Jan 7

Another successful night of going to bed sans swaddling. He’s only been asleep for an hour so things could still get ugly but I can hope!

Kieran has been trying out some new foods this week since Mommy finally got her act together and whipped up some baby food. Tonight’s dinner: green beans and yams. Oh yummy yams, full of delicious vitamins, yams that looks exactly the same going in as they do coming out the next day. Kieran loves them. We can hide any other nasty food in the yams. He would gladly eat rocks or kleenex or a tire iron if it came nestled in a lovely spoonful of yams.

If we could get the spoon in his mouth that is. The feeding marathon that is our dinner hour could be quite entertaining for an audience. You wouldn’t think it would be so tricky to maneuver a spoonful of mush into an infant’s mouth but it really, REALLY is. The timing is critical. The child makes eating motions, opening his mouth and closing it. If you don’t get the spoon in between his gums at precisely the right moment the food is pushed off the spoon and ends up on his face or hands or high chair. The more that stays on his face, the more he is tempted to blow/spit the food all over the lucky parent. The fun never ends. Actually, when the food is blown all over me that is exactly when the fun ends.

Besides sharing a room, the kids have also started having baths together. We have a deeper jacuzzi bath tub and so I have been bathing Kieran in the baby bath tub that is approximately the size of a tin can. (How does a 20 pound baby take a bath? First he fills the tub, then he turns on the water…)  The first time we put him in the big tub his eyes got big and he wiggled his little butt and scootched around, flailing his arms with excitement. “What is this wonderful cavern full of colorful chew toys and wet, splashy entertainment? Why have you been keeping this from me?”

He had a FANTASTIC time. Bath time is equal to Baby Crystal Meth. He particularly enjoys that Avery cannot escape the confines of the tub and he is free to chew on her extremities as much as he can manage before she smacks him in the head. It’s hilarious to watch the two of them together. And the splashing. Oh, the splashing.  Kieran finds splashing is the best way to express his enthusiasm for the bath.  “Look at what I can do Mommy!  Am I not the most clever child you have ever witnessed?  Look at me manipulate water!  I am BABY! SEE ME SPLASH!!!”

Jan 6

Well yesterday was actually Day #2, but whatever.  So Kieran fell asleep last night without being swaddled and without any crying WHATSOEVER and stayed asleep for five hours!!!!  It was amazing. 

Karma is totally going to kick my ass tonight.  I just know it.

Jan 5

I am reluctantly giving in to my husband’s pestering (read: nagging) that it is time to let Kieran cry it out and stop swaddling him. We had somewhat broken that habit a month or more ago until we entered what I affectionately like to call The Teething Zone, in which all rules and parental resolve are sucked into the black hole of Survival. So we’re back to square one tonight. Thirty minutes of crying and counting. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m not sure how long I can hold out. Tonight. Let alone tomorrow night. I suck at this whole tough love thing.

Dec 10

We were hanging out with friends until late last night. It was awesome. We had fun. But somehow, this monster knew how tired we were and decided the morning after mom and dad’s late night partying would be a great day to wake up at 5:45am! I’ve aged 5 years in the last 20 minutes. Ugh.

Nov 20

These posts are becoming a collection of small items that are not really blogworthy on their own but, when I add them all up I like think that if I close my eyes and WISH REAL HARD they will constitute a real post.

Kieran’s sleeping situation is inversely proportional to his size. The bigger he gets, the worse he sleeps. We started him on rice cereal last week. The medical community recommends waiting until your child is six months old before starting solids of any kind.I am just legalistic enough to have suffered from some serious guilt because we gave it to Kieran 2 weeks before he turns six months.

As if two weeks make a big difference in the grand scheme of things. And yet, I feel as though I am violating a sacred commandment of parenting. But I was hoping the extra food in his belly would help him sleep longer at night. WRONG. FAIL.

There is nothing left to do but accept that we have allowed him to get into a bad habit. So we decided it is time to break the “swaddling” habit. Last night was Kieran’s first night sleeping unswaddled in his life. We got the first 8 hour stretch we’ve had in a long time! There was some crying because he’s not used to sleeping without his straightjacket. But I was pleased. I’m hoping this is the first step to recovering our good nights.

On another note: Dustbusters are seriously the best invention ever. Did I mention this before on another blog post? I can’t remember. But my dustbuster is totally my favorite appliance. The battery lasts just long enough to cover all the non carpet surfaces in my house. If you have kids a dustbuster should be at the top of your christmas wish list.

Nov 16

I’m tired. Really tired. Too tired to blog and too tired to be a good mom. I’m still waiting to find out if my iron is low or my thyroid is acting up or if I’m just suffering the build up of 5 and a half months of inconsistent sleep. Kieran has been fussy lately. It seems that he is teething.

Last night we discovered a big bulging spot on his top gum that looked like a tooth could erupt at any moment. We examined the blister with pride, exclaiming over our “big boy” as though we had done something that directly resulted in his exceptional development of a tooth.

This morning the spot is GONE! Gone! How is this possible? Not that I care whether he has a tooth or not but I was suddenly filled with hope that the crankiness and poor sleeping would come to an end and I could start to feel human again in short order. Sigh…

I feel kind of sad that my blog has basically turned into my forum for talking, whining and bragging about my kids. I want to have more variety than that. I want my life to be about more than my kids. But in these days of exhaustion my world seems to shrink down to the most basic components and kids are one of them. And yet somehow I feel as though I’m not doing an adequate job of parenting either.

So here I am wallowing in my inadequacy. Really I just need to get it out. Now I can move on and try and do better. I’m just glad my kids will remember little to nothing of this time in their lives.

Nov 6

It’s hard to believe these angelic looking creatures could STEAL SO MUCH OF MY SLEEP.

The world is full of mysteries.

Like how is it that Kieran is five months old now? Time flies.

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