Just when you thought you had enough

Transitions are always hard, but we have/had been making great progress with the transition from the crib to the bed. The Little Man was sleeping like a champ: 3 hour nap in afternoon and 11 hours or so at night. So, we decided that now was as good of a time as any to get rid of the crib. So, about a month ago, we did it. Things were going swimmingly until about 2 weeks ago. I am not sure what happened, although I suspect he is plotting with his playgroup buddies as other mom's are complaining of the same thing. He started getting up SEVERAL times a night and coming into our room -- appearing wide awake with a "Good morning, Daddy." We would say, "more night night" and trot him back to his room. No complaints, no crying, etc. And, a half an our later, we would be right back where we started.

After 2 weeks, I have decided that I am way to exhasted to deal with this anymore. I have accumulated many bits of advice on the matter -- what has worked and what has not -- and this is what I have come up with:

1. As a temporary fix, put the Little Man in his pack-n-play to sleep so that you can be rested enough to deal with the early morning wakeups.
2. Use an alarm clock, so that he can't get up until it goes off.
3. Set a light timer on his lamp so that when the light goes on, he can get up.

Here is our progress:

1. He can climb in and out of his pack-n-play on his own... surprise!
2. I don't want him to wake up to an alarm clock... if the kid is going to sleep, let him sleep!
3. Haven't found our light timer yet. We plan to implement #3 upon our return from camping, or tonight if he takes short nap.

So, after being exhausted, I complained to all the moms in playgroup yesterday and said I had had enough... what do you know, the little booger slept for 3 hours for his nap and then 10 hours last night!!!!! My take home message on the subject: Complaining is worth it!!!!

Where is my money tree?

I suppose since I am not working, I should be a little more frugal... but no. I decided that this was the time I needed my new wedding band (I had been waiting for 2 years with much buggin' going on), a new tent (since it might be next to impossible to go camping with the Little Man in our two person (barely) backpacking tent), an air mattress (because a 7 month pregnant lady can't sleep on a bed comfortably, let alone the ground - while camping), and this wonderful stroller. We sold our single jogging stroller this weekend since we needed to get a double before baby #2 and let me tell you what a challenge that was.

My husband's only requirement was that it wasn't double-wide, mine was that it wasn't double-long... so, stackable was the only option left. So, if I want that money tree... I have decided that I need to invent a more cost effective option to the double stroller dilemma that I am sure I am not the only one to face.

Injustices in my world

I should not be awake right now, really, even though it is a normal time to be awake (7:30am)... the Little Man decided that for some reason, he wanted to be up practically ALL NIGHT LONG! I didn't hear him until about 2am, but apparently he was up 3 times before that. And, if it was anything like the rest of the night/morning/whatever, he was up every 30 min before that. 30 minutes is just the right amount of time to get back in bed, snuggle in with your 5 pillows (because you are pregnant), close your eyes, think about something nice, and doze off to slumberland. Then, BOOM, a quite little... 'Good Morning, Mommy'... is heard in the back of your mind. It is true, he is up again... 30 minutes later. We did this until 4:30 -- so that makes... 9 times in a row???... not right.

Let me just note that there was no fever, no crying, no complaints of pain or suffering, etc... he was AWAKE! At 4:30, just to make myself feel better, I gave the Little Man some tylenol and water, changed his diaper, and placed him back in bed. I got into bed with him (which is not recommended, I am sure -crib mattress+pregnant mommy) until he started to pick my nose and pull my hairs out one at a time. -- still awake, apparently). Then I told him I would sleep next to the bed (also not so good, quite uncomfortable, especially when you need 5 pillows to fall asleep). I figured, at least he would be in bed and maybe Daddy could get some sleep for more than 20 minutes straight. So, an hour later, and 3 attempts to get up and out of the Little Man's room without him noticing, we did it. He appeared to be asleep, and I got 1 1/2 hours of blissful slumber -- until Daddy started snoring quite loudly.

I can't complain about the snoring, because one of my wonderful 9 month traits is that I snore pretty loud and often, but I can complain about the injustice of this all.

• I do not have a newborn yet, I should be sleeping through the night.
• The Little Man is not a newborn, he should be sleeping through the night.
• When I do fall asleep, I get awoken by the almost newborn kicking things that should not be kicked, I am pretty sure.
• I have been craving lemonade and it is not caffienated.
• Coffee is caffienated, but I am not drinking coffee while pregnant, even though I have been craving coffee, too -- so wrong!

Well, I had better go make breakfast -- we are having eggs since I apparently bought 2 doz eggs at whole foods, and 2 doz eggs came with my safeway.com order about 4 hours later (because I guess I thought I wouldn't make it to Whole Foods???).
I do not drink coffee, and really, really want to.

At the Movies

In our area, there are a couple movie theaters that offer "baby pictures" where moms can go and watch a movie without worrying about their kids crying or whatnot... because everyone there is a mom (or dad) with a little one. We did this a few times until the Little Man became a mover. This was over a year ago... So, we tried again, but this time, a REAL movie. We went to see Barnyard at our local cinema with some friends of ours. It started out being a big hit. But as soon as the (very loud and not really age appropriate for our little ones) previews started, things went a bit downhill. This could also have been due to the fact that it was very close to naptime and lunch consisted of salty movie theater popcorn and milk -- yummy!

Anyhow, I would do it again, for sure, but try to get an earlier movie time, if possible. This picture was taken during the credits... still eating popcorn.

Picnic in the Park

Despite all three of us being quite tired, we decided to head out of the house after the Little Man awoke from his (quite short) nap. We went tent shopping for our upcoming trip to Shenandoah National Park and then stopped by Safeway for sandwiches. Our great find was Claude Moore Park... just 1 mile (or less) from our house. We had driven through once, but didn't find it interesting -- this was about 3 years ago. So, we decided to try it again. We stopped by the visitor center and picked up a trail map and took off through nature for a nice hike. The Little Man enjoyed his ride in the backpack and we had a wonderful picnic dinner to follow. The weather was perfect and all in all, a great Sunday afternoon excursion. I wish we had discovered it earlier!

Whoa... look at that thing!

So, looking back, it seems I have might have had some muscle defnition forming in my abs... but that was short-lived! Now, I have baby-definition... I sure hope there is two in there - with 3 more months to go, I can't imagine getting bigger!!!!!

month 1 month 2 month 3 month 4 month 5 month 6

The picture below is of the same point in my pregnancy with the Little Man as the last picture above... I haven't measured my belly this time around, and honestly, I am a little afraid to! :)
month 6 (2 years ago)

Mommy Sleeps

After sleeping on a comfy air mattress for 2 weeks while camping, coming back to our flat, lumpy, and possibly even concave mattress was a bit difficult. Pillows do not help this situation. We would buy a new bed, but we were hoping to do that when we moved. So, we were toughing it out. After 5 nights of unrestful slumber, I had had enough. I went to the mattress store in the mall... the one with really expensive beds and accessories and the salespeople all wear pjs to work... and found a mattress pad I liked for $300. Well, a bit much for my budget, so the search continued.

After much online searching, I found that there was a 2" memory foam mattress pad that was on sale for 50% off and I had a 20% off coupon for that store somewhere in the house... woo hoo. So, that night, I went about .5 miles down the road in my search of a restful night. Well, apparently the sale is only online. So, after 2 days of waiting, I had my mattress... put it on my bed, and woke up this morning feeling quite rested (and back not achy). This was despite the early wake up call from the little man who thinks that 6:15 is an okay time to be up and around (and mommy does not). Ah, sleep at last. I am tempted to take a nap today just to use it.

What a Big Boy

So, when we returned to VA, we (meaning my husband) had disassembled the crib. We decided to just put the crib mattress on the floor. With a rather large number of potential changes/transitions coming our way, we decided to tackle them slowly and one at a time. First step -- Getting the Little Man out of a Crib!

With much foreplay and talk about his "new bed" and what a 'big boy" he would be... we placed him soundly in bed, with his blanket and pacifier, turned out the light and closed the door to just a crack... I had even taken a "Before" picture of his room. The toys from our house have been so nicely organized in his room for the past 2 months with our house being on the market... i just figured that the little man would have free reign (unsupervised reign) over his room...

Much to my surprise, he fell asleep without getting up once (that we heard) and has done so pretty much everytime he goes down. If he does get up, it is to find me... How lucky could i be -- for the moment. What are the chances that he'll figure out this whole 'free reign' thing soon?

The one thing that we have modified is putting up a rail. He is a squirmy little guy and had fallen out of bed several times in before we went to target and got the only rail they had in stock. Since then, he is sleeping much better. Now, we just need to work on Mommy's sleep.

Really, our house is cute!

I am not sure why no one wants to check out our house??? It has been on the market for 40 days and 2 visitors... not so good. I am getting anxious now, since i am 25 weeks pregnant and have like a month or so left of 'eligibility' to move. :( CA is calling my name!

Home Sweet Home

I should change the name to "Home Aweful Home" given the horrible weather we are having... it is hanging around 100 degrees and is quite humid. I would prefer the 70-80s with the cool ocean breeze!

Apparently the heat wave that was sweeping the country while we were relaxing on the beach, did not sweep through completely before we returned to VA. When we arrived at 1:00am the other morning, we had to turn on the a/c in the car it was soooooooooooo hot and humid. Not right, in my opinion.

As for the trip, we had a great time. The Little Man loves camping!!! He had such a wonderful time playing in the dirt, riding in the wagon, building/destroying sand castles, playing in the waves, and sleeping in the tent. I wish he could live like that for more than 2 weeks... but, I am not sure I would have lasted much longer. All that good outdoory stuff, but no walls to contain the active little man.

Some highlights from the trip:

• The little man has learned several new words (dirtball, lucky boy, uncle joey, uncle sean, swimming, beach, and camping to name a small few) and has been talking up a storm. He is stringing several words together and has learned how to give things ownership ("mommy's munch"- translated: mommy's lunch).
• Sleep issues - no problem sleeping in the tent, just not sleeping long enough... those dang birds are noisy at 6am! we are back down to 2 naps a day for this trip!
• As mentioned before, no walls... escaping was easy if left unattended for more than 20 seconds.
• Finally started to eat bread and pizza - how could it take so long
• Awesome plane rides... the little man did much better than his mommy and her expanding tummy!
• Took 10 pairs of white socks, returned with 9 pairs of brownish-tan socks
• Playing in the sand is almost as much fun as the water... almost...
• When picking out a car at LAX, don't let your 21mos old choose the color... we ended up with an orange car! We were so cool!!!
• If you are ever in Santa Barbara, stop by La Super Rica Taqueria... the fresh tortillas are YUMMMMMYYYYY!!!!!

All in all, the trip was wonderful. We wish daddy could have been there. :(