Teething sucks for you? No, for me!

So my soon to be one year old is teething again. He already has two teeth on the bottom of his mouth and now the two top are working their way in. And let me tell you, it produces one cranky baby! Drippy nose, fever, refusal to go to sleep, and all together irritated is currently my son. So what use to be bliss (him sleeping from 8:30pm-6am) is now hell with him sleeping from 8:30am-3am, or 4am, or 5am. Mommy doesn't do so well between the hours of 3am-5am and besides, I thought those days were over! My heart truly goes out to my son and I know he is uncomfortable. But now I find myself dreading the possibility of him waking up before I am even alert enough to know my own name.

How did you mom's deal with your little ones teething?

There just isn't enough time...ever

Ok, so this is a message to all those mom's out there that seem to be able to raise the kids, bring home the bacon, volunteer at a million charities, and run marathons: I hate you. You are either a robot in disguise from another planet or you've got some good drugs that you need to let me in on! 

THERE JUST NEVER SEEMS TO BE ENOUGH TIME! Lets take a look at mama J's busy day (lets include daddy S for fun) 

5:30am-6:00am-Jonathan wakes up and demands his bottle and some tender love and care. If I'm lucky, when he wakes up at 5am he often goes back to sleep after a bottle. (like I said, if I'm lucky)

7:00am-8:00am (depends on how tired hubby is) Jonathan gets dropped off at my moms house.

9:00am-5pm-Working on the chain gang. (It's extremely fortunate that I love my job)

6-6:30 (If I'm lucky and don't have mounds of paper work to do at the office, I'll get home at this time in addition to hubby)

7-7:30pm-If me and my husband are not in comas, one of us will try to make dinner while the other entertains Jonathan who wants to walk all over the apartment. 

Keep in mind, sometimes dinner doesn't get done because Jonathan demands to be played with and will scream and cry until he gets his way so often we don't eat until hmmm..say 9.

8:30-(Golden time. Jonathan goes to sleep. Do you hear the bells ringing?)

9-Possibly eating dinner, or doing dishes, or prepping breakfast and lunch for the next day. Or possibly passed out on the couch wishing I had the energy to do these things.

10-Doing my hair so I don't look like celie from the color purple the next day. Then picking out my clothes, showering if I am lucky and all those other fun things that go with bedtime.

11pm-If I am lucky, I am crawling into bed making sweet love to my pillow (That's the only thing I have the energy to make sweet love to these days) and dreading the sound of my alarm clock the next morning, knowing it's back to the grind.

Sigh, so that's a tip of the Nelson family iceberg. Some say when your day is packed, there are certain things that you have to let drop ie, cleaning your bathroom, getting your hair done, or watching a bad movie. The truth is, I don't want to give up the little things because the little things are what keep me sane. I need to play a video game once in a while, get my nails done, or do some Yoga. I like having a clean house because I can't be comfortable in a dirty one. But the truth is, I can't do it all unless I intend to go crazy. So it looks like I will have to sacrifice some things.

Mom's: What did you have to sacrifice when you had your little ones? 

I don't want another child. There...I said it!

It's true. No one has managed to write the much needed book "All the answers to all the tough questions about parenting". No one tells you just how hard it really is. So it wasn't surprising that before I got pregnant with Jonathan I said, "I want three kids."

So yeah..my ideas about that have sort of changed and let me walk you through why:





1. My c-section recovery was a biatch and I don't ever want to go through that pain again.


















Ouch


2. My pregnancy was a biatch. With my factor 7 issues, my non stop nausea, and my low amniotic fluid, let's just say it was not a fun ride.
Stress!



3. Jonathan is expensive! With all the formula, diapers, clothes, toys, and soon to be day care, I'm broke.


Money drainer



4. I miss sleeping in on the weekends. Just waking up at 10:30, yawning, stretching, and just loving the idea that I do not have anywhere to go or anything to do!

 So jealous



5. I love my career and I'm going back to school. I would just be two overwhelmed to tend to a toddler, and a newborn!
  me!




And lastly I'm just: 


To all those mom's, grandmothers, nutcase family folks, and whoever thinks it's so incredibly selfish to have just one child, I have a message for you!

I've been out of the loop...

To my loyal 8 followers (and thank you oh so much btw for supporting me) I have to apologize for being out of the loop. The reason why: I have been extremely exhausted! Working 40 hours a week does not leave a whole lot of time for extra curricular activities. On top of tending to baby which includes feeding him, blowing spit bubbles with him, and tickling his feet,  I must get dinner ready half the time, prepare my breakfast and lunch for the next day, remember to shower if I am able, and try to get to bed before 11pm so that I am able to get up in the morning.

And every morning I tell myself that I am going to get out of bed no later than 6:30 am so that I am able to tend to boo boo and have enough time to get myself dressed and out of the door on time! And every morning it feels like there is a cement block on my chest and my eyeballs are about to burn out of my sockets and I wind up not budging until 7:15! On top of having extreme exhaustion, I have anemia which does not help with my energy levels. In a desperate attempt not to become a cliche, I have avoided coffee as a means to stay awake for the following reasons:

1. I do not like the jittery feeling caffeine gives me. I have enough issues with my heart beating fast. I don't need more!
2. I HATE that feeling when you crash 4-5 hours later.
3. Coffee makes me poop a lot!

4. It's bad for your kidneys.

So now I am looking for some healthier methods to boost my energy levels so I actually have the energy to do other things besides work, come home, take care of boo boo, and go to sleep. On the plus side here are some things that I have managed to accomplish since going back to work:

1. I have gotten myself back into therapy

2. I have bought a YOGA starting kit and have started stretching weekly

So progress not perfection. My body has recently responded to all of this exhaustion by breaking down and I got bronchitis. It was a def wake up call that I needed to take better care of myself. So excluded the option of Iron (cause we all know that it plugs you up) What healthy supplements do you mom's out there recommended to help me sustain more energy?

Baby talk 101

So my beautiful son Jonathan is rounding up on four months next week. I can hardly believe that time is going by so fast. His nights seem to be getting easier as he is now sleeping 7-8 hours. Needless to say, my husband and I have regained some of our sanity. Yay! I am now eagerly looking forward to the milestones to come. I was thrilled when boo boo managed to turn from his belly to his back all by himself. I adore watching him suck on his hand and stare at his toes in amazement. He is quickly becoming aware of his body and all the wonderful things it can do.

And here comes the baby talk! It's funny that when you are a parent you think everything your kid does is cute. (for the most part) I find myself telling my mom over and over how I can't wait for my son to talk. She laughs and replies "that's what you think now." But I forsake her sarcasm and wisdom. I am so in love with the constant cooing and other strange but unbelievebly cute noises that come out of my sons mouth. It's so funny to watch him stare at my mouth and make a huge effort to mimic my sounds. I think any moment he is going to shout out "Mama" and my heart is going to melt. (It had better come before dada) A few weeks ago, my husband and I nearly freaked out when after asking Jonathan if he wanted to talk, thought we heard him reply "yeah." As much as I would marvel at a geneius baby, having him speak actual words at 3 1/2 months would be a little on the freaky side.


To all you mama's out there: When did your baby say their first word and what was your experience like?

Back to work...smirk

Ok, so the fabulous oh so short 3 months that I have had off with boo boo are coming to an end. Let me just say: I AM NOT HAPPY! Why you ask? Cause people in Europe get six months for a reason: 3 months is not enough. I mean it took me two months just to get adjusted to being a mom and now almost 3 months to completely heal from my c-section. Now I am being thrown back into the work force at ample speed and my anxiety is through the roof. What am I gonna do if I can't see this face all day every day?

I'm just starting to learn his habits, he's smiling almost every single day, and lovingly looks at me while I feed him his bottle. Can you say yummy? I knew that you could! Don't get me wrong. I am thrilled that mama bear is going to be watching him, but I am going to miss him like hell!  

How did you mama's out there deal with going back to work?

Doctors can be dicks!

So I'm not proud to admit that I am a breastfeeding drop out.  It just wasn't working for me or boo boo! Having said that, in addition to refusing breast milk, my son who is now formula fed is incredibly gassy! This is the ordeal I have been through:
Similac advance: will only drink two ounces, spit up, scream because of gas pains, and fall asleep for no more than one hour.
Similac organic: Drinks the whole bottle but struggles with gas pains for at least 20 minutes

In a desperate attempt to soothe my son and get some sleep I decided to give similac soy a try considering they say it helps with gas and fussiness. I thought I had hit the jackpot considering Jonathan would down the whole bottle and seemed to settle down afterwards. (silly me) To my surprise and horror, I changed my sons diaper only to find a massive hard turd with a little bit of blood. Yup..my son was constipated. As if seeing him wriggle with gas pains wasn't enough. So in a panic, I call my pediatrician only to find that the other doctor is on call. (The one I am not that crazy about) It's midnight, I'm anxious, and doc calls me back sounding "inconvenienced." He proceeds to interrogate me demanding to know who "told me" to give my son soy. Then he orders me to stop giving him the formula right away and recommends something I have never heard of. In a panic, I tell him that all the stores are closed and all I have besides the soy is rice milk. His response: "Go to a 24 hour pharmacy, what do you want me to tell you."

My response:



What a dick! You don't make an already anxious mom even more anxious cause you don't want to be bothered at midnight. It's your job! You should have been a postal worker if that's the case!
So here I was with this screaming constipated pissed off baby wondering what I did to piss off the Gods.

So after taking boo boo to the doctor and being told I made a "mistake" by giving him soy, I was instructed to give him water to ease up his bowels and give similac alemntum a try. Luckily the Russian doctor didn't throw me in prison or have me interrogated by the KGB. I'm a new mom. I'm going to make mistakes. When you have a screaming child, you try to do what works.

So what have I learned from this whole ordeal: That my son is a fussy little eater and I'm praying I find a formula that he likes and doctors can be DICKS!