Sleep Deprived

This handsome little Moose refuses to sleep! Well, I should rephrase that, he refuses to fall asleep on his own and stay asleep once he is laid down alone.

 

He's an incredibly happy and easy baby with everything else.  He eats like a champ.  He entertains himself and plays well alone.  He loves his sister and laughs at all her crazy antics that mommy does not understand.  His snuggles can cure my grumpiest mood.  And that smile is like sunshine! But this kid does not sleep.  

I've been in denial about his sleep issues for pretty much his whole life.  My mom has been hoping and praying that I'd have a kid with sleep issues to pay me back for all that I put her through.  Well we got extremely lucky with Scoot.  I don't know what I did or didn't do, but she was a great sleeper.  She could put herself to sleep starting at about 4 months - just lay her in the crib and close the door - magic! She would wake up in the middle of the night, but as soon as I snuggled her or nursed her she was back out. And that usually only happened once a night around 4 am (after she'd already been asleep 9 hours).  By the time she was 10 months old she was sleeping through the night 7 pm - 6 am with 2 - 2 hour naps. It was a first time mommy's dream!

Now Mr. Moose, he's a completely different story! He has no self-soothing skills and needs to be cuddled until he falls asleep. Up until about 3 weeks ago, once you cuddled him to sleep, you could lay him down and he would stay asleep. But it has been getting worse. You never know what is going to happen when you lay him down.  Will he stay asleep? Whine and wiggle, but not really wake up? Melt down into total hysterics?  Maybe if that was happening at bed time around 8 pm and then he slept through the night I wouldn't have anything to complain about.  But he's doing that at 8 pm, 11pm, and 4 am. And he has been demanding to be nursed back to sleep in the middle of the night. 

Nap time isn't much better, but a nice 3 hour stretch of sleep in the afternoon actually seems like a win.  Whereas it feels like a total failure at 11pm. 

I'm desperate to teach him some self-soothing skills, but I have no idea how.  And my sleep deprived brain cant think of any way to fix this.

And if this makes no sense- just know I wrote it in 3 parts around the cuddling & nursing of an exhausted baby.  Which is pretty much the way we've been living life the last 2-3 weeks. 

pink painted flower box

A brand new Michael's craft store opened 2 miles from my house last week.  I'm in big trouble now with all that crafty goodness so close at hand!  It didn't help that on my maiden voyage to the new store I had a 20% off entire purchase coupon!

I got a bunch of random supplies for various projects I want to try.  And as a spur of the moment purchase I bought a little wooden box shaped like a flower for $1.  At Bible school earlier in the summer Scoot painted a little wooden bird house and she has played with it constantly.  She even has a little toy bird that she puts in there to go "nighnight." Its adorable.  And this girl seriously loves any kind of bag/box/purse that she can put treasures in. 

So today was the day that I decided to be brave and get out the paint.  Scoot has never painted with me before so I didn't know exactly how messy to expect it to get.  At first she was upset that the paint was getting on her hands and arms, but once she got over that, she went to town with that paint! She LOVED it!  Long after the box was as covered as it was going to get she was asking for more paint.  I must say that her box turned out pretty cute too.  I hope she has tons of fun playing with it and storing all her precious treasures in there!

A few tips on painting with a toddler...

*Contain the mess! - I put her in her high chair to paint and it worked perfectly!

*Limit color choices - She was just as interested in mixing the paint on her plate as she was putting the paint on the box.  We used 4 shades of pink and even though she mixed them all together, it turned out beautiful.  If I had given her 4 different colors and she mixed them all together it would have turned into a muddy brown color. 

*Strip 'em down! - She did get paint on her arms and belly which was fine since I had taken her shirt off before we started.  A paint smock would have worked too, but it was just as easy to take the clothes off at home.



When Scoot was born I was a first time mom and went back to work the day she turned 10 weeks old. 

This second time around I'm an experienced mom and I'm staying home now.  In other words, it should be a tad bit easier.  Granted I do also have a 2 year old fighting the 5 month old for my attention, but overall Scoot has been so super good.  She transitioned seamlessly from only child to big sister. 

With Scoot I breastfed exclusively until she was 10 months and then with formula supplements until 11 months.  I was working and had to pump at least once during my work day and once at night.  It was not easy, but I was committed.  It made me feel closer to this sweet girl that I left at the babysitters house 9 hours a day.

This time I've been toying with the idea of quitting sooner rather than later.  Even though it should be easier this time.  I'm home and don't have to pump.  He's right here with me all the time so it should be easy to keep it up.  And since I've done it before I should be a pro by now. 

It has been easy, very easy.  But for mostly selfish reasons, I'm ready to be done.  At 5 months.  I want to take some of my meds that I'm not allowed to take while breastfeeding, but that make me feel better and more like myself.  I want someone else to be able to feed him once in awhile.  And I want my boobs to stop leaking all over the place any time I hear any baby cry. 

But tonight I tried to give him a bottle of formula before bed.....  and he would have NONE of that ridiculousness!  He's had a bottle many times before, but it's always been pumped breast milk.  So apparently I have some work to do before I can even think about weaning him to formula and getting my boobs back. 

All the technology that I've grown accustomed to using is ruining my in-person socialization skills! 

I'm super good at writing a witty email or chatting somebody up on facebook.  My text messages are friendly and funny. 

However, in person, I'm a blubbering, incoherent, not even mildly funny idiot. 

Not having the chance to edit myself scares me into silence.  All of the sudden I can't think of a single interesting thing that anyone would be interested in talking about for more than .6 seconds. 

I'd say most of this comes from having an introverted personality and being generally shy going back as long as I can remember.  But I certainly don't think that technology is helping me at all.  With my computer/phone/tablet I can sit comfortably at home and chat or not.  I can edit myself.  I don't have to feel the sting of embarrassment for being so quiet. 

Tonight, this all stems from a particularly bad experience from almost a year ago.  A year.  Really.  And I'm still thinking about it.  Truth is, I think about it a lot more than I'd like to admit to myself or you.  It started out well enough.  Dinner with my hubby, one of my best friends Robby, and his new girlfriend.  It sounded great until we got there and I suddenly remembered that I'm terrible at meeting new people because I just can't talk to them.  And I'm deathly afraid that they'll think I'm an idiot.  And every moment that I don't say something interesting and funny, I get more afraid of saying something stupid.  So I'm quiet.  And then this perfectly wonderful new person thinks that I don't like them.  Ahhh, it sounds so dumb when I write it out. 

Robby got engaged to his wonderful girlfriend tonight.  And even though we are good friends, we haven't hung out again since that dinner a year ago.  Because I did not make a good impression that night.  I did a terrible job at making a new friend.  Even though we have a lot in common and should have had a lot to talk about, I sat there quietly listening to everyone else talk.  It was not a fun night, and I really don't blame them for not wanting to hang out with us again.  (How in the world do I have any friends in real life?!)  I'm just sad tonight because I feel my 15 year friendship with Robby slipping away because I'm not good at making new friends and did not make a good 1st impression with his soon to be wife. 

Oh and guess what.... tomorrow I get to go to brunch with a friend/cousin-in-law who I have communicated with 99% of the time through social media!  Oh what fun.  Let the nervousness begin.... NOW!

I've got a creative itch, but I'm overwhelmed with choices and don't feel good at anything.  I have several quilt projects I want/need to finish, but it's too hot to quilt right now.  Especially with your a/c on the fritz and the insane humidity.  I would LOVE to try my hand at sewing some clothes for Scoot, but for some reason, I'm paralyzed with fear.

My ultimate goal is to find something that I can do to satisfy my creative itch that is also good enough to sell.  Something that someone else will want to pay their hard earned money for.  I'm to wishy-washy to commit to any one thing though. 

I have had a lot of fun making preschool busy bags for Scoot.  And I'd love to share them with other people, but they are so easy to do, that I don't see anybody paying me to do it for them. 

I've thought about making some kind of book bags for school age kids.  Putting together an activity bag based on a popular/quality children's book, but again, I'm afraid to start.  I actually keep myself awake at night thinking of activities to do with certain books and how I could put them together into a kit, but I just don't follow through. 

A big part of it is that I've been missing school/teaching.  With all the back to school stuff out and the commercials, I've been getting nostalgic.  I think about the kids I taught and the kids I'm not going to be teaching this year.  I want to get back to it, but I LOVE being home with my kids and I'm not ready to give that up either. 

Basically I'm a huge mess.  My brain is running in half a million different directions.  Without using my creative side, I feel like I'm missing something.  And on top of all that, I'm developing an addiction to online kids clothing resell groups! My husband and paypal do not approve!

Project Life Tuesday 2012 - Week 8

This is my 3rd year doing project life and up until now, I've only used the Design A page protectors.  But I'm super excited to say that I got a package from Amazon in the mail today and now I've got options!!  I got some big envelope pages that I'm sure will get a workout with the impending arrival of Baby Roo.  I got some 6x12 page protectors and I'm so excited to use these for journaling and bigger pictures.  And even though most of the pictures I take are landscape, I do find myself sometimes wanting to take vertical pictures and then talking myself out of it because they don't fit in my book.  So I bought some insert pages with space for vertical pictures.  I still plan on using Design A the majority of the time, but I can't wait to add a little variety to my book and spice it up some!

I ordered all my prints last night to get me caught up through yesterday.  I'm secretly hoping that little Baby Roo stays put until after the pictures come and I get my book current! 

Monday 2/20

I forgot to get a belly pic on Sunday, so I took a shot of my view today.  I don't have to try super hard to see my feet, but they aren't readily visible when I glance down! 

Tuesday 2/21
Scoot giving LaLa a squeeze before she left.  LaLa has been fantastic about coming over every Tuesday afternoon to watch Scoot while I go to my doctors appointments.  This is a great bonding time for them!

 Wednesday 2/22
Our second crib was delivered by UPS today!  Aaron was a trooper and put it together tonight even though I said he could wait till Saturday if he wanted to.  I love that the cribs match!  The nursery is full and cozy!

 Thursday 2/23/12
Aaron called me about 15 minutes after he left for work and said that he'd been sideswiped on his way to work.  He and the truck were fine, but the lady who did it took off and never looked back.  The funny thing is that she works at the same place so Aaron followed her and got her license plate number and her parking permit number.  He scared me with that phone call, but I'm so glad nothing was seriously damaged. 

 Friday 2/24
It is February and 81 degrees today!  I did not expect to be 9 months pregnant in this kind of weather this go round!  The windows were all open today and I broke out the capris and flip flops!

 Saturday 2/25
Scoot has been obsessed with animals lately.  And her enthusiasm is contagious!  I love seeing Aaron and Scoot sitting on the floor playing together!  Lots of giggles and smiles!

 Sunday 2/26
Scoot is showing off her new talent of saying "cheese" for the camera with her blueberry stained mouth.  She also wants to show any and everyone her "cookie" which is the tattoo on her left arm.  She loves playing hide and seek with him when she wears long sleeves!

 38 weeks with Baby Roo

Project Life Tuesday 2012 - Week 7 (on Wednesday)

I'm a little slow this week.  In fact, I considered just waiting to post until next week and do a double week.  BUT that made me feel all jittery and behind!  And with the pending arrival of Baby Roo, I'd really like to be caught up -- at least on the internet!  My actual book is still stuck on week 3 because I haven't printed pictures since then.  This is the week though.  I've already decided that I'm printing pictures on Sunday night so my book will be current through week 8 before this little bundle arrives. 

Monday 2/13

I packed my hospital bag!  I really wasn't that concerned, but hubby is a big time worry-wart and he was starting to freak out!  This bag is huge and has everything the baby and I will need except cameras, phone, chargers, and snacks. 

Tuesday 2/14 (above)

Aaron opening his Valentines gift.  I jumped on the bandwagon I've seen going around a bunch of blogs and pintrest and made a '12 in 12' Date plan for him.  He got 12 envelopes, each with a plan for a date inside.  The outside flap tells him when he can open the envelope.  He was impressed that I had actually made 12 decisions! HA! He's excited about opening them and finding out what the 2 of us will be doing together for the rest of the year!

 Wednesday 2/15 (below)
Baby Roo has had a major craving for Root Beer Floats lately.  I finally got all my ingredients and made one tonight!  Yummmmm!

 Thursday 2/16
My big girl is 20 months old today!  She LOVES shoes and she doesn't really care if she's actually dressed or not, she must be wearing shoes! She also likes to pick out her own shoes and doesn't really care if they match her outfit.  Some days I pick out her outfit based on the shoes she has picked for the day!

 Friday 2/17
Scoot loves. loves. loves M&Ms!  When we saw these big life size "m's" in the party store tonight she was infatuated!

 Saturday 2/18
Recently Scoot learned to use the buckles on many of her seats like this, her high chair, shopping carts, and the stroller.  When she buckles herself in she calles it "stuck" because she can't "unstuck" herself yet.  This is what happens when she's ready to get "unstuck" before someone can get to her to help her.

 Sunday 2/19
Scoot and Daddy walking to the car on our way to church. 

Project Life 2012 - Week 6

After six weeks I'm still caught up on Project Life 2012!  I'm still taking a picture every day!  I figure if I can remember to take a picture every day until Baby Roo gets here, then the picture taking will come even more easily.  HA :)

I love the way my album is turning out so far.  I am giving myself a goal of taking more artistic pictures though and not relying completely on just the pictures of my family doing fun/cute/new things.  I'm going to start paying more attention to the "Photo of the Day" ideas that Becky Higgins posts on facebook for some inspiration. 

And I'm still trying to remember to put in small details from actual life!

Monday 2/6

Aaron fell asleep on the sofa and luckily Scoot's quilt that I made her was right there for him to curl up in.  I love seeing something I made being used and loved by my family!  Now I need to make a sofa quilt so that Scoot's can go back in her room. 

Tuesday 2/7
A 10 minute nap in the car ruined Scoot's regular nap.  And then Lala came over to watch Scoot while I went to the doctor so there was no way she was going to sleep then.  When I got back from my appointment she was so grouchy but cuddly.  She ended up falling asleep in my lap for a good hour.

Wednesday 2/8
Aaron took the day off and we took Scoot to the Children's Museum.  There were a TON of classes there on field trips and Scoot was quite overwhelmed with so many 'big' kids.  We had a good time though and can't wait to go back!

Thursday 2/9
Today Miss B turns 3!  Scoot thought the cupcake was super yummy!

Friday 1/10
We bought this huge stuffed dog to use as a size comparison when we take weekly pictures of Baby Roo.  Scoot is having a good time cuddling it when she isn't wrestling it or tossing it around.

Saturday 2/11
For my birthday I got SNOW! And served a special breakfast.  And some special cupcakes.  And lots of family time.  Hubby and Scoot made sure I had a wonderful day!

Sunday 2/12
I decided it was about time for me to wash the carseat cover for Baby Roo.  I've been putting it off because I'm scared to death that it won't ever fit back on the right way.  And at this point Baby Roo better not be early because it's going to take the next 4 weeks for this thing to air dry like the instructions require. 

36 weeks with Baby Roo

Project Life 2012 - week 5

Monday 1/30

Scoot was up early this morning playing with her Valentines Day sensory box.  There are tons of heart shaped tiny toys in here and she loves sorting them and putting the little hearts into the bigger heart containers.  This little box will keep her busy for 30 minutes - an hour!

Tuesday 1/31
We went out to dinner with our friends.  B's birthday is next week and when she saw a kid at the table next to us sitting in the saddle for his birthday, she wanted to have a turn.  Since it was a slow Tuesday our waitress had no problem letting her sit on it an announcing her birthday!

Wednesday 2/1
I found a new bow seller on etsy and got a little bow crazy.  Scoot is getting really into bows these days and likes to wear one every day now.  I also had to copy Jessica's idea and use a jewelry organizer to hold all of her headbands so I can see what she has at a glance. 

Thursday 2/2
Aaron surprised me with a Strawberry Slush from Sonic's (which I've been craving!!) and got a chocolate shake for himself on the way home from work.  Scoot went back and forth, sip stealing from both of us, but she liked the shake better.

Friday 2/3
I love the way Scoot takes care of her babies.  This was the first time I'd ever seen her trying to put a diaper on her baby though.  She was so determined to make it work and she had a really good idea of what she was suppose to do!

Saturday 2/4
Scoot insisted on wearing her coat and shoes over her jammies while we were playing and waiting for breakfast to cook. 

 Aaron also decided to clean out his closet.  It has to get worse before it gets better right?  That's always my cleaning philosophy!

Sunday 2/5
Scoot and Little B were not interested in the Super Bowl at all.  But they loved playing together!

35 weeks with Baby Roo

Toddler All-Nighter

My sweet daughter pulled her very first all-nighter last night.  On one hand I'm thankful that we made it to 19 months with this being the first time I've seen every single hour on the clock.  On the other hand, last night was a challenge!

She sat on the couch with me either talking or bouncing for hours on end.  She was in a perfectly lovely mood.  And if it had been daylight I would have been perfectly excited that she wanted to spend so much cuddle time with me.  Scoot is not sick, she did not take an extraordinarily long nap, she got plenty of activity yesterday.  I was sitting there some time around 3 AM trying to rack my brain to figure out why she was awake....

...wait...

Do you think it had anything to do with the medium sweet tea from Chick-fil-A she drank at 7:30?!?!

Umm, probably.  Parenting fail!  It was all my fault that she and I were awake all night!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
It is not a regular practice around our house for Scoot to drink sweet tea no matter what time it is.  Aaron's mom was admitted to the hospital yesterday for some heart issues and we went to visit her last night.  Our visit lasted a little longer than expected and by 7:30 we were very very late for dinner and Scoot's bedtime had come and gone.  Aaron's dad got back to the hospital with his mom's essentials and a sweet tea for all the grown ups. Scoot started sip-stealing from everyone and by the time her thirst was quenched, we're pretty sure she had had almost a whole cup to herself.  We left not long after that and went home to eat and get sweet girl in the bed.  After she ate she went right to bed (only 2 hours late! AHH!)  so we thought we were in the clear with the tea.  A short 3 hours later and Scoot was up from midnight - 5AM. 

The moral of the story - No more sweet tea for our sleepy tot!

Project Life 2012 - Week 4

First, I celebrated this weekend because I finally finished my 2011 album!  It's done!  I put all the supplies away that specifically go with that kit.  I filled in any spaces that were empty.  I'm DONE journaling.  It feels like the year is finally complete!  And it only took a month into the new year! HA! Even though there isn't a picture for EVERY single day (I'm missing about 50) this is the first project life that I consider complete.  2010 has the pictures in the album, but I only did about the first 8 months of journaling ... and there are a lot more than 50 missing pictures!

On a related note... my inspiration and determination for this year are stronger than ever!  It will be a LOT easier to just keep up with it every week than to go back and fill in 5 months at the end of the year!  It will be a lot easier to just take a picture every day than to go through and cut coordinating card stock into 4x6 and 3x4 cards to fill in blank spots!

Since I was doing about 5 months worth of journaling for my 2011 album I've got a question.  When I'm writing the cards I found I was using "I" a lot.  I think it will be pretty obvious that I was the one putting the album together, but should I be using my name/mommy in the journaling instead of "I"? 

...also in my journaling, I noticed that I use an awful lot of  exclamation marks!! :)

Last comment before we get on with the pictures.  I would love to have my pages done and pictures of the layouts for Project Life Tuesday, but I don't get my pictures printed that fast.  I usually print several weeks to a months worth of pictures at a time so that I don't have to pay shipping on 7-12 pictures every week.  So even though I want to share my completed layouts, this is what works for me.  This is what gets my pictures and words documented every week so that hopefully I don't get behind this year!

Now, the good stuff for this week...

Monday 1/23

Scoot was playing in the kitchen cabinet while I got her more juice and pulled a glass jar down on her little tiny pinky toe.  That was the worst I've ever seen her in pain and it broke my heart that I couldn't make it better with a kiss.  

Tuesday 1/24
Baby Roo is a surprise but I wanted to make him/her an appropriately colored blanket.  So I made two.  And a nice neutral yellow one.  Scoot has a pink one and her special blanket is white.  The yellow one is made exactly like Scoot's special white blanket so we'll see if Roo likes it as much as Scoot. 

Wednesday 1/25
I made Scoot a strawberry smoothie to go with her cereal and banana breakfast.  She sucked down that cup full of smoothie before I could even get to the table to eat my own breakfast.  I'd say she liked it!

Thursday 1/26
It was a beautiful day today so we played outside for most of the afternoon.  Scoot is taking a break after wearing herself out playing a game that involved going up one side of the porch and down the other - repeat 358271638591 times. 

Friday 1/27
Scoot and Daddy sit on the couch and read the paper together. As long as he gets to read the sports section first, Daddy doesn't mind what part Scoot reads and/or tears up. :)

Saturday 1/28
The inside of the laundry basket became Scoot's little cave to hide in.  She laid with her blanket, read a book, talked to her baby, talked on the phone, and even watched some TV from inside.  It's the simple things!

Sunday 1/29
We took Lollie and Pop out to dinner for Lollie's birthday.  Scoot was a really good girl the whole time and loved sitting with Pop after we all finished eating.  She even taught him to play the trumpet on a straw, which both of them thought was hilarious!

34 weeks with Baby Roo