Extreme Exhaustion

Ugh.  Bear is sick as I mentioned before.

Since Friday night he has been up ALL night.  SCREAMING.  It seems to be getting better.  However, I’m beat.

I got up at 5AM (after having gone to bed at 1AM.  How come when you have to get up you can never fall asleep?) and rocked him.  We laid together in the recliner and watched the early morning news. 

And about every 10 minutes they rotated through and kept repeating that there was no traffic on the highways.  Who woulda thunk? Finally at 8 I dozed on and off until about 8:45 when Bear started thrashing and crying.

We were up for the day.  He’s been doing much better today, eating an entire container of baby food and almost a whole yogurt.  For the past week he’s only managed half a container of food. He’s just irritable now, hopefully the writhing and thrashing and screaming has passed.

But this makes for a very tired Mama.

No frugalness here.  No craftiness either.  Hopefully I have more to contribute as I catch up on sleep.

Oh and showering.

Gluten - You Fiend!

So, I was doing well on my gluten-free diet (here and here) and had a CRAVING for some cake.  Of course it was amazing bakery cake that my neighbor dropped off and was sitting there taunting me.  TAUNTING ME I TELL YOU!.

So I've slipped a couple bites of gluten in the past few weeks with no ill side effects.  So I stupidly convince myself to eat the cake with Hubs.

Fast forward to today.  I have a serious headache, I feel hungover.  I am angry, irritable, depressed, moody.  I yelled at Bear and then left the room to bawl my eyes out.

Methinks gluten is no good!  So for now I'm going to take a relaxing bath while Bear naps in his crib and just try to keep my cool for the rest of today.

So far my breakfast has been gluten free and I've got dinner in the crockpot.

CrockPot Pot Roast
1 Large Vidalia Onion
about 2 lbs potatoes (I used about 5 medium potatoes)
3 lb chuck roast, top round, bottom round (whatever cut of meat you prefer, just make sure it has some fat, it will help keep your meat moist)
Carrots - I actually didn't put any in because I was positive I had a whole bag, and yep they're not there
McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning (If you're GF read the labels!  This is one of the only premixed seasonings I buy.  And this time I got a huge low sodium one from the dented can store for $1!)

I used a 6qt crockpot

1) Peel and quarter vidalia onion, lay in bottom of crock pot.
2) Slice each potato into 3 or 4 pieces and lay in with onion in crock pot.
3) Peel and quarter carrots and add to crockpot
4) Lay meat on top of vegetables and pour 3/4 c of water in
5) Sprinkle seasoning all over the top of meat and sprinkle a little bit over the veggies.  I put it on the veggies to so it mixes with the water.
6) Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours, or high 3-4.  I prefer on low, it is a slow cooker after all.  If your meat is frozen just cook on low 8-10 hours, it helps to start on low so the meat can thaw before it starts to cook.

Today isn't a total bust.

It was pouring out this morning as we had a huge thunderstorm pass through. But it's now sunny out while we wait for the next round of storms. It seems that we're in the hole of it, some people around us are getting nailed.

I've got cloth diapers on the line and a baby napping in the crib.

Wait??!!

A baby napping the crib?

Why, yes, yes I do!!!!

For the past 4 days, Bear has decided that napping in the crib is not a plot against him.

He used to go down after about 30 minutes of rocking for naps and would wake at the 30 minute mark (do babies have internal kitchen timers because you could bake a cake to it. It would then take me 30 minutes, if not more, to settle him down and get him back asleep. And we would start the kitchen timer again and repeat. So if you like math as much as I do, that's 60 minutes of sleep and at least 60 minutes (usually more like 90) of effort to put him to sleep.

Last week at some point he was getting fussier and fussier while being rocked to sleep at night. Hubs was getting frustrated so we said, fine, let's put him in the crib with his soother and seahorse on.  We put him down, gave him kisses, said "Night-Night" and left.  He cried for about 2 minutes.  Sort of.  He would escalate to a cry then immediately quiet down.  He rolled side to side pretty vigorously and gradually began to slow down, as did the fussing.  Finally, he was silent for about 2 minutes and slowly turning his head side to side and the next thing we knew, HE WAS SOUND ASLEEP!

Apparently, he's been trying to tell us that he is done with being rocked to sleep.  So now we rock him for a few minutes to get some snuggles in and then we put him down, give kisses, say "Night-Night" and leave.

I have held him for his naps his entire life.  Probably once or twice a month I would put him in the crib to see if the 30 minute nap monster still lived.  So 4 days ago, I was extremely frustrated.  I was trying to get him to go down and he was wiggling and squirming. When I was patting him and rocking him and jiggling him he started laughing at me.  So I told him "Tough luck Bear.  It's nap time."  I got up, put him in his crib, gave him kisses, said "Night-Night" and walked out.  He proceeded to fall asleep in about 2 minutes WITHOUT A PEEP!  He woke up after 12 minutes, cried for 30 seconds and fell back to sleep for an hour.  He then woke up, I gave him a paci and he slept for another 1.5 hours.

Naps have been going well since then, he's better rested and I'm not so touched out at the end of the day.

I can do my chores (blogging) while he naps and we're all happier!

Parenting-Breaking the swaddle

We rock Bear to sleep every night, it's part of our routine.
If he wakes we try to pat him to sleep and if he is too upset we rock him to sleep again.
We put him down unswaddled on a Friday night (we figured we should try it while it was a weekend and we could nap if it was a big fat failure).  He slept great from 7-10 at which point he woke up and was wide awake.  I let him babble in his crib, and he would start to fuss.  He would then escalate to a cry for about 30 seconds, then drift off for a minute and start babbling again.  This cycle continued for about 20 minutes when he started crying without drifting off.  At this point I went in his room, replaced his pacifier, put my hand on his tummy and said "It's night-night time.  I love you".  I then walked out of the room.  He would blow raspberries, babble, yell and occasionally cry.  I had to go in 3 times to pacify him.  Everytime he would drift off he would wake up crying because he wasn't being rocked. 

I have to let him fuss to realize he CAN push himself up on all fours, so I had to let him to fuss to realize he can fall asleep all by himself.

He then slept from 11-1, woke for a bottle and went right back to sleep.  He then woke for the day at 7.  The next night was even easier.   He woke one time for a bottle at 4am and the rest of the night maybe cried for 30 seconds before putting himself to sleep.

Our sleep was going fantastic, until yesterday.
Bear decided to cut his first tooth.  Last night he woke every 30 minutes, if this pattern continues tonight, he will be coming in our bed. 

For me parenting a special needs child is give and take, ebb and flow.  He gives me cues, I take them and try to give him direction.  He exhibits a need and I give.  I give him love and snuggles and he takes them and gives me a great big smile and laugh.  Special needs along with an irritable child was extremely difficult.