Category Archives sleep

Aloha Friday #14

Aloha and TGIF everyone!

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating.

 Aloha Friday by Kailani at An Island Life

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My questions for this week is:

How much sleep do you get on the average night?

Sleep, what is that? Seriously, I do not think I have slept a really decent night since I conceived NHL almost six years ago. Whether it was hormone induced lack of sleep, pregnancy bladder, nursing babies, teething toddlers, or a preschooler with nightmares,  nights have been sketchy to say the least. On a good night I may get 4-6 hours of combined sleep. My body and mind have learned to cope with this, but it can be rough at times.

I joke with JL that my theme song should be the following:

 

How I love this song! Although I may not get a great night of sleep at least the boys seem to be able to catch some Z’s most evenings, even when on the road. 

A good night sleep

Sweet dreams to all!

TheAngelForever

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Plans – they often change

When you become a parent, you learn how to go with the flow a lot more. Heck, you also learn how to function (or so they say) with little or no sleep. This weekend would be a great example of that.

Friday we were supposed to leave after JL arrived home from work to travel five hours to see my brother, SIL, and niece S for a first birthday party weekend. My parents left earlier in the day and told me that the rain was horrible going in the direction. By the time JL was home from work it was 3:40 in the afternoon. We knew that by the time we finished packing, loading the car and kids to head out it would be 4:30-5:00 at best. That means with a stop to eat we would not arrive at our destination until 10:00 at best. Add the weather and kids into the travel and it would likely be later.

We quickly looked at the radar of weather conditions for the evening. It looked miserable. The rain showed no end and was quite heavy in the direction we were going in. We changed our plans. Rather than leave at night we would get up VERY early and load the sleeping boys into the car and go before the sun was up.

Dinner was made, a quick errand and everyone went to sleep early. I set the alarm for 3:00 and hoped to be on the road at 4:00. NHL was up at 2:00 and hardly went back to sleep after that. I moved the alarm to 4:00. Since it was shabbat I was doing all of the driving and wanted a little extra sleep. At 4:00 I quickly packed the rest of the items, both boys were up (GAH) and we hauled everything into the car. We were on the road by 5:00 heading to see Uncle I, Aunt M, and Cousin S.

Do you prefer getting up early to drive or doing the trip at night?  Although I was exhausted and the sun was not out and there was thick fog, it was smooth sailing at this hour of day. I was pretty much the only car on the road with all of the big trucks. We made it to our destination in just under 5 hours including a stop at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast and a pit stop.

Once we were there the kids quickly started to play. Here is Uncle I reading all of the kiddos a story. 

Story time at the Princess Table

We had a fabulous weekend spending lots of time with family. The kids enjoyed playing with Cousin S and did not want to leave yesterday afternoon. We arrived home late last night. JL and I were exhausted from little sleep. This is what we hope to catch up on soon. 

Got sleep? 

The boys are pros at it!

Great photos of the kids playing and of course Cousin S’s birthday party from yesterday coming soon.

 

TheAngelForever

 

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It’s raining, it’s pouring . . .

my kids are not snoring – through the night at least!

Clearly the two boys have a deal between them to have Mommy and Daddy up each and every night. Typically this is between 12-2 in the morning. Most nights it seems to be a certain 14 month old little boy. NHL has slept the past two nights since he gave us the big scare. Thank goodness since I do not think my heart could take that again.

Thursday afternoon we had a horrible storm come through the area. In addition to the thunder and lightning, flooding rains joined in the fun. The city received over an inch of rain during the first burst in less than an hour.  I often complain about the threat of floods in my basement, but we were lucky nothing happened here. We think it was thanks to DGS coming that morning and cleaning out the sewers. Perhaps they were admitting to a problem, but I am sure they will never fess up. 

Sure we lucked out this one time, but others did not have this fate. Other parts of the city turned into lakes. Cars in parking lots in certain sections floated away as people were stranded inside buildings. One woman had to be recused from her car as a sewer suddenly started to spew water and form a lake around her. Her car could not be opened since the power system failed and she was trapped. Along with this other parts of the city had the pleasure of finding raw sewage in their lawns and basements. The city of course is claiming little or no responsibility, like when it happened here. Sad that with all of the taxes we pay nothing is done to fix this outdated system that is not working.

During the rain on Thursday I went outside on our porch to get some photos. You can barely  see that the street in front of the house was a quick flowing river, but it was. 

River going down the street

 Another view of the rain

Yesterday was a lazy PJ kind of day here in Angel Land. I was beyond exhausted from no sleep and did not want to fight more rain storms with the boys. We stayed in during the day. The boys were bouncing off the wall. The little munchkin learned how to scare Mommy some more. Sorry no photos of this trick with no hands, I was too busy stopping him at the time! 

No fear

So proud of his new trick

Not long after this JL arrived home from work. I went to swap the cars around for the weekend. I knew the sky was quickly getting black. Of course as I moved the first car out of the driveway the sky started to dump more rain. I was soaked when I came into the house. A few minutes later I had an idea. It was raining, but no thunder or lightning. NHL needed to run and this was the perfect chance to test our the cowboy rain boots that Aunt L bought him years ago. I quickly put shorts and boots on him and took him outside to puddle stomp. When we first went out it was lightly raining, so I snapped a few quick ones. Then he found some giant puddles in the back of our driveway and was soaked from splashing up a storm. It was fun to watch his reaction when I told him to go and jump in a puddle, something he is always told to avoid. 

Testing out his boots 

Off to find more puddles

Today we hope to catch some rays from the sun before the next few days throw even more rain on us.

 TheAngelForever

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Happy sleeping boys = happy mommy

I love my boys – all three of them!

Sure, they may make me crazy from time to time, but that is supposed to happen that way. It is the simple things that make me smile and know that being home with them is the right thing for our family.

Who knew that something as simple as seeing the two little ones asleep resting peacefully could make me so happy? Wednesday night we bought JSL his own pillow to sleep on. He really loved to curl up on it and we felt it was fine to do since it was very firm. Here are some resulting photographs. This is JSL with his new pillow:

 All comfy with monkey pillow case

Meanwhile in his bed NHL looked like this: 

All snuggly in bed

Notice how similar the two boys are when they sleep. Both of them have their little hands out in almost the identical way. First JSL in his crib:

Happy sleeping baby

And NHL in his bed:

Too many pillows - never!

 He definitely likes his pillow. JSL loves to pet the pillowcase to fall asleep now when he wakes up.

Tired monkey

JL and I are so very lucky to have two great little boys. NHL and JSL love each other and recently have started to play and interact more. JSL is a sponge trying to take everything in and NHL loves to show his little brother anything and everything. If NHL is in the living room and moves to another location JSL quickly follows. Now he crawls after his big brother, but soon enough he will be toddling after.

They grow up too quickly  . . . . . . *sigh* 

TheAngelForever

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Baby sleep eating 101

Just the other day I was looking at NHL’s baby photos. I mentioned to JL that I still recalled the day that he fell asleep mid-bite of baby food in his highchair. We both laughed and thought it was not likely to happen to JSL. 

NHL sleep eating - March 2004

Monday early afternoon I was shocked with the following sequence of events.

At about 11:30 JSL and I sat down at the dining room table to have lunch. He had a cream cheese sandwich (his new favorite) and was quite content. As I was eating my lunch he was babbling away to me. Suddenly I looked a little closer because he was not talking as loudly. Sure enough his eyes were completely closed. He was still talking and shoving sandwich into his face.

I could not believe my eyes and continued to watch. I was afraid to walk by him to get my camera for fear of disturbing him. The poor little guy was obviously exhausted and needed rest before going to get big brother from school. I finally was able to retrieve my camera. This is a shot of his hand soon after he dropped a piece of his lunch onto the tray. 

Too tired to keep eating. . .

Not too long after this I watched as he was trying to get more comfortable. First he tried this:

 Must catch some Zzzz's

Slowly his head moved down onto his shoulder as he was curling up into a good position. I know if I slept like this I would have a stiff neck for day. How about you?

Kind of comfy here

 This must not have been the most ideal spot because soon enough he shifted to this pose.

 Ahhhh. . . . much better

He stayed like this until I had to clean him off and pack him up to go and pick up NHL from school. Who knew that life as a baby could be such tough work. I guess growth spurts and teething take a LOT out of you.

 TheAngelForever

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