baby monitor

We never bought a baby monitor for Katie. It just wasn't worth it to me when she was basically in our room and although her bedroom was at one side of the house/apartment, we could hear her very well on the other side since there was only a hallway separating us ... her room was at the end of the hallway and the hallway began in the kitchen and had an opening into the living room. It was a very open floor plan.

Anyway, now with K and L in the same room, I've been pretty nervous about how much K likes to "take care" of L and have been extremely worried about how "helpful" she may be. Also, I've been trying really hard with L to make sure I get him up and feed him way before he cries so he doesn't learn that awful behavior. I accidentally taught K to cry before eating and goodness, she still cries before eating. Okay, she doesn't really cry usually. She just gets grumpy ... just like me!

So we ordered a monitor off of Amazon and it arrived a couple of days later, yesterday. Last night was the first night we put L in his crib in the room with K and it went pretty well. It wasn't a miracle worker by any means, but I slept a million times better when I actually was asleep. I wasn't constantly being partially awakened by grunting and snorting ... other than from Mike. So it was a good night.

Right now, I'm just biding my time in the kitchen with the monitor as I await to see if K can fall asleep in the room with L in his crib. L has been out for about 30 minutes now but K is struggling. But I don't think it has anything to do with L being in the room as much as she just hates taking naps some days.

Plus this is great because now I can finally go outside during nap time or even just with K and still hear what is going on inside. The last time we had family here, we watched a movie upstairs and every 10-15 minutes, I had to run down the stairs to see if L was awake yet. The best part about that story is that I did that for about an hour and a half and was so exhausted that I ended up falling asleep on my bed. L didn't end up waking for probably an hour later, or so.

So far, I'm loving having a monitor. In fact, all night when I was awake and this morning I've been wondering why I didn't get one sooner. Not only can I hear baby L when he's awake, but I also get all the latest and greatest hits from Katie while she's refusing to go to sleep.

Ah. I love her singing.

another lazy day

K woke up grumpy and L has been grumpy when he's not asleep so I decided to take this day as a lazy day.  While they're both sleeping, instead of doing the dishes and prepping lunch like I should be, I've decided to take some time for myself - a long, relaxing shower, some television time, and some blogging.

I think I really lucked out with having good kids.  I went to the doctor's for the first time with just them and no Mike and everything went fine even though I was pretty nervous.  But in general, grocery store trips are always fine to go to with me and just the kiddos so I don't know why I was so worried.  

The kids will be waking up at any moment now so my alone time is coming to an end.  I hope 6 pm comes soon!

full-time mom

It's just been one of those days ... you know the type. Where nothing really goes wrong but to you, everything is wrong. And that's how I feel today.

I don't feel like I slept last night. I can't remember what time I went to bed but it was before Mike. Lately he's usually up after me anyway. But I woke up at 1:45 am (funny how I can't remember when I went to bed but I remember seeing the clock at 1:45) to feed little Lando. I woke up again around 5:30 am. I don't know if it was the articles I read about what it's like to be in a polygamist family or the articles about the one guy who ate a homeless man's face and the articles about the guy who ate some person's brain and heart that caused me not to sleep well or what, but I woke up feeling dead.

The day went on - K woke up saying "mama," we ate breakfast, K had a play group, I made lunch for K, K and L both took naps, I made lunch and ate it, I showered, we ran a couple of errands, I did some light cleaning, I read with K, I made dinner, K and I ate dinner, K took a bath, and K went to bed. And every three hours I fed L. See? Not a bad day, right?

Unfortunately I spent most of the day feeling sorry for myself and the last few hours, have kept back as many tears as possible. This is what my day is now. Any free time I have from the kids goes to making food, cleaning, and a quick shower. If I'm lucky, I can do my hair before a kiddo is crying again. My only "fun time" to surf the web is when I'm feeding L or when they're both asleep and I should be sleeping too.

And I'm so jealous of Mike. He works 20 hours a week and has the rest of the week to do whatever floats his boat. Today? All film stuff. He played with his new audio toy, he did research on whatever film stuff he was looking at, he got together with a friend and made part of a movie ... I made him food and kept him company on his errand.

See? Doesn't his life sound so much more relaxing than mine? Jealous.

And with that, I'm going to bed before I have to wake up for another feeding.