And So Begins Round Two of Sleep Deprivation

I thought the coast was clear. My bed and I had once again found our harmonious existence together after months of separation. My brain was finally able to function at work. I could problem solve! I started remembering dates of events, even days of the week.

Well, all of that has been (hopefully) temporarily thrown out the sweet moments of the past window in favor of sleep regression misery. I should not say misery, since it is an understandable occurrence but this side of several days with little to no consecutive hours of sleep is difficult to handle to say the least.

Being in mommy world, working, trying to get back in shape, blogging, and preparing for the holidays have me stretched very thin at the moment. Emma of course is priority one, so I want to be able to help her though whatever phase she is in. I am concerned she is having difficulty sleeping through the night. I think this means she is on the verge of crawling and or teething. We go to the pediatrician on Monday for her 6 month checkup, so hopefully we can get some answers.

We have not co-slept in about a month (except for weekend morning sleep-ins) and I’m thinking of going back to that if it would comfort her more. When we do go to check on her in the middle of the night after hearing her, we often find her on her hands and knees awake wiggling around.

I’m willing to try anything at this point for one night of blissful, uninterrupted sleep. I am nearly at the point where I am slurring my words and I have completely lost all sense of time including the day and the hour. I also just happened to look down at my work outfit I am still in at 7pm at night, brown pants, green shirt, gray shawl cover thingy, oh boy thank goodness I did not have any meetings today.

Have you gone through sleep regression with your little one? How did you work through it? 

My Extreme Holiday Predicament

Now that you have been introduced to “the fur babies” I thought I would share a moment of pure anguish and terror that wreaks havoc throughout my holidays. This is the time when you are supposed to be merry and full of cheer and, I generally am. Sitting in my tiny two bed room, one bath, rented house with four dogs and a baby, I am quite cozy and happy during the holidays, until I turn on the TV.

 

After I put Emma to sleep and dinner is underway I sometimes enjoy a bit of mindless TV watching. Yup, it’s just me and my four dogs snuggling in the living room when it hits, unsuspectingly….the sad doggie/ kitty commercials!!!!!! Oh God NOOOOOOO!!!! There are several different commercials and they seem to reach their tear jerking peek around the holidays (probably when they get the majority of their donations so they make sure to run them every other commercial break.) And I HATE THEM!

Why, why, must you find the exact moment to come on when the remote is out of reach or I am temporarily paralyzed from performing various mommy duties and can’t change the channel! Then comes the sad music and BIG GLARING DOGGIE EYES! I want to scream at the narrator “But….. I already have FOUR DOGS!!!” Three of which were saved from a difficult life. Vet bills, toys, food, and not to mention a human baby and trying to save up for a bigger house and yard leaves little else to donate for the others and yet, the guilt! Oh the guilt! Even if I am in another room and I hear the commercial start I want to cry. There are so many others that need help, that need good homes! The best I can do is to try to talk my other friends into adopting. I really want to be able to do more but all I can do is the best for the ones I have and know that when we can, we will save another furry friend.  

I know adoption is not for every family, but there are so many ways you can help! Want information on how you can help out a furry friend for the holidays? Visit: http://www.aspca.org/adoption/ten-ways-to-help-animals-in-your-community.aspx

Anyone have a good adoption story or a good way to cope with the commercials? 

16 Paws

No, don’t worry, I am not about to tell a story about scary werewolf babies. I know Halloween is over and we are in full on holiday mode right now, but I wanted to take a break from the holidays and the human baby to talk about 4/7^ths of my family. That’s right, our “fur babies” who outnumber us humans in the house four to three.

We are not animal hoarders, although I feel like I want to be but just do not have the room. How the heck did a normal, non-hoarding couple end up with four dogs? So, the story goes that a boy with boy dog met a girl with a girl dog and they all fall in love. Sorry both dogs were responsibly fixed and not capable of having puppies, so after some time, the human girl decided she wanted to get a puppy to add to their doggie family. As it turns out, she was in luck the boy’s co-worker’s dog was getting ready to have puppies. Fast forward a few weeks and they went to go pick up the puppy. The boy’s brother also wanted a puppy, so the boy took one of the puppies for his brother. Well it ended up that his brother could not take the puppy, so the puppy ended up staying with the boy and the girl and the other three dogs. Oh yeah, then the boy and the girl had a human baby girl. The End.

Ok I think I summed that up pretty well. Lesson learned, don’t pick up a puppy for a friend. If they want a dog and are ready to commit, let them go pick it up! That’s the first sign of commitment! That being said, we love all four dogs very much and would have it no other way (well except to have a bigger house). They are all well behaved (when not excited) and are the most wonderful loyal friends anyone could ask for. Below is a picture/ description of each of our big kids (the smallest weights over 60lbs). 

            

Meet Stanley

He looks ferocious but he is the sweetest of them all. Our senior gentleman. I call him ol' boy. 

Dislikes: Cats

Likes: Laying next to the heater when it's cold outside

Meet Bella

My rambunctious lab. My love and best friend. If she wants to get attention she will come right up to you and put her head in your lap. She is a true water dog! 

Likes: Running after tennis balls

Dislikes: Bringing back tennis balls 

Meet Reese 

I call her my sweet little meat because she always comes into the kitchen when I'm cooking looking for a treat. She is the smallest of our large brood and the shyest but get to know her and you get nothing but love.

Dislikes: Not getting treats

Likes: Running around with large strings of drool hanging out of her mouth

Meet Charlie 

She looks like Reese in this picture but she is her own dog! She is brindle and was the surprise addition to our family. She pushes the boundaries and is full of energy but there is one in every family so we love her for who she is. 

Likes: Jumping REALLY high into the air

Dislikes: When squirrels get away 

Why My Head is Spinning

I have already posted about Christmas on here, so I feel like there is nothing holding me back from going all out with the holiday posts now. I have to say however, it is hard to get anything done or even concentrate because my head feels like it is going to explode. No, it’s not a cold, not too much eggnog, not a bad reaction from a piece of questionable fruit cake, it’s me trying to process ALL these TOYS!

I started innocently scanning through some ads we got in the mail to get a feel for what might work for Emma for her first Christmas and I was floored by the extreme toys I saw! Yes, when I was a kid I do remember a bunch of different toys and it seemed like each one was special in its own way, but when I look at any advertisement or walk down any toy isle now, I get dizzy and feel extremely overwhelmed. No wonder kids have ADD, every gadget has 20+ functions and hooks up to the computer so it can perform 40 more. Even understanding the simplest of items, a walker, felt like learning a whole new language. All I wanted for her was a simple toy she could use to help her get around, but instead I was bombarded with a barrage of strange objects that seemed to do even stranger things. One walker had so much stuff on it it’s a wonder any of the kids ever figure out there is a back side where they can actually pull themselves up to walk. What a novel idea for a walker!

Anyways, I was tempted to get her the simple Little Tikes walker that has the car attached to the front and that’s it, but it seemed like it might be for older kids, so I ended up picking a middle of the road walker. It has some musical stuff on the front of it, but not an overwhelming amount and we saw it in action over at a friend’s house so we know she will enjoy it. Bottom line though, I feel out of it, I feel like while I was off enjoying my pre-baby adulthood someone turned up the overload button on toys. I am tempted to buy Emma only simplistic toys but then would she fall behind other kids? It seems that is a discussion for another post, but for now, I am going to try to keep it as simple as I can. I mean she’s really going to pay more attention to the wrapping paper anyway, right?

Is it your baby’s first Christmas? Having a hard time navigating through all of the crazy kid toys? I’d love to hear about it! 

She’s Right In Front of Me

I just had an Aha moment! About a week ago, I meet up with an old high school friend to get Emma’s baby pictures taken. I had not gotten her pictures taken when she was first born and I sometimes regret not doing it but after seeing her pictures from our photo shoot I realized I had made the right decision to wait. Emma is so much more expressive now and so much more animated and it really translated well in the pictures!

In fact, Monika, our photographer, did an excellent job of capturing Emma from different angles and in different settings so much so that going through the pictures I began to see something that I had not seen before. Emma is in no way a one dimensional baby. In fact, she has already formed an incredibly complex personality and it came through brilliantly in the pictures. I was amazed to see the still images capturing the many sides to her personality. I figured I’d share them with you:

Bewilderment: As a baby, Emma is totally engrossed and amazed with the world around her. Everything is a new wonder to discover.  Some things are harder to figure out than others but she is ever wide eyed with amazement.

The “I think no one is looking so I will take a minute for myself” look: Emma does like to please the crowd and will smile more often than not, but sometimes she needs a break and has no problem taking one. She almost does it in a way where she thinks no one is paying attention and so she lets her inner thoughts play out on her face. “Yeah I see that they are trying to take my picture, which slightly amuses me, but I’m going to chill out on this chair.”

Angelic Innocence: Without even realizing it, she exudes this angelic sweetness just because. 

Joy: Often found on the face of my 5.5 month old, she is an extremely happy baby who loves to laugh along with anyone she keeps company with.

Time to “Get Serious”: For some reason, when she is trying out new sounds, specifically consonant sounds that might be a little advanced for her, she gets a very focused look on her face, like her future scholarly PhD essence is coming through.

Confident in Herself: She knows what she wants and goes for it. I see this one as her, “this is me” face. That’s right, this is my first time on a baby swing and I am doing just fine.

Food is Good/I love to try new things: Ever the explorer, Emma loves to try new things, solid foods included! She loves being able to sit up in her highchair like a big girl to partake in a ritual she sees the grownups doing, eating! She also gets excited if she is held standing up or is able to sit down next to you so she feels included.  

What are you doing: Ever aware of her human companions, Emma is like a sponge, soaking up every movement, every word, and every part of whoever is within close proximity. She observes everything with extreme attention to detail.

All of this was right in front of my face the entire time, Emma’s personality, her human complexities. It took the stillness of the pictures to capture each of her intricacies for me to truly be able to appreciate each of them, and start to begin to piece together who my Emma really is.

Our awesome photographer, Monika Catanzaro can be found at www.monikacatanzaro.com Check out the work done by this remarkable, creative mom!  

Christmas Shopping with a Baby

Alrighty, we’ve made it past Halloween right?  It’s almost Thanksgiving, so I would say we are ready for Christmas Holiday talk (I see some of you rolling your eyes). Well, actually, normally I would be on the side of the “Let me enjoy my Thanksgiving and wake me up from my comatose food sleep sometime in mid-December” people, but this year requires a little bit more planning. I have found that planning ahead for things in mommy world makes everything run a little bit smoother so do not hate me for my haste in planning out my holiday shopping.

Several questions are burning in my mind as I run through my long list of family members, co-workers, and other close friends we are required to have presents for (I am kind of working toward taking a minimalist approach to gift giving but that topic will be saved for another time.) So now, I have to figure out when I will either have someone to watch Emma or how many stores/ sales I can hit up before we reach baby meltdown.

I have a lot to do and Emma, on a good day, with maybe a nap thrown in, will last approximately 1.5-2 hours in a store at any given time. As I have previously mentioned, my child does not like to be confined in any type of small space. She is a mover so keeping her in the stroller is like torture. Baby wearing is out as well. She will sit for short periods of time in the stroller which is why I pretty much need to know exactly what I will be getting from the store and where it is located. It makes for a less laid back shopping experience, but I know I will have to bring her with me at some point during this holiday season. Here is my game plan:

1.      Write down list of family members/ gifts they are getting

2.     Do research at home for which store has good sales on said items

3.     Plan out which stores I will hit when, preferably stores I am familiar with the layout

4.     Have list of each person/ item/ price I will be purchasing at which store– this also helps me budget!

5.     Pack some good toys/ a binky/ food/ anything else that will help us make it through an hour and a half at the mall

And now I bid thee a farewell from my holiday OCD planning and say good luck shopping everyone! Do you have a well laid out plan to tackle your holiday season shopping? Do you have any holiday shopping horror stories? 

My Dream in a Galaxy Far Far Away

I know by now we have all heard the news that Disney bought out George Lucas which includes several franchises, but the only one anyone should be concerned about (ok the only one I care about) is the Star Wars franchise, particularly the creation of the next trilogy. Every day since I heard the news I have been very antsy and distraught to the point were I feel like I want to jump out of my skin with anxiety. There is A LOT riding on this. Which is why I am formally announcing that it would truly fulfill my life’s purpose if I was able to assist in the writing and production of these films! (No I don’t think I’m asking too much.)

I have a lot invested in Star Wars. It was the ultimate magical trilogy of my childhood. It is one of only a handful of things on this earth I share a strong bond with my father over. It impacted me so profoundly, that I wrote my own fan fiction sequel (one of my first lengthy pieces of writing). I should not need to reiterate any more how immensely important the success of these next films are to me. To add a cherry on top, these will be the trilogy of my daughter’s generation. I like to try to glaze over the memory of the prequel films and send out this plea for the next set since in all likelihood, the execs from Disney will not be knocking at my door. Please DO NOT MESS UP THESE MOVIES In the spirit of a blog favorite, I have decided to list my top 10 pieces of advise to Disney that will, I believe ensure the success of any future films to come.

      1. This I do feel is the most important and I know I might meet some resistance with this, but for my idea of success, please, please BRING BACK THE PUPPETS!!! If I have to see a graphically disturbing image of Yoda I might cry. For some reason to me, a wise, old Jedi is at his expressive best as a tangible 3D entity on screen

      2. To piggyback off of that, if you are going to have any digital graphics at all, get the best out there, or go back to the models! Yes, I said it! The magic of the models helped to make Star Wars what it was. Simplicity is best for this blogger.

     3. The plot: Do not make it overly complicated, keep it believable, and try to have a good balance of action and love story (yes I am going to be looking for a Solo, Leia for the new generation.)

      4. One or two BIG TWISTS please! No, not Luke is Jabba’s sister’s baby daddy but come up with something that will leave us captivated!

      5. Give us a cliffhanger! By the time I was able to watch the trilogy the whole Han Solo gets frozen thing was mystery solved. I would like a good nail bitter at the end of the second film.

      6. Characters – We all know what makes a great story, character development! Please give us some substance! (Particularly a badass female Jedi) There needs to be an absolutely believable villain and well thought out comic relief (R2D2 yes, JarJar Binks NO WAY)

      7. Dialog – Like those that have gone before, the dialog/ acting does not have to be spot on, it would be good, but not a must if 1-6 are followed!

      8.  I am certainly not apposed to bringing back old friends (Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher heck even good old Harrison, come on down!)

      9. Music – John Williams only – nothing more to say here

      10. Make it magical and awe-inspiring. I really don’t think that is too much to ask. People have to talk about this for another 30 years.

There is a lot ridding on this for me as well as others. Disney, I offer my expertise and advise to you free of charge, but feel free to contact me directly because I have not divulged major details of my ideas on here. And rest assured blog world I will always be waiting to do battle with my light saber and use the force but you Disney now hold the power to bring all of this to reality and for now, I am still nervous. 

How Our Family Is Like a Squeaky Rocking Chair

The house is quite. The faint aroma of baked chicken lingers in the air. Going down the hallway you can detect the sweet innocence of infancy. All is zen and peaceful and then…a sudden, loud, squeeeeaaaaak. And then another and another until a fast paced rhythm of squeaking fills the sound space.

Yes, this is the scene at our house every evening. Ear wrenching, squeaking, rocking chair!  It is completely unheard of, but we have a squeaky rocking chair. It is ridiculous I know. I keep wanting to ask my husband to oil it or do anything really, but I haven’t and maybe there is a reason behind that. The chair pretty much started squeaking about a month into baby life so Emma does not notice it. She’s been a squeaky rocking chair lover her whole life.  She will fall asleep with the rhythmic squeaks as if it was a sweet flute accompanying my lullaby humming.

Why do I keep it? How did this happen in the first place? After all this is our first child and therefore we should have a beautiful, quiet, new chair to match our new furniture set right? Actually, no. So the story goes, before I was pregnant or even had a thought about a nursery or booties or any of that, my husband and I were out driving around a neighborhood to see if we liked it as we were house  hunting at the time. Just as we were pulling out of the end of the neighborhood we saw a rocking chair on the curb in front of the last house on the street. My husband quickly pulled over. Free furniture!  The owner just so happened to be in the yard and was able to give us the footstool that went with it. There was no real logic behind picking it up. We kind of wanted a DIY fixer-upper project was all.

Fast forward three months, and we find out I am pregnant. Crazy right? So I reupholstered the cushions and my husband fixed the broken wood slats on the back and ta da! Good as new…for the first month. Then slowly but surely a loud squeak developed. No matter what position I put myself in on the chair there it is, but you know what else there is? The hard work both me and my husband put into the chair, each loving stich, each piece of wood cut. We made something beautiful for our child, something we seemed to have a futuristic intuition about. We are not perfect parents, we aren’t perfect people, and the chair is by no means perfectly put together, but like the chair, we plan to raise Emma and teach her that she doesn’t have to be perfect. She can grow up to be the person who she wants to be, imperfect, just like her mommy and daddy who put together an imperfect squeaky chair out of love.  That is what our family is. 

The Technology Meltdow

So I know we’ve all been there, that time when mommy’s “lovey” aka her cell phone, laptop, fill in the blank tech devise bites the dust. When your inner voice is yelling, “nooooo I did not back that up!” You try to keep your cool around the kids too, like no mommy is not freaking out right now.”

Well this happened to me yesterday. My cell phone, my lifeline, had been on the frits for a month or so and yesterday it decided to go to cell phone heaven.  I naturally was banging my head on my desk at work thinking of what an idiot I was for knowing the phone was near death and not taking the precaution to back up my data. Of course by data I mean all of the pictures my husband took at the hospital when Emma was born with my cell phone camera! (We took pictures on our digital camera too but those were not the same, ok they kind of were the same but you mommies know what I mean by NOT the same.) Not to mention all of those precious moments we had together while I was on maternity leave. Her first time in her bouncer, several smiling pictures which are SUPER hard to capture, some videos of her first babbling and laughing, all of those moments you capture on your cell phone because the camera is never at hand. 

After some extreme mommy guilt I ran over to the cell phone store at lunch to find all of my precious photos and video memories still intact after the cell phone associate waved his magic cell phone cool gadget wand. I was so elated! I have them saved now and I will be more careful with my “mommy lovey” from here on out.

So, just a quick word to the wise, plan ahead, back up your precious materials because you never know when that glass of water will spill or the dog finds a new chew toy.  You do not want to lose those precious moments! 

This versus That Parenting

While I am waiting to hear back on the blogs I submitted for publication, I cannot hold back on one topic that seems to present itself on almost a daily basis in my realm of mommydom. I have been letting this bother me since day one. Day one, when I ended up having a c-section that I did not want. Day one, when I was unable to breast feed. Here I was, thrown into certain situations that I had little control over that raised eyebrows among some. What kind of parent am I? How am I doing this and Why am I doing that? There is a lot being said about parenting, numerous blogs, numerous studies, basically a kick in the face of all sorts of information you had no idea you wanted to know about or needed to know about and most importantly had to have an established OPINION about on each meticulously outlined method in order to be able to defend yourself. 

As a new parent this can be exhausting and cause added stress. So, I wanted to let all of you out there know that you are not alone, I have gone through it all and here is what I have learned, bottom line (I come from the corporate world so I use this tool to help me get to the root of whatever issue I am faced with): no matter what anyone says or does you are able to chose what method of parenting and raising your child works for you. If you are reading this, if you have spent an entire afternoon on Google or reading through the American Pediatrics website, or marking up a book, then you already know you are a good parent. You are taking time to learn, to weigh all of your options so you can make the best choice for your child and your family. Some kids wish they had parents that would do that for them. 

Do you have to bottle feed? Do you have to work and send your child to daycare? Do you co-sleep? Do you baby wear? Do you let your baby cry it out? Well that is all up to you. Are you loving your child and proving them a good home environment and the necessities they need to succeed? That is the only question you need to ask yourself or worry about. Don't let others try to talk you down. Have confidence in who you are as a person and what you do as a family. Besides, we are all different. The world is made up of such a diverse complexity of people. If we all raised our children exactly alike we might not get the amazing variety of humanity that exists. 

Let's not forget, bottom line, we are all in this together, trying to raise our kids to become the people they are gong to be.