10 Things About Me

I write a lot about my kiddos, because they are so fascinating and wonderful to me. So here's a post just about me. 10 things you may not know.

1. I love sushi, especially the raw salmon!
2. I weight less after 2 kids than before.
3. I hated vegetables as a child and now there's very few I won't eat.
4. I raise chickens for both meat and eggs and no, it doesn't bother me to kill the meat birds. They are yummy.
5. I'm an artist.
6. I am an expert marksWOman.
7. I used to smoke cigarettes. And I'm SO GLAD I quit four years ago.
8. My husband is my high school sweetheart.
9. I'm already planning our 10 year wedding vow renewal for March of 2016.
10. I haven't worn heels in approximately 2 years...or more and I hate wearing makeup, it only happens once every few months.

Habit Day 1

http://tinybuddha.com/blog/simple-mini-habits-can-change-life/

The above link is the cause for my new daily blog posts. I'd rather be napping right now. But I'm going to write just 50 words first.

Today I realized that Phoenix doesn't like to nurse. She's been fussy all day. Hungry, but yet fighting me every time I tried to nurse her. It's frustrating. Eat the crap that's best for you child! I thought it was teething, but it happens regardless of if she's on infant advil or not. Breastfeeding is also easiest for me of course, the meal prep time consists wholly of fidgeting with my shirt and bra for all of 10 seconds.

She won't let me spoon feed her either. With the exception of whole grain infant cereal. She can't just eat that all day. So I steam vegetables or fresh fruit or give her packaged teething biscuits or puffs or whatever. She loves feeding herself. This however is hard since we live a 2hour round trip from the nearest grocery and only make the haul every few weeks. Fresh doesn't last long and I hate freezing and re-thawing. Phooey.

With my son, he ate anything and everything happily that I shoved in his face. He was a boobie monster, NEVER turning a nurse down. He also ate literally everything I ever gave him. I was so spoiled by this!

She will nurse till the cows come home at night or if sleeping. This does not help me. Rather the opposite. Her sleep patterns have improved some since she graduated from bassinet to mini crib. (Thanks Liz for that "Why didn't I do that earlier" advice!)

So today after dealing with the fat lip all morning from her despite giving her fresh plumb and banana and steamed carrots to nibble on and numerous failed attempts to nurse, I fed her a big bowl of organic infant oatmeal. BINGO. She was just still hungry. So now I shall work in feeding her oatmeal or whole grain cereal with every meal I guess. I have some new food pouches on the way for her to try, but so far I've tried 4 flavors from one brand and she flunked them all!

And that's my 363 words for the day ;) Initiate NAP TIME!

Survival Mode

It started out as "sleep regression". That mystical time around 6 months where some babies decide that sleeping through the night is overrated. I made inquiries to "qualified" mothers of multiple children. What do I do? Is it something I've done? Or didn't do? Could it be this or that...dead ends. I have gotten a pretty wide variety of "You're screwed, just wait it out." advice in not so many words. She's now just shy of 8 months old.

Waking anywhere between 4 to 10 times and sometimes countless times a night. Thank God 99.9% of the time she goes right back to sleep after a quick nurse. Sometimes however she decides her bassinet is lined with needles and screams like I'm torturing her when I lay her down. I hate co-sleeping. I worry about the smother factor. I have to lay on my side for the space and in order to facilitate the boob in mouth approach that makes her sleep. I have scoliosis and if I sleep on my side, my back awakes in knots. Every time I move she fusses or yelps, and she eventually wakes up at 5am as opposed to 8am.

Reluctantly, when I'm so tired that I can't trust myself to stay awake holding her and nursing, I take her to bed with me.

Sometimes it's teething. I can tell from the drool and the painful cry when she wakes up. Other times she just...well I'm not sure what it is but she insists on nursing to go back to sleep.

Some of you may be thinking sleep training is the answer. However, answer me this: How then is she the best at falling asleep without nursing during the day, taking 3 naps, 1 of which is a long one. She is "trained" believe me. I just played peekaboo with her and said night night and left. She was out without a peep in 5 minutes...

At first I fought this "ailment" trying to get more solid food in her during the day so she wasn't so hungry at night. FAIL. My milk supply only suffered from the decreased day feeds and then she was nursing MORE at night. I offer her "Nunu" all day, can't make her do it if she doesn't want to. I was a zombie for months. I was lazy and used my exhaustion as an excuse to couch potato and avoid exertion. But then it became routine. I made piece with her habits and preferences. I quit handicapping myself because obviously it's not a quickly passing phase. I got off my butt and got back to things. To cooking(real food) and cleaning regularly and even exercising every night. It helped tremendously to be more active. I think(knock on wood) she's finally starting to pull out of the "never let mommy sleep" phase. I hope so at least. But if not, hey, it's still a phase. She will eventually wean and be done with this madness.

The part that both boggles the mind and makes it all pretty bearable, is that she is so easy going and happy during the day. At least I don't have to deal with colic. Kudos to you colic baby having mommies. I'm not sure I could do that.

I did cut out all unnecessary tasks (like writing blogs before bed :P) so that I could streamline my day and save a little energy. And I make myself take naps when I still struggle to stay awake long enough to finish a plate of food. It's my survival mode. I do what needs to be done quickly, then rest.

Some day I'll wish to be here again right? I think I'll wish for months 2-5 again more. I already do! Hah. She's just so darn worth it though! Really... the goober...