The title doesn’t have much to do with this post, other than the fact that Emily had her 4-month “shots” today. Hence I got the word “shot” in my head, and the natural progression is to sing Shot Through The Heart by good ‘ole Bon Jovi. I dare you to not sing it for the rest of the day.
First, an update on yesterday. I did what we normally do on days like those. The boys no longer nap, and wouldn’t lay down for a nap no matter what I promised them. Even chocolate wouldn’t do it. Thus, I took them grocery shopping so that the following would happen on the way home:
A little nap goes a loooooong way. For both my sanity and their, um, lifespan.
As I said above, today was time for Emily to get stabbed in the leg with those big long needles. It went MUCH better than last time. I really don’t believe it could have been any worse.
There were only (Only! Ha!) three shots this time. She did cry a bit, but would pop her thumb in while I rocked her and it was much less traumatic this time around. For both of us. Praise God for thumbs!
She’s 26 inches long and weighs in at sixteen pounds. She is a big girl, that’s for sure. She will be towering over me before I know it.
One of the volunteers in the hallway was all sweet and talking to her and then said to her, “I thought you were a boy, but I guess not, since you’re wearing pink.”
PARDON ME? Does this look like a boy to you?
Hardly. Give your head a shake, woman.
And while the health nurse was nice and all, they always make me feel like I am an idiot. I know that they are given things to say by “The Authorities” on the subject of babies, but this is my third time around. I may not be the expert on every baby, but I am the expert on my three. At least for today. Tomorrow they will be sure to mix it up and I will have to figure them out all over again.
She asked if I had given Emily solids. I told her that I had once, and she really enjoyed it. Matthew and I thought we would start giving it to her more regularly if she started waking up in the night again. And she has; she woke up once the last two nights.
The nurse then told me that the recommendation was to wait until she is 6 months old. Whatever, dude. If she is hungry, I am going to feed her. That is what my doctor suggested, and it worked for both boys. Graham started solids at 4 months because he was HUNGRY. He is still hungry. That kid can out-eat me any day. 4-6 months of age was the recommended age to start solids four short years ago.
Sometimes I would love to tell people where they could shove their “recommendations” but that would not solve anything, now would it? So, I will just continue to smile and nod when others give me their “recommendations”. Then I will go ahead and do what works for my family and me. That way everybody is happy.
Oh, and in case you forgot, “Shot through the heart!”
Let’s start with a little background for you on the sleeping routine at our house. Miss Emily goes down for the night between 7 and 8 pm and sleeps 11 or 12 hours. The boys go to bed at 7 pretty much on the dot and generally sleep until 6:30 or 7 the next morning. In a perfect world they would sleep until 8 or 9, but that won’t happen unless I resort to drugging them. That’s not an option. Yet.
Side note: remember when we moved Nathan to a bed recently? It hasn’t resulted in any problems. He goes to bed and stays in bed. Now that I typed that, however, he’ll be sure to start some nighttime adventures.
Some days the boys pull a 6:00 wake up time. I can cope with 6:00. Some days I wake up at 6 all by myself. I spent many years waking up early for school and work, so I’m not someone who can sleep in very late. I also can’t stay up very late. I’m so lame and boring, it’s really quite sad.
Today, they boys decided that they needed to wake up at 5:30. Yes, you heard me right. 5:30. AM! They do this every once in awhile just to make sure I’m as sleep deprived as humanly possible. It’s also to (once again) prove that they don’t cope well with that wake up time either.
I heard them talking, looked at the clock next to my bed and let out a big groan. I stumbled out of bed and told them to go back to sleep. After twenty minutes of hearing them talking and banging around, I decided to haul my sorry butt out of bed again and bring them downstairs so at least Honey could sleep. I knew that Emily would likely be waking up soon, as she had gone down at 7 last night.
I don’t know if it’s all in my head or not, but if the clock says anything earlier than 6, I feel like I haven’t had more than four hours of sleep. If the clock had said 6, I would have been fine. 5:45, however, makes me want to vomit.
I fed Miss Emily when she woke up, and then crawled back into bed at 7 for a 45 minute “napâ€. Is it called a nap, or just a continuation of my nighttime sleep? Regardless, it is necessary for my survival. And for my kids’ survival.
Today will be a long day. I feel better after my little “napâ€, but the boys are a little, shall we say, sensitive. And maybe a little whiny. Which results in less patience on my part. Then they get whinier. And I get grumpier. I know that this is how it can go, so I try to throw some humour in to keep us all from bursting into tears. We’ll probably spend a bunch of time outside as well, because we’re ALL much happier when we get outside.
As it stands, I’ve lost track of the number of meltdowns that have occurred already this morning. Those are only the ones that I have thrown.
How many hours until bedtime?
Do you ever get glimpses of the Big Picture?
Sometimes (most of the time) I get caught up in the minutiae of life that I miss out on the bigger picture. I’ll give an example to explain what I mean.
On Sunday morning, instead of sitting in the service, Matthew and I stayed in the Sunday School class with G & N for “Family Connections” Sunday.
It is a good premise; get the families to all come together instead of the kids going to Sunday School and the parents going upstairs to the service.
I was talking to a good friend tonight who wasn’t able to make it on Sunday. I told her that I enjoyed it and all, but wasn’t sure if it met my purpose. One thing I like about Sundays is that I can drop the Boys off at Sunday School and Matthew and I can enjoy the service (assuming Emily cooperates). We both see the boys every day all day long, and I wasn’t sure if I needed that extra “connection” with them. A bit of a poor attitude on my part, for sure.
My friend then gave me some insight into the “Bigger Picture”. I had spent most of that hour and a half talking to another Mom who was a friend of this friend of mine. She held Emily and we spent most of that time just hanging out. This lovely woman then came home after church and called my friend to tell her that she had appreciated the time she had spent with me. She had been wondering if coming out to church with her kids was worth it, as she hadn’t felt connected. But thanks to ME, she was feeling welcomed and loved.
I’m such an idiot sometimes.
Here I was complaining that I would have preferred to be elsewhere, and God used me to make someone else feel loved (which I did enjoy) despite my bad attitude.
Duly noted. Better attitude coming up. I’m so glad that God is a God of grace. And that He didn’t have to hit me on the head with a 2 x 4 (literally) to get His point across.
Hello!
As I stated in my title, it’s been a week of firsts and lasts. Mostly of firsts, and I’ve been contemplating how to organize this post. How better than a list? We all know that I love me some lists. Mmm….lists.
1. Emily has been a big show off. She pulled all sorts of tricks for Nana. She’s at the point where she will roll over IMMEDIATELY after you lay her on her back. Changing her has been so much FUN *sarcasm*. As if the rolling weren’t enough; she has started arching her back. Anytime I put her in a chair I have to secure the safety straps and the straight jacket. Awesome. Where did my floppy newborn go?
2. Emily had another first. RICE CEREAL. Yep. All week Mom kept telling me how she gave me Pablum pretty much from Day One and it helped me sleep. Sleep has never really been a problem for Miss Emily. On Friday, however, she was a little cranky after her mid-afternoon feeding. That’s when my milk is the poopiest, so I gave the cereal a try. I thought that she’d likely not be interested.
I WAS WRONG.
She would actually grab my hand with the spoon and bring it to her mouth. It was like she thought she had discovered the most amazing taste on the planet and could I please HURRY UP AND SHOVE IT IN HER MOUTH? I told her that she had NO IDEA. There’s this thing called chocolate and it’s WAY BETTER than rice cereal. First things first, however.
3. Emily also had a “negative†first. Her first bout of teething. She’s been drooling and gnawing on everything in sight for a few weeks now. Friday night she had a rough night. She was up THREE TIMES. Now that she did that, I feel safe to tell you of her usual nighttime routine without fear of Murphy’s Law kicking in. She’s been sleeping 11-12 hours at night. I KNOW. I’m lucky. Which is why I haven’t mentioned it. The teething has wrecked her streak, and I am a little more tired than usual. I hope they just all come in at once and save us the drawn-out drama that teething can be.
4. Now you’re wondering, â€What is one of the lasts?†Let me tell you. On Friday I went grocery shopping while Emily was sleeping. I called Matthew to ask what he wanted for dinner. He suggested ribs and told me he’d get them out of the freezer and start the slow cooking process. Great. While driving home, I remembered that ribs were what we had for dinner the night I came down with the stomach flu. I saw a lot of the ribs coming back up. I thought it might be OK, but once I smelled them I knew it was NOT OK. Matthew couldn’t eat them either, since he got to clean out my barf-bowl. Ribs are officially off of the menu at our house.
February is a tricky month. One day Spring will bat her eyelashes at you and tease you like only she knows how. We had a couple of days this week where it was sunny. It was so nice out that I went jacket-free. It was SUNNY! And WARM! And I may have been A LITTLE EXCITED! Then it got cold again. It is February, after all. The warmer days have been good in that we all got outside, Emily included. We had all three kids in the swing set, and they loved every minute of it. Here’s some picture proof.
My Mommy has now gone home and we are getting back to our normal routine. Here’s hoping that Emily’s sleeping routine gets back to normal too. If not, I just may hook some caffeinated DC to an intravenous.
***Edited to add:
Miss Emily made a few wimpers, but didn’t wake up until morning. I went in to get her, looked over the railing, and saw that she had moved to the other end of the crib from where I laid her. She had turned 180 degrees and moved down towards the other end. Crazy.
I feel bad that you all are dropping by and I’m not contributing anything to the blogosphere. I miss you guys, so I’ll catch up on you in the next few days.
We’ve had a busy week of bank appointments and lawyer appointment (regarding the cabin), and everything is done. Nothing like adding some extra appointments to your daily schedule to make you feel a little overwhelmed, but it’s all good.
We’ve been soaking up the Nana time, and Emily is on a roll (ha!) with pulling out new tricks. Yesterday’s trick was the arching of the back when she’s in a bouncy chair. Honey’s excited because once we declare the bouncy chair useless he gets to purge it from our house. Emily’s “stuff” sure takes up space. He’s anxiously awaiting his chance to dispose of it all. Do you want it? One person’s junk is another person’s treasure, or so the saying goes.
Not much else to say, so I’ll leave you of some pictures. Here’s my little thumb sucker:
Here are the boys enjoying their machines. We have let them drive at the higher speed, and they’re loving every minute of it. Graham loves his quad so much that he was “cleaning” it yesterday.
The “high” speed is fast, but it’s not FAST. They feel pretty cool in their helmets. We had bought Nathan a full-face helmet but it’s too heavy for him. He looks like a Bobble-head, so he’s wearing his bike helmet instead. Graham loves his helmet so much that he wants to bring it the next time it’s Show and Tell at Playschool.
They are doing really well at driving the quads. Before I know it they’ll be driving a car. Sigh.
Doesn’t the sunshine look grand? We’ve been soaking up every last second of it. Summer WILL return. It just has to.
