When did that happen?

I was sitting at the family medicine clinic on base this morning, playing with Luke, when he opened his mouth to babble at me and I saw two teeth poking through. The bottom middle ones, to be all scientific about it. And they are fully showing their ridges, so it's not like they just popped out last night. Or maybe they did? I feel like I haven't been paying attention to him enough to know when his first two teeth appeared! GAH. Next I'll find that he can crawl and I just haven't happened to notice it yet.

I was at the lovely clinic this morning because I have had a sore throat for more than two months. I know. The nurse looked at me the way you are looking at me right now, too. But I have three kids. Life is sort of . . . hectic . . . around here. I finally got annoyed enough this week to actually make an appointment, and because I really want to know if I have mono or strep, the only two illnesses that would sort of make sense given my symptoms. Anyway, they gave me a prescription for deconamine (because they say allergies and congestion are causing my sore throat), which after minimal research on my part, sounds like a bad idea given that I am still nursing Luke. The nurse on base said I was okay to take it, but I have a call in to my OB, *just to make sure*. C'mon, ask me how I feel about more government health care!

The girls have been making me crazy lately. Or maybe it's just that I'm exhausted (see reference to sore throat above). They are back to their nighttime antics, which include staying up until approximately 9:30pm, or sometimes even 10:00, talking, shrieking, and generally misbehaving. Then, they wake up between 6-7am, crabby but unwilling to go back to sleep. This morning Claire laid down on the kitchen floor, refusing to put her shoes on and get in the car for school. Awesome. I'm trying something new tonight: Kate will be in bed by 7:00, and will hopefully fall asleep before Claire arrives for bed around 8:00. Wish me luck. Or send me some whiskey. Someone is likely to need a stiff drink tonight.

At wit's end

I'm not sure precisely where 'wit's end' is, but I believe it hovers somewhere between 'won't sleep past 6am', 'won't nap longer than 1.25 hours', and 'won't fall asleep before 9pm'. Kate is killing me. She is exhausted, but not to the point of actually sleeping. She is becoming increasingly bossy, and perhaps slightly more aggressive towards her sister. I have put dark curtains over her bedroom windows, but she is still up at the break of day, loudly whispering, "shhhhhhhhhhhh" in a way that wakes me and Claire up, if Claire has not already been awakened by Kate throwing things at her in her crib. There's nothing like a captive audience.

I am becoming evermore desperate, and even gave Kate benadryl before yesterday's nap in an effort to get her to sleep longer. Instead of sleeping for 1 hour and 10 minutes, she slept for 1 hour and 20 minutes.

We can't get our gate to work, but I may be willing to purchase a brand new one soon just to keep her in her room. Other ideas?

Readjusting, a request for ideas, and the zoo

I knew I shouldn't have posted about Kate sleeping in. She has been up by 6:30am the past two days. But her afternoon nap seems to be back, so I guess it's a trade off? I used to have a window from about 12-12:30 for putting her down, and if I made it, she would sleep beautifully. Now my window has moved. I'm trying to figure out where it has moved to, because having her play in her room for 2 hours before she finally falls asleep seems a little much. And when she does that, she doesn't wake up until 4-4:30pm (or sometimes closer to 5pm) and then bedtime is all messed up. I suppose this shift could also have something to do with the fact that we have been cooped up for so long that she just has excess energy.

We went to the zoo today, where she got to run around and climb on things, and what do you know: I put her to bed and she stayed there and fell asleep almost immediately. Huh. So I bought an annual pass. We'll be going at least once a week until it's triple digits. And next time I'll bring my camera.

We are headed to Michigan in 2 weeks to visit family and friends. I know several of you have a plethora of experience taking toddlers on airplanes, and so I ask you - no, I beg you - please tell me how you do it! We have 2 flights each way, and it's sure to be painful if I don't have a plan.

Trial; Also: is it the weekend yet?

I've been sneaking teeny bites of vanilla yogurt to Claire. Don't worry: no one's been looking, and therefore she's kept it down. I think it's like the dieting thing. If no one sees you eat that hot fudge brownie sundae with whipped cream and 2 cherries (what?), no actual calories are consumed and therefore you do not gain any weight. So, it's been Claire's and my little secret. Anyway, she keeps grabbing for my fork of citrus chicken, or trying to divert my peppermint pattie-laden hands to her mouth. I am certain that she is not supposed to eat poultry or chocolate at this point, so I opted for carrots this afternoon instead. It's been an hour. She is sleeping, so either when I hear her wake up she will be lying in a puddle of orange guck, or she'll be happy as a clam and arching her eyebrow at me as if to say, "Why haven't you given me more of that good solid food yet?" My response will be, of course: because.

Are there anymore carrots in here?

Jen & Claire.

Claire, Tim & Kate after breakfast.

Today is the birthday of the Air Force. Personally? Woo-hoo. But, to celebrate, we went to breakfast together this morning on base. As in before swim lessons. Before 7am. Before any of us were truly awake. Dear God I am tired. It's been a long week, especially since neither Tim nor I had a weekend last week. Right now both of the girls are sleeping. And what am I doing? Blogging. I have a serious problem, folks.

The Drive

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, we made it. Actually, we made it here about a week ago already. Time flies. The trip up was...interesting. We drove through Phoenix to LA where we picked up I-5 and headed north for what seemed like Forever. And we, of course, learned some things along the way.

Like:

• It's probably better to not leave for vacation after your husband has worked a half-day. It is very unlikely that you will be able to leave within, say, a few hours of when you thought you would.



• Also, make sure your doctor tells CVS that you would like your prescription ready sooner rather than later when she calls them to order it for you. That way hopefully it will be ready in less than 4 hours.



• It is probably better to have all car maintenance performed on your vehicle before you leave for your trip.



• If google maps says it will take you 4 hours to drive from Tucson to Blythe, and you have 2 children under the age of 2, and you are leaving at rush hour on a Friday, it will take you far longer than what google says it will.
  
  
• In 'N Out Burgers near the freeway cause traffic jams for miles.



• Booking your hotels online prior to leaving on your vacation does not allow for much flexibility.



• Almost-2-year-olds get a little giddy when they miss their nap every day for 4 days and also go to bed at 10pm every night.



• 5-month olds just get crabby with above schedule.



• Sitting in a car for 8-10 hours a day is no fun for anyone. Especially for the driver who is sitting in front of a toddler who can kick the seat.



• California traffic is horrible. It's probably a good idea to plan for an extra 1-2 hours each day for that alone. If you don't plan for traffic, it is highly frustrating when you realize how very wrong google maps is on drive time.



• Potty breaks with 2 children under the age of 2 do not take 5 minutes. Especially when the Patton museum is right next door and the toddler's daddy wants to show her the cool 'targets'.

We did learn some good things on the trip. It's great to spend so much time with your kids; you learn a lot about their habits, their preferences and what they know. For instance, Kate can now count from 1 to 10, and is speaking in 3-4 word sentences. She is also able to say the alphabet from a-g, and will sometimes say more with help. She loves to sing, and often tries to sing Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star and Black Horse by KT Tunstall. Who knew.

We are pretty sure we saw a McLaren pass us on I-5 in California. It was going too fast for me to get a picture.

And you never know what you will see on your drive through Cali. For a moment, we thought we were back in Korea.

Oh.

McLaren had her 4mo appointment yesterday, and I found out that apparently she doesn't have baby acne (still), but that we might need to change detergents. The doctor said it's a rash. It doesn't really look like a rash, but seeing as how she's had baby acne since, well, birth, perhaps we'll give this other detergent thing a go. Poor kid. I thought she was just getting it all out of her system now, as opposed to getting acne when she's a teenager. What? It could happen.

So I've been rethinking some things. Like maybe we should move the gate back to where we had it before:

Kate is enjoying having free access to her room, but I am not enjoying picking up all of her clothes after hurricane Katrina hits the dresser.

Oh, and single moms? Not sure how you do it. But now I have a newfound respect for you. Tim has not been gone long, and I am exhausted, have a headache, and just want some time by myself and perhaps a chance to sleep in. I'm not complaining, just saying. So, Tim: be prepared when you get home from your vacation. I'm sleeping in next weekend.

Let the Madness of March End

I have become one of 'those' moms.

I think it started 2 weeks ago when Tim had to work through the weekend. He had to fly that Saturday, and then work the airshow that Sunday. I was not pleased; not only did it mean that he wouldn't get a weekend and much-needed rest, it meant that I wouldn't get a weekend, either. And we all know I need my rest.

Since then, it seems like we've been playing catch up. But I haven't quite caught up and I'm wondering when I'm going to finally feel like we're on top of things. Add in craziness like a doctor's appointment for me on Monday, a dentist appointment for me on Tuesday (both of which took several hours when you add in time for driving the kids to and from daycare), me getting either food poisoning or a short case of the flu after a trip to the mall food court on Wednesday, a photo shoot of the girls earlier that morning, and Kate having some flu symptoms yesterday and today, and you get very behind.

Three loads of clean laundry on our bed.

Living room disaster.

Tim came home on Thursday night and suggested we hire a maid for some 'help' once or twice a month. Some women would take offense. Not me. Hire away, sweet husband! The dust bunnies that are bigger than Claire need to be tamed. How do other mothers do it? I guess it gets easier as the newborn becomes not so newborn? I hope so, so I can actually get around to updating the baby books, ordering photo prints, and dusting my bedroom. Also, I apologize to those of you who have called in the past, say, month, for not calling you back. You're on my list.

In the meantime:

Why I Shouldn't Leave the House With Less Than Five Hours of Sleep

I've learned recently that more than one outing a day can be hazardous to my sanity. Also, fewer than 3 outings a week will cause me to feel cabin feverish, especially since it's so nice out right now.

Yesterday was Claire's 1 month check-up. Kate, Claire and I packed up gear and toys into the car for the 1.7 mile ride to the doctor's office. Once out of the car, Kate immediately ran in the opposite direction that I wanted to go. Carrying a diaper bag, a baby in a car seat and trying to herd a toddler all at once is ... challenging. Forget about taking that cup of coffee inside with you - there's no way to make it happen.

The highlights of Claire's well-baby exam:

• height 21" (20" at birth)


• weight 10lb 10oz (8lb 5oz at birth)

Apparently all that regurgitation of food has not affected her ability to pack on the chub.

We came back home and got ready to head out to playgroup at Erin's. Kate was already showing the signs of sleepiness (at 10:30am) but I ignored them, convinced that her social well-being was at stake because we never go anywhere to play with other kids. We got to Erin's and Kate was excited to see other children, play with Erin's dog, and play in the grass. Claire was sleeping peacefully in her car seat. Way to go, Jen; this was a great idea. I mentally patted myself on the back.

Then, just like it did with Tim last week, all hell broke loose at once. It was lunchtime and Kate couldn't be corralled. She is used to sitting in her highchair for meals, and without it she won't stay still to eat. I couldn't hold her because Claire woke up and needed coddling. Before I could get Kate any food, Claire spit up (read: vomited a gallon of milk) all over me and down my shirt. She has this way of doing that; she turns her head and spits right down my shirt. Mmm. Covered in baby goo, that's how I wanted the afternoon to go.

So Deb gets some food for Kate and tries to feed her and her daughter while sitting on a blanket on the grass. Kate kicks over her plate of food and walks through the fruit salad on the blanket to get to me. Claire is screaming (why, I'm not sure. I was the one covered in goo), and I am verbally questioning my desire to have kids so close in age to one another. Kate wanders out to the porch and tries to sit in a chair but falls down and bumps her head. Melissa picks her up and tries to calm her down.

These were all warning signs of Kate's pending meltdown, but I didn't see them. Why? Because I had too little sleep the night before. Kate wandering around looking like she is drunk and bumping into things is a sure sign that she is exhausted. I guess me not picking up on the cues is a sure sign that I am.

I decided that we were done and asked Erin to hold Claire while I took Kate out to the car. I carried her down the long driveway, put her in her car seat and buckled the seat belt, and drove up to the door to go get Claire. I think by the time I made it back out to the car Kate was already half-asleep. I snapped the baby seat in and we were off. We were halfway down Sabino Canyon road (which is really like a highway) when I noticed that Kate was so tired that she was falling forward as she nodded off to sleep. I called her name, apologizing to her that I had kept her out so late. She sat up and then leaned forward again. Wow, she is so tired. I have never seen her do that; she must be absolutely exhausted, poor kid. She was sleeping on her lap, totally bent over at the waist. Then, after about another minute of this, I realized why she was leaning over so far. I had forgotten to tighten her seat belt. Duh. You can't lean over that far if your harness is tight. Way to go, mom.

And that is why I should not leave the house with less than five hours of sleep.

On the positive side, Kate slept for 4 hours yesterday afternoon, allowing me to get my first daytime nap since Tim's mom left. Hallelujah.

Random Stuff

I ought to be napping, but I wanted to update my faithful readers before doing so. Be forewarned that I'm working on new-mommy sleep deprivation and therefore this might be not only random but also slightly incoherent. But, you will get photos, so it's all good.



We made it to the park this morning, me, Kate and Claire. Christy is in town from MO, and invited several of us to meet up with her, Taylor and Jack. It's challenging, going to the park with a newborn and a 17-month old. Kate isn't really into taking direction, so it's slow-going. She is into exploration, which is entertaining and messy. Today she decided to try to climb something but fell down and ended up with a mouth- and nose-full of rocks. Seem familiar? This was also accompanied by a scrape on her nose which bled slightly, and a fit of crying. I was attending to Claire at the time, who had started crying. Yee-haw.


This all followed our packing up into the car before heading to the park: I had Kate outside while I unlocked the doors and started the car. Kate wandered down the driveway, like she usually does (except this time she didn't have her push-toy to slow her down). This meant that Kate was at the end of the driveway while I was in the carport watching her. She is very good about not going in the street, but others don't know this (and I'm always, always close by watching just in case) and a car with a woman driving past our house stopped and gawked as she watched this toddler wander aimlessly close to the street without a parent in sight. Somehow this annoyed me. I am sure she was just concerned that I was not aware of Kate's proximity to the street, but I felt the judging eyes: Where is this child's absentee mother?? Why is she letting her child play in traffic? Ah, well. She stopped well-short of the street and after the so-concerned lady left (without doing a thing about Kate), I went and picked Kate up and put her in the car.



Okay, that was a lot of writing and now I need a nap. Y'all enjoy these photos.

I wonder how many things I can get into while Mama changes that baby's diaper.

Woo-hoo! Claire has been evicted and the bouncy seat is now mine!

Yes, she is watching the Today Show.

Mommy's Lil Fighter Pilot. Hey, you never know.

Bath time.

Weekend Update

My dad and step-mom visited over the weekend, and Kate and Claire got to spend time with their grandparents.

After they left, we took the kids to the park. Kate loved the slide, even when she went down all by herself and got a mouth and nose full of dirt and rocks. Woohoo, parents of the year award goes to us!

And now that I've updated you with all sorts of information, I'm going to try to take a nap. My 3 hours of sleep last night are wearing thin.

If It Isn't One...

...you can bet your bottom dollar that it will be the other. This applies to issues involving:

• feedings
• wake time
• crying fits
• illness
• teething
• general neediness

Tim's mom left last night. She'd been here since the day before Claire was born, and Kate had gotten used to having her Grandma around to play with her, feed her, get her up in the morning, and take her on walks. I had gotten used to having someone here to cook, do dishes, take care of Kate (and Claire if I needed a nap), and listen to me question my sanity at our decision to have children so close in age to one another.

Over the weekend, Claire had regressed in her nighttime sleep habits. She was back to sleeping for a bit and then waking up pretty much every time you left her in her crib and walked out of the room. I was concerned about how she would do (and how we would do) during our first night without mom here to help if we needed her.

Claire did great. She slept when I wanted her to, waking up every 3 hours to eat. Awesome.

Kate did not do so well. She was up until 2:30am, screaming at the top of her lungs (I'm pretty sure you could hear her at the end of our driveway. Seriously. It was that loud.). I do not know why. I didn't know why then, and I don't know why now. Tim tried to get her to sleep on his chest (he thought maybe she was upset that Claire got to do this and she wanted to do the same). No luck. He took her into the guest room to sleep in the big bed. No luck. He slept on the floor next to her crib. No luck. He fed her some milk and fruit puffs around midnight. Gave her Tylenol. Tried rocking her. No luck. The only blessing that I can think of about last night is that Claire slept through it all. I don't know how, but it was good that at least one of the kids got some sleep and gave us some peace.

I think Kate must be teething something fierce. Why the Tylenol didn't do anything, I don't know. It's after 3pm now, and she is just finally quieting down to nap. She has been in her crib since about 1pm, screaming, talking, crying, and generally being miserable.

Us, we are exhausted. Tim cancelled his first flight this morning, and I'm not even trying to nap right now because Claire is currently refusing to sleep. So I'm here blogging, one-handed, as I cradle her in my left arm. Are you sure you don't want us to build that guesthouse in the backyard, mom?

All it Takes

Apparently, all it takes for Claire to sleep peacefully at night is for her to know that her Daddy is on night duty in addition to her Mama. Oh, it's not just Mom I'm going to keep awake all night? I guess I'll sleep between each feeding. The last 2 nights have been much better than the one I posted about last time. Claire is back in swaddle-loving mode, and I am getting more sleep. I still don't know what I'm going to do when Grandma Cheri leaves, though. She is allowing me the opportunity to nap whenever I need to, and to sleep in.

Tonight is a majors promotion party, and Tim and I are headed out for our first 'date night' since Claire was born. It will be an early night, I'm sure, but it will be great to get out and see people and it will be fabulous to have a beer!

More photos later; both the babes are sleeping right now. I'll try to catch them in action later this afternoon, as Kate tries to hit her sister with the school bus, or Claire tries to launch milk back at Kate.

Growing and Growing

13 days old. I don't want to wake up, Mom.

Claire had her 2 week well-baby check up this morning. She's 13 days old now and weighs 8lbs 9oz, and is 21" long. That's some growing since she was born! She was 8lb 5oz and 20" then, so the doctor says she's doing just fine.

Unfortunately, she is back to sleeping most of the day and crying at night. Swaddling is no longer working for me, and I am once again tired. Last night was a tough one - she was particularly fussy and I think I was up with her more than I was in bed. I remember Kate not wanting to wake up during the day, too, but I don't remember what I did about it. Maybe that's why I was in such a fog for the first 4-6 weeks of her life.

The problem was probably that we had a tasty dinner of roast pork, potatoes and broccoli, followed by pie. Claire knew that her sister got pie, and she didn't get any. Not fair! I'm going to stay awake all night!

Pie after dinner.

Mommy put Cool Whip on my nose.

Getting More Sleep, One Burrito at a Time

Burrito Claire.

I was worried, those first few days home from the hospital. You get kind of spoiled when you're still in your room at St Joe's here; the nurses come and whisk your baby off to the nursery at the impression of a button on your bed. Sleep, blissful sleep. Then you get home 2 days later, and find that those nurses were the best friends you had while you were there. They comfort your baby, swaddle her, change her diaper, feed her if you ask them to, and generally play 'mommy', all so you can rest. At home, you have no nurses to help. Lucky for me, I have Tim's mom here to help out for a few weeks, but we've been having her take care of Kate for the most part. Claire is up to us.



And sleep was not on her agenda the first couple of days she was home. At least no sleep at night. That's the time to fuss and cry! The time to have diaper blowouts, spit-up contests, and time to expend all efforts to wake your older sister! Two girls crying at 3am, now that's fun.



We spent the first 2 nights on the sofa, rotating shifts. Claire would sleep on top of my chest as I reclined on the couch, trying to get comfortable and keep her from crying at the same time. We began to doubt our choice of homes. Our floor plan is not conducive to containing the screams from either a 2 day old or a 16 month old without waking the other one up. Or waking up the entire household (and maybe the neighbors), for that matter.



I thought back to Kate's newborn days and tried to remember if she was the same way. She was. I think we were having the same problems, too. Gassy baby (from me drinking milk), screams throughout the night, wanting to eat every 1 1/2 hours or so. And because I was sleep-deprived, I gave in. I let her sleep on me, I fed her every 90 minutes, and I was exhausted.



It was time for an intervention. The next day I began stretching out the feedings, and I stopped drinking milk. The gassy baby problem disappeared almost immediately (making me wonder if it really is milk, but I'm not about to start drinking it again for at least a couple more weeks), and Claire started napping better. She still woke up at night, though. So I thought back to our days in the hospital, and remembered that they had given us 2 blankets that were the perfect size for swaddling a newborn. I wrapped her up tight, arms down at her sides. And the silence was deafening. Peaceful, glorious sleeping baby. Now Claire gets swaddled every night, and we get about 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep until she's hungry again. Whew.

Poopie suit.