A letter from one baby to another

So, I found this posted to one of the message boards that I frequent.  I swear that Sam better never get this letter. (Warning:  It is a long letter.)

Dear Fellow Babies,
OK, here's my situation. My Mommy has had me for almost 5 months. The first few months were great--I cried, she picked me up and fed me, anytime, around the clock. Then something happened. Over the last few weeks, she has been trying to STTN (sleep thru the night). At first, I thought it was just a phase, but it is only getting worse. I've talked to other babies, and it seems like its pretty common after Mommies have had us for around 5-6 months. Here's the thing: these Mommies don't really need to sleep. It's just a habit. Many of them have had some 30 years to sleep--they just don't need it anymore. So I am implementing a plan. I call it the Crybaby Shuffle.

It goes like this:
Night 1--cry every 3 hours until you get fed. I know, it's hard. It's hard to see your Mommy upset over your crying. Just keep reminding yourself, it's for her own good.
Night 2--cry every 2 hours until you get fed.
Night 3--every hour.

Most Mommies will start to respond more quickly after about 3 nights. Some Mommies are more alert, and may resist the change longer. These Mommies may stand in your doorway for hours, shhhh-ing. Don't give in. I cannot stress this enough: CONSISTENCY IS KEY!! If you let her STTN (sleep through the night), just once, she will expect it every night. I KNOW IT'S HARD! But she really does not need the sleep; she is just resisting the change.. If you have an especially alert Mommy, you can stop crying for about 10 minutes, just long enough for her to go back to bed and start to fall asleep. Then cry again. It WILL eventually work. My Mommy once stayed awake for 10 hours straight, so I know she can do it.

The other night, I cried every hour. You just have to decide to stick to it and just go for it. BE CONSISTENT! I cried for any reason I could come up with:
My sleep sack tickled my foot.
I felt a wrinkle under the sheet.
My mobile made a shadow on the wall.
I burped, and it tasted like rice cereal. I hadn't eaten rice cereal since breakfast, what's up with that?
The dog said "ruff". I should know. My Mommy reminds me of this about 20 times a day. LOL.
Once I cried just because I liked how it sounded when it echoed on the monitor in the other room.
Too hot, too cold, just right--doesn't matter! Keep crying!!
I had drooled so much my sheets were damp and I didn’t like it touching me.
I decided I was sick of all the pink in my room so I cried.

It took awhile, but it worked. She fed me at 4am. Tomorrow night, my goal is 3:30am. You need to slowly shorten the interval between feedings in order to reset your Mommies' internal clocks. Sometimes my Mommy will call for  reinforcements by sending in Daddy. Don’t worry Daddies are not set up for not  needing sleep the way Mommies are. They can only handle a few pats and  shhing before they declare defeat and send in the Mommy.

Also, be weary of the sleep sheep with rain noises. I like to give Mommy false  hope that listening to the rain puts me to sleep sometimes I pretend to close my  yes and be asleep and then wait until I know Mommy is settling back to sleep to spring a surprise cry attack. If she doesn’t get to me fast enough I follow up with my fake cough and gag noise that always has her running to the crib. At some point I am positive she will start to realize that she really doesn’t really need sleep.

P.S. Don't let those rubber things fool you, no matter how long you suck on
them, no milk will come out. Trust me.

Snowy Day + Sam

On top of all the ice, we got loads of snow.  We ventured out on Saturday to hit some of the stores to find some outfits for Sam's 3 month pictures.  I came up with the fabulous idea to get some pictures of Sam and the snow.  I mean it just looked so pretty outside and I imagined these amazing pics of the snowy outside and Sam all cute and bundled up.  Plus, Sam had slept 8 hours the night before plus took a long nap in the morning which made for extra sleep for me and J.  I was just feeling kinda out of my element.  :-)

Here were the issues with this. 

1.  It was way windy so the snow blows in your face and you can't keep your eyes open.  My solution to this was to go out to the gazebo in our neighborhood where we could stand out of the snow.

2.  Sam fell asleep in the car.  I was so determined to get the pics that I WOKE SAM UP.  Huge No-No to wake a sleeping baby.  He was very angry.

3.  There was ice under all the snow so the trek to the gazebo was filled with slipping and sliding while holding a screaming baby.

4.  I was forced to be in the pics too and had not taken a shower yet that day nor did I have any make-up on.  I looked like I had just been resurrected from the dead.

5.  Jack had to hold the camera and an umbrella to block the snow from blowing into Sam's eyes.

Here were the results:

It's Friday!

I LOVE the weekends.  Mostly because I have help with Sam since J is home and mostly because J takes the morning feeding so I get to sleep in!

Special shout out to my fireman nephew, Eli!  He turns 3 today and we were lucky enough to Skype him and sing happy birthday with everyone while he blew out his candles.

Here he is!  Such a little cutie!

Tonight J gave Sam a bath while I finished up cleaning up.  If you remember, the last time he gave Sam a bath, I was supervising.  When I walked into the bathroom to check on how things were going tonight, this is what I saw:

Oh yeah...J has the bath tub perched on his legs while he bathed Sam.  Really, J?  I guess it was okay since I didn't hear Sam complaining at all.  :-)

No pic today of dinner tonight b/c I begged J to take me to McDonald's.  Yup...I'm THAT weak.  There went the diet...well, actually it went out the window last night when I begged J to go get me some Funyuns (ew, I know), Hostess cupcakes, a Snickers and a coke.  He can't say no to me (so sweet).  Yeah, I had a good time last night.  My belly hurt so bad.  I promise to eat a salad tomorrow.  :-(

Yay for the weekend!

Sleep yesterday, cry today

Sam cried most of today.  Probably because he slept most of yesterday.  I'm getting used to it now.  I just hold him and rock him and then put him down when I can't take anymore and then start the holding and rocking all over again. 

We got him some wrist rattles which were a big FAIL.  I put one on Sam's right wrist and then he refused to move his arm.  Like it was weighing him down or something.  He just kinda held it out in the air and stared at it.  Very amusing.  When he finally started to move his arm, he got upset b/c he wanted to chew on his hand but the rattle was in his way.  I finally just took it off.  Maybe we'll try again in a week.  :-)

Here's a pic with the wrist rattle:

For dinner tonight we had southwestern pasta.  It's my favorite and makes a ton so we can have leftovers which means no cooking for me on another night.  It's just corn, black beans, bell peppers, diced tomatoes, pasta and cumin.  And jalapenos if you're feeling spicy!

Sam's pic of the day:  (just a little taste of what my day was like)

Wednesday smile!

J was home again today because of the storm.  Leftover pasta for lunch and pork chops in apricot sauce, rice and salad for dinner.  I did not like it.  J said that the pork chops were good but we're not a fan of apricots. 

  Sam slept most of the day but he was all smiles this evening in his bouncy chair for about 15 minutes.  Then he cried...then I realized that he had the worst stinky diaper ever...then I realized that J's decision to go put a couple hours of work in was a good decision b/c he would definitely be gagging over this diaper.  :-)

Tuesday's Menu

Holy ice storm!  J had off work b/c of it.  Good thing since Sam was in a good mood in the morning but then whiny in the afternoon so it was nice to have help. 

Lunch was more than just sandwiches since J was home.  I made chickpea pasta and salad. 

Then for dinner we had J's favorite, pork and string beans over rice:

After dinner, J gave Sam a bath by himself.  I want bathtime to be just Sam and Daddy in the future since I get to be home with him alone all day.  I feel like J should have alone time with Sammy too.  So, I stayed in the bathroom to "supervise" while Daddy got down to business.  He was awesome and VERY thorough.  The camera battery died while I was trying to take some pics so I only got a couple but Sam just stared at J the whole time, like he was just amazed by who his daddy was.  :-)  I'm sure Sam will love that these pics are posted when he's older. 

Dinner

So, I thought my last entry was pretty funny.  J's review is that "Chris Rock humor" is not my style.  Hmmm...I'll have to ponder that for a moment.  In the meantime, the cartoon stays up.

Sam had a scream-a-palooza today so by the time it came to cooking dinner, I was not interested.  So, I had to improvise.  I had leftover Tuscan chicken, salad fixings and some spinach cheese tortallini.  What happens when all you have managed to eat all day is a yogurt, a banana and 2 100 calorie snacks?  You end up making the world's largest salad and eating it all.

And here's Sam's POD (pic of the day).  It is vintage again but today I will work on getting a grin since he's giving them out so frequently.