3 Days

3 days until the movers come. I worked on the lower level today. Although it was easy as lots of stuff down there we aren’t moving just yet, since this move is temporary. For the most part I’d say that level is complete.

I’m sitting in Nadia’s room, waiting for her to fall asleep so I can sneak out. I bought the toy at the link below today. The little part that comes out and glows is occupying her. In fact, I’m sitting slightly out of her view and she doesn’t seem concerned. She’s playing with another doll in her bed right now and talking to herself. Maybe we’re making progress. I won’t hold my breath though. Last night she woke at 1040p, 230a, and 330a. Tonight I was smarter and got Nora to sleep first since she was a freaking bear today! Tonight has to be better! I need some real sleep. I feel like I have a newborn again!

https://www.target.com/p/infantino-gaga-musical-soother-night-light-projector/-/A-75556828

Tomorrow I don’t have anything big planned. Just more packing and laundry since I’m not even sure the girls have outfits for tomorrow.

Staring Into Space

I’m sitting here, at my breakfast bar, staring into space, wondering where to start… Clean the mess of the house, dishes, laundry, pack, shower…

I’m tired and losing motivation. Eric left for Des Moines Wednesday after dinner to spend some time with his brother and another friend attending the NCAA basketball games. He’ll be home Sunday sometime. Then he’ll leave Monday morning for his week on-call, returning Friday evening, just in time for the movers to come Saturday morning. I’m terribly overwhelmed with packing on my own. And parenting on my own too for that matter. Throw in the fact that Nadia started ~~climbing~~ falling out of her crib a few days ago. Thus it’s been converted to a toddler bed. 57489397321__1F0B85E6-70CC-4094-91BF-B07321B76190

She seemed pretty excited about the bed, until it was actually time to get into it and stay in it, alone. I sat in her room with her, me on the floor next to her bed, until she was asleep and then snuck out. That worked, but took a lot of time. And maybe ten minutes after I’d snuck out and was working on getting Nora to bed, Nadia woke, screamed, and escaped from her room looking for me. I put her back a few times, interrupting Nora’s bedtime routine. I finally left Nora in her bed to get to sleep around 8:30pm, having started bedtime at 6:45pm with Nadia. I was already annoyed and exhausted at this point. I went back into Nadia’s room to sit with her again until she fell asleep. She finally got to sleep around 9pm, but Nora was still whining and crying for me on and off until after 10pm. And I know I should have just left Nora be and get to sleep on her own, but I was afraid her yelling was going to wake Nadia, so of course I made a point to keep returning to Nora’s room to calm her.

Nadia slept from 9pm to midnight. I sat with her at midnight to get her back to sleep, then again at 1am. When she woke again at 2am I said fuck it and brought her to my bed. She slept there until 6:30am.

Tonight I guess I’ll put Nora into bed first and then try to somehow get Nadia asleep in her bed. Hopefully that way at least Nora gets some sleep.

I’m not sure how I’m going to handle bedtimes alone while packing to move for another week…

Nap Routine

Our nap routine isn’t working. Like seriously causes me more stress. Isn’t nap time supposed to be my break??

I start with Nadia, my youngest, who will be two in about a week. I usually hand Nora, my 3 ½ year-old, the iPad to keep her busy in the living room… Nadia still gets a bottle of milk, actually toddler formula meant for kids ages 1-3. I warm that, collect her 3 million binkies and blanket and head for her room. Quick diaper change before we read anywhere from 0-3 books depending on how tired and cranky she is. Then I turn out the light and we rock. Sometimes she wants more milk, sometimes she just wants to alternate her binkies in and out of her mouth, other times she will babble or sing. Sometimes she falls right to sleep in a few minutes and then I transition her to her crib. Most likely though we rock for 15 mins or so, she is still rather awake, but I lay her in bed and she will usually happily lay there until she falls asleep on her own. By this point we’re maybe 30 minutes into our nap time routine.

Back out to the living room to somehow steal the iPad back from Nora, who is usually pissed as still mid-show. I tell her to run in and go potty, as we’re in underwear most of the day, including naps. She will fight going potty sometimes, so I drag her in while she’s whining and resisting most days. If you’ve ever been to our home, the bathroom is in the hall between the two girl’s bedrooms, thus at this point, if Nadia was sleeping, she’s probably awake, standing and screaming for me in her crib. Awesome. Cue stress.

We’ve been liberal about what Nora has before naps and bed, as we’re still in the mode of, whatever we can get her to eat or drink the better, as she’s still so small. Today she wanted Captain Crunch cereal and apple juice. We snuggle in her rocking hair, her hugging her binkie (which needs to be ditched ASAP), blanket, and pink bunny. She starts crunching on her baggy of cereal while I read the two library books I let her pick from the pile in her room. Two pages in she spills some of her apple juice, mostly on me. Cue angry text to Eric we need new nap time routine and no more liquid in the bedrooms! He doesn’t respond. He’s on-call, but could just be ignoring me.

I change Nora’s PJs and she asks me for new underwear as well. A smear of poop. Great. Pooping in the potty is another post I need to write. Another day though. So she’s in clean clothing, I take the apple juice out to the kitchen, we settle in to finish reading, she’s whining quite loudly for her juice. Nadia must be able to hear, as she is still crying from when Nora woke her while peeing. We finish the second book, Nora whines for milk, we walk out into kitchen to drink, back to her room, I cover her up, she asks me to rub her back, I try to leave her room three times and am successful on the fourth.

60 minutes for nap time! That is so much time, and that’s not even the bedtime routine, which is similar but with teeth brushing, sometimes more books, etc. Too much time! What does everyone else do? We try to be really consistent. This all takes awhile, but should I not complain since once they are in bed, they stay in bed, usually all night?

Nora – 38 Months

Nora never ceases to amaze me! She’s sweet and cuddling with me one minute, whining the next, and then throwing a tantrum five minutes later. I blame her age. Three year-olds are tough! Nora hates be woken in the morning… she’s especially moody if she doesn’t wake naturally… Daycare/school drop-offs are still a little tough but definitely getting better. She pretty much just whines now, her teacher, Coya, will pick her up, tickle her, Nora waves to me, and then is happy and playing five minutes later, per pictures I’ve been sent. Today she skipped to her room although was whining when I left. Yesterday she skipped to her room and happily sat down to paint once we arrived.

Potty training, well, it’s coming along. We alternate between pull-ups and underwear during the day, but still definitely do pull-ups at night, and she wakes very wet. For the most part she stays dry in underwear at school, but has lots of accidents at home. Maybe our routine is off here? She will gladly use the potty at school every two hours on their schedule, but at home she really, really fights me. Most of the time when I tell her to run in and go she refuses and cries. Thus at home it’s mostly pull-ups, as I tell her if she won’t sit on the potty, she can’t wear underwear. And let’s not even talk about poop. She refuses to poop at school and has gone in underwear more than I want to admit at home. Yuck. I’m trying not to push potty training, like if she cries to go at home I don’t make her. Or should I?

Nora is still a very picky eater. Mostly carbs go into her mouth, and I can’t blame her, carbs are yummy! She loves noodles with parmesan cheese, bacon, sometimes scrambled eggs, Special K Strawberry Breakfast Crisps, ‘fruit’ snacks, apples, and we still do chocolate Pediasure before bed, although finally out of a straw cup instead of a bottle! I hate it has a lot of sugar, but I swear it’s what is keeping her alive, and it does have some vitamins.

Nora is really good about staying in her toddler bed. I think she only got out of her bed once now since March when we converted her crib. I still use a baby monitor with her. The other night we had a big storm which scared her. I went in to comfort her as she was crying, I’m not sure if she would have stayed in bed that night or not. Our bedtime routine though is getting more and more painful for me, especially when I’m here alone with the girls. I read books with both girls, but separately. Nora likes me to crawl into her bed and cuddle for a bit, and then she wants to talk awhile with me in there too. Sometimes she will play the ‘I’m hungry’ or ‘I’m thirsty’ card. She’s getting more and more clever.

I often look at Nora and can’t really believe how big she is, although she’s still only 27 lbs 😉 She speaks extremely well, basically carries on complete conversations with us, well, to an extent. Our conversations usually involve her daytime activities at school, who she played with on the playground, her overnight dreams, what type of snack she wants, what show she would like on her iPad, you get the idea. But still, I’m amazed at some of the things she says and remembers. Her cute little voice gets me every time, even when she’s being a little stinker!

I’ll update about Mother’s Day soon, when I find the time! Eric is off this week so we’ve been trying to do some things around the house, and of course he insists we eat out for lunch each day, which takes a ton of time and really breaks up the day. He’s meeting with a personal trainer now and then I think we are going to a movie this afternoon before we pick up the girls. Our 6th wedding anniversary is tomorrow and I think my mom is watching the girls for us tomorrow night, hopefully a fancy dinner out!

Happy Friday!

Well that sucked…

Those Mac and Cheese bites I made for dinner… Don’t waste your time, in my opinion. They actually took awhile to make by the time I cooked the chicken, cooked the noodles, made the cheese sauce, mixed it altogether, scooped it into the tiny mini-muffin cups and then finally baked them. (Three dirty pans plus the mini-muffin pan, which is a pain in the butt to wash!) And perhaps I didn’t bake them long enough, as they didn’t stick together very well. I mean, they came out of the cups fine, but fell apart upon biting into them. Nadia ate probably one, hard to say as I gave her two which she smashed and then ate some of the mess on her tray. Nora wouldn’t touch it, wouldn’t even try it. Which ended in her screaming for a bottle. I finally did cave right before bed, but only after she also threw a fit about the pediasure being in straw cup. Does me trying to cut out the bottle count? She refused to brush her teeth and while I normally enjoy our time together reading before bed, it was interrupted by Nadia’s screaming… the entire time I was putting Nora to bed. Thankfully both are sleeping now. But bedtime tonight was no easy feat! Only five more bedtimes until Eric is home! 🙂

Sticky

I hate to complain about the sticky weather, but can the humidity climb any higher?? Yuck. Feels wet just walking outside!

The girls and I ventured to story time at the CF Library this morning, well, actually, we went to meet a friend and her two boys, and just happened to arrive mid-story time. Nora was quite disruptive, but she seemed to somewhat enjoy watching the other kids. After that finished we stayed to play while I attempted an adult conversation with my friend. It’s always difficult with kids, but it was really good to see her. And nice to get out of the house. I stopped on the way home for a Happy Meal for Nora, which she is actually eating now. Surprise surprise. Maybe all the activity wore her out and made her hungry. Next will be her nap, as it’s after 1pm.

Update on that house in Hudson we made an offer on… Our realtor texted me last night that the sellers could now make 600k work. Interesting, since our final offer was 585k. I guess I’m giving up on it. It’s not that we can’t afford 600k, more than we, and our realtor, don’t believe the house is worth more than 585k, mainly since it’s outside of town. So the search continues. Maybe it’s a sign. Makes me wonder if God is trying to give me more opportunities to realize we need to move back closer to Iowa City.

Eric didn’t get home last night until close to 9pm. I’m not sure exactly when he finished his clinic in Ft. Dodge, but he made time to have lunch with his grandparents and mother after. It shouldn’t annoy me, but it does. As him having a late lunch/early dinner with them meant he didn’t start his 90 mile drive home until 5:30pm. He could have been home by then. And to make matters worse, he got a call from the ER on his drive home that he needed to come see a patient. Ugh. It’s never ending. I despise bedtime alone. Nadia is getting her top four teeth, thus she is always fussy, bedtime being no exception. I stopped reading to Nora in her room five times to go calm Nadia. Which never actually did calm her. Nora was finally in bed around 8pm at which point I just stopped fighting bedtime with Nadia and brought her out to play a bit more. In the end, it all worked out, but it totally stresses me out when both are screaming, both need me… I never quite know how to separate my time. Neither want to wait, Nora crying just as much as Nadia if I walk away from her.

As for Nora’s eating, I’m going to call her pediatrician this afternoon and ask for a referral to feeding therapy. There is a therapist at the same location where I’ve been taking Nadia for speech and physical therapy. Ugh, the thought of going there three times a week overwhelms me, but… Nora isn’t gaining weight. I hate picking her up, she’s just bones. Even her face seems sunken in lately. Or maybe it’s just my imagination, I don’t know. Meals are just so stressful for me. I actually avoid taking her out places because it’s so stressful if events fall over mealtime or involve food. I hate this feeling. I’d at least like them to evaluate her.