FAILED! Sammy 1, Mommy 0

[rockinlibrarian]

I gave up! I fed him even though he just ate (relatively, for nighttime) and I know I'm supposed to break him of the habit! But darn, to give in AFTER an hour of trying everything else and refusing to give in just makes it worse! I suck! AAGH! That's one of the only drawbacks of nursing-- it's so easy (once you get it) that it's too easy to spoil him once he's supposed to not be waking up every two hours at night....


Two surveys:
1. Who is your man? Jason
2. How long have you been married? 3 yrs 10 mos
3. How long dated? Before married or total? 4 yrs before. Total-- well, you can do math
4. How old is your man? 33
5. Who eats more? I'm not sure really. He eats more at once, but I eat more meals and snacks.
6. Who said “I love you” first? Him, and he was really worried that he'd freak me out, but I was like, "how can it freak me out for you to say it? I already figured you did."
7. Who is taller? Him
8. Who sings better? Me, but he underestimates his own singing abilities. He's really good when he doesn't have to adhere to someone else's melody.
9. Who is smarter? I'm a bit intellectually smarter, which he'll agree with; he's got a bit more common sense. A BIT
10. Whose temper is worse? totally him. I don't have a temper unless I'm tired. Like now. Go to sleep, sam.
11. Who does the laundry? Me. At the beginning of our marriage he was like, "Oh, and I'm okay with doing laundry... wait, you SORT yours?"
12. Who takes out the garbage? He takes it OUT, but I have to gather it up and take it to the basement so he doesn't have to track his work boots upstairs on garbage day to get it
13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? um... him if you mean right when in it. Me if you mean right when looking at it.
14. Who pays the bills? Lately he does, because he's the one who set up the online bill paying, but this frustrates me because I'm the one who does the most variable money-spending-- groceries-- and it's hard not having the first-hand knowledge of exact how much money we have and where it needs to go. This will change once I get paid for the library, because we're going to use that income for groceries.
15. Who is better with the computer? He's done more with hardware and basic system admin, because he used to work in a computer lab, but I'm pretty good at figuring out programs and also HTML
16. Who mows the lawn? Him, reluctantly, but I'm even more reluctant so I win
17. Who cooks dinner? Depends on what we're having, but usually me, because I remember vegetables
18. Who drives when you are together? Him
19. Who pays when you go out? All the same, whoever has easiest access to the money I guess
20. Who is most stubborn? Also depends what. In some ways him, but I can be stubborn if I really care about an issue.
21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Neither? The other has to point it out and go "Hah hah," and then the wrong party will say, "okay, shut up"
22. Whose parents do you see the most? His
23. Who kissed who first? He totally kissed me first, seeing as I forgot to kiss back
24. Who asked who out? He did. And seriously, that second "who" is unnecessary.
25. Who proposed? He did
26. Who is more sensitive? Uh... do you know us?
27. Who has more friends? Well, I think I might HAVE more in theory, but he is in better contact with his, I think
28. Who has more siblings? ME!
29. Who wears the pants in the family? um, we both do, literally and figuratively

1. How many sq.ft. is your current home? I don't know off-hand, but there are 4 rooms and a hallway on the top floor and 3 rooms and a big connected room on the main floor

2. How much would you increase if possible? I don't know if I'd increase size, maybe number of rooms

3. How many bedrooms do you have? 3, but only two are used as bedrooms

4. How many bedrooms would you like to have? we'll have to see how the children get along in the future...

5. What are the top 3 updates you would make to your home? 1) Fix retaining wall 2) Fix rest of landscaping in front yard 3) Jason has some others, but I can't think of any more this time of night

6. What do you like best about your home that you would not change? Location across from the park!

7. What would you change about your kitchen? Totally bigger, so you don't bump the table every time you open the refrigerator

8. What would you change about your bathroom(s)? Definitely the colors in the upstairs one. The downstairs one, um, something to make it not need cleaned as often

9. What would you change about your exterior? See #5

10. If money were no object and you had the choice of moving or updating your current home, what would you choose? Update. Anything to avoid moving again. That's why we fret about money, because technically we can't really afford this house when I'm not working.

Post a picture of your home if available:
um, here's the steps?

Comments

[lady1297.livejournal.com]

Edward woke up throughout the night until he was 2 and John still wakes up two to three times a night. Some kids just need to eat at night. You don't suck. Formula babies eat more during the day, hence people thinking babies should sleep through the night. Grow spurts, milestones, etc all interrupt sleep. Feed him if it makes him go back to sleep and don't beat yourself up. They won't go to college needing to nurse at night. I promise. (Go back and read the beginning of my journal, like 2004 and you'll see I was frustrated by sleep too). Babies need us the first year especially at night. :) You're a good mommy-you're doing Sammy right!

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

It's not a matter of sleeping through the night, it's that he'd just eaten-- and a lot-- an hour before that, so I KNEW he wasn't hungry, and I thought I'd try some other things to get him to sleep so he wouldn't be dependent on nursing to do so, but none of those other things worked and that went on for an hour. Actually, generally he's a good sleeper at night-- he's had a lot of whole nights and even more regularly will just wake up once. I usually don't have a problem with his actual SLEEPING... it's more getting him to fall asleep by some method other than nursing.

[lady1297.livejournal.com]

Ah....yeah, I suck at letting my kids do anything other than nurse to sleep! :) Sometimes John will just pass out on my shoulder and I have no idea how or why that works those times and not others. This kid thing needs instructions! :)

[sal_amanda]

We can't technically afford the house we live in either, currently, since I'm not bringing in much money while I'm in school. I feel your pain on that one.

[punterschlagen.livejournal.com]

I agree - you don't suck. Larry didn't sleep through the night until he was over a year old. It took some patience on my part, some growing up on his, and eventually a stubborn battle of wills, but we did it. Lucky for me, it took about a week for Larry to go from 30 minutes of crying to none. He still wakes up at night, but I just give him a cup of water and he goes back to sleep - I'm trying to leave the cup where he can reach it, so sometimes he doesn't need my help. Oh, well - it's not as tiring as nursing (which he only gave up completely right after his 2nd birthday, and that was only once during the day anyway).

You will make it!

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

I replied above that it's not a matter of sleeping through the night, it's a matter of him finding other ways of falling asleep besides nursing.

[majellen.livejournal.com]

Some things to try:

Tank him up at night. Feed him more during the day in general, and then before bedtime, nurse him more often. If it helps to use a bottle, maybe now would be the time to start one so that you can give him a "dream feed" at 11 or so? (without waking him up). It won't work real well at first, but hang in there.

Another thing to try, and this sounds so crazy, but I did it and it works...it's called "Wake to sleep" (I got it out of a book.) What you do: You set your alarm for AN HOUR BEFORE he wakes up. You go into his room and jiggle him a little bit, not waking him up completely, just a little bit. This should break up his sleeping pattern enough to get him to sleep longer. It kind of resets the internal alarm clock, you know? I'd only work on one of those middle of the night wakings at a time, though.

I will mail you that book that I have. It's been an excellent resource and I remember reading LOTS about habitual wakers. *HUG* You'll both get through it!

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

I replied above that it's not a matter of sleeping through the night, it's trying to get him to fall asleep without relying on nursing. But yeah, I read about that Wake to Sleep technique too. The only problem is you never know when Sammy's going to wake up. Some nights he actually DOES sleep-- or at least not wake to the point of crying for consolation-- the whole way through the night. Most nights he'll just wake up once or twice. Sometimes that's at ten o'clock, before I've fallen asleep, so it's good for both of us! Usually it's somewhere between midnight and 2:30, which is nice and centralized, but it's never certain when... although it never seems to be conveniently just as Jason's coming to bed, which I also end up waking up for.