Sleep Baby Sleep

I’ve created a MONSTER. She’s 5 months old with cheeks like a cherub, but inside her is a little demon that won’t sleep, by herself. So let me tell you a story of exhaustion and sleep deprivation, because clearly you don’t probably already have one of your own. Pippa was the newborn that slept ALL THE TIME, it was insane and a total 180 from Brecken who never slept, hated to sleep and still to this day fights it like a champ. Pippa was always sleeping, to the point people would joke that they had never seen her eyes. I would literally fret about whether to wake her to eat having been engrained with the mantra to never wake a sleeping babe, but what if they hadn’t eaten in almost 6 hours, holy god whose child slept like that, all the time. Mine did. So where did I go wrong? I was greedy. Pippa would generally sleep for anywhere from 3.5-5 hours straight each night in her bassinet in our room (before you get too jealous it was usually 3.5-4), then wake up and nurse, sleep another 1 -2 hours and then wake up again to nurse more, usually around this time Jeff would be getting up to get ready to go to work. After that last nursing she was never too keen on going back to sleep in her bassinet so I would eventually cave and let her sleep with me to get that extra hour or so before Brecken would wake up (usually around 7:30-7:45). I know what you’re saying you judgy judgers “OH NO YOU DI-INT”. I did. And that brilliant little baby caught right on, snapped her little fingers and said WHOA WHOA WHOA Lady I am not going to sleep in this stinky old (from when we we’re kids) bassinet when I can sleep in that big bed with you and Papa! She did this through never-ending screaming when I tried to put her in her bassinet or anywhere else to sleep, crib, pack and play, wherever a warm body was not present.

So now I don’t dream. Because I sleep curled up with a baby in the crook of my arm. Why the crook of my arm you say, because I’m neurotic and terrified that if she isn’t curled up in my arm we will somehow smother her in her sleep. So I know some of you are like what’s the biggie, people co-sleep all the time. Yup there are lots of co-sleepers out there and co-sleeping, specifically planned co-sleeping, is GREAT. This was not planned co-sleeping, my bed is not that big and I just want to dream again and curl my arms around my husband or starfish on my stomach some or most nights. All things impossible with Pippa present. So why don’t I just let her cry it out. Without debating the merits of such practices, eventually I will have to, but what makes our situation different is that she shares a room with her brother. We did this so we could use the main floor bedroom in our house (we have 2 upstairs and 1 main level bedroom) as a play room. So if she cries it out, no one sleeps, not her cranky brother, her Papa who has to go to work and myself who either has to go to work or deal with two super grumpy kids all day. And if you’re thinking well she might only cry for a few minutes, been there tried that. She will scream relentlessly for.what. seems. like. forever. but at the very least is in the hour+ range. SO little by little I keep trying to put her down randomly to get her to catch a few zzzz’s not in my lap, arms, or otherwise attached to my body with little success, but will just keep on trying until I break and let her scream the whole household awake. Unless of course anyone else has some brilliant ideas they would like to share or the government approves drugging your baby.

That was a joke, you can calm down I will not drug my baby. I swear. But Pippa…please, Sleep Baby Sleep!

Sweet Sweet Breakfast Treat

I love Pinterest, I might be addicted to Pinterest. In fact I was wondering if they will start having support groups for people who spend too much time on Pinterest. P.A.A. Pinterest Addicts Anonymous perhaps? But as much as I love the hunting, finding, pinning and the nosing around what other people are pinning, I really like to actually try to recreate some of the things I’ve pinned. SO in full disclosure I thought I would share my successes and failures with you. This week we made Baked Oatmeal with Strawberries, Chocolate and Bananas from Pinterest and it was DELICIOUS! We used Steel Cut Oats because that was all we had on hand but it made it just a little chewier than I imagine rolled oats would and we were ok with that. It was pretty chocolatey which wasn’t a bad thing but I think next time I am going to experiment and try substituting raisins for the chocolate chips to make me feel like it’s a healthier option. But lemme tell you, there will DEFINITELY be a next time. Heres to hoping my 2 year old doesn’t think we’re going to eat something like this for breakfast everyday because lets be honest, most days breakfast comes from a box!

If anyone is somehow not on Pinterest that wants to be, leave a comment with your email and I will be sure to get you an invite.

Only in our house…

Only in our house are we enjoying one of those rare moments of silence only to look over and find Cash the dog literally wearing a pair of Jeff’s underwear. Perhaps he was cold? Maybe he enjoys the smell, Eau de Underwear? Needless to say it’s a small miracle we didn’t wake Brecken up with our laughter. I honestly thought I was going to pee my pants. Now to answer the question I know you’re all asking, did we take them off? Hell no, who are we to ruin his fun/ warmth/smell/dumb luck besides it’s more fun to wait and watch him try to get out of them which I guarantee he will eventually do!

Hello world!

“Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than a whole one!” -E.B. White

Somehow I feel like E.B. White may not have had the exclamation point at the end, but I feel it’s important. To whittle this down, I think it really means who the H is perfect and why the H would you want to be. So welcome to our family, our perfectly little cracked pot, because while most definitely not perfect, most days I wouldn’t change a thing.

That means that most days are spent wrangling a 2 year old while trying to pay attention to a 5 month old, keeping track of the zoo, 2 hound dogs, 2 naughty cats and a partridge in a pear tree and trying to keep some semblence of sanity and a minimal level of hygiene. OK so mayyyyybeeeee there’s not the partridge, but I assure you it’s a zoo nonetheless. As a former full time working mother, I must admit, I thought you stay at home moms had it easier. This is working mother lie number 1, it makes us feel better about leaving our children at daycare, or at least it did for me. When I realized that not only did I not love being a lawyer but I had the rest of my life to not love being a lawyer, I did what any young lawyer mama with a mountain of student loan debt and an understanding employer would do, I went down to two days a week after the birth of Philippa aka “Pippa” my second bambino, who trailed her brother’s birth by a very short 19 months.

Now I leave the chaos that is being a mostly stay at home mom for a workcation two days a week, where I’m constantly waiting for someone to yell “NO MINE” “Me Have Some” at me, but utterly enjoy the silence that is my office and the ability to pee on my own. Welcome to my cracked pot.