So Tired

I'm ridiculously tired all the time. As in, I have to fight to stay awake. Mornings are extra killer for me, but it's a problem throughout the day. Just now, we were playing horsey. I got on my stomach, and Jeffrey kind of patted my back and jumped up and down, being the playful and hyperactive child he is. I fell asleep. Crazy, right? Thank goodness it was only for a few minutes, and Jeffrey can't get into any trouble in our house. He didn't even go anywhere. It's situations like that lately that have been forcing me to see that there might be more to it than me just being tired. I'm more tired than I should be. I'm too tired.

For so long, I attributed it to not having a sleeping child. Well, it's been a few months since I've had to get up with him at night, so that's not the case, obviously. I get at least 7, mainly about 8 or more, hours of sleep a night. I just feel like something isn't right. So, I've finally made myself call a general practitioner (a big step since I don't have one- hopefully I like her) and arranged for a blood test next week. Mainly, I want to check my thyroid levels since that's a definite possibility. Every woman in my family has thyroid issues.

As strange as it is, I'm really hoping that something is off. I just don't want to be so tired all the time. I'm not really excited about having to take a pill every day, potentially, but it was inevitable. Jeffrey deserves to have a mama who's always in the zone. Instead, I'm on the computer next to him so that I have something to keep me awake (he doesn't let me play with him). He's sitting here sorting his pom pom balls by colors, so I guess I'm not doing too bad, though.

Wordless Wednesday

Bathroom Update: Still trucking along...

I've been in denial that we're still working in the bathroom, but we are. Things just keep coming up that keeps us from getting good work done in the bathroom. BUT, we're getting really stinking close. The drywall is up, taped/floated, textured, primed, and the painting has begun! This won't be a super quick process since we're doing a fancy stripe, but it shouldn't be too long. The bathtub is almost completely tiled, as well. It would have been practically done last night, but we ran out of tile. This is the type of luck we continue to have in this project. Providing Jony doesn't have to work (again) this Saturday morning, it will be finished. I'll be working on painting during nap time this week, so we'll hopefully have that finished this weekend, as well. I'm really hoping that we get the sinks and toilet installed on Sunday- for real this time.

This will be the main paint color

Third Time's a Charm?

It was when we were TTC Jeffrey, so maybe that's our thing. I woke up this morning to a drastically lower temperature, so I figured it was coming. Sure enough, I have a lovely visitor that I didn't want to see again for another year, at least. Good news: I O'd much earlier. MUCH earlier, making it half the cycle length as my first pp cycle. Bad news: Another 9 day luteal phase. So, that sucks. I've been researching, so I'm going to start taking a B complex in hopes to increase my LP. It was always 13 pre-Jeffrey, so this is new territory for me.

Hopefully, cycle 3 brings back a little bit or normalcy for me and maybe even a BFP?

Big Boy Bed

We decided, semi on a whim, yesterday to take the front off of Jeffrey's crib and lower the mattress all the way down, thus making it a toddler bed! Since our vacation, he's refused to nap in his crib, so he's been napping in our bed. Going to sleep at night was alright, but it was getting progressively harder. Then, yesterday, when he fell asleep in the car and was moved into his crib, he woke up severely pissed off to be in there. So, we just went for it and figured we could always move it back if it was an epic fail.

So far, it hasn't been.

He went to sleep super easy last, and it was a lot comfier to sit on the floor and pat his back then stand there and lean over the crib. He woke up this morning in a fantastic mood and was SO proud of himself. He kept saying "Effey Big!" And, now? He's napping in his own bed. In his own room. The true tests will be the rest of this nap and then whenever he has a waking in the middle of the night, but I think we'll be able to work through any issues that may arise. I'm fairly confident in saying that Jeffrey has a big boy bed now.

Wordless Wednesday

20 months!

Holy crap. It just seems so unreal. Where did the teens go?!? Goodness.

As hard as it is to admit that my little baby is 20 months old, I am absolutely loving this stage. His verbal skills are booming every day; he's constantly mimicking us and trying to learn new words. He's gotten really good at expressing his opinion and loves when he's given options. He's so easygoing and doesn't cause a big fuss about anything. The biggest struggle is getting him to take his PJ shirt off in the morning and then his regular shirt off in the evening. For some reason, he becomes super attached to his shirts. He's big into possessives and likes everyone to be holding what's theirs at all times. If he finds a phone, he'll take it to the owner. He won't give it to anyone else, either. He's very persistent. This happens most frequently with shoes- a tiny issue when you're already wearing some!

20 month stats:

• I really should weigh/measure him. He's huge, at least to me. I swear he grows an inch taller every week. 
• wearing mainly 18 month clothes, along with some 12 month and 2T thrown in the mix
• only nursing morning and night and still napping and sleeping just as great as before- maybe one wake-up each week
• just the 12 teeth, but these more frequent wakings are the first signs of teeth for him
• can point to every body part, including small random ones like weenus (lol). His favorite is armpit.
• has really exploded in his verbal skills. In just the last month or so, he's learned: baby, little, more, please, milk, color, down, and up. All of these can be used with please for a two sentence word, as well! He also says "nom, nom, nom" when he's eating.
• calls every letter of the alphabet "B," but he can recognize every letter.
• can hold up two fingers for 2
• loves brushing his teeth
• Favorite Food: Pretzels
• Favorite Book: Are You My Mother?
• Favorite Activity: Cars- specifically, lining them up and then moving them to another "parking lot" to line them up again

Wordless Wednesday

Nursing a Toddler

It's something I never would have imagined that I would be doing, but here I am. I really can't imagine stopping. It's just made life so much easier. The days are going by quickly, though, I feel like it will all be over soon. In these past few weeks, the afternoon session (aka pre-nap) has been officially dropped. It's so strange because that's the one I was SO nervous about. He would nurse dead to sleep without fail every single day (unless he passed out in the car on the way home). Well, now he doesn't. He was starting to go away from it before our trip, but after 10 days of not nursing in the afternoon and falling asleep in the car, it was over. I attempted the first day we were home- fail. No nap. I was terrified. Well, I tried something new, and it works. Surprisingly well. I lay him down in our bed and just pat his back for a few minutes, and he's out cold. Amazing. We'll be getting him a twin bed of his own very soon so that he can still nap in his own room. So, we're down to just morning and night now. That means I can wear whatever I want during the day, which I haven't yet. I'm not read to give up the nursing tanks/bras! It's nice to know that I can, though. I'm hoping that it helps with my fertility, as well. I had a temp jump yesterday, but it was a false alarm. We'll see what happens from here! It doesn't seem like he'll ever go without these last two sessions, but I felt like that with the naptime nursing, as well.

Toddlers on the Road

I imagine the top question in all parents' mind when they hear about a family taking their 19 month old on the road trip is, "how did THAT go?" At least, that would be what I was thinking. Really, it wasn't all that bad. We had our moments, of course, but I'm not convinced that it was the driving that did it. More of the fact that he was so overstimulated and overtired. That's pretty unavoidable on a trip, especially for ten days. I'd still give him an A -, overall. And, yes, he was and is still rear facing.

Jeffrey is really good in the car, and he pretty much has been his entire life. He's never made a fuss about going for a ride. Before the trip, we'd taken him on 2-3 hour trips somewhat frequently, so it wasn't completely new. We also planned our entire trip around him riding in the car, starting each day around nap time. That way, at least two hours of driving time was him sleeping, which he's never had a problem with in the car. It worked perfectly. Most days, there was just 1-3 hours left on the road before getting there. We'd stop when he woke up, have a snack and let him romp around, and then get to our destination. We had two long driving days, but they were spread apart. The best part about this arrangement is that he got a definite nap each day, which all toddler moms know is absolutely crucial.

After sleep comes the toys. We were recommended to get a Magna Doodle. Oh My Goodness. You'd be a fool to travel without one. We got the large one, and Jeffrey loved it. It occupied at least fifty percent of his awake driving time, easily. He even used it when we weren't driving! Coming in second place is magnet letters and a cookie sheet. Such a simple idea, but he adored it. He was able to sort them, both on the cookie sheet and in/out of their box, along with learning letters and colors. Win-win. All other toys (books, some cars, his dinosaur, bugs, sophie, etc) got played with here and there, but those two toys were the clear winners. If I were to award a third place, it would go to the window. Watching all the eighteen wheelers go by? Not much is better to a 1.5 year old boy!

Whenever he got a little whiny, we had snacks on hand. They were easy to get to and easy for in the car. Fruit snacks were the go-to when nothing else works. Crackers, cheez-its, cheese sticks, raisins, and other miscellaneous foods that are easy to grab and go were all set up and ready to go. Overall, I can say with absolute certainty that I would take him on another road trip. It won't be anytime soon, mind you, but it will happen again.

Step 1

Months after the initial conversation and a few questions/emails later, I have officially begun the process towards becoming a La Leche League leader. I had my pre-dialogue meeting to discuss what it all entails and make sure that I'm a right fit for the organization. All seems to be good to go, so we got the application all filled out. I just need to get the new edition of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding and send it off! It's a fairly lengthy process, and I'm in no rush to get it finished quickly. That could change if I end up getting pregnant, but that would still give me plenty of time. I was told the average is approximately one year, so that would mean I'd be all finished up by the LLL conference next summer! If I'm accepted by the national organization, I'll be assigned a mentor of sorts to guide me along the course. That's who I'll be sending my questions, answers and short essays to. I'm pretty excited about it and looking forward to being to really help other moms succeed in breastfeeding. 

While at this meeting, I found out that there is a toddler LLL group in my area! I'm really excited about that so that I'll have a place that I can actually ask questions. At the normal meeting, those with 1 month old babies can't typically help with 19 month old questions ;)

On the Road Again

You will NOT be hearing me say that for quite some time. It was a great trip, and we had an amazing time. I'm so glad to be home, though. We just got back on the 4th, so we're still working on getting everything in working order again. It didn't help that we left our house a disaster. That's never a good idea. So, we have lots of laundry, cleaning, organizing, and grocery shopping to do. We also want to get a lot done in the bathroom this weekend; we're SO close to being finished with it all. Basically, things are nuts. I predict it will take us about 2 months to get back to normal- you know, when we go on our next (and last, thankfully) trip this summer.

Pictures and updates on the trip to come soon!