(Check… check…. this thing on??)

So I haven’t been posting lately.  Sorry.  Why, you may ask?  Good question.  Here’s why:

(Sometime between 6am-7:30am): Wake up with the kiddies (or should I say, get woken by the kiddies )

By 8:00am – kiddies and myself are dressed and we’re working on breakfast.  After breakfast, we play a bit (usually have a “dance party” to our favorite kiddie songs to burn off some early morning energy) and get Jolie ready for school – pottying, shoes/socks on, etc.

By 9:00am – Getting Jolie off to preschool.

By 10:00am – Back from preschool and Sam has been changed and is now napping.  This is Mama’s limited window of opportunity to do some cleaning.  Usually I tackle the kitchen first because it’s ALWAYS MESSY!!  Then, depending on the day, I do something else, like bathrooms or mopping the floors.  I also do laundry.  Everyday.  Otherwise the laundry gets way piled up.  But on days after a really bad night’s sleep and I’m exhausted, I try to also take a nap.

By 11:30am, Sam is up and we play or take the dogs for a walk if it’s nice outside.  Or go to the grocery store if it’s shopping day.  I eat lunch at some point, usually one-handed while I hold and/or nurse Sam.

By 1:30pm, we are back from whatever activity we’ve been doing and play some more.  I might try to sneak in an easy chore here while Sam “helps” (meaning, he sits next to me on the floor playing while I fold clothes or something and try to sing songs to him to keep him happy for a few moments).

By 2:30pm, Sam is changed again and I’m putting him down for another nap.  If I’m lucky, he naps for about an hour.  This is my other window to finish chores, and also to think of something to put together for dinner. 

4:00pm – Sam is up from his nap by now and has been fed.  We play again, check the mail, do whatever possible to get dinner as ready as possible so that I dont have to spend time prepping food when Jolie gets home.

5:00pm – LEave to pick up Jolie from preschool.

6:00pm – We are back from school by now and are sitting down to eat.

6:30pm – Sam, Jolie and mom are in the bath.  Sometime between 6:30-7pm, Daddy DJ arrives home.  Often, it is in the middle of our bath time.  DJ helps me scrub Jolie while I take care of Sam, who is likely getting fussy by now.

Now after this point, DJ takes Jolie and gets her ready for bed. She goes to bed between 8-9pm, exact time based on whether she took a nap or not.

Sam goes to bed between 7-8pm, depending on what time he woke up that morning and how long his naps were.  He hates getting ready for bed and screams… usually because he’s so dang tired by now.

If I’m lucky, I can nurse Sam down to sleep, put him in his swing (since he refuses to sleep in the crib) and he will sleep there for 30 minutes before waking up.

During that 30 minutes, I either take a shower, clean the kitchen,pack Jolie’s lunchbox for the next day, etc.  

When he wakes back up, I try my darndest to put him back to sleep by himself.  During the past couple of months, he has refused to do this.  The only way I’ve been able to get him to go back to sleep has been to put him in bed with me and nurse him to sleep.  And he nurses ALL… NIGHT… LONG… meaning Mama wakes up with a lovely full-body ache from having to contort my body to and fro all night to enable him to suckle.

2am.  Jolie joins Sam and me in the bed.  DJ is sleeping on the couch at this point, which I’m sure is just great for his chronic back pain.  Our couch is not the most comfy… 

6am-7:30am – Start over!.

This is why I have not been blogging – or doing much else that would classify as a hobby – lately. I’ve also been not really communicating with family members (sorry, everyone.  I hope the phone calls will resume soon!).  Promise I love you all and I am not purposefully ignoring you.   

DJ and I are working on getting Sam to sleep independently right now.  Sam’s poor sleep habits are really becoming… hmm, what’s the best way to say this while still sounding kind… it’s becoming old?  DJ and I rarely get alone time at all.  I rarely get to do anything non-kid or chore-related.  Yeah, it’s getting old.

So DJ and I are working to help Sam learn to self-soothe and sleep independently.  Please send us good vibes.  It would be so awesome to put Sam to sleep by himself at a decent time and have at least a couple of hours to myself to do something… fun.  Wow, what a concept!

On the bright side, our kids are happy (usually )and very healthy and we have had a very good week (not counting the poor sleeping issues).  DJ and I have been watching our diets and this has had a great impact on our ability to maintain positive attitudes.  Seeing the numbers on the scale move in a different direction (down, rather than up) for once is a great feeling.

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