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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

When it rains....

it usually pours. Especially when its a day in the life of a mom. Am I right ladies?

It was early one Tuesday morning, I was off from work that day and looking forward to sleeping in an extra hour or so. Next thing I know, I went from dreaming about breastfeeding in a mall in Ohio(I live in PA and wasn't nursing at this point) where people were staring at me cause I had lost my pants..... to my husband flying through the air, landing on top of me with the hot coffee he had in his hand spilling all over my head and pillow. He starts moaning and whining about how he tripped over the bed because he was running to the bathroom and here I am, awoken from my slumber to 200 lbs and hot coffee all over me. You know when a day starts like that its just gonna go downhill from there.

Fast forward to bumping my head two times while trying to get Lily in her car seat. I had to run an errand. I had gotten the boys off to school and needed things at Wal Mart (which I now try to boycott, btw). I ended up standing in line at the pharmacy for 25 minutes with a whining toddler and the elderly lady behind me telling me her life story and giving me 'tips' on how to raise well behaved children. For 25 minutes!!!! Yeah, thanks lady. As I got closer to the front of the line Lily let one explode in her diaper! It was loud and it was smelly and it was my fault because I gave her a big sippy of apple juice in the car. The smell was flooding the air and I was getting looks from the innocent bystanders in line with me. Was I going to get out of the 25 minute line to change my kid? HELL NO! Suck it up people, its just baby poop!!

I decided after all that I couldn't take any more and I would just call it a day and Lily and I would chill at home with daddy. I came home to a sick daddy and a call from the school nurse that my oldest was vomiting and to please come pick him up. So much for relaxing. I spent the rest of my day on vomit and poo patrol.

Finally, dinner was over (for those of us not vomiting anyway) and it was time for bed. My feet ached along with my neck. A nice long hot bubble bath was calling me. But, so were the boys so that I could read them a story. As I was reading, with Lily in my lap and sitting on my sons bed, all three children fell to sleep. It was perfect and peaceful and had never happened before. Watching them sleep I realized right where I was, was better than any hot bubble bath. I can have a crappy day, it can rain and pour on me all day but my children will brighten everything just being them. I wouldn't trade the job of being a mom for anything in the world.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Results of The 3 Night Sleep Challenge

So, if any of you moms or dads out there need to get your child to sleep, you can hire me! I should seriously market myself! It went great. I do have to admit though, that its gonna take more than 3 nights to get it consistent.

Night one, as I posted before, Lily woke up a couple times and I only gave her water once and she fussed herself back to sleep.

Night two, she slept through.

Night three, she woke up a few times and I just let her go and she was able to fuss herself back to sleep.

Last night, night four, she woke up around 1 am screaming an awful scream. This wasn't her usual cry, it was her I'm VERY hungry cry. She didn't eat well yesterday so I did give her milk, just about 4 oz. I didn't even use the Ferber method because I knew it wasn't a normal, fussy, sleepy cry.

So, moving to one nap a day has definitely worked. I need to make sure she has a full belly and keep up with our new bed time routine; bath, Elmo video, then bed. Working like a charm so far.

Now if I could only get Rob's ass in gear to finish her room so we can have ours back!

Saturday, January 16, 2010

The 3 Night Sleep Challenge

It has begun. The 3 nights that will hopefully change the way Rob and I sleep. Oh yeah, and Lily too, of course. She is the one who rules the roost around here. Or as the boys say, "she's the boss"!
Lily is a horrible sleeper. I blame it on Rob. She falls asleep great but she just can not stay asleep. Since I was working, Rob would get up with her at night (when I first went back to work she was sleeping through the night steadily). Once she started waking again around 13 to 14 months old, he would just give her a big ol' bottle of milk and tuck her back in. She became used to this and now its a nightly battle. Its to the point now she just wants human contact at night and not even a bottle. She wants to rock, play, be held.
I am laid off so this past week of getting up with her at night has been unreal. I feel like I have a newborn again. I even found myself rocking her for 45 mins. one night until she fell back asleep. So, this morning after a very long night that included arguing with my husband in the middle of the night about why she is not sleeping and how to get her to sleep, I decided enough is enough. Thus, the 3 night sleep challenge was born. I am very positive that I can train her to sleep through the night again in 3 nights.
This is night one and she went to bed at 7 30pm. She woke at 10 30pm crying a fussy cry. I am doing a Ferber type method so I waited 5 minutes and went in and filled her bottle with water (no more milk in the middle of the night). I didn't pick her up and she was mad about that. She let me hear it for about 5 more minutes. It seems she has settled back in with her bottle of water. Looks like it's gonna be a long night.... to be continued..... sleep tight everyone.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Since when is non-mainstream the norm?

Since Jenny McCarthy started hitting the airwaves with her fake boobs and fake knowledge of vaccines and autism? Since the computer gave crunchy moms a screen to hide behind while they make regular every-day moms feel like crap for wanting to bottle feed or use a swing? Since it became trendy to be crunchy?

With my first son I was worried about getting disapproving looks for breastfeeding in public. With my daughters birth in 2008 I found myself laying on a hospital gurney waiting to get my tubes tied and the lady laying next to me felt it was important to lecture me on the importance of breastfeeding and how mothers today just don't care when they pick up that bottle of poison (formula). Yes, this really did happen.... I also got asked if I will be pumping when I went back to work. Along with many other crazy very personal questions about my breast milk and whether or not I had drugs during my labor.

Im all for saving the earth, but since when is it better not to use shampoo?! Yes, you heard that right. That's the newest thing Ive heard anyway. Not using shampoo because of the chemicals in it. I'm sorry but if I have to smell your stank when I'm sitting next to you at my sons school play I'm gonna be pissed.

Mainstream moms lets turn this around! Lets make mainstream OK again. Lets make it popular again. Lets get the word out that it's OK to formula feed when you just cant take one more second of your baby screaming because they cant latch right. That it's OK to put your baby in the swing so you can get 20 minutes to yourself. That it's OK and healthy to circumcise your boys! That it's very very OK and it will save your child's life if you vaccinate them. AND.... Please, please, please, for heavens sake, friends don't let friends NOT use shampoo ;-)

Monday, January 11, 2010

What I am most passionate about....

In my opinion as a mom of three and having training and worked as a medical assistant, vaccinating is the single most important thing you can do for your child. Vaccinating does not cause autism, vaccines save lives. Yes, as with any medicine there are risks and side-effects that can affect a small number of children. However, the chance of your child getting the disease is much greater than them getting a reaction. Personally I'd rather my child get a fever or a rash than measles, HIB, or Polio.

(As for the flu shot... if you get the shot, it is a dead virus. Any illness you get after receiving the shot is pure coincidence. It is impossible to get sick from the shot.)

It has been proven by scientists and doctors that that vaccines do not cause autism. I don't need to list links here you can google "vaccines save lives" and you can even find pro-vaccine pages on Facebook. Actually the Pro-vaccine page on Facebook is my favorite. They have links to lots of great research proving that vaccines save lives and do not cause autism and other things. Check it out.

I have had a personal experience I'd like to share with you. When I was 2 years old I came down with Epiglottitis. Upon doing research when I was going to school to be a medical assistant I found that Epiglottitis is caused by HIB (haemophilus influenzae type B), but at that time in 1982 a vaccine for HIB was not available like it is for our children today. I had to be rushed to the hospital because my throat closed up and I could not breathe. I had to have an emergency Tracheotomy. The antibiotics I had to be on were so strong and one of the side effects of them were that they cause weakness in teeth. When I was 6 I had to have 8 teeth pulled at once. I have bad teeth to this day. Not to mention the scar on my neck as well from the trach. Not to mention thinking about what my parents went through. I cant imagine the horror.

The debate on vaccines makes absolutely no sense to me and it never will. If there is something simple you can do to save you child's life and keep them from getting a horrible disease, why would you not do that?