A perfect storm day

Sometimes you just "have one of those days." Today was that day for me. As I go through the list of things in my mind, they don't seem like a big deal but when they happened, it was like the world was ending and the ground was about to give way underneath me. Good things happened today too but my emotions were all over the place.

I had to get up at 6:20 to teach a cello lesson at 7 which, for a prego lady, is asking a lot since I sleep horribly anyways.

She practiced and is just one of my favorite students. She's awesome.

Jack got up before my lesson started and watched TV. When I was done teaching, he was not done watching TV. We ate breakfast while zoning out to Curious George.

After breaking away from TV and playing with toys, Jack complains about everything and melts down multiple times. The train track doesn't put itself back together, the toy doesn't make noise when it's switched off, the ball is in the block box, green and yellow don't match; ya. no pleasing this kid. Frustration was boiling high and I finally put him in bed at 10:30. He was out in minutes.

The brake lights don't work on the car we are driving to California day after tomorrow and I have been trying to fix it myself. Not the bulbs, not the fuse so its most likely the switch... which is under the dash... That's hard to get to when you aren't seven months pregnant. There's no way I can do it in my state. So I call a mechanic and he can do it for under $100 and have it done tomorrow if I bring it in in the next few hours. Colin's at work, Jacks asleep, half of my friends who could help are pregnant and have other kids.....

I call Dad crying asking him what he thinks. "Bring it out here and Ill fix it for you. Fix it ticket is the worst thing that can happen." Duh. I over complicated it. OK- car isn't going to the shop today.

The landscaping guy calls who is taking out all the bushes tomorrow. There's a delay with the gas guys and they cant come out to draw where the gas lines are until Friday.... we will be gone... We'll have to wait until we get back to have the guys take out the bushes. We now have to call the fence guy and tell him about the delay.

Throughout almost all of this, I was crying or on the verge. I finally realized to forget about getting the car fixed before we leave and the bushes weren't happening tomorrow. So I sat on the couch, had some chocolate and caught up on Duck Dynasty for an hour. That fixed me for the short run.

Jack can recognize a few of the letters on his letter puzzle and put them in without help. He's so smart.


Pregnancy is pretty good to me- I don't get sick and my tummy doesn't get massive til right at the end. That doesn't mean there aren't days like today where all that's happening at my house is tears and crying from everyone and the littlest things mean we are all going to die.

7 weeks til the baby is here. Heaven help us til then... and after then.

30 weeks

My sister in law, Lynn, came over to take some maternity pictures for me. I got more than I was expecting. Jack is my life and my everything. Lynn only snapped a few pictures of him but every single one of them I absolutely adore. I want to get big prints of all of these and hang them on my walls. Its hard to put into words how I feel about being a mother but these pictures get pretty darn close.

Sleep training the Jack-man

I'm trying not to count my chickens before they hatch but this is the third night Jack has slept on a big boy bed and he did it all by himself!

Moms may appreciate this post more than others- it might just be boring. Sleep training isn't something I cared about until it was on my shoulders to do it my way with my kid. I have read a lot of what other moms have done to train their kids into a bed. I took bits and pieces from my readings and came up with my own plan of attack.

Over the past few months, I have tried to have him sleep in the bed but he was too excited or I was too tired to really try. And I was in no hurry. Im thinking it will be nice to not buy a second crib for baby 2. We are taking the slowly but surely route to getting Jack into his bed. Two months to go until baby 2 is here.

Night #1- It was past Jacks bedtime so he was really tired. He laid on his bed for a few minutes then came and laid with me on my bed in my exhausted vegetative state. It was 8:15pm by the way. He fell asleep on me which hasn't happened since he was a BABY baby. I put him on his bed, he rolled over and fell asleep!! He stayed there until 3am when he woke up and was disoriented so I put him back in his crib. I was exhausted too and didn't want to get up again before morning.

Night #2- I put a gate in his doorway because he can open the door. I put him in bed and said goodnight. After a while, he was whimpering at the gate but I let him do that for a few minutes before going in, putting him back in bed and saying goodnight. This happened two more times. I then laid him in his bed and rubbed his back for a minute then walked out. He was calm enough to stay there are fall asleep! Yea! He woke up at 6:45am which was a little early but I can't complain! He slept all night!

Night #3- Gate up, put him down and said good night. He spends 20 minutes walking around his room, opening and shutting the door, playing with his nightlight etc. during which time I told him to get back in bed once (which he didn't stay there for long). After a long silence, I peeked in- he was asleep on his bed! All by himself! He left the door wide open which is fine with me. He has a noise machine which helps him know when its time to sleep but also lets us do dishes and watch tv without having to be super silent.

That is the breakdown! I don't feel like I'm rushing him too much into a bed and I know all the things that come with a toddler in a bed instead of a crib but he's doing great. He's still napping in the crib- that's the next project. It's hard when he doesn't nap well because I teach in the afternoon. If he's grumpy, its game over. Thanks for reading!