From Pleasure to Work

This weekend is a wash out... no camping due to Hurricane/Tropical Storm Ernesto. :( We were very much looking forward to it and are quite disappointed. Maybe we can try to go next weekend. So, we have a free labor day weekend to do nothing!

Nothing has turned into - Let's get the Little Man sleeping better in the morning. Last night was the first night using the light timing method. We set it for "6:30am". He, luckily slept until 6, which is much better than 5:30. But, we still had to put him in bed twice and have discussions about the light turning on. At 6:18 (because the timer is very hard to set), the light came on and he came trotting in our room with a, "Get Up!". It wasn't so much an exclamation as it was a demand. The light came on, so now we all have to be up. I can see that once he gets the hang of this, there will be no more sleeping in. :) but, i suppose, once he gets good at this, maybe we can push the time back to 10am???

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)