Desperately seeking a good nights sleep

I don’t know how the rest of the world does it but I have a 9 month old who still wakes up 2 or 3 times every night.
I know a couple of the problems are from breast feeding and my milk isn’t as thick as formula so his belly is empty faster, the second problem is we have a small house and his crib is in our bedroom. I wish I had somewhere else to sleep him but I just don’t.

I have done everything I can think of and I just don’t know how to help this boy sleep. I read the book “Happiest Baby on the Block”, great book and everyone else I know loved this book and said it was a life saver. I am just not that lucky! I did everything it recommended, and it just didn’t work for me.

I have tried switching to formula at bed time just to keep his belly full longer, also doesn’t matter.

Ah yes, and the famous “let them cry” method. This does not work when the child is in your room, standing at the end of his crib staring me down, crying because he knows you are listening and he isn’t going to stop until you get up. What’s the point of crying it out when nobody gets any sleep when we try this method? Eventually I get up and get him and now instead of being up for 15 minutes it will be 45 minutes.

Now I should be able to share this duty with my husband because he is a parent also. Wrong!!! I can’t blame Eric for lack of trying, Thomas doesn’t want anyone but me. Eric will get up and get him, try to feed him a bottle and put him back to sleep. Thomas throws fits, cries, pushes away the bottle and just wants me. I have resorted to hiding under the covers but it doesn’t work, he knows I am their. Now Eric makes a joke out of it and twists Thomas from one side to the other getting him to lean one way and then the other to try and see me.

Does anyone else have any ideas? I am desperate for sleep….

Price increase, not my coffee too!

Not my coffee! I make a point to stop and get a cup of coffee every morning at the local Speedway. I don’t have time to make coffee at home in the morning and I they don’t make Decaf at work. I am stuck with the unleaded kind until Thomas stops breast feeding. Oh, how I miss caffeine.
I never have money so I am always taking change left on the sofa table or what little change gets dropped into the tray of my car. I am always scrounging for change. Today, I have one dollar to get my normal cup of coffee.
Now, this is one very busy Speedway, there is always a line of 8 or 10 people and three cashiers. I
wait in line and finally, it is my turn at the check out.

The cashier “your total is $1.09”.

I gasp, “$1.09 did your prices go up?”

Of course they did but I still had to ask. Now here I am with my coffee, one dollar and a huge line behind me. I start digging in my bottomless pit of a purse for 10 cents. Of course, I am having no luck finding any change and when my fingers run across something it is inevitably a penny.

Now, I am getting the evil stare down from the cashier and from the line behind me. All the time I am stressing and thinking to myself, “So you don’t like me holding up the line, ok fine, help a girl out and loan her a dime. For crying out load, does anyone have a dime?”

Finally after what seems like an eternity, I have pulled out enough change to make 10 cents. Whoo, I never that that would end.

One little price increase can cause such drama to ones morning.

Daily funny from a 5 year old

I know as a mom the thing I enjoy most is when my son Luke has something funny or witty to say. Sometimes I can’t laugh because it comes out at a time when he is in trouble. I still laugh but it comes out later when I share it with someone else.

Yesterday, Luke was not listening to me. I kept telling him to pick up his toys and he just wouldn’t listen. I stopped him and said “will you please turn on your listening ears and do what I ask”.

Luke looks at me and says “I can’t turn on my listening ears because I forgot to put the batteries in”.

Explain to me how a 5 year old can have such wit and be so funny.

Please share some of your funny stories about your kids with me. I know my 5 year old isn’t the only young child full of wit and humor. Everyone needs a good laugh!

Babies Ear Infections and a Natural Remedy

Thomas has had an ear infection after each tooth he cuts. The tooth will come in and one week later he has an infection. It is amazing how they go hand in hand. Thomas never pulls at his ears or is cranky but he ends up with a fever. Once the fevers start he will not eat and that isn’t any fun when you are nursing and he doesn’t want to eat. I keep my pump at work so I end up miserable most of the time.

After the last ear infection I started doing my home work about ear infections because I hate seeing him end up on antibiotics all the time. I bought an ear checker from One Step Ahead that works pretty good. The instrument has a guide book on how to identify a healthy ear from an infected ear. There are other ear and throat exam kits out their but this one doesn’t break the bank as it only cost $14.95. They have a much nice otoscope also that looks like one a doctor would use but it cost much more. I can check his ears myself to see if they are infected.

Someone at work recommend garlic drops for his ears. I found garlic drops for kids at a health food store (Mullein/Garlic Ear Drops) and bought them. The garlic is supposed to be a natural way to relieve the pressure of the ear infection.

I have not put these methods to practice until this week. Thomas has come down with a fever over the weekend and I looked in his ears and one of them is pink so I know he has an ear infection. I have been giving him Tylenol for the pain and putting the garlic drops into his ears to help relieve the pressure. He is eating normal with the infection and that is a major step forward. His fevers have not been nearly as high and his last fever was yesterday afternoon. I actually think the drops are working. I am still checking his ears to make sure the infection goes away and if in a couple more days it doesn’t I will take him to the doctor but I wanted to see if I couldn’t avoid the doctor and provide him with a natural remedy. I hate seeing the pediatrician all the time and I feel if I can resolve this with out a trip to the doctor’s office that is great.

I have read many different things on the internet when I Googled “Ear Infections in Babies” “Natural remedies for ear infections”. All the things I read brought me to my course of action today. I have read that studies have been done and most ear infections will heal themselves with out treatment. I also read a study about babies with infections that are not put on antibiotics, heal in the same amount of time as those who are always put on antibiotics and often times antibiotics cause them to end up ear infections more often because they build a resistance to the antibiotics. I wish I could remember what web sites I found all this on so I could share the link with everyone. . I also read it is very important that children see doctors when they have ear infections so that they don’t end up with permanent damage to their hearing.
I love the internet because you can find out so much information, but at the same time you can end up with conflicting information. I feel like everyone should do their homework and don’t just trust what one person has to say. I would recommend that all parents do what is right for their child and don’t just take the advice of one source. Do your homework! That is what I have done and I still haven’t fully ruled out a visit to the Pediatrician. I will keep you updated.

The Mommy Verses the Career Debate

One of my biggest reasons for choosing to do a blog was so that I could write down how I am feeling and maybe find some help with where my life is supposed to be going. I have a great career but I don’t really want it because I would much rather be at home playing with my kids. Yesterday is a perfect example of me trying so hard to take on more than I can handle as my to-do-list is much larger than I am ever going to accomplish and I also need to find time to play with the kids.

Yesterday my day began at 5:45 AM and I hit the floor running from the moment I got up. I have 45 minutes to get myself showered, dressed, and made up to be presentable for work and eat something before getting the kids up. 6:30 the boys are up and I am fighting to get clothes on, diapers changed and shoes tied. Next I need to feed them. Luke takes 30 minutes just to eat one bowl of cereal. No wonder he is 5 years old and 34 pounds soaking wet. I let him eat on a TV tray in the living room each morning so he can watch cartoons. This is not the best choice now that Thomas crawls. He is usually grabbing at Luke’s cereal bowl and this morning he dumped it. Finally we are ready to head out the door at 7:10. Luke’s socks are bothering him and the shoes and socks are off, there is always something and it is always when it is time to go. Most of the time it is 7:15 or 7:20 before we are pulling out of the drive way; now we are late. I have two stops to make as Thomas goes to the sitter and Luke goes to preschool. Thomas is not to tough to drop off, if anything I talk to much with the sitter and really need to just run in and out but I don’t. Then Luke has drama when I drop him off. Some days he says good bye and that is it I am out the door. Not on this day, he hugs to my leg and refuses to let me go. This is just one more thing to make me late to work.

8 A.M I arrive at work (work is 15 minutes from home but I leave at 7:15) and the long work day begins. Sometimes I love what I do and other days I just want to say screw it and walk out the door, yesterday was a screw it type of day. Finally at 4:45 I am out the door and back in route to pick up the kids and arriving home between 5:30 and 5:45.

Now I have two really bad dogs that are dying to go out and be fed. 50% of the time they will have torn something up, or gotten into something they shouldn’t have and I will have some mess to clean up. Today they knocked all my mail off the table onto the floor. My lab thinks she is a damn cat and gets on top of the table. Visualize a 50 lb dog lying in the center of the dinning room table. It isn’t pretty! I can’t keep her off of it so I gave up long ago.

I can’t stand dog hair so I end up vacuuming my hardwood floors everyday. I get home and see hair and go nuts so out the vacuum comes and I sweep every room downstairs. I really don’t know why because 10 minutes later I see hair again.

Since we were gone all weekend I didn’t get to do any of last weeks laundry so I need to do a load or two each night just to get caught back up and make dinner. It is now 7 and my husband finally arrives home. He commutes an hour everyday so he is gone at 6:30 and always works overtime. I still think he does it to avoid helping me. Who am I kidding; if he is home he doesn’t help.

Now dinner is over and it is bath and bed time for the boys. I first clean up the kitchen and then do baths and bed time. After that is all said and done it is now 9 and I am tired and ready for bed myself. I get everybody’s stuff ready for the next day and then say good night to my husband. He has the nerve to ask me when he gets to spend time with me. I am not trying to neglect him but I have had a long day and I am tired.

The saddest part of all this, I can already see today has started repeating yesterday. When do I get a little time for me and where is the quality play time with my kids. It is the repeat of this day over and over again that makes me really want to be a stay at home mom.

Annual Family Vacation

We just had our annual summer family vacation with my family. I love my family but they can drive me crazy and I defiantly couldn’t spend more than a weekend with all of them. I am sure you all can relate. It is that family time where it is fun but everyone starts to get on your nerves after awhile. We use to all stay in a cabin in Coldwater Michigan and there are 16 of us and we just don’t fit.

This year my husband and I got a hotel room. I am picky about hotels and where I stay. This time I went cheaper because we just spent a fortune on our vacation to Florida and I didn’t want to spend more money. I choose the Red Roof Inn because it was half the price of the Hampton Inn where I really wanted to stay. It was nice and clean but the hall ways did smell like cigarette smoke and I can’t stand the smell. The one think I did notice is the amenities were not as nice for the cheaper hotel. It didn’t have a hair dryer and of course I left mine at home. It never fails when I take it they have them and when I don’t they don’t. I decided after this trip it is always going with me. They didn’t offer much in little soaps, lotions, shampoo’s etc.. You got a little tear open pack of shampoo and a little bar of soap, no conditioner, no lotion, nothing else. The shampoo packet wasn’t even enough for two people. The towels were small and they didn’t give us very many. I look at it this way; I spent half the money on the room, had to make a special trip to Wal-mart for a couple bucks worth of supplies and it all worked out ok. I have to say overall the Red Roof Inn was a good choice for our weekend trip.