zzzzzz

Oh, sleep.  The one thing I wish I could totally change about parenting.  I mean, if we were given the luxury of a full night's sleep from the moment a child arrives, I think a lot of the parenting frustrations and mishaps could be avoided.  Or at least dealt with in a more energetic, positive, and enthusiastic manner.  I can handle the tantrums and the messes and the total overhaul of what life used to be life pre-kids, but the change in sleep patterns is the one thing I have a hard time dealing with.  And I can't really complain.  Ella learned to sleep through the night very early on, and still clocks an average of 10-12 hours a night.  Both my kids stopped having to nurse during the night by 2 months.  So it's not like I have had it really hard.  I actually think we sleep a lot for being parents of such young children.  But Gavin posed a challenge I wasn't expecting--needing a pacifier at night, which led to needing comforting every time he woke up.  So by the time we came back from Hawaii (where he slept by my side every single night), I was ready to make a change.  Before Hawaii he had been going down in his crib every night, but would always end up in bed with us by 2 am.  It was just easier to get him and have him next to me than to keep going to his room every other hour to replace his lost pacifier.  But I had had enough.  I wasn't sleeping well, and I definitely did not like the idea of co-sleeping this long (even though I did love feeling his little hands hug my arm every night).  So I asked the pediatrician, and per her recommendation, buckled down, downloaded the above book, and committed to 14 days of solid sleep training. I was definitely doubtful it would work, and was overwhelmed by the challenge of consistent napping (something I haven't been very good at implementing with E).

It took all of 4 days for G to be sleep trained.  He cried a lot the first couple of nights, but by the third, he cried for 2 minutes, rolled over, and slept from 7 pm to 7 am.  He also started taking 2 hour morning naps, 1 1/2-2 hour afternoon naps, and was weaned from taking a pacifier.  I am a convert.  And I feel like a new mom.  It's amazing.  And it's still going strong.  I know there will be off nights, especially when milestones are hit and the little guy goes through some growing pains, but all in all, I am one happy customer.  So much so that I just had to share.

Ladies Who Read

I love my book club.  It's probably the only one where we don't actually read.  Well, we read, just not all the time.  Ha!  The whole premise of our book club is that we read a book that is also a movie, and when we meet up we watch the film and have discussion.  Usually, it ends up with about 50% of us reading the book, and us catching up on our lives while squeezing in a movie together.  All around a lot of fun!

Our last one was the Twilight Saga's Breaking Dawn.  We watched it in the theaters and cringed/laughed/ogled at the bad acting/cheesiness/and unnecessary shirtless scenes.  Before we parted ways, we snapped a picture.  We're missing a couple members in the shot, but at least I remembered to take a picture this time!

Adam watched Ella while we watched the movie.  Then they joined us for lunch.  She's definitely looking forward to reading with us in the future.

It's Like Marbles Everywhere

Yesterday, Adam and I attended a maternity tour of the hospital we will be giving birth at.  I couldn't believe how many people were at this orientation.  Even though I'm pregnant myself, pregnant people make me nervous.  It's like a bunch of pods walking around.  Or marbles.  For some reason I think of a bunch of marbles just rolling around the floor when I see a lot of pregnant people in one space.  Sitting in the auditorium, waiting for the presentation to begin, Adam and I felt like we were in class all over again.  I even got a little nervous about not being prepared enough to attend the tour (where was my list of questions?).  Looking around I kept thinking how there are all these little lives just hanging out in these women's bellies.  It was a little difficult for me to wrap my head around.

The tour was very informative and helpful, and I'm glad we did it.  As we were guided through the different sections of the maternity ward, Adam and I kept joking how we need to run drills so we knew exactly what to do when the time comes to deliver.  I could just see us in matching warm ups, jetting down the hall, him throwing bags and forms at the receptionist, me hunting down a wheel chair, as if we were on the last leg of The Amazing Race.

Emotionally, I've been feeling a lot better.  A weekend with the husband tends to assuage all the negativity and fear that I feel when I'm left alone to think too much.  I did have a mini panic attack last night, though, about raising a girl.  I'm reading Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture by Peggy Orenstein.  It's an interesting read about how (or if) we are doing our daughters a disservice by perpetuating the "princess" mentality by buying into the consumerism that seeks to objectify and sexualize girls into thinking that looks are more important than character.  I got to the part about social networking and how it is yet another vehicle for children to promote themselves on a superficial level rather than encourage children to develop meaningful relationships and establish their own identity outside of tweets, status updates, and wall posts.  It's a lot to think about as society seems to become more and more desensitized and children are getting older younger.  It's scary to think what this world will be like when our daughter(s) approach that age.  I'm prepared to have a baby, but not a teenager (or tween) quite yet.  The book does make me reevaluate my approach to teaching my daughter about her femininity and identity as a girl.  I want to empower without stifling her with my own agenda.  I mean, who wants their daughter to struggle with identity issues and poor body image and all that goes with being female and an adolescence?  I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with pink and princesses and girlie things.  I just want my daughter to have an identity outside of the societal constraints placed on her simply because she is female.  But then again, I'd buy a pink power drill!  And here I am blogging and using Facebook.  What does that say about me?  I do recommend the book, though.  Not to be read as gospel or anything, but just something to think about.  I can go on and on about this subject, but I'll save that for another day.