Mom On The Run

I definitely know I’m not the only one who feels this way… But come on!  I’ve had enough!  That’s supposed to be my bench under there:

And we’re supposed to get more!  3 cm tonight, 3 cm on Tuesday, 1 cm on Wednesday, 10 cm on Thursday and 3 cm on Friday!  I feel like a prisoner in my own living room ’cause Sierra never wants to go outside and play in it.  Heh…  At least in jail I wouldn’t have to cook ALL of my own meals and wipe other people’s butts.  Its so hard to believe that softball season starts in 8 short weeks!

PS – Jump up and down today while taking a shot, because its Leap Day!

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Right now my house is quiet – everyone is sleeping.  But as I sit here surfing the ‘net on my laptop I can hear the sweetest sound ever…   I can hear through the baby monitor the rhythmic sound of sweet baby Brookie breathing.  It just melts my heart and makes me want to rush in there to watch her sleep. 

What’s the sweetest sound you’ve ever heard?

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That’s all it would have taken to help out a sick mommy.  I’ve had a fever, chills, sweats, body aches the whole nine yards for the past two days.  ‘Cause I’ve been far too sick to clean, this is what my kitchen looked like:

This is what it looked like 16 minutes later (after I cleaned it up):

Seriously – I do EVERYTHING around here (well, except the night time parenting of the toddler that HATES sleep).

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I found this fun relationship meme at Ms. Zoot’s site and thought it would be fun to share with ya:

How long have you been together? 13.5 years!  We started dating during my first semester of University.  He kept buying me drinks at a pub night for Phys. Ed. students that featured a sub-eating contest. 

How long did you date?  You mean like before we got married?  9.5 yrs  I was ready to tell him to shit or get off the pot when he FINALLY proposed.

How old is he?  35

Who eats more?  When I’m pregnant or nursing I do.  Actually when I’m training for a marathon I eat more as well.  I guess the answer is me!

Who said ‘i love you’ first?  I think he did.  He signed the first Valentine card that he gave me: "Love, Rob".  He’s a very serious person so I knew that he meant it.

Who is taller?  He is.  At 5′2 almost everyone is taller than me.

Who is smarter?  Him.  Definitely him.  He is much more analytical than me and sees things from every angle.

Who does the laundry? Me.  Well, I do my laundry, the girls’ laundry, towels and sheets.  He does his own laundry.

Who does the dishes?  Me

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?  We both do.  He snores so freaking much that we sleep in seperate rooms. 

Who pays the bills? He does – I’m a stay-at-home mommy!

Who mows the lawn?  He does.  Our "lawn" is freaking HUGE and it takes him a couple of hours so it generally only gets cut once a month during the summer.  In his defence it also grows very slowly ’cause we don’t water it.

Who cooks dinner?  I do.  Not that anybody in this house likes what I cook.

Who is more stubborn? Ha!  Definitely me!  Though he does have some strong ideas….

Who kissed who first?  I’m pretty sure I kissed him first, though I have beer induced amnesia about the whole event.

Who asked who out?  I did.  I called him and we went out for dinner.  He asked me where I wanted to go.  I replied "Arby’s".  He preferred a place where we would use cutlery, so I suggested Swiss Chalet.  I took him to the cleaners there.  I ate:

• a salad
• full rib dinner with fires
• super sundae

Who proposed?  He did.  It was the night before the Casino Niagara Marathon.  He took me for a romantic freezing cold rainy walk along Niagara Falls, found a cute tree, got down on one knee and popped the question.  I cried, and said yes!  I ran only about 20 miles of that cold rainy marathon the next day ’cause I couldn’t wait to go home and tell my parents! 
After that we kept with the "Casino" theme and got married 5 months later at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas!

Who is more sensitive?  Me – I take EVERYTHING personally.

Who has more friends?  Me – not that I’m nicer or anything, it’s just that he spends all of his limited free time at home with us playing "Princess". 

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Oh Treehouse!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  I *heart* Yo Gabba Gabba!  I also *heart* Treehouse!  And you know what?  Now I can watch Yo Gabba Gabba every day on Treehouse at 4:30!  Oh yeah – that beats Dora The Explorer for sure (she used to be on in that 4:30 time slot).  It looks like my "no TV until 5 pm" rule is shot outta the window!  There’s no way I could possibly deny Sierra myself this show.

Are ya outta the loop a bit?  Yo Gabba Gabba is this kick butt show for preschoolers.  It’s hosted by DJ Lance Rock and presents wholesome messages with a wacky flair. According to Treehouse Yo Gabba Gabba is:

A fun live-action program for young children ages 1 and up. Join our host, DJ Lance Rock, as he introduces us to friendly toy monsters in a magical land full of music, dance, colorful cartoons and simple life lessons that will get you and your children up off the floor to learn and dance along. Muno, the red cyclops, Foofa, the pink flower bubble, Brobee, the green little one, Toodee, the blue cat-dragon, and Plex, the robot are ready to sing, play and teach whenever you’re ready. Just say the magic words, Yo Gabba Gabba!!

It even features Biz Markie in "Biz’s Beat Of The Day" teaching kids how to beat box.  Seriously!  Check it out:

It has Elijah Wood teaching kids how to dance:

And it promotes healthy eating with this delightful, catchy song called "There’s A Party In My Tummy":

Hurry up 4:30!  I can’t wait for Sierra to watch this show with me!

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Sleep!  Or better yet, how to sleep.  Specifically, how to fall asleep on their own.  Yanno, without "negative sleep associations" like: nursing to sleep, being rocked to sleep etc….

Hmmmmmm… I seemed to have missed out on that part of the owner’s manual….

Baby Brookie has absolutely no problem falling asleep by nursing or rocking.  Her problem lies in how long she stays asleep – she generally will sleep for 40 min then wake up whether it be at nap time or at bed time.  40 min after I put her to bed at afternoon nap and at bed time I would have to go up to her room, whip out the pacifier boob and nurse her back to sleep.  I haven’t minded it ’cause it only takes a few minutes for her to fall back to sleep and it was an opportunity to sneak some extra nutrition into her wee little body. 

But then all hell broke loose a few weeks ago and she decided she was just too freaking cool to sleep longer than 2 hour stretches, even opting to spend some nights waking up every 90 minutes.  In my infinite wisdom sheer exhaustion I would whip out the ta-tas for her each and every time she woke up. 

Daddy Rob has been home for just over a week and through his help I got some sleep and was able to finally step back and look at this rationally.   My conclusion?  Brooke doesn’t know how to put herself to sleep, or back to sleep once she stirs in her sleep.  She wakes up and the boob is no longer there so she freaks out.  Once I figured that out I realized that sleep training must commence – otherwise mommy is going to go freaking insane from sleep deprivation.

Night 1 – Tuesday Night
Regular bedtime routine: Bath, say goodnight to Sierra & Daddy, nurse in rocker
But here’s where things got different:
I let her nurse to sleep, then gently woke her up to rock her back to sleep. 
Brooke woke up every 2 hours, I rocked her to sleep one wake up, then the next I would nurse her.  This gave her 1/2 as many nursing sessions through the night.

Night 2 – Wednesday Night
Regular bedtime routine: Bath, say goodnight to Sierra & Daddy, nurse in rocker
I screwed up got lazy and didn’t wake her up after nursing her to sleep. 
Miraculously she woke up only 2 times – every 4 hours (12 am, 4 am).

Night 3 – Thursday Night
Regular bedtime routine: Bath, say goodnight to Sierra & Daddy, nurse in rocker
I let her nurse to sleep, then gently woke her up to rock her back to sleep. 
Brooke woke up every 2 hours, I rocked her to sleep one wake up, then the next I would nurse her.  This gave her 1/2 as many nursing sessions through the night.  (Same result as Tuesday Night, therefore this method is NOT working),

Night 4 – Friday Night
Regular bedtime routine: Bath, say goodnight to Sierra & Daddy, nurse in rocker
I let her nurse to sleep, then gently woke her up and placed her in her bed AWAKE.  Yep, awake, sleepy, but not yet sleeping.   She rolled onto her side and fell asleep (I hid and watched her fall asleep).
Miraculously she woke up only 2 times – every 4 hours (12 am, 4 am) at which time I nursed her, then let her fall back asleep on her own in her bed.

Night 5 – Saturday Night
EXACTLY the same routine and results as Friday night.
She also took a longer than usual, 2 hour straight afternoon nap, with no mid-nap feed.

Night 6 – Sunday Night (Tonight)
She fell asleep on her own after nursing, only tonight I will wake her up and give her a "dream feed" at 10 pm when I go to bed. According to the sleep books this will help to break her every 4 hours "habit".  We’ll see….

   So there ya have it folks – a no cry sleep solution.  I could totally careless if she slept through the whole night without waking up.  I find it acceptable for her to wake up 1 to 2 times a night until she’s a year old.  After that?  I dunno – maybe 1 time a night until she’s like 15 months old?  Then after that?  Hopefully through the night.  I have no high hopes ’cause Sierra has some sleep issues of her own – that’s a whole ‘nother post! 

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