Amusement Park of Life

I have been thinking about how crazy life is lately.  You've got lots of ups and lots of downs - just like all those crazy rollercoasters that I was ALWAYS talked into riding.

The first ride that you jump on is the Childhood Choo Choo.  You have lots of ups - learning how to do cartwheels in the yard with your best friends from down the street, playing outside until you get called in for dinner, family vacations at the beach, and getting your very first puppy.  You also have lots of downs - getting slapped by your Kindergarten teacher for crying a lot and forgetting your ice cream money (true story), falling off your bike and getting some nasty scars, being constantly annoyed by your siblings, and that whole awkward middle school time.  In between you have day to day life, which for me was pretty awesome.  My childhood ride (as far as I remember it), had lots more ups than it did downs - just as a kiddie ride should.  It is not fair, though, that some people have to ride much scarier childhood rides before they hit the height requirement. : (

After the Childhood Choo Choo, you jump onto the Teen Tumbler.   Things are getting a little more dramatic now and your ups are higher and your downs are lower and they happen much more frequently.  You click, click, click, click up to your new boyfriends, your license, your sports teams, and your awesome mission trips with all of your faves from youth group.  You then dive down to disses from your best friend on the forum, being tricked into talking trash about your friend who is silently listening to everything on a three-way call, and break ups with your whack boyfriends.  Most people are pretty fortunate to make it through the Teen Tumbler with all of their spare change still in their pockets.

Next is the Adult Avenger.  Your ups and downs are a little bit less frequent now as things are starting to kind of even themselves out, but the highs and lows can still be pretty extreme.  Your highs consist of four awesome years of college, getting your first big girl/boy job, becoming completely independent, and meeting the love of your life.  The lows on this ride consist of being completely independent (financially), bills, money, (you get the point!), and having to make really big decisions that have real big boy/big girl repercussions.

Part of this ride takes your straight into Wedding World.  On this part of the ride you click, click, click your way up to the wonderment of getting engagement, finding the perfect wedding dress, celebrating with everyone you love in your life, and the ultimate high of saying 'I do' to the one you love most in the world.  The drops on this ride come from having to figure out who to invite and who to not invite, arguments about details (that in the end are not all that important), and stress about getting it all done in time.  The actual wedding day is the highest part of this ride.  You ride this high through the ceremony, the bomb diggity ass reception and after party, and through the honeymoon.  After that you ride one of the biggest drops as you get back to reality and settle out at a pretty happy place with your new spouse.

After you ride that train for a while, you then land in Mommy Land.  This is what got me thinking about all of this craziness.  In Mommy Land you have the clicks that get you up to the positive pregnancy test, the wang-a-lang or wagina on the ultrasound, the amazing birth of your little one that is one of the highest points on this entire ride, and watching the sweet baby sleep and later smile and laugh at you.  The drops (that I have been through so far) are watching your baby get shots and cry a cry you have never heard, hear your baby waking up right as you are finally really falling asleep, and having to go back to work after weeks at home with her.

I have ridden the beginning of this Mommy Land ride and so far I have clicked myself so close to heaven I can almost spread those clouds apart and peak in and see what it is like up there!  I have the sweetest little girl that I am completely in love with and who brings so much joy in my life.  I have had an entire summer to collect every bit of sugar and slobbery kisses that I can - and I have done just that.  Then the part of the ride called Dreaded Daycare interrupted my bliss.  This is what this part of the ride has been like for me:

click, click, click

I have someone great lined up.  I am currently pregnant and have already talked to the lady and reserved my spot and she sounds perfect.  We are all set to go.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

We go to visit her two and a half weeks before school starts.  She tells us she won't do a schedule.  I shrug it off, but call her the next day to ask her about it.  She is quite rude (must have been having a bad day because this was totally different than every time I've talked to her) and lets me know that she is not willing to work with me at all.

 click, click, click

I call Jason, he comes home, and he tells me that we are going to look and find somewhere and we'll be fine.  We find somewhere on line, call and schedule an appointment for the next day, and they have one spot open.  We go to visit them and everything is fine.  They say what we want to hear and we tell them that we will let them know the following Monday.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot sleep.  I go into a mini-depression.  I keep picturing my sweet girl trying to sleep under bright lights with lots of babies around and crying and crying because their aren't enough hands to help her.  I cry and cry the more I picture it and I know I just can't do it.  Not sure what other options we have, but we are going to look.

click, click, click

I find some more places online.  I call a few - 20+ people waiting lists.  Shit.  I call another place - a 5-star ranked center.  They happen to have an open slot.  I go and visit them and my heart is once again in a good place with all of this.  They are so warm and sweet with the kids and they have a very good ratio of kids to adults.  I am at peace with the fact that this is where my little girl will go.  I enjoy the next two weeks of my summer and soak in all I can. 



aaa!!!

I think (hope) this is going to be a little drop and then we'll be up from here.  Tomorrow is D-day.  Tomorrow I will load Caroline and all of her stuff up and I will drop her off with her new caregivers.  I will make sure everything is where it needs to be and that they know everything I want for them to know about her and then I will give her a kiss goodbye and I will head to work, praying that she is in the best hands she can be in that are not mine or her Daddy's. 

click, click, click

I will go to work and not be able to get my mind off of her, but I will see good friends, sit through our opening meeting, start to get my room like I want it, and then I will HAUL ASS to Caroline's 'school' (I know it isn't technically school, but it makes it easier for me to say that she is at school rather than at daycare), pick her up and give her a hundred kisses.  Ninety-nine of those will be because I will be making up for lost time and the last one will be because we made it through our first day.

And then I really do believe that the rest of the ride, for the most part, will be ups.  We'll get comfortable, they will learn her, and she will begin to learn lots of new things.  I know we will have a few dips along the way, but we'll roll with them and climb up to the next peak.

Life is crazy and up and down, but I plan on riding this roller coaster as long as I can and I can't wait to see what other crazy things I will click up to and what other drops I will get myself out of!

Babywise – Yes, please!

First, let me say a huge thank you to Leslie for hearing about Babywise and using it on Anna and making me a believer!  I love my sleep – always have – and I was worried about having a baby and getting sleep.  I should not have worried.  Because of Babywise, sleep is not a problem for us!

Secondly, I know there are a TON of different parenting philosophies out there.  I also know that there are some people that are very dedicated to their beliefs.  I, for one, am dedicated to my belief in Babywise.  Here’s why:

The premise behind Babywise is that it teaches your baby to like to sleep using an Eat - Play - Sleep routine. During the first few weeks you do exactly what you and the baby want. You hold and snuggle them and feed them when they want to be fed. After that, you start trying to get them to a 3 hour schedule. So if you feed them at 6am, then you would feed them and then they'd be up for another hour or so until 7am, and then they'd sleep until 9am when they would need to eat again.

Some people don't believe in waking a sleeping baby to eat, but when they are little, if you wake them and get them on that routine then their body and metabolism adjust and soon they are like clockwork. They will begin waking up almost to the minute of when they should be eating and rubbing their eyes right when they should be going to sleep.

Babywise also emphasizes the fact that even though you are following a schedule - you are the parent. If it is 2:30 and your baby is 'supposed' to eat at 3 and he is crying his hungry cry, you make the call as the parent to go ahead and feed him. If it is 5:15 and your baby is 'supposed' to be up and playing until 6, but she is rubbing her eyes, you make the call to go ahead and put her down and adjust the rest of the day accordingly. So the clock is the guiding force in most situations, but you are still the parent and you make the ultimate call.

They also talk about the importance of babies learning how to sooth themselves to go to sleep. Some parents teach their babies to sleep by rocking them, driving them around, walking them around, etc. Once that gets the baby to sleep the baby then begins to rely on that method to go to bed. That also means that the parents have committed themself to driving, walking, rocking, etc. every time the baby needs to sleep - which is very often! After the baby has reached a stage in their development where they can cognitively handle soothing themselves, you let them cry it out. This is not an easy thing to do. Your instinct tells you to go get that baby, but your mind tells you that this is going to be so good for you and for them in the long run. It took Caroline about a week. The first few naps when she 'cried it out', she cried for about 30 minutes and then she was out. Then for a few days, she would fuss for a bit and then be out. There have been a few days since then when she just didn't nap like she was supposed to. She would hit that 45 minute to an hour 'intruder' where she was switching sleep cycles. She would cry and it would be so tempting to go and get her, but if I did, she didn't get near the sleep she needed. So we would let her cry it out to get back to sleep. You learn the cry that she reaches that she was not going to be able to come back from. When that happens, you go get her and just get through the day the best you can and hope for a better day tomorrow. After just a couple of weeks she learned how to get herself back to sleep after that 'intruder' and we don't hear her anymore. Now, at 5 months, you lay her in her crib with her bobo and her paci and you shut the door. Sometimes she is in there talking and just looking for 10 minutes before she sleeps and sometimes she goes right to sleep. Either way, she doesn't need us to get to sleep. She does that totally on her own. Then when she wakes up you hear her talking and she usually wakes up with a big smile on her face. Those naps listening to her cry were tough, but I would do that over and over again to have a sleeper like we have now.

Another thing I love about Babywise is the fact that the first chapter talks about the importance of the husband/wife relationship to the health and happiness of the baby. It introduces the need for constant sleep so that Mom and Dad have time to work on their relationship. It also talks about the need for the baby to become part of the already established family, instead of the current family beginning to completely revolve around the baby.

Because we use Babywise, we have a little girl that has slept through the night (6+ hours) since 6 weeks and who now takes 3 very painless 2 - 3 hour naps a day and sleeps 11 hours at night.

If you are going to be a new parent, or even if you have a little one that doesn’t sleep well, try this out.  You don’t have to start from day 1 for this to work.  I have a friend who did not use Babywise on her first baby.  He NEVER slept well and still to this day is not a good sleeper.  Then I convinced her to try Babywise on the second one and her second is SUCH a good sleeper and so laid back and content all the time because she is fully rested. 

Thank you, Babywise!

5 Month Update

* She weighs 14.8 lbs. and is 25 inches long.
* She is still in size 1 diapers even though they are getting a tiny bit small. They are still doing the job and we have plenty of them, so she's rocking them.
* She is finally too big for all of her newborn (not kidding) and some of her 0-3 month clothes. She is in mostly 3 month stuff (even though some of it is still too big) and some of the 3-6 month stuff is slowly making its way into the dresser!
* She got her first tooth! We didn't even know it was coming other than a rash on her right cheek. When I googled it it said she had all sorts of terrible things (why do I google illnesses?!), but teething was one of them and I thought there was no way. Then I checked her and there it was - Roofus her first Toofus! Since then we had a couple of days when she was pretty uncomfortable from either Roofus or the next tooth. She had a low grade fever and was just uncomfortable, but with a little Tylenol and Orajel we made it through.
* She is eating solid foods now. She got her first little bit of rice cereal when she was about 4 1/2 months and I thought I had killed her. She went to bed at 9 and I got her up at 9 the next morning. There is something magical about having something in that belly all night! Once she mastered the rice cereal thing, she began her real foods. So far she has had green beans, squash, sweet potatoes, and apples. Not a big fan of the green beans, but has LOVED all of the others. It is so fun to watch her grow up and hit these different stages.
* She is now sleeping in her sleep sack. We kept the swaddler on under her arms for about a week just so she could get used to having her arms out, but still feel secure. Then we went to Carter's and found a sleep sack with sleeves and I put her down for a nap in it and the rest has been history!
* Once she had rice cereal for the first time, she put herself on a 4-hour schedule. So she now gets up around 7 and has cereal and half a jar of food (can be veggie or fruit since we are still introducing them) and a 6 oz bottle. Then she goes down around 8 - 8:30 and sleeps until 11. It is crazy how she has slept all night, but sleeps the best nap in the morning. At 11 and 3 she gets up and has an 8 oz. bottle and then plays for 1 1/2 - 2 hours and then goes back down. At 7 she gets up and has cereal and the other half of whatever she had in the morning and a 6 oz. bottle. Then she goes down around 8 or 8:30.
* She is the best sleeper! Once we put lay her down we give her her bobo and offer her her paci and then turn on her music and shut the door. She can put herself to sleep without our help. THANK YOU, BABYWISE! Blog post to come on that later!
* She can roll over from her back to her front really well. The problem is she still can't successfully roll from her front to her back (even though she's done it a couple of times) and since she hates being on her tummy, she lasts for a few minutes and then gets fussy. She'll be a much happier camper when she can roll back over from her tummy to her back. We're working on it!
* She can stand up when she leans on something. She can't pull up or anything, but she's been standing up since about 3 weeks. She's a strong little thang!
* She is getting close to being able to sit up. With the Boppy around her, she can sit up for a good few minutes. Even without it, you can see her straightening herself back up if she starts to fall. It won't be long!
* I am no longer breastfeeding. I made it until about 4 1/2 months and just did not have the desire to do it anymore. I have stored up enough milk that I think I'll be able to get her to 6 months. So now we are doing half and half with milk and formula. Caroline was a champ and didn't even blink when the formula was introduced. I was kind of sad about losing the non-stinking poops, but with solid food coming right behind the formula, there wasn't much chance of it not stinking anymore. For a little thing - she can STANK!
* She is taking baths in the big tub and has even started getting in the shower. Jason was about to take a shower and she had a nasty dirty diaper, so instead of setting the tub up, we just threw her in with Ja! She has had 3 or 4 showers now and it is a great way to quickly get her cleaned.
* The Mamaroo and whale tub have been packed up for the next kid. I would have paid a million dollars for those things when I needed them, but I just can't use them anymore!
* She is starting to reach out. I love when you go in for a kiss and she grabs the sides of your face. When you read her a book she is now starting to feel the pages.
* Since she came home she has always talked to her picture in the pink picture frame above her changing table. Apparently that is for babies because she now reaches for the wall and feels the texture. Then she talks to the wall as she does it – wish I could understand those stories she is telling, because she is telling some good ones!
* She really is such a chilled out baby. She smiles and laughs all the time (even though she is a little reserved with new people), but she does a lot of observing. Especially when she is around a lot of people with a lot going on, she just sits back and watches.
* I only have 2 weeks of summer left. I am going to eat up every second I can with my sweet girl!!!
***These are only a few pictures for the past month.  Lots of others have been posted in different posts.

Caroline and Nellie sharing a highchair!

Blowing those raspberries!

Talking up a storm after getting out of the bathtub!

Happy 5 Months, Sweet Girl!

Grands’ Camp 2011

When Anna was 2 years old my mom came up with the idea of Grands' Camp - a week during the summer when the grandkids would go to Wilmington to give the mommies and daddies a break. Well this summer, Mom got a little bit more than she bargained for! I don't think when she hatched this idea she ever dreamed we would be having 3 little ones in the span of 6 months. That gave her an 8 year old, a 3 year old, a 9 month old, a 5 month old, and a 4 month old during the week of Grands' Camp this year. So this year, the moms were invited! Caroline and I were dropped off on our way back from Florida and Leslie and her two came down the next day. We had such a great week! We were able to get all five grandkids together a couple of times and we got to spend some good time with Jeff + Johnna and Greg + Michelle. We went swimming, went to the beach (without the babies), had some great meals, and did a lot of just hanging out. Mom and Deddy took Anna and Nia to the aquarium and downtown and Mom and the older girls made some delicious jam!! It was perfect! At the end of the week Mom and Deddy kept all five kids overnight so that the mommas and daddies could all have dates. I'm pretty sure around 7 that night they were wondering why they had offered to do such a thing! Thanks Mimi and Papa!

We had such a good time just watching these five play!

Jack is getting fairly mobile and when he wants something (aka Caroline’s ridiculously cute croc), he gets it – and it goes in his mouth!

Nia and Anna had a great time together!  Anna spent a lot of time ‘reading’ books to everyone!  Her stories are awesome and she has such an imagination – the child doesn’t miss a thing!

Nia reading the funnies at breakfast.  Papa reads the paper every morning over breakfast, so Nia was just making sure she got her reading in, too!

Anna loves to wake the babies up when it is time.  I told her she could go get Caroline up and this is what we found when we walked in! 

Caroline hanging out with her Uncle G!  Aunt Michelle was around, too!

Jeffro’s girls!

These are the t-shirts that the kids made.  The big kids used their handprints to make fish and the little kids used their footprints to make lobsters.  They were so cute!

The kids and their shirts!  (I know I am biased – but that is one good looking bunch of youngins!)

Mimi and Papa and their crew!

Mimi and Papa and Caroline!

When Jeffro and Johnna brought Nellie over, they brought her table.  She played with it for a while and showed off and it wasn’t long before Leslie and I propped our two up their with her.  That look on her face is priceless – uh, dude, could you back up off my table?!

On Thursday Jason and Will made it down and they brought the girls some cupcakes from Apple Annie’s!

Which bottle belongs to Jack and which one belongs to Will?

Mom has been saving the dresses that Leslie and I wore growing up.  She broke them out one night and Anna and Nia had the BEST time playing dress up and curtsying like the lovely little ladies they are!

The day that Jason got down to Wilmington was the four year anniversary of us dating.  He even brought me a cake just like our wedding cake to celebrate!

Anna does love her some Caroline and Caroline does love her some Anna!  Anna better watch out, though – one day Caroline and Jack will be able to take her!

The mommas and daddies and their babies!

Mimi and the girls making jam!  It was delicious!

Papa and the babies!