sleep got better as the week went on.  I think I was having trouble because I was napping for too long in the afternoon. :)

Total Weight Gain:  still about 2 pounds down. 

Maternity clothes:Not even close.

Best moment this week: Nothing really pregnancy related.  I had a lot of fun with my husband's feeling though.

Movement: too early

Food cravings: nope...too nauseous...although a turkey sandwich sounds yummy!

Gender:  ?????

Labor signs: none

What I miss: nothing

What I'm looking forward to: my first doctor's appointment

Weekly Wisdom (aka what I learned this week):  When I was first pregnant with Superman, we were so worried about me lifting things and doing so much.  This time?  HA! There is no way we could be worried about that with an almost 20 pound baby that needs to be carried around and the 10 bazillion pounds of baby gear that comes with him.  While we were traveling this was especially difficult.  I guess what they say about the second baby is true...you just don't have time or the ability to be as worried.

Milestones: none

Emotions: still riding the emotional roller coaster

Tandem Nursing:  
Supply: worried that it is dipping again.Urgh!
Pain: yuppers---still when he latches on and then it tapers off as he continues to nurse.
Nausea while nursing: not really at all
Positions for nursing: We are home and I have the nursing pillow again!  
 
Till next week!

Baby #2 - 7 weeks

November 20, 2010
How far along: 7 weeks 

Baby's size:  blue berry

Symptoms: Still nauseous and tired.  I also have been having some pain around the left ovary.  If it continues I think I may have to call the dr. :(

Sleep: OK - We just traveled to Kansas City to visit my husband's family and I am having a heck of a time falling to sleep.

Total Weight Gain:  same as last week (-2#)

Maternity clothes:Not even close.

Best moment this week: Telling my in-laws that we are pregnant.

Movement: too early

Food cravings: nope...too nauseous.

Gender:  ?????

Labor signs: none

What I miss: nothing really

What I'm looking forward to: my first doctor's appointment (December 6th)

Weekly Wisdom (aka what I learned this week):  I am lacking wisdom this week.

Milestones: none

Emotions: I am living every single emotion under the sun. 

Tandem Nursing:
Supply: seems to be doing ok
Pain:YES! Especially when he latches on. 
Nausea while nursing: minimal this week
Positions for nursing: With the nursing pillow in the cradle hold, but now that I am at my in-laws I don't have a nursing pillow.  Still using the cradle hold and he seems to be doing ok. 

Till next week!

Baby #2 - 6 weeks

November 13, 2010 

How far along: 6 weeks 

Baby's size: sweet pea or blue berry

Symptoms: Exhausted!  I am also still nauseous, but it is tolerable.  TMI, but my boobs hurt off and on.  Definitely while breastfeeding (see tandem nursing at the bottom)

Sleep: fine...thank goodness for a baby that sleeps through the night.

Total Weight Gain:  down about 2 pounds. 

Maternity clothes:Not even close.

Best moment this week: Getting the shirt in the mail that we are going to put Superman in when we get to Kansas City next weekend.  It is how we are going to tell my husband's parents.

Movement: too early

Food cravings: nope...too nauseous.

Gender:  ?????

Labor signs: none

What I miss: maybe wine a little, but not really. The only reason I even mention it is because we went to get our wine shipments from the wineries we belong to and I obviously couldn't try it.  I did sniff though...I love to sniff the wine. :)

What I'm looking forward to: telling my in-laws and my first doctor's appointment

Weekly Wisdom (aka what I learned this week):  I definitely feel pregnant when I work out.  I don't have the same stamina and since I have to be careful about my heart rate, I can't run as much.  I think I am going to have to give up the C25K stuff because of it. :(

Milestones: none

Emotions: I am so emotional this week!  I have been crying about everything.  I think I even started to cry during The Office.  My husband thought it was cute, I think it is annoying. 

Tandem Nursing: I thought I would add this piece beginning this week.  It is killing me that I can't write (and publish) posts about this right now so this will have to do for now.  
    I am still nursing Superman.  When you are pregnant and still nursing your other child, you are "tandem nursing" (you are also tandem nursing if you are nursing two or more children).  Therefore, I am a tandem nurser!  
     Before I knew I was pregnant I noticed that my supply was dipping.  As you know from my posts in April, my supply occasionally dips when I am about to get my period so I was convinced I wasn't pregnant, but in fact getting my period.  About a week later I found out I was actually pregnant.
     So here is how I noticed the decrease: I had been pumping once every morning for many months now and instead of getting my usual 3+ ounces, I was lucky to get two.  Then it moved to barely one.  Then Superman started needing to nurse on both sides sometimes.  Then Superman needed to nurse both sides every time.  Then I got smart and started eating oatmeal again (had stopped because the idea of it makes me nauseous, but it turns out I don't mind it when I am eating it).  Now Superman will nurse both sides most of the time, but he will occasionally only need one side (yeah!).  When those times are in the morning, I pump.  Otherwise I just do a happy dance and move on.  
     I bought a book called, "The Adventures in Tandem Nursing" that KellyMom.com recommends.  Initially I felt like the book just told me all the reasons why this wasn't going to work.  However, it did give me some good tips on how to feed him as I get larger and what the experience will be like.  The one thing they didn't really touch on was tips for boosting supply which was disappointing.
     Three of the four things they touched on have really been my main issues.  Supply (as I already mentioned), nausea and pain.  The pain is the normal pregnancy tender breasts pain with added sharp pains every time Superman nurses.  It hurts the most when he first latches, but seems to get better as he continues.  His latch has also been off, but I don't think that is pregnancy related.  The nausea is intermittent and isn't too bad.  The book talks about women throwing up while nursing....I am not that bad.  I just feel super queasy and my jaw hurts (weird right?).  The other symptom they mention is that my milk can change flavor.  This may have actually happened, but since Superman can't talk he can't tell me.  However, he hasn't turned me down to nurse and they said that can happen when the taste changes. 
    I feel like there are a couple areas that people might want specific information as I go week by week.  So I will update these specifics each week, along with any additional information that I learn. 
Supply: holding steady. (made lactation cookies to help)
Pain:YES! As I mentioned above, it gets better as he nurses though.
Nausea while nursing: minimal this week
Positions for nursing: With the nursing pillow in the cradle hold. 

Till next week! 

Baby #2 - 4.5 weeks

Today, November 3, 2010, I learned that I am pregnant with my second child!  I am over the moon happy and want to shout it from the roof tops. Only problem? We aren't telling anyone.  I am only 4.5 weeks along and think the rule of waiting 12 weeks is a good one in theory.  My husband knows me too well and did agree that I could tell my parents, my sister, and my cousin.  We will tell his parents when we go to their home in Kansas this Thanksgiving. 

I want to keep a log of my pregnancy and thought that maybe down the line I could publish this if people wanted to look back at it.  I have followed Alysha's pregnancy over at The Tarr Pit and love how she does the weekly updates.  I emailed her and asked if I could copy her idea and she said it was fine by her.  In fact she took the idea from The Bump.  So every Saturday I am going update how things are going.  The next update will be at 6 weeks. 

******************************

How I told my husband: I messaged him and asked him to come home for lunch instead of meeting Superman and I out at a restaurant (Wednesdays we do lunch together).  We hadn't been feeling well so he didn't think anything of it.  Superman normally naps till about 1, but woke up early today.  I rushed upstairs and grabbed a white onesie out of the drawer and wrote "Big Brother" on it.  When my husband came home I was still nursing Superman so when we got downstairs hubby was in the kitchen putting dishes away.  He stopped doing the dishes and I handed him Superman (with the shirt on).  At first he didn't notice at all and then he was like, "what is written on this?" and he read "big" and then "brother" and then got the most excited expression on his face.  It was priceless!!

How far along: 4.5 weeks.  

Baby's size: poppy sead

Symptoms: nauseous.  I had the stomach flu this past weekend and just haven't fully recovered...or so I thought.  Hubby got the stomach flu on Monday and is fine now.  I suppose this little poppy seed could be the reason for my nausea (I had nausea pretty bad with Superman.  I lost 15 pounds in my first trimester.) 

Sleep: fine...thank goodness for a baby that sleeps through the night.

Total Weight Gain:  none- first week

Maternity clothes:Not even close.

Best moment this week: Finding out that I am pregnant.

Movement: too early

Food cravings: nope...too nauseous.

Gender:  ?????

Labor signs: none 
What I miss: nothing yet

What I'm looking forward to:  my first doctor's appointment

Weekly Wisdom (aka what I learned this week):  Digital pregnancy tests are awesome.  I love when it popped up: PREGNANT!

Milestones: finding out that I am pregnant.

Emotions: a bit overwhelmed.  We wanted our kids close together.  In fact we decided 18 months would be a great age difference since they will be into relatively the same things as they grow up.  The reality though? 2 kids under 2 won't be easy.  I guess we have 8 months to start preparing ourselves for the extra work. 

Drum roll please....

I have been pretty quiet on this blog and on Twitter lately.  I have had this secret and it has been inundating every aspect of my life...so writing about what was going on in my life has been tough.  How could I write about my milk supply diminishing and not tell you the reason?  How do I tell you that I don't feel good without explaining that I am not actually sick?  How could I tell you that I have been napping during my normal blogging time and still have you come back to read more the next time I do actually sit down and write? I hope you all understand what I am trying to say, but in case you haven't figured it out yet....

I AM PREGNANT!!!

I am so giddy to be able to finally share this news I can hardly contain myself.  We considered spilling the beans on Christmas day after we told our local family members, but I had an ultrasound scheduled for today and wanted to be able to share the latest pictures. So let me introduce you to Baby #2 due July 9, 2011!

Profile

The baby was a wiggly worm...here s/he is waving at us!

Hopefully as I enter the second trimester I will get my energy back and get rid of this darn nausea.  I will try and get back into a routine of writing each week, although I doubt it will be daily.  Please stick with me though...I love your comments and your insights and would be lost without you all.

 Over the next couple of days I will be sharing my weekly posts that I have been writing about my pregnancy (and not posting).  I also have a couple of other posts that were pregnancy related that I couldn't post until I told you all.  

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!  

Thrown

Yesterday I posted on Facebook that during his nap, Superman was not actually sleeping, but rather crying because he had thrown his two stuffed animals and his blanket to the floor.  I wanted reassurance that I shouldn't go in and retrieve them.  Actually I really only wanted to retrieve the blanket, but that is neither here nor there.  Of course, everyone told me to hold strong and that going in would merely reinforce the throwing of items out of the crib.  

The problem is that the throwing of items isn't isolated to his crib.

When I put him in his "baby corral"  to play for about 30 minutes every morning, he throws his toys out.  He doesn't cry when they are out of the corral, unless he throws his blanket.  Then he tries to reach for it and cries.  I don't usually put the toys back in, but will hand him his blanket again (and he doesn't throw it again during that duration). 

Then when he is in his high chair...watch out!  He will be eating away and the moment he decides he is done with a food, he starts dropping it off the side of his tray.  This is a real issue considering we have two dogs that are ready to pounce on any piece of food that hits the floor.  We have tried telling him no, but he doesn't seem to understand or doesn't care since there isn't anything that happens if we say no and he does it again.  Do almost one year olds even understand "no"?  In the end we end up taking the food away and if he reaches for it, we give him it to him piece by piece, but sometimes he eats it and sometimes he takes it out of his mouth and tries to throw it on the floor.  It is really frustrating. 

So...HELP!!  What do I do?  Are these situations even connected or are there different things going on?  What would you do?

Thanks!

The Adventures of Toddler Bumps and Bruises

It seems I no longer have a baby in my house, but rather a toddler.  He isn't walking independently yet, but will use anything he can to walk from one place to another.  He rarely crawls anymore.  I keep waiting for the day where he will let go of what he is holding onto and take a step, but that hasn't happened yet.  We did have a brief step or two as he walked from my husband to me one night, but we aren't counting it since he had momentum and we aren't really sure one of us weren't providing support.  Anyway.....

All of the toddling means that there is also a lot of falling.  Falling on the ground.  Falling on to a toy. Falling into a chair.  Falling into a cabinet nob. Falling into the high chair.  Falling. Falling. Falling.   And with all of this falling?  Comes lots and lots of bruises. 

I am so tired of the bruises and don't feel like I have an adequate method for dealing with them.  I usually throw some ice into a baggy, wrap it in a paper towel, and plop ourselves in front of "Super Why" or "Sesame Street" for 10 minutes while I ice the spot on his face that is turning several different shades of red and purple. 

There has to be a better way to get them to sit still and get iced.  I know it isn't the worst thing for him to watch 10 minutes of television now and then and I feel like I try to make it interactive with me talking to him about it and moving his body the way they tell him to on the show, but I guess I thought that maybe one of you have a better solution. 

I would love to be able to read books, but haven't figured out how to do it with one hand (since the other is holding the ice).  Frankly I am lucky if I have one hand because many times I am holding his head steady with the other.   I tried singing, but that didn't work.  It seems like he needs something more distracting.

So what do you do when your child get a bump or bruise that needs to be iced?  HELP!

Teething sucks

Superman has taken to flailing his body about when he is in pain from teething.  He arches his back, waves his arms, pushes off of me with all of his might and screams.  If I put him down?  He screams louder and usually throws his body in such a way that he ends up hitting his head....which just makes him scream louder.  So I hold on to him with both of my arms- tight, especially if I am walking because he has even flung himself into a wall when I wasn't careful enough.  Fun times.

So I went to the doctor today to make sure that he is in fact "just" teething.  Doctor says that it is in fact his teeth and to hang in there.  We had a short discussion about orajel...one of his nurses had told me to not use it unless I really needed to because it can swell the gums and delay the teeth from breaking through.  The doctor had not heard this before and said that it sounded like we needed to throw everything at the molars at this point.   I agreed. 

We used it when we got home...that and ibuprofen and a couple Humphrey's teething tablets.  I was totally going to throw everything at it.  I guess I could have used gripe water too, but didn't think about it till now.   So all the meds are in him and we head to bed.  For the first time in 3 days he actually drinks from his bottle (only a few ounces, but I will take it).  Then he goes to bed and sleeps really well for an hour (not the 2 hours that I am used to, but I will take it).  Then I go in to get him and he doesn't scream!! In fact despite a little bit of "I'm just waking up" fussiness, he was delightful! 

I am thrilled that we have found something that helped (fingers crossed it continues to work)...I just wish I knew which of the things that we gave him did the trick or if all of it was needed.  I guess that is the down-side with throwing everything you got a problem. 

A New Kind of Uniform

 A fellow mom (of adorable twin boys) sent me the following message recently:

If you need a blog topic can you ask your readers about Mommy wear?  I've found that since I've become a mom I live in sweats and t-shirts or those soft track suits, stuff that is easy to wash and wear and hides stains well. I hardly ever wear pants that have buttons or zippers.  (My Husband) calls it my uniform. I wonder if there are other moms out there that find themselves in the boat or if I'm just weird?

My gut reaction was to give her some advice on what I do, but then I realized I am the last person that should give advice about this and frankly, could benefit from some other people's advice as well.

According to the Fly Lady we should be getting dressed and ready for the day every morning.  In fact day 2 of her BabySteps tells you:

Today I want you get up and get dressed to lace up shoes when you first get up in the morning. This means fix your hair and face too.

So when I was a new mom trying to figure out this whole "stay-at-home mom" thing I jumped at this idea.  I made a little alteration to it since the first thing I do in the morning is feed Superman and then workout.  But as soon as I am done working out, Superman goes down for a nap and I shower and get dressed.  Sounds like I am great at this right? Okay, not so much.  Let me be honest with you for a moment.

1. Up until 2 months ago, my hair went into a pony tail every.single.day.
2. I do not wear make-up.  I hardly wore any before I had a baby, I'm not going to start wearing it now.
3. Getting dressed included shorts or jeans and a solid color t-shirt every.single.day.

So you can see I need help too!  Do you have any tips on great "mom clothes" that are easy to care for, hide stains well, and are comfortable, but still look like we are somewhat put together?  I will admit that I am secretly hoping you all tell me that you all are struggling with this too.  It won't help any of us look better, but I will feel a little less like a disheveled mom and a little more like a normal mom just hanging in there. Thanks!

To sleep like a baby...

When Superman was younger I was totally confused about the saying, "sleep like a baby".  My baby was a fairly loud sleeper and he certainly wasn't sleeping for long periods of time.  Why would I want to sleep like a baby if that is what a baby sleeps like?

Well now I get it.  When I place Superman into the crib it goes one of two ways.

1. He cries for 30 seconds to 1 minute, rolls over and falls asleep.*

2. He rolls over and falls asleep.* 

Do you know what I would give to be able to fall asleep that fast?  Maybe it's because he doesn't have any worries to ponder over or plans to consider or items to complete that weren't written down so he doesn't have to consider getting up to write them down or focusing really hard on not forgetting them.   

Whatever it is, I would like some of what he has got.

*I know that he is asleep because I can see him on the monitor.  Also, although this is almost every time he falls asleep, there are the occasional times where he takes a little bit longer...but they are few and far between.

Insomnia...but not mine.

Superman is teething his top molars. I hate molars. They have managed to turn my perfectly sweet, happy almost all the time kid and turn him into a cranky, nothing will please me, let me scream and kick and flail my body about kid. Seriously, I need to take stock on my dealing with teething strategies because clearly the Tylenol/ibuprofen and here have something to chew on combo we are doing just isn't enough. But that is for me to deal with after this post. First? I need to tell you about last night.

It started out okay. My husband did the usual night time routine, I went up to nurse him and put him to bed and although he stirred for a little bit, he fell fairly quickly into a nice sleep. Then 9:45 hit and he woke up. We let him fuss for a while and just when it looked like he was going to go back to sleep, he woke up and started screaming again. My husband went in with some gripe water and tried to soothe him. After that didn't work, I got called in.

I got him to drink the gripe water and he even was quite content just cuddling in the rocking chair with me. I switched the way I was holding him so I could see his face and at that point realized that although he is quite content and calm...he is wide.freakin'.awake. Ugh!

Over the next 3 hours I try everything I know to get him to fall asleep. We laid on the floor together...he tried to play and climb all over me. We went downstairs for some milk...I realize he is hungry and he downs 2 containers of fruit puree and plays independently for about 30 minutes while I whine on Facebook. I defrost some milk and we head up stairs...he drinks the milk, goes to bed, cries for a little bit and does fall asleep, but then I get up to turn the monitor on and leave...and he wakes up again to scream his head off. I leave him in his crib to cry, but finally decide to lay down on the floor to try and get some rest.

He ended up falling asleep at around 3:00-3:30...and then woke up at 6:30. The 3 or so hours in between? Oh I was still on the floor, sleeping, for fear that he would wake up again if I stood up to turn on the monitor and leave. Yeah, I was sticking to my sleeping bag on the floor, it didn't matter if my back was screaming at me or not. It would still be better than Superman screaming.

So there you have it. My 11 month old kid had insomnia. At least that is what I am calling it because really, I have no idea if his teeth played a part in this or not. He only cried when he was in the crib and come on, you and I both know that was more about being pissed that he was in there than the teeth. Whatever caused this night from hell, I hope it is done with our family and will never been seen from again.