Sometimes, the 10 minute ride to work is just TOOO far

In the driveway at home....

In the parking garage at work...

OMG - 8 hours!!

Thankyou Zozo!! She slept 8 hours last night! WHOOHOO!

Yesterday was...well, it started off with a night of Zoe getting up every hour and a half. Then JJ's pullup had a total fail during the night - TWICE. So, that's two bed changes (he's sleeping with us, so it's not just changing his sheets, it's changing ours). Then the dog throws up in her crate. Needless to say, getting ready for the day was less than pleasant.

Now this morning....well, JJ had another pull up fail, but it didn't happen until I was already up for the day, plus I got 7 hours of sleep last night (thankyou Zoe!), so it didn't seem quite so tragic. The dog threw up again, this time on the carpet in the living room and one of the cats also threw up, but in the den (just to make sure we have to clean ALL the carpets). Sigh.

But I can't be too upset - it's hard to be down when you've had enough sleep for a change!

Night weaning: Progress report

So far so good! We've decided no nursing from 11pm-6am. The first two nights went great - I just made the boobs inaccessible and he went right back to sleep, no complaints. Last night however....well, the poor little guy came down with a bad head cold and at 3am there was NO taking no for an answer. So I caved. But that's normal for when the kid is sick, so I'm not too worried about it. We'll do better tonight.

Recurring Nightmare

JJ woke up last night, very upset. And I do mean VERY upset. Crying, clearly frightened. I brought him to bed with us, and it got *worse* - the minute he realized I was trying to put him down on the bed, he started throwing himself around, pitching a fit. We finally got him calmed down enough to talk to us (well, communicate as well as an 18 month old can), and he told us that there was a man in the backyard looking in the bathroom window. This is the second time he's woken up with this dream (and it clearly is a dream - he hadn't even been in the bathroom to be able to see if anyone was looking in the window). He wouldn't go back to sleep until John took him outside and showed him the backyard and all the corners to prove there was no one back there! Even after that he slept very restlessly, waking up a lot. Poor little guy.

I feel so bad for him having these nightmares, and at the same time it gives me the shivers. I mean, where would he have gotten the image of a man in the back yard looking in the bathroom window and associated it with being a scary thing? Creepy.

Quacking in his sleep

Night before last, JJ is in bed with us when suddenly he belts out in a very loud clear voice "QUACK QUACK QUACK DUCK!" then starts snoring softly. Never woke up the whole time. You have to wonder....what was THAT dream all about?

Night terrors

You wake to your baby screaming.  He's terrified - you can hear it in the high pitched wail, see it in his staring eyes that can't see you, feel it in the tension of his little body as he thrashes trying to get away from whatever demons pursue him.  You can't wake him - his eyes are open but he doesn't recognize anything or anyone and he screams so hard it makes him choke and cough.  Tear stream down his face and there's nothing nothing nothing you can do.  This is what it is like when your child has night terrors, more properly called "confusional arousal". JJ has had these episodes about once or twice a month since he was around 3 or 4 months old.  Usually they only last about 5 minutes, and at first we thought it was just a bad dream.  Last night though he had an episode that lasted 15 minutes - which is a life time for a helpless parent.  I hope he never has another one.

The law of conservation does not apply to babies

It's true.  The law of conservation states that in a closed system, mass will be conserved.  It might be converted to a different form (like energy) but it doesn't magically disappear or appear.  This, however, does NOT pertain to babies. Examples:

Sleep Volume - a small baby, that fits comfortably in his tiny bassinet with room to spare will take up 5 times as much space when placed in a bed with his parents.  

Liquid Mass - regardless of how much liquid intake an infant has, his output - be it in the form of drool, pee, or spit up - will be easily twice what was consumed.  

I'm reasonably certain that babies some how tap into extradimensional spaces, perhaps via a worm hole.  It must be something we forget how to do as we get older ...

Slept 9 hours!!!

Elves have snatched my baby and left a changling in his place. Except it's a changeling that naps really well and sleeps all night! JJ has always been upside down on his sleep - that is, babies are supposed to sleep like 14 hours a day or something and he's typically awake 14 hours a day. He rarely naps over an hour (usually only 20 minutes at a time) and he wakes up at least once, usually twice a night to eat, only sleeping 3-4 hours at a stretch. Well, Saturday night he slept 8.5 hours! So I'm thinking "total fluke". Then during the day he took 3 naps - 2 2.5 hour naps and 1 1hour nap. WTF?!?!? Then last night, he slept 9.5 hours and this morning he is currently asleep and has been for an hour and 40 minutes.

So, on the one hand, I'm all "whoohoo!" and on the other hand I'm like "what's wrong with him?" He's not running a temp and he's not fussy or cranky or anything - he's his usual upbeat and happy self. I think I may call the pediatrician just in case. How whacky is that - being worried because he's sleeping enough? Ugh - sometimes I think being a mommy means not being happy unless you're worried about something!

7 1/2 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG - he slept 71/2 hours in a row last night! Whahoo! Of course, I woke up every 3 hours wondering why he wasn't awake and checking his breathing, but still very cool...

7.5 hours!!!

Apparently my dire predictions of sleeplessness were for naught. JJ slept 7.5 hours - and I had to wake him up just now because I'm not entirely sure he's supposed to. I mean, if he sleeps much longer, he'll "miss" a feeding. Not something I thought I'd have to worry about. I guess I better call the pediatrician to see how long is too long. It would be really cool if he says "let him sleep"!!! (fingers and toes crossed)

Airing ourselves out

Well, this is my last week before I'm back at work so I thought I'd venture out with JJ and meet Angela for lunch at the local Rice Boxx. I was having trouble getting JJ to nap and had hoped it would help (for some babies it's the car, for my little social butterfly, it's a noisy restaraunt, go figure). We had a great time having a little lunch then going for coffee at Starbuck's. Not much luck on the nap though - maybe I should've gone to PF Chang's!

The fallacy behind "sleep when the baby sleeps"

Hah! The most common, most accurate, and most impossible to follow advice given to new parents - "sleep when the baby sleeps" Seems like sound advice when you realize babies sleep like 14 hours a day. Naturally, there's the inclination to finally get something other than diaper changes, feeding, brping, playing, and attempting to figure out what's wrong now - but that's not the biggest problem with this advice. No, the biggest problem s that the little booger only sleeps an hour at a time most times! I don't know about you, but it takes me a good15-20 minutes to drop off to sleep - longer if I'm wound up. By the time I'm actually getting into deep sleep, the baby wakes up again. And I feel worse than if I'd just stayed awake! Ugh.

Ah, sweet elusive sleep...

Ah, for a night with more than 3 hours in a row of sleep... here we are at the 3am feeding again, and I am hoping he'll go back to sleep easily as soon as he finishes. I read the other day that babies have a different sleep cycle than adults - only 60 minutes with 20 minutes being in the "light, easily woken" stage. It's a survival thing, apparently - because they have such tiny tummies, they need to wake up whenever they're hungry (which for JJ seems like all the time - he is such a bottomless pit!). If they slept too deeply for very long, they might not get the nutrition they need. One more interesting factoid in the strangeness that is baby...

I've moved my computer to my bedside table so I can work online for these middle of the night sessions - might as well make use of the time, since I'm up! (besides, I'm out of trashy novels and my comprehension level for school texts at 3am is, shall we say, less than ideal ;) )