Post 13 (8/27/14)

Hey there blog readers. Let me start with a quick apology. I know the gaps between this one and the last post were WAY too far apart. Over a month, Shane, really? Unacceptable, I know.

I don't really have any excuses for my slack posting. I've just been really wrapped up in school, kids, and the few other things I do for myself like podcasting.

My podcast is all about music (http://locallics.com) and this is a local band we've featured, Restrayned.

My time has definitely taken up primarily by the first two of that list. School has been hard to stay on top of this quarter for some reason, but it's my last quarter so I can power through and get it done. It saddens me a little that I feel like I've been working this hard for school and for what feels like for so long, and I'm only achieving an AA. It's more than many of my personal peers, but it still feels like so little.

But you guys don't read this blog to hear about my adventures as a student, at least, I don't think you do. I would assume you guys are reading this because of the title, which would imply that your reading this to hear about my adventures in parenthood. That being established, I'll try to refocus back on parenting in my world.

Look at these two. What a good, and goofy big sister.

The biggest event in my life lately, and it's been a bit of an ongoing event, has been the shift in sleeping issues. If you follow my post you'll know that not too long ago, we were struggling with keeping Bodie asleep. Well, that finally worked itself out, for the most part. Most nights that kid sleeps from 9 or 9:30 till 8 or 8:30, with an occasional wake up at 3 or 4 from time to time. These wake ups are almost always quick and painless, consisting of a short 4 ounce bottle and then right back to sleep. The shift has been that the older one, Cali, is now decided that going to bed is the worst thing we could ever ask her to do.

I swear, these kids have little meetings to decide who's turn it is to be a total nightmare. They definitely switched roles in the last week or so. Cali, on a good night, will go potty, brush her teeth, get her jammies on, and get into bed for a story, maybe a song, and then sleep. Lately, she drags her feet at almost every stage of the process. Sometimes she even flat starts yelling at us and telling us no. That really gets under my skin. Jess and I have been trying to take turns dealing with it, but some nights she will not do ANYTHING until Mommy comes in. Then, after we finally get her into bed, she runs through a whole series of questions or any little excuse to delay us leaving the room and her actually having to sleep. Usually, I would be inclined to let her get mad and scream and cry, when she pushes it that far, and not entertain her ridiculous requests, but more often than not her little brother is sleeping in the room next to hers.

We have found one little tool that seems to have helped on most nights, and most nap times. Every time she goes to bed without any fuss and is a good girl, when she wakes up, she gets to place a sticker of her choosing on a little calendar we got her. After she has obtained enough stickers, Jess or I will take her to the dollar store and let her select any item she wants, but only one item. This has worked pretty well, with only a couple of times being an issue.

This only held true till last night, and I'm really hoping last night was just a fluke. It was one of the most difficult nights we've had in a while, with it taking over an hour and a half to get her to actually go to sleep in the first place. Then she woke up a few hours later, around 1am. Jess had to work today so, naturally, I went down to try and get her back to sleep. Again, she insisted on having mommy, Jess came down, and eventually got her back to sleep. Then, at 5:30am, she was up and screaming for mommy AGAIN. This was now only about an hour before Jess needed to be up for work so I was determined to go down and get her to sleep. She was again insisting on seeing mommy only. This wasn't going to work this time. I eventually came to what I felt was a reasonable solution, in my sleep deprived mind anyway. I laid down in her bed next to her and stayed there till Jess woke up and left for work. About an hour and a half later, I went up to my bed. She then showed up in my room an hour after that.

Needless to say, I type this rather sleepy and rather annoyed. She did go down for her nap really well, so there is hope. I'll be sure to let you guys now how it goes and if anything changes. I'm also open to any suggestions.

Sweet dreams.

When  she sleeps, she's such a little angel.