Resigned

Alec is stronger than I am.

I can't let the little bugger cry anymore, it is just too stressful for me. After the Monday cry-a-thon, I realized that Ben had rubbed his little feet raw. He rubs his feet together like a cricket when he is crying and thrashing around. He had used his long toenails to scratch his ankles and feet. Not a good look on an infant. Also, we have fleas. Faye thinks he has flea bites on his foot, but I don't. I have flea bites though. We got the cats on the Advantage stuff so that the entire house won't become infested.

I feel a little sad that I am not strong enough this week to battle it out with a four month old and win, but sleep deprivation will do that to a person. Speaking of which, I am going to go to bed now.

Cry it out Little Man

Connected to my last post about sleeping here is what is happening in the household this week. Sleep training! Cadet Benjamin is the second in the household to be enlisted in the Cry it Out camp. The philosophy is so simple, yet so hard to implement. Basically, your baby needs to sleep and eat when you say so, based on their natural desires, of course. What you don't do is rock a baby completely to sleep, or drive them around to get them to sleep, or do anything except let them cry them selves to sleep. Once they figure out that they are going to have to cry it out, they learn pretty fast that crying yourself to sleep just isn't worth it. This training usually takes about 3-5 days, but can take up to two weeks. I'm hoping for 5 days. Yesterday, Benjamin cried for the entire afternoon. Starting at 12:00 and lasting (with two breaks) until I made a break for it at 4:00 when Alec came home. I remember doing this with Nora, vaguely. But I don't think she lasted for more than an hour in the crying department. Home boy is racking up an astonishing hour plus.

the ideal schedule
6:3o wake and eat, play until 8:oo or 8:3o
8:30 nap for 1 to 1 1/2 hours
9:30 or 10:00 wake and eat, play until 11:00 or 11:30
repeat until bed time @ 7:00 pm

Day 1
So far today:
6:45 woken up, barely ate, played until 8:30
8:30 napped until 9:45
9:45 barely ate, played and ran errands until 11:00
11:15 napped...until 11:45 uh oh deviation from schedule, what to do. 12:00 started to cry, 12:15 still crying. Must wait until 12:30 to feed him, he's so wound up now he'll never get back to sleep...so I guess crying for another 15 minutes, this sucks.

Sleep

Today was a hard day. I won't go into it because it may make my friends without children, think twice about joining me in the world of parenting and I can't have that.

But, I wanted to post today because I was talking to a friend who said she can tell I have two kids due to my lack of posts. That is absolutely true. Any extra time I have is now solely devoted to sleeping. I was never like this before. I never hit the snooze button on my alarm clock, I mean what is the point of putting off the inevitable? I have to get up either now or in 13 minutes and what will that extra thirteen minutes of sleep really get me. I only wanted to sleep when I knew I could enjoy it. For example at night or late evening. I typically am in bed these days by 9:00. This is a double edged sword because Nora's bed time is 8:00 and if I want any time sans children this is it. But I desire sleep more. More than even tv. More than TV? how did I get here!!! Anyway, this morning I fed Benjamin at 5:36am finished at about 6:00 and returned to bed. Did I mention that Nora came in my room at about 5:00am to inform me that she was ready to go upstairs and have her vitamin and two spoonfuls of peanut butter. Outraged I told her NO, it's dark, I am still sleeping and you need to go back to your room and either get back in bed or play QUIETLY until I say so. When I returned to bed at 6ish she was still playing in her room (though she had come upstairs twice during the feeding) I knew that Alec would leave for work at a little before 7:00 so I was hoping for just an extra few minutes. They aren't quality minutes just minutes of defiance: I choose when I get up out of bed, not a three-year old and certainly not a 3-month old. Those minutes lasted far less than a snooze button.