I'm still here!

Pete has been reminding me lately that I haven't blogged in awhile, to which I reminded him that I was only going to blog when I had something interesting to blog about. So, what cool, hip and exciting things have we been up to? Not a darn thing! But it has been just over a week since my last entry so I thought it was due time.

Update on the kiddos: Addison is fantastic. He cracks us up everyday with the words and phrases that come out of his mouth. I should keep a notepad handy just so I can jot them down whenever he spouts them out. I could fill another blog with those! I have begun the process of looking at preschools as he will be 3 in June. Everytime I type it out it still amazes me. I can't believe he is going to be 3 already! And starting preschool?!? YIKES! How can I make him stop growing up?!

The latest issue we are working on with him is yelling and patience. How the heck do you teach a 2 year old patience? He wants what he wants when he wants. He also doesn't quite get the concept of time. He thinks that when he wakes up from his nap in the afternoon that it is the next day and it's time to have breakfast at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Hey, can't blame the kid for trying. Breakfast is great anytime of the day!

Amarah has been a bundle of fun lately...or not! She's been such a grouch potato and I started to think that maybe she was teething so I felt around her mouth...nothing. She does seem to be drooling alot more as of late, either that, or she has become rabid. I don't know. She will be 4 months in a week. We are going to start the sleep training by the end of next week. She sleeps so well when she is swaddled but then absolutely hates being in it. I don't recall at what age we started sleep training with Addison. He did so well with it. Can we get just as lucky the 2nd time around? Hmm...what else? Amarah still hates tummy time. I'm sure she thinks it's mommy's form of torture, or at least that's what she acts like.

Not much else is new. My parents are coming up tomorrow to visit for the weekend. Looking forward to that. They were supposed to come up last weekend but the beautiful Chicago weather put a stop to it. Well, that's all for now. Gotta go enjoy the wonderful silence that is naptime!

My Morning

I would like to share with you a short play that I wrote titled, My Morning:

The scene opens to a couple sleeping soundly in there nice, warm bed. The alarm clock on the dresser reads 6:15am. Suddenly the couple is awakened from their slumber by the rattle of a bedroom door. They both realize that their young son has opened his door and is ready to begin the day. The father tosses off the covers and slowly walks to his young son's room. The following conversation takes place:

Father: Buddy, it's not time to get up yet. The sun is not up yet. It's 6:15 in the morning. It's still dark outside.

Son: Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

Father: Time to get back in bed bud.

Son: Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

The father places the young son back in bed and pulls the covers over him.

Father: Close your eyes buddy and try to go back to sleep.

Son: Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!

The father comes back to the bedroom and trudges into the bathroom to shower and get ready for work. The sound of silence can be heard from the young son's room. The mother rolls over, pulls the covers up to her neck, closes her eyes and listens to the sound of the shower running.

Cue baby girl

Baby girl: WAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!

End Scene

Sleep Deprived

When Addison was born, he was a very unhappy and difficult child for the first 3 months. If he wasn't constantly in motion, being walked around and around and around, he was not a happy camper. The swing didn't work. The bouncy seat didn't work. Car rides didn't work. If he was awake, he was fussing. He was what we labeled our "high needs" child. The only consolation we had was that he slept through the night almost immediately after being born.

Once I became pregnant with Amarah, we both hoped and prayed that we would not have another "high needs" child for the first 3 months. We figured there would be a trade off. Addison was fussy during the day, but slept through the night. There's the trade off.

So what would the trade off be with Amarah? Well, I think we have officially figured that out. She is a pretty laidback, easygoing baby during the day who rarely fusses. She likes her bouncy seat. She likes her swing. However, she does not sleep through the night.

She had been doing okay. We got the Miracle Blanket and started using it right away and that seemed to help. There was a period of time where she would sleep from 7:30pm to 6:30am and this seemed to be the norm for her. I thanked my lucky stars and went on my merry way.

Right near the 3 month mark, she started waking up in the middle of the night. And what made it worse was that it was never at a consistent time. It could be 12:30, 3:00, 4:15, but never the same time.

I figured she had reached the 3 month growth spurt so I attributed her night wakings to that. She seemed to settle back into a more predictable pattern a few days later. Within the past few days, she has started waking in the middle of the night again. What the heck?!?

Now in all fairness to Amarah, she does currently have a cold and is really congested so I am crossing my fingers and toes and eyes that this too shall pass once she is better. If not, then we will have to come up with a new plan of attack.

Zzzzzz.....

Comments

Okay, so I was having a minor glitch with my comments section. If you tried posting a comment, you know what I'm talking about. It appears that I have this issue resolved, so for the 2 of you that actually read this blog, feel free to post away!

My love/hate relationship with breastfeeding

Let's get the negatives out of the way first:

1. I hate that I am the only one that can feed her. (I realize that I can pump but what's the point when I'm right there anyways.)
2. I hate pumping. There is nothing more unattractive than using a breastpump and feeling like a dairy cow.
3. I hate how long it takes to breastfeed. Don't get me started on roadtrips!
4. I hate the first 6-8 weeks.
5. I hate the breastfeeding Nazis that make you feel like a failure because you gave up or didn't even try at all. Why should it matter? As long as the baby is fed is the most important thing, right?
6. I hate having to NIP (nurse in public). Sorry, I'm just not comfortable enough to whip one out and start feeding my baby. If you can, more power to you!
7. I hate that I can only be gone by myself for a few hours at a time. Yeah, the pumping thing again. I know!
8. I hate nursing bras and nursing pads and all the other junk that goes along with breastfeeding.
9. I hate waking up with a wet shirt and a soaked bed.
10. I hate trying to breastfeed and take care of a toddler at the same time.

And now for the positives:
1. I love that I am the only one that can feed her. (I know...HYPOCRITE!)
2. I love that I am giving her the best.
3. I love that she is growing and gaining weight all because of me.
4. I love when she looks up at me and smiles.
5. I love how excited she gets when she sees me first thing in the morning because she knows it's chow time!
6. I love when she wraps her hand around my finger when she is nursing.
7. I love that I get to be lazy sometimes because I'm feeding the baby. (Yeh, I'll admit it!)
8. I love that I still get to eat extra calories because I am breastfeeding.
9. I love that breastfeeding has helped me shed weight. (Still have a long way to go!)
10. I love that I've stuck with it this long.

I exclusively breastfed Addison for a month. No, actually, I think it was less than a month. He just never seemed satisfied after nursing and I was becoming more and more frustrated with breastfeeding and not enjoying any part of it. We started supplementing with formula. When he hit the 3 month mark, I went back to work and he went to daycare. Gradually, the number of bottles with formula started to outweigh the number of bottles with breastmilk until he was switched completely over to formula by 6 months.

Do I regret that decision? Not one bit! He is currently a very happy and healthy 2 year old and still has that insatiable appetite. However, once I quit nursing him completely, I did find that I missed that one on one time with him.

So, when I became pregnant with Amarah, I decided that I wanted to breastfeed her as well. The first 6-8 weeks were rough. I'm not going to lie. Breastfeeding is a learned process. I don't believe those people that say it just comes naturally.

Part of me thinks it's going alot better this time around because I educated myself more on the topic. Part of me thinks it's because I'm staying at home now. Whatever the case, 3 months, 1 week and 1 day and still going strong! Go me!

Happy Wednesday!

Yuck! It's such a blah, rainy day out today, but I guess I should look on the bright side. It's raining rather than snowing.

We had a rough night last night. Addison got up twice in the middle of the night. The first time Pete heard him, I didn't, and got him back to bed. The second time I heard him, Pete didn't, and I got him back to bed. He's so funny. I heard his door open. Don't recall what time it was. I go to his room and he's just standing there in his doorway. As soon as he sees me, he turns around, heads back to his bed and climbs right in. Maybe he was sleepwalking, I don't know.

Then Amarah decides she's going to fuss all night. Not to the point of me actually having to get out of bed and check on her but just enough to keep me awake. You know that feeling. You're laying there nice and cozy and you start hearing this little whimper coming from the monitor. You start silently chanting in your head "please go back to sleep! please go back to sleep!" in the hopes that the Gods of sleep will hear your plea and grant you a few more hours of shut-eye just this once. All hail the Gods of sleep!

So Addison finally got up for good at 6:15 this morning. UH! And Amarah followed shortly thereafter. Now it is officially naptime! The time of day that parents look forward to the most. Ok, maybe second to bedtime. I'm sitting here salivating as I smell the freshly baked strawberry cupcakes that I just took out of the oven. I'm delivering a meal tonight to one of the moms in my mom's group that just had a baby. Mmm...chicken tortilla soup and strawberry cupcakes. Good thing I made double!

Did I mention I hate winter?

So it's an absolutely gorgeous day out today. In fact, the high today is supposed to be a lovely 64 degrees. Not too shabby for February 10th! However, Addison and I have both come down with colds so once again we will be stuck inside. It must have been from all the traveling this weekend and the fact that we don't go out too often. Addison's nose started running on Sunday and I woke up yesterday with a sore throat and stuffy nose. Oh joy!

Addison has a wonderful way of letting me know that he needs his nose wiped. I was at the kitchen sink this morning washing up our dishes from breakfast when I hear what sounds like Addison spitting. I go into the living room to check on him and he's sitting there playing with his toys while snot is dripping from his nose down to his upper lip and he was trying to "blow" it away, thus the spitting sound that I heard. So now anytime I hear this wonderful sound, I know it's time to grab a kleenex!

Hopefully Pete and Amarah will be spared.

Just another manic Monday...

I got that song stuck in your head now, didn't I? You're going to be singing it all day long and then you will stop yourself and curse me for doing that to you. Sorry! :P

We are back home this wonderfully blah and rainy Monday. We had been in the Quad Cities (or the QC) since Thursday. I mentioned in my first post that Pete is a personal injury attorney. He travels alot because of his job and on occasion, he has to stay overnight somewhere, which was the case this past weekend. He had a court appearance Friday morning in Monmouth, which is about 45 minutes from the QC, and then he had to travel back to the QC for a boat inspection at a salvage yard. Yeah, good times!

We decided to tag along and spend Thursday and Friday in the Ramada Bettendorf/Davenport. It was a decent hotel with a wonderful swimming area catered towards families with young children. I decided upon that hotel after consulting with Trip Advisor. If you have never been to this website before, I highly recommend checking it out when you are planning your next vacation or just an overnight hotel stay. Love, love, LOVE it!

We had a wonderful time in the QC. The kids and I were able to meet Auntie Gwen for lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings (another one of my many loves) and visit her office afterwards. We had a nice little post-birthday party for Mimi N. at the hotel and the grandkids thoroughly enjoyed swimming with the grandparents. Here, see for yourself!

Addison, Mimi N, Papa N and Laney














Amarah taking her first dip



















He hates getting his face wet so I'm really surprised he did this.



















Man, there is nothing like swimming to help the kids sleep like rocks!

The next day the guys went off and did what guys do when they have guy time: Cheerleading Competition! Okay, I should mention that my father-in-law is a high school principal and his school's cheer team made it to the state finals in Bloomington and the guys headed over there Saturday morning to watch them perform and take 6th place! Congrats to them!

Here are the guys getting ready to leave.















So what did the girls do while the guys were away? Why, shop of course! What else is there for us to do?

So that was our weekend. We made it back in time last night to watch the Grammy's. So now it's just another Monday for us and back to watching my soaps and eating bon-bons. AHHH...the life!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Just wanted to pass along birthday greetings to my dad! Sorry we can't be there to help you celebrate but we are thinking of you and hoping that you have a wonderful birthday! Love you! See you soon!

One baby burrito comin' right up!

So the majority of my posts will most likely be about Addison or whatever crazy thoughts are running through my mind at the time. Sorry Amarah! You just don't do a whole lot right now. However, I thought I would take this post to introduce everyone to our best friend, The Miracle Blanket. We discovered this marvelous contraption when Addison was a couple months old. Being the difficult baby that he was (that's another post), we were looking for anything to help him sleep better at night. Laying him down in his crib when he was completely asleep without waking him was something we referred to as the Olympic dismount.


Fast forward 2 1/2 years and we decided this little lifesaver was worth shelling out the $30 again to have for Amarah, seeing as how we misplaced our last one not to mention it was blue and I can't swaddle my baby girl in blue! That's unheard of!


Once again, this fancy schmancy piece of fabric has blessed us with many hours of uninterrupted sleep at night. Unfortunately, baby Houdini has now figured out how to free herself from the straight jacket, but we will press on and continue to use it until she either outgrows the darn thing (which is getting pretty darn close) or she learns how to fall asleep without startling herself awake every 15 minutes. Tried it last night, didn't happen!


Here's our little burrito!



I think she has a future as a member of KISS!

Coming to a store near you: Mr. Couch Potato Head!

Okay, I swore up and down that I would never be the kind of parent that would allow my children to watch large amounts of television or use the television as a babysitting tool. I hate to admit it but I have become that parent and I'm not happy about it.

It all started when I was close to the end of my pregnancy with Amarah and had little to no energy whatsoever. I began to use the television as a way to pass the time throughout the day. Prior to this, Addison would only get an hour of television right before naptime as a way to help him wind down before his nap. Once Amarah was born, I found myself still relying on the boob tube to help keep Addison entertained so I could focus on taking care of a newborn. You see, Addison is very much an in-your-face kind of child. If I am sitting down somewhere, he has to be either sitting, standing, jumping, etc. right next to me or right on top of me. This can be very difficult when you're trying to nurse a baby. Unfortunately, I have resorted to using the television to distract him so that he's not always up in my business.

As part of my new year's resolution, I said I wanted Addison to watch less television. We are doing better but not great. Pete says I shouldn't feel bad. It's only a few months. We just have to get through winter and then I will be able to take him outside and to the park. I cannot wait! I think we are both going crazy being cooped up inside all the time. He is so full of energy and such an active little guy that we have a hard time finding an outlet for all of his energy. Pete has been wonderful about taking him out places on the weekend. It's their guy time.

I would love to be able to take Addison and Amarah out somewhere, like the play area at the mall, but this nightmare keeps playing over and over again in my head. I'm sitting in the play area watching Addison play when Amarah decides it's time to eat. As I'm nursing Amarah, Addison decides he wants to venture out of the play area into the mall and does not listen to my threats to come back to the play area. So there I am, chasing a toddler through the mall with a baby attached to my boob! I know! I know! I am just being paranoid. I should just suck it up and do it already! Maybe I will....someday!

But for now, I will try to limit the amount of television Addison watches. He honestly does just fine without it. He doesn't need it. It has just become a habit out of convenience and I am the only one to blame for that. How many days until spring?

C'mon ride the train!

Okay, so I've officially jumped on the Blog Bandwagon. Yea, I know! I just thought it would be a nice way for our families and friends to keep up with what was going on in our life. Now please bear with me, this is very much a work in progress. I will try to update and post pics as often as I can or as often as I have something interesting to blog about. These days, that's pretty few and far between!

We are all doing well! Pete is keeping busy with work. (He's a personal injury attorney for those that don't know exactly what he does.) He is doing awesome with his new year's resolution and has already lost a ton of weight. He is training for a half marathon in March and had his first run outside the other day. Crazy!

The kids are fabulous! Addison will be 3 in June. WOW! My baby boy is really growing up! The kid talks non-stop from the moment he wakes up until the moment he falls asleep at night. He is constantly doing the play-by-play of the day and his favorite question to ask as of late is "What are ya gonna do afta dat?" I think he has a future as a sportscaster. Amarah will be 3 months in just 2 days and she is all smiles. She is becoming more vocal and loves to look at you and carry on a conversation. We are still working on tummy time. She absolutely hates it but we do our best. Addison adores his baby sister and tells us throughout the day "I love my sister." I think the adoration goes both ways. Whenever Addison is in eyesight, Amarah can't stop looking at her big brother.

I'm doing wonderful and feeling just as great. I also embarked on a new year's resolution to lose 30 pounds by Amarah's 1st birthday. So far, the official tally is 12.5 pounds lost. I can now wear the clothes I wore before I was pregnant with Amarah. How am I doing it, you ask? Just by walking on the treadmill and keeping a food journal. My ultimate goal is to get down to the weight that is listed on my driver's license. Yikes! Aside from the weight loss, I've been quite the homebody lately. I absolutely loathe winter! Why did I let Pete talk me into moving up here? We (meaning the kids and I) rarely go out. I hate getting bundled up and taking the kids out in this cold, especially with Amarah being so little and all the sickness that is going around so we tend to stay at home.

Well, that's it for now! The little monkey man just woke up from his nap so I can't type anymore.