Sweet Dreams, Little One

Bedtime is the one thing I am very particular about in this house. I am determined that we have a consistent bedtime and routine. I also want all my children to have the same storytime, snuggles, and tucking in. Making sure 4 kids 6 and under get read to, snuggled and are asleep before 9 pm is a challenge though. Putting so much time into bedtime isn't much for 1 or 2 kids. A 30 minute reading, snuggle, tuck in routine times 4 is a lot though. It's especially a lot if none of them are sleepy enough to be put to bed at 7 pm. That means you have to overlap the kids.

Putting them to bed, on a typical night, is a tag team event. I start with J4, hubby starts with S6. Whoever is done first, or closest to done at 8 pm goes to get B11 into bed. Next in line for bed is A2. I get baby L, usually last or while I do A2.  Putting them to bed without your "partner" is a bit more work. You never know what kind of things you will end up with. I can't be in 2 places at once so people just have to be patient.

I never know what to expect until I start. A group of obviously tired kids may all just lay there wide awake. This particular trip, on day 1 I started with S6 because she was ready to read. After reading though she had too much to say. Then baby L decided to crawl all over the bed fussing. At 8 pm I had to leave her to get B11 in bed. I take baby L downstairs to play while I do B11 and hopefully S6. Baby L screams the whole time I do B11 so I have to go get her instead of doing S6. I grabbed J4 to get him in bed so I didn't have to go back down for him. He will usually climb in bed and lay there himself for a while. This particular night he wanted nothing to do with that and screamed about it. Baby L's fussing was just getting worse though so I had to make him wait while I got her to sleep. He was not happy about that but he finally quieted down enough for her to fall asleep so I moved onto getting him to bed.  By the time I went back to S6 she was already asleep. That's OK though, because, with hubby out of town she'll be climbing in my bed at 2 am.  Now it is 9 pm before I am finally getting A2, luckily she's ready to go right to sleep.

After the first night you'd think I'd be afraid of bedtime. Certainly I can't be looking forward to it. I am TIRED at the end of the day and go to bed between 9 and 10 so I am always ready for bedtime. Kids
and unpredictable, the next night they could be ready for round 2 or be the complete opposite. Day 2 was certainly interesting. Baby L was again cranky so this time I started with her. J4 was tired too though so climbed in bed with us. 15 minutes later they are both sound asleep. I get B11 in bed real quick then move on to S6. A2 wants mommy though. I pick up A2 and take her with me. To my surprise A2 falls asleep too. It's 8:15pm and I am done.

The next morning, to my surprise, not only did A2 sleep all night in the other bedroom but so did S6.
Of course the 3rd night I forget the unpredictability rule. I try to do a repeat of day 2. Baby L, who was very cranky at 6:30 pm, now wants nothing to do with bedtime. It's not as bad as day 1 though.  J4 at least falls asleep while I'm trying to get her to bed. Baby L at least cooperates by playing nicely with E14 while I get S6 in bed.  A2 again falls asleep with S6 too.

I am also ecstatic that soccer is over. E14's soccer practices were from 7-8:30pm. It's awful hard to put kids to bed at 8 pm when you have to leave to pick another up at 8 pm. The kids with 8 pm bedtimes were not even getting home until 9 pm. Most nights baby L and A2 were falling asleep in the car. Some nights they stayed asleep when you moved them. Some nights they woke up renenergized from their cat nap.

So yes, I am just happy soccer is over. And yes, I do always have to look at the bright side.  I wouldn't give up my snuggle time for anything.

We've all had them

You all know what I am talking about, one of "those" days. Now
"those" days could mean a lot of things. It doesn't usually mean one
of "those great" days. But it could mean a terrible day, a blah day,
a stressful day, a gross day, a sad day...something that could fall
into the realm of "bad".

Today didn't start out too badly. Even though I ran around all day
yesterday, including taking 7 kids, (by myself) out to dinner and to
S6s tennis practice, I had a much better than average sleep last
night. Because I got some decent sleep last night, I started the day
at 7:30. After looking for where I stuck J4s Tball uniform I got S6
dressed and to Cheer Camp. I got everyone else ready and to Tball
then back to Cheer Camp to watch the performance.

You could say that we were the 1st performance. After an hour
watching Tball A2 was restless and L was sleeping. I was afraid A2
would be all over so I tied her on my back. I hoped L would sleep or
rest a few more minutes before. The performance so I tied her on my
front. We definitely got a few stares and comments as we were waiting
to go in. "She has 2 babies" even if one is nearly a preschooler.
"You could probably fit 2 on each side too" and I even have 2 more I
could use, though not sure I want to carry a total of 130 lbs around.

We made it through that too. I even took one of the kids to get new
shoes and pick up a gift. I brought the kids a treat home from the
bakery and a pizza dinner. B11 seems to be having some mood swings
again but we'll see. Basically all of that is a fairly typical day,
it seems typical or average. If you consider that we managed to get
shoes at the 1st store. Plus, the pair they ended up having in her
size, that she liked (her criteria being that they don't squish her
anywhere and they match her shoe poms), turned out to be on clearance,
I'd call it a success even.

It's just that days like this, though successful and not "bad" can
still be tiring. You want to sit around and do nothing the rest of
the day. Especially after having an early dinner and being quite
full. Lots of chores are calling though.

Now if I could get some cleaning done. I've got the kids doing a 15
minute tidy so I'll get started on the laundry. It was seeming like
such a productive day. Things were calm, too calm.

The toddler was doing something she shouldn't have been. I had
checked on her and she was quietly playing legos. I could hear and
occasionally see her across the hall. How she managed to do
it...toddlers. Yep, she did THAT on the carpet. So I put her on the
toilet to sit while I looked for where. Not finding where, I went
back to her. Even a 1st time mom knows you don't leave a toddler in
the bathroom. Yep, my bathroom was now flooded with, let's just say,
"not fresh" water.

After I tossed down some towels I attended to her. I am sure you can
guess as to how I knew she had when I couldn't find where. In the tub
she went, to be hosed off (parents of toddlers "need" handheld
showerheads). Then she got to sit in fresh water while I collected
all the towels, wiped, and collected more.

The good news is, I found it.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Brandi-mom to a boy and his 5 sisters
I'm "that" mom: GIVEAWAY-so many patterns, so hard to
chose<http://thatmomof6.blogspot.com/2011/05/giveaway-so-many-patterns-so-hard-to.html>

The Mommy Wars

There seem to be "wars" over everything these days.  People don't have lively debates anymore, people fight.  People don't agree to disagree anymore, people take things personally.  If you do something different than I do, you must be saying my way is wrong.  It used to be car wars, Chevy or Ford.  Then there were technology wars, Mac lovers do not cross over.  There is android vs iphone, there is Nook vs Kindle. 

We have the parents vs the non parents now.  Instead of helping out a parent with a stroller, they push to ban strollers from buses, or only allow narrow ones on sidewalks.  Not only are people having babies later in life but they don't want the babies in the same restaurant as them, it might remind them their biological clock is ticking.  There are also those couples who chose not to have any kids, ever.  Some of them would be perfectly content if kids weren't allowed to leave the house until their 18th birthdays.  They have perfected the "glare".

I know the mommies are out there shaking their heads in agreement, Amen sister.  Oh, so quick you think you are off the hook.  I would love to see a show of hands on the number of mommies out there who own a stroller.  Now how many of you have considered it's use as a battering ram through a crowd?  I bet more than a few mommies (or daddies) out there have used it as such, if you haven't, admit it, you've thought about it.  I am sure that supports the opposing sides argument.  What about the mommies out there who think that just because they were in line first that their stroller should be able to get the handicap spot on the train, bus, tram, etc?  I know none of my readers would do that, but I have seen it happen, more than once.  Or the parents who think they have every right to go out to a nice dinner, just like everyone else.  Who cares if their kid is throwing food at the neighboring table.  Admit it, there are parents out there ruining it for the rest of us.

It isn't bad enough that we have parents vs non parents.  Now we have the mommy vs mommy wars.  It is us against "those" parents that ruin it for the rest of us.  There is stay at home vs working moms.  Breastfeeding vs Bottlefeeding moms.  Cosleeping vs "cry it out".  Babywearers vs travel system pushers. 

Is it really that we are feuding or is it all in how someone takes what is said.  When a breastfeeder is asked "so how much is she drinking" and responds "she's nursing" does the bottlefeeder really have to assume the breastfeeder meant "I can't believe your not doing what's 'best for baby' ".  When a stay at home mom finds out another mom works should she assume that the working mom just doesn't want to raise her kid?  Or vice versa, should the working mom assume the stay at home mom has no marketable skills?  When a mom finds out another attachment parents should she assume that mom is implying she's a failure?  You do know what happens when one "ass u mes", don't you?

Truthfully, most moms are just trying to get through the day.  If you are a mom of 1 or a mom of 10 you still have to make it through the day.  A stay at home mom has to cart her kids on every errand and never gets a sick day.  A working mom has to squeeze time with the kids, time with hubby and time to do household chores, all between getting off of work and bedtime.  All moms struggle every minute with what is right for their family.  If you have time to worry about what other people are doing then you aren't thinking enough about what you are doing. 

And the winner is....

#1...http://www.naturallycaron.com/projects/zen/zen_1.html

I can't wait to get started on it.  I think I will be making 2 since it will also make something nice and light for me that can also be a slight nursing cover.  Now to go shopping for yarn, fun!