Laundry and Children

My Little Exorcist Baby

Teddy does this weird growling thing.  As soon as he starts, the big kids join in.  It is like living in a monster convention.

A Stinky Butt and Only One Diaper Left In the House

I order my diapers from Amazon.  They are the cheapest I have found, they don't charge for shipping and they ship them to me on a regular schedule.  Well, I got the e-mail earlier in the week that our order had been processed and we got Jack's diapers yesterday, so I was reluctant to buy any more for Teddy.

Well, today we were down to our last diaper and Teddy was smelling a little stinky.  On my way up to change him I check the porch for deliveries and, wonder of wonders, there was the box of diapers.

Only one diaper in the house...now that is what I call living on the edge.

HE IS ASLEEP IN HIS CRIB

TEDDY IS ASLEEP IN HIS CRIB!!!!!

He even woke up a little and was able to settle himself back down.  Wonder of wonder!  Miracle of miracles!

In other news...

Nicholas, ever serious about his eating, has grown a second row of teeth...like a shark.  Actually, it is just that his adult teeth are coming in before his baby teeth have fallen out.  So on Wednesday, if the teeth haven't fallen out, we are off to the dentist.  Wish me luck!

We Have Had A Break Through

I think that we have had a break through on the Teddy front.  I have regaled you with tales of Teddy's two hour long crying bouts, which are only brought to an end by my holding him.  Well, as much as I would like to say that it was Mama-love that he craved, apparently it was more like Mama-warmth that he wanted.

For Christmas, Marty bought a truck load of fire wood for me.  I love a good fire and apparently the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.  Yesterday, I turned Teddy's swing towards the fireplace and the child was happy as a lark all afternoon.  As long he was near the warmth of the fire, he was a happy, non-crying baby. I wrote an entire quarter's worth of Nicholas' curriculum yesterday.  Sure he cried some, but it was just when he was hungry, so I got so much work done.

I think this is why we are having so many problems at night.  When Teddy is in the bed with us, warm and snuggly, he sleeps great, but in the crib with no blanket, he is cold and unhappy.  So now what to do?

According to the experts, you can't put a baby in a crib with a blanket until they are about 2 years old.  Also, you aren't supposed to let them get too warm when they sleep because it is a risk factor for SIDS.  So what is a Mama to do?

Until it either warms up or we find another solution, I think we will keep the kid with us.  He is definitely his Mama's baby.  I am wearing my winter pull-over as I write this and no, my computer is not outside.  I just hate, hate, hate to be cold.

Silent Night?

Teddy is almost 6 months old and still not sleeping through the night.  So Marty and I decided that the kid needs to learn a little self soothing and we have started letting him work out his sleep issues on his own versus "the wake up about 3 times a night, bite Mommy and make everyone cry" method we have been using up until now.  Unfortunately, Teddy has chosen the "cry for 2 hours straight, fall asleep for two hours, cry for another 2 hours straight, then sleep two hours, and on like this all night" method.

Last night, I fed him him bananas and rice cereal, changed his diaper, nursed him, saw that he was getting drowsy and put him in his cradle.  At first he dosed off to sleep and I declared myself Super Mom.  Then 5 minutes later, as I was falling off my pedestal, Teddy started to scream and cry.  That was at about 9:15 PM.  At 11 o'clock, when Marty came to bed, Teddy was still at it.  Around 11:30 he finally fell asleep, but at 2 AM, he was up for round two.  At about 4 he fell asleep again, but at 5:50 he was up again.  This time, I figured that it was technically morning, so I got up too.

Of course, as soon as I nursed him, he promptly passed out and has been sleeping soundly for the last half hour.  However, at this point, I know that as soon as I put my head down on the pillow, the other three children will wake up.  It is like they have a sixth sense.

Why we decided to make this change over a very busy weekend still escapes me.  Nonetheless, this whole process (this was night two) is really tearing me up.  No mother likes to hear her baby cry, but I am worried that if I give in and pick him up I will just be teaching him that long bouts of crying eventually get you what you want.  Plus, he does need to learn how to put himself to sleep without using me as the human pacifier.

As any good mother of the technology age, I consulted Dr. Google where I found even more to make me feel guilty.  There were tons of people saying it was just cruel to let a baby cry it out and that as a mother it is my duty to wake up with my child at night even if this behavior goes on until they are 2 or 3 years old.  There were also tons of people saying that learning to self sooth is a growth milestone and just like my baby would never learn to crawl if I carried him everywhere, he will never learn to comfort himself if I didn't let him do it.  Add on to all this the fact that my number one, go to baby book says to let the baby cry, even if it is the most difficult 20 to 30 minutes of night.  Great!  What do I do for the other 2 hours?

Add on to these nocturnal crying jags the fact that I have my parents visiting for Christmas, I am making a huge Christmas meal tonight for which I have been cooking literally for days and I have a cold for which I don't know if I am allowed to take any decongestant because I am nursing and you have one worn out mama.

If you have any advice, I would love to hear it.  After two nights of this process, I am just plain exhausted.

I Have a Baby Who Cries

Whenever people see Teddy, they comment on what a happy baby he is.  Some even go so far as to ask if he ever cries.  The answer is a resounding yes.

Teddy loves to be held.  He will sleep, eat, laugh, and smile as long as someone is holding him, but put him down and it is a completely different story.  This kid can cry and cry and cry and then just cry some more.  Literally, he can cry for hours with only brief intervals of silence when I give in a pick him up.  As his mother, it is quite exhausting.

However, what am I to do?  As much as I would love to spend my days curled up on in the bed with my wonderful little boy, I have 3 other children, a husband and a house all of which demand quite a bit of my attention as well.

I will feed him, change him, place him within mere feet (or in some cases inches of me), but none of it is good enough unless I have stopped what I am doing and am actually holding him.  I feel guilty as all get out, but I just can not meet his need to be held every second of the day.

Can you tell from this post that it has been a particularly loud day at my house filled with the sounds of Thomas movies and babies crying?  That's my life in a nut shell.

Teething Teething Everywhere

OK so when I found out I was pregnant with Teddy everyone told me how great it would be to have little stair step children and that 2 years between them was practically perfect spacing.  What they neglected to tell me was that having the boys two years apart would line me up for a teething 5 month old and a two year old cutting a new set of molars.

I think the boys are taking turns crying, but sometime it is just so hard to wait for your turn and they decide to cry in two part harmony.  It is really quite awful.

Add on top of this that the teething has just put Jack in a foul mood and a two year old in a foul mood is a force of nature.  Cups have been flying.  The floor is regularly kicked and hit by the toddler sprawled out on it.  "No" is becoming the new black in our house.

Here's the kicker.  I didn't recognize what was happening with Jack until last night.  HELLO!!!  Fingers in the mouth.  Crabby.  A rekindled romance with his pacifier.  The signs were all there.

Anyway, we will soldier on.  As of yet, Rachel's Christmas tree is still the only decoration up.  While that my be Marty's dream Christmas (he is not in to decorating the house), I am determined that there will be some Christmas cheer decking our halls by the end of the day today.  What else is there to do when you are awaiting the Storm Of the Century of the Week (at least that is what we here in the South call 1 to 3 inches.  Quick lets go buy 8 loaves of bread and 6 gallons of milk before the first flurries arrive and we are forced to eat the children.)

Take Me Out to the ... Meeting

Today we took Teddy out to his first baseball game.  Our team won and a it was great, and I do mean great, to have and afternoon off.  However, if you run in to my children, Marty and I took Teddy to a meeting.  After the date night fiasco, we were not taking any chances that the kids might think we were out doing something fun and create a situation that demanded we come home.  Baseball games are fun, meetings are not.

Yes, I admit, I lied to my children.  Does that make me a horrible mother?  Perhaps, but don't get on your high horses and tell me that you would never lie to your children.  We all do it.  Who brings the gifts on Christmas?  And the chocolate eggs on Easter?  How about the money that is left in place of a tooth?  Yes we all do it, but those things are different you say.  Those are the things that make childhood special.  Guess what a happy mother also makes childhood special.

For example, Rachel and I are starting a new week's worth of spelling words.  This is not a fun time in the spelling word process because she doesn't know how to spell most of the words.  Without a break, the fact that she is making scribbles that don't even resemble letters would normally send me over the edge, but not tonight.  Tonight I have patience.  Tonight I am relaxed, because I got a break.

Soon the kids will have to learn that sometimes Mommies and Daddies go out and do fun things without the children.  This is a fact of life, but it is also a discussion that will be had at a time in which we can talk things out and not just before we walk out the door.  So yes, I lied to my children today and I don't feel bad about it, at least not much.

***Update: Rachel caught me putting up this post and asked when I took the pictures.  I told her that they were from the meeting.  She said, "That doesn't look like a meeting.  That looks like a baseball game."  Then she went back to doing her spelling words. 

Also, in case you were wondering, right after that last picture was taken, I stopped the bird from eating my baby.

Teddy

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

There are days...

when I am jealous of this gal.  She must have had a kid who nursed as much as my Teddy. 

The kid eats all the time.  Case in point.  While I got my hair cut today, I nursed Teddy under the cape.  Now that is multi-tasking.  I wouldn't have minded if he weren't hungry again after sleeping in the car for the 20 minutes it took to get home.

He nurses while I'm on the computer, while I'm talking on the phone, while I'm walking around the house and while I'm sleeping.  I haven't had personal space for almost 2 months.  Who am I kidding?  I haven't had personal space in almost three years.  But I digress.

At least it's an easier way to burn calories than doing my aerobic videos.  I better not say that too loud or Teddy will think I can do that while nursing him too.