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Why, Yes. I *Do* Feel Like an Asshat!

As stated in my last post, this past week has been a whirlwind of sh*tstorms. Suffice it to say that the past few days have probably have been my most trying as a mother of two. Maybe I’ll write about the events that transpired in a future post, but there is a chance that I may need to erase from my memory banks these occurrences and my resulting feelings and reactions from them — and leaving them written out on a public blog may not be the best way to go about accomplishing this goal.

I have recently re-read Tina Fey’s Bossypants because it is a quick and funny read that does not require much thinking. I laughed out loud as I read the below passage:

I learned how long a morning can be. If you’re at work at 5:30 A.M., five hours go by and it is 10:30 in the morning. (I didn’t experience that again until I had a newborn baby. It does make you feel like an asshat for all those college years when you slept until 12:45.)

My mother told me yesterday that my life will never be as comfortable as it was when I was in college. I disagree, because I hated school and I hate being dependent on others — even my own parents at that young age — for money. For me, it was better when we were DINKs (double income, no kids), because at least we could sleep in on weekends and our combined income which supported two people was more than what J’s single income now supports for four.

But having less (in time, money, and other luxuries) does make me so much more appreciative of the little things; I am so much more thankful for what I do have, as well as what I had. For instance, I can’t believe I used to b*tch about getting “only” 5 hours of sleep the night before. Or spending $700 for a wallet and not batting an eye when a $100 handbag seems like such a luxury now.

Mommy’s Diapers

After a visit to the grocery store to stock up on feminine supplies, I had my back turned for 5 seconds while taking Aerin's jacket off and Claire got ahold of my box of Always Overnights with Wings. (The rule of thumb with toddlers is that they will cause the most mischief when you have your back turned for 2-5 seconds — no more, no less. Like last night, when Claire tried to get into the tub by herself during bath time and FELL IN HEAD FIRST into the almost-full, soapy tub with all her clothes still on and her stuffed giraffe in her hands. Trying to calm down a hysterically crying toddler — a soaking wet, hysterically crying toddler, while she...

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Migraines

I have been forced to take a short break from blogging due to the horrible migraines I have been experiencing in the past couple of days. I am almost certain that my migraines are hormonal, as I have never gotten one before I got pregnant but regularly suffered them through both pregnancies. And now that I am no longer pregnant, I only get them when I am PMSing. (Apparently, hormones can play a big role in headaches and migraines. I know this because the interwebz has told me so.) My migraines — like practically all other physical ailments — are exacerbated by fatigue and lack of sleep. And hey, guess what! I have a 4-month-old and a 17-month-old and I think that...

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Sleep-Training Aerin

I am by no means an expert on baby sleep, but the (very) general sleep pattern that my girls seemed to have followed is:

  • 0 to 2 months old: sleeps most of the day, but also wakes up often. She is still getting used to being outside of the womb.
  • 2 to 4 months old: the sleepy newborn stage. She is finally used to the outside world and is “resting” from the trauma of birth. (Did you know that oftentimes, being born is much more difficult than giving birth? Think about how traumatizing it must be for the little guys!)
  • 4 months onward: sleep goes to crap again, otherwise known as the 4-month sleep regression. She is starting to discover the world and is simply overwhelmed.

We sleep-trained Claire at 4.5 months because not only were we, as her parents, dead-tired and cranky, she was also miserable from the lack of sleep. Getting her from waking up 5-6x per night to 3x a night took about a week, and getting her to nap more than 20-30 minutes at a time took about two months. I used Dr. Weissbluth’s extinction method in both cases, and while sleep-training was one of the toughest things I did as a parent, I also believe that it was also one of the most worthwhile — Claire is such a happier child when she is well-rested!

With Aerin being a more laid-back, happier baby who slept better than Claire from the get-go, we had been hoping that we wouldn’t need to sleep-train her. And as she neared 4 months of age, I kept my fingers crossed that she would skip the dreaded 4-month sleep regression (as some babies do)…

But no such luck. Aerin’s sleep regression hit a couple of weeks before she turned 4 months old, and it progressively got worse. At one point, she was waking up every hour! She also seemed to have the same trouble that Claire had with naps, waking up just 20-30 minutes into her nap just as the deeper, more restful sleep cycle begins.