I need sleep!!!!!

Alright people, I'm seriously about to lose my mind! What's the problem you ask? My nine month old demon baby Riley! Oh don't get me wrong, she's adorable as hell and sweet and lovable as can be. At least during daylight hours. At night, when the rest of the house is peacefully slumbering she turns into a milk guzzling, use Mommy as a binky, screaming demon. I can actually time her, every two hours. At her age there's really no reason for her to be waking up this often. She use to sleep anywhere from four to six hours straight but evidently she has a twisted sense of humor. I don't know what to do. I've tried making sure her belly is full before putting her to bed, we have a bedtime routine, and I've even tried giving her a bottle of formula before I go to bed. Nothing works, she's still up in two hours. I considered that it might be teething cause she shows the signs of that so I gave her teething tablets. It didn't help. I really don't think she's that hungry all night. Either she's just really spoiled or she needs extra closeness and snuggling at night. But even that doesn't make sense. I'm with her all the time. Even the brief times that I am away from her, her routine stays the same. There haven't been any major changes in her life that would make her insecure. I'm at the end of my rope. And I'm a little worried about her safety because eventually Hunter and Holly are going to realize that Mommy's grouchiness is their baby sister's fault!

Do you need a time out?

I was having a really bad morning today, I'll explain that in another post though, and Miss Riley decided that it was a good idea to scream all morning. Not actual crying, more like little bursts of piercing noise that makes your ears ring. After repeatedly telling her No, Sir (refresher on who this is on my About Me page) decided to put her in time out. Now let me remind you, Riley is 8 months old. She was in her walker, smacking the tray to make her snacks fly in every direction and carrying on with her new found voice, when Sir pipes up with "Riley Jean, do you need to go in time out?" Her response, Smack, scream, giggle. So he gets up, picks her up while still in her walker, takes her to the time out corner, stands there for a second like he's thinking "Shit, she can still move." And proceeds to stick shoes under the walker and against the wheels to keep it in place. Then he puts up the baby mattress that we use to block the hallway so she can't crawl off to her siblings room, yes we are truly that ghetto. She just happily sat there babbling away and laughing at him over the mattress! I don't know if this is one of those times where it's funnier if you were there, but I know I sure laughed my ass off.

Boobs or no Boobs, that is the question

Riley is eight months old and I still breastfeed her. She enjoys it, I enjoy it, it's good for her and it's free. Lately Josh has kind of been pushing me to give it up. He won't flat out admit that's what he's doing but the little comments are enough. This really bothers me. I know he probably just misses my boobs, and I'll admit I miss the attention in that region, but to me it's not worth giving up yet. It's not like I plan on nursing her until she's eighteen. First tooth or one year, which ever comes first, is her cut off date. I've been slowly weening her. I offer her juice or actual food before nursing her so that she's not as hungry. And honestly, I really don't want to get up and make a bottle in the middle of the night when I can easily just pop a boob in her mouth.

Yeah it's a bit of an inconvenience sometimes when we are out in public. Not that it's difficult to keep the goods covered, it's more of trying to keep my belly and back from hanging out. If you're desperate enough to check out my boobs while there's a kid attached to them, that's on you, but God forbid you see my belly!

Not to mention, it means a lot to me that I've been able to stick with it this long. Each of the three kids before her didn't last this long nursing. With Jordyn, I only made it a week. I got really bad blood blisters with her. Hunter, lasted two months. His mouth was so little I had to use a nipple shield to help him latch on, then we moved in with my in-laws and he didn't appreciate having a blanket over his head during meals. And with Holly, I was hooked to a breast pump for the first six months of her life cause every time I put a boob in her mouth she fell asleep. Riley though took to breastfeeding like a pro. And she's my last baby so why not make the most of it.

And my kids understand that breastfeeding is a natural thing. It's actually what they were made for. Although if you ask my Grandma she says boobs are just there to make your shirts look good. It's not unusual to hear Hunter, who is five, tell me "Mommy, I think Riley needs to nurse." Or for three year old Holly to announce, sometimes while in public, "Mommy, baby sister needs to eat your booby." They understand that when a Mommy has a baby their boobs make special milk for the baby that's full of vitamins to help them get big and strong. If my young children can understand this concept, why can't a grown man? Just saying...

Sleeping Beauty or Zombie Food?

This was actually written about a month ago, well the first part was, but I've been too busy to post it.

There's nights that my precious little baby absolutely drives me nuts and on those nights, in between dealing with her and her constant need to use me as a binky, I have bad dreams. This happened to me about two nights ago. I spent the whole night in and out of nightmares about zombies. This could also be in response to having withdrawals of The Walking Dead which really needs to start again. But anyways back to the point. It's safe to say I had a very unpleasant night. So when I woke up the next morning to Riley screaming at me, the first thought I had was "Next time I'm letting the zombie eat you!" Now in the event of a zombie apocalypse I'd never really let them eat any of my children but I'm sure you can understand the sentiment!

Other nights, like last night, I find myself up in the wee morning hours to nurse Riley and I find myself just stroking her cheek in amazement at this sweet little miracle nestled in my arms. And I get great satisfaction in knowing that I'm the only one who can have this intimate connection with her and provide her with the perfect nourishment. I had such a difficult time for various reasons when it came to nursing my other children that I'm very reluctant to give it up. Originally I said I'd stop at six months. She turned six months last week. Then I said that I'd stop either when that first tooth came in, she turned a year old, or she could "help herself". Well, if I'm wearing a spaghetti strap shirt she does try to get things going on her own! Maybe she's watched too much Walking Dead herself since she's always trying to eat me... I guess that's another post.

Then we switch back to Riley being zombie food. Her allergies give her so much trouble. No matter what I do my poor baby can hardly breath. On nights like that, which happens to be tonight, after listening to her scream all day long because she can't get comfortable enough to sleep, and not letting me out of her sight long enough to even pee, by the time I attempt to put her to bed I'm about all out of patience. I know it's not her fault that she's acting like a life sucking demon but a person can only take so much without losing their sanity! Crap, I think the other kids already took that! Some days I think they have special meetings, including the baby, where they discuss new ways of making mommy lose it! See, I can't even stay on subject!

Well before my sweet little zombie bait wakes back up, I better go take a shower. I have a feeling it's going to me a long night! Sweet dreams...

Here we go again.....

 

I still can't believe I'm pregnant with baby number 4!!! If any of you have ever had the Essure Procedure done, run to your doctor's office and have them make sure you're still sealed up tight! Don't get me wrong. Now that the shock is starting to fade I'm just as happy as I was all the other times, this time was just a bit of a surprise!

What would really be nice though is if all this damn "morning" sickness and complete exhaustion would just go away. I for one, think I deserve at least one pregnancy without months of unrelenting nausea and headaches. But nope, it's just not meant to be I guess. So I will suffer, in not quite silence, and let my friends, who are so wonderfully awesome, continue to pamper help me.

I will admit though that I can't walk into a store without somehow ending up in the baby aisle. Not on purpose of course! And I have to continuously fight the urge to start buying baby things. I keep telling myself I should put this off until I actually find out what I'm having. But I can't help the urge to think of baby names. It doesn't matter though because I will change my mind at least a dozen times before the baby is actually born.

One really cool thing though, no matter if it's a boy or a girl (leaning towards a girl), I have one friend with a 3 month old little boy and another with a 2 month old little girl. So either way, I'm so covered on hand-me-downs!

Have any of you had any unexpected little bundles of joy?