4 posts tagged “routine”

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Ramble On

It's funny, when your time is split into 2-3 hour chunks it goes amazingly fast. I close my eyes and it's a week later. We've been working really hard on our routine. And by we I mean me. Chewie has been on EASY (the baby whisperer) since I brought her home--I nursed her, changed her diaper to wake her up a little, and then put her down to sleep. Eat, Activity, Sleep. The Y is supposed to be You time, but with 2 older kids there is no You time. She's starting to be awake longer... and thus is now able to get overtired and then have to scream herself to sleep. Joy. In addition to the sudden and random blood curdling screams brought on by gas, she also enjoys crying in her sleep. I am so glad I got that video monitor because I would think that the Princess was sitting on top of her. Oh no. She's completely asleep. Crying. I do think she's been overtired and that I've been misreading her cues a bit and feeding her when she just needs to sleep. Ah well, tomorrow is a new day. She'll be a month old tomorrow and all things considered she's doing really well. I do remember with the Princess that I thought she would never go longer at night and settle into a routine, but she did her first 7 hour stretch at 7 weeks old, followed shortly thereafter by ALL night long. So I have hope. 


My routine has pretty much remained the same. I get up at 5:30 every morning. Pump, eat, check the internets, shower if I can, sometimes do laundry, and enjoy the quiet. Lately the quiet has been interrupted by either a crying Chewie or a wandering SkyWalker who says that 6:45 is "close enough" to 7. I hope to add some treadmill time in the morning as soon as Chewie is sleeping upstairs in her crib. It's one thing for me to leave her in the co-sleeper while I'm in the kitchen and the dogs are still sleeping in our room, but I don't want to go downstairs and be too far away (the co-sleeper is attached to our bed with one of the sides off so that I can "roll over," and pick her up to nurse her. But I discovered I can attach the 4th side while it's still attached to our bed so it functions as a bassinet. It's safer for me to leave the room.) 

It is almost my bedtime. It is also almost my birthday. My son thinks I need a bicycle for my birthday. 

I am fading fast right now so I leave you with this: I frequently tell SkyWalker that he needs to eat his meat and vegetables if he wants to grow big. Whenever he's eating or drinking something he'll ask if that will help him grow big. He really doesn't eat a lot of meat so I'm constantly telling  him that's what he needs. At bedtime tonight we were all in the girls' room and I was feeding Chewie, as usual, Vader was teaching the Princess how to do math on her fingers, and SkyWalker was sitting on the floor with me. He asked me what tomorrow is and I told him that Chewie was going to be 1 month old tomorrow. He asked if she was going to get bigger and I said that she was getting bigger everyday. And he said "from your breastmilk and meat. Your meat milk. Haha. The meat in your milk. Haha." 

1 comment Tags: sleep, chewie, breastfeeding, skywalker, routine

3 weeks

Chewie is 3 weeks old today. She has discovered how to cry, quite loudly, as well as the joys of gas. Her little legs held rigid, her face purple, she screams with a painful rage whether she is awake or asleep, and then is fine and you'd swear she had been quiet the whole time. I hope this phase will pass quickly (ha, I said pass. Like pass gas. Ha!) because it is irritating as hell. She did manage to poop this morning and she rip a few with no fanfare so maybe it is passing. 


We're getting into a routine during the day. Well, we've been on one since we got home but it mostly consisted of me feeding her constantly, changing her diaper in an attempt to wake her a bit, and then her sleeping. Now she's going a little longer between feeds and has a bit more awake time before her naps. She's also not falling asleep as easily though since she is more awake, so I'm going to have to start doing more than just putting her down. But she's napping in her crib which is something the Princess refused to do this early and she's fallen asleep on her own plenty of times. I think the last couple of days she's been getting very overtired because of the gas waking her up and interrupted her bedtime sleep and her naps. And siblings who like to run around the house playing music band. But mostly I think it's the gas. 

We had someone come over yesterday as a mother's helper and it was great. She's the daughter of someone my BFF knows and is very good with kids. As soon as she got here I sent her outside with the 2 stir-crazy children. Although they both hid under the kitchen table when she got here, it was in silliness not shyness. They both willingly went outside and I could hear SkyWalker tell her all about his preschool kids that are going to kindergarten with him. He was not shy at all. It was amazing since he's never met her! And if he's comfortable with someone, the Princess is, so she was fine. It worked out really well. When she left she said something about SkyWalker really liking to talk and I just had to laugh. I can't believe this is the boy who hid in the bathroom at our first playdate. It really makes me feel like everything I've done (mom's group) has had an effect. And the added bonus is that the Princess seeing him comfortable with people will hopefully prevent her from becoming painfully shy too. Of course now that's he's going to kindergarten we've been telling him about strangers and who he can and can't talk to. It's funny--didn't have to worry about that before because he didn't talk to anyone! 

The Princess was up a lot last night. My poor mother took care of her before Vader could get upstairs. I don't know what her problem was and hope she's not getting sick. Chewie was up every couple of hours but she was just up to nurse and then right back to sleep, no in between painful gas crying, so it wasn't that bad. And I'm pretty sure SkyWalker peed the bed again and I'm pretty sure my mother (who is sleeping in his room) dealt with that too. He's had some dry nights so I know he can do it. We went to Denny's for dinner though and it was later than normal and he drank a boatload of milk. I should have had Vader go up and have him pee twice last night. Oh well. 

I took all the jedi to the train station yesterday to pick up Nana. It was the first time I had the three of them myself. It was also the first time I drove in 3 weeks. I had to remember what to do. It always feels so weird when I don't drive at all for a few weeks. I obviously don't forget how to drive, but it just feels weird. 

And with that the dogs have woken Chewie. So much for my peaceful time. 

2 comments Tags: chewie, skywalker, routine, the princess

In the zone

This is what I have been waiting for. 


Nine months, or, well, less, of vomiting and back aches and insecurities and vulnerability and no energy and it's all good because it leads me to this. I had a baby less than a week ago. I've packed up all my maternity clothes and put them back on the top shelf of the closet. Sure, I could use a girdle. I am awake and up before my children and dogs and husband and enjoying the private me time that I've needed the last 9 months but had no energy for. All I needed to do was have the baby. It's amazing how quickly I've settled into the old routine--feed baby, get up, pump, drink tea, go online, feed baby. I could barely drag myself out of bed before. And now that I have a newborn, my 3rd, and I'm up every couple of hours at night I find myself with energy and motivation that I forgot existed. Mostly motivation. I won't lie, I'm wicked ass tired by the time dinner time comes and I fell asleep watching Kung Fu Panda last night, but I am motivated in ways I haven't been in a long time. 

Last night the baby, who is in serious need of a nickname for this blog, fed at 12:30 and then not again until 5:10. I don't really want to go over 4 hours at night this soon but she's been pretty good about waking up at night to feed so I figured she knew best. And I did feed her just about every hour before we went to bed. She weighed 5 pounds, 11 ounces at birth. When she came home on Thursday she was 5 pounds, 8 ounces (which was funny because SkyWalker was 5 pounds, 7 ounces when he was born). By Friday she dropped another 3 ounces. I've been waking her and feeding her every 2 hours during the day and at yesterday's weight check she was 5 lbs, 10 oz. I think I'm going to do every 2 hours until she gets to 6 pounds and then we'll get onto the 3-hour routine that I love so much. 

When you first change a low-birthweight baby's diaper you think there's no way you can do this without breaking a bone. It's almost too frightening to attempt. But this is not my first low-birthweight baby and not my smallest either so I was able to skip over that this time and see the benefits. I had SkyWalker first (obviously) so I've always felt that boys are easier to change than girls--sure there's more chance of getting shot with some errant urine, but there are fewer nooks and crannies for the explosive mustard poop to hide in. When I had the Princess it was ridiculous. I declared that girls are ridiculously hard to change. I hereby modify that to say that girls with chunky legs and fat rolls (i.e. normal ones) are hard. The low-birthweight baby girl is wicked easy. She does not have any fat anywhere in her nether regions. There's no poking around looking for the stray poop. 

She's doing well. I'm doing well. The older jedi are doing remarkably well with her. The dogs are behaving. Vader is home for another week or so. It's all good. And with that I am going to attempt a shower before the 7 am wake up call.

4 comments Tags: baby, breastfeeding, routine, #3

Wrinkles

Since the napping rule started the jedi and I have fallen into a routine. Please note, I did not say a nice routine. It goes something like this: SkyWalker refuses to go to sleep at 8 and instead we keep finding him on the stairs wanting to A) tell me he loves me all day or B) want to know what we're watching. He also wakes up in the middle of the night crying because various body parts hurt or whatever excuse he can come up with. My alarm goes off at 6, I turn it off, take my temp and wait for my second alarm--my children. But because my children are sleeping like crappity-crap, they are  either waking up at 8 or not at all and I'm waking up at 8. Leaving me with precious little time to get all 3 of us dressed and fed and out the door. Particularly when I have to wrestle both of them to get them dressed. I tried to put a bow in the Princess hair this morning and I should have just cut her ears off instead, since she was giving me the same struggle. SkyWalker has actually had 2 dry nights in a row (I'm not ready to say it's the napping), which means he's not getting himself dressed in the morning. And he fights me tooth and nail. I get them dressed and out the door and leave behind dishes in the sink, dirty cereal still in them dishes, milky towels and tableclothes and a general mess. When we get home we have lunch and then the naptime fight. I have no idea how long he actually falls asleep, but I do not think it's long. It's probably half an hour or so. So I have to repeatedly go up there and tell him to get back in bed and stop playing and have to listen to him tell me he's not tired and he wants me to stay because he just really loves me--all for a half hour nap? That screws up the night and is leaving us exhausted in the morning? If he continues having dry nights I suppose I'll have to just deal... and force myself to get out of bed earlier. I keep thinking about next year when he's in kindergarten. What the hell am I going to do then? It's going to be so early! Although maybe that will be good. Maybe Vader will have to actually help out and stand out at the bus stop with him. Because if I have to get both of them dressed, in addition to myself and stand outside at 7 something in the morning, I will begin screaming now and not stop for the next 17 years. 


I am tired and grouchy and irritated. The dishes are done and I'm washing towels and I swept the floor but I feel like I can't get a handle on my life right now and that really irritates me. I need something to drag my ass out of bed in the morning. And I need to stop playing Word Challenge damnit.

Oh--but the Princess has pooped on the potty 3 times now, peed countless times and will go and walk to it if you say "Do you want to use the potty?" When she is done she twists and points to the toilet paper. That's pretty good right?

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2:09 pm. I am going to scream. The Princess was sleeping. Because SkyWalker isn't tired and didn't want to nap, he went in her room and woke her up after just half an hour. They were giggling and playing in the crib. She NEEDS to sleep. We're going apple picking and leaving at 3. If he were not upstairs she would be sleeping and he would never have woken up. They are both screaming and crying right now. I think there will be WWIII when Vader gets home tonight.

1 comment Tags: napping, potty training, skywalker, routine, the princess