3 am chocolate milk

TW had to go into the paper from midnight to 3am last night to deal with some circulation probs. Not a fan of being in the house by myself at night. I know that makes me a wienie. So I didn't sleep well plus I had a horrible case of restless leg!

When he came home at 3 I had the little guy in bed with me because he threw up all over himself and his crib. Dawson woke up when TW came in so I had TW rock him while I changed his sheet. Poor little guy!

Then TW and I were both so wide awake we headed to the kitchen for some chocolate milk...reminds me of my pregnancy but with company. It was nice sitting on the loveseat in our underwear sippin some good ole 3 am chocolate milk and sharing the details of our night.

This morning when Dawson woke up he had thrown up again oh plus he still has diahrea. Poor, poor little munchkin. Drs aren't too worried though.

Right now TW is rocking the munchkin back to sleep for the millionth time tonight. What a good husband! Thanks for saving my sanity baby!

Naked Days

Sometimes you just gotta have a nakie day! Today I let Mr. Dawson run around (well lay around actually) naked for a good part of the morning. His poor little bootie is so sore because he has had the runs for two weeks. So i though a little air might do it good.

His lovely Aunt Bridgie came to visit me so that I wouldn't have to stay by myself while Terry was in Kentucky. What a doll she drove two hours to spend the night and get woken up by mister D like 15 times just so that I wouldn't have to spend a night alone in our creaky at night house. Thanks Bridgie you are great! Oh and thanks for the new clothes for Mr. D he is going to look soooooo cute in them!

My poor baby! I think he sat in his diaper too long at daycare Tuesday because his bootie hasn't been the same since. We have been using this great little concoction that I got from my sister. Here is the recipe if you need it.

Awesome bootie cream
equal parts lotrimin(non creamy) and creamy desitin
a couple tsp. of Milk of Magnesia

Thanks Shauna really great stuff!

As you can imagine a 6 month old without a diaper is not always great. But I only got peed on once, that's about average.

He Loved being naked! He just laid around and kicked his legs and rolled all over on his play mat and in his crib.

Our dr is out today so I took him to see another dr and he was a funny dude. This tall, skinny man strolled in in his tweed high water pants pulled up to his armpits, suspenders, a funky pinkish tie, something white chillin under his nose, crazy wild white hair and big thick black-rimmed glasses and introduced himself. He then proceeded to make all kinds of funny noises while he examined Mr. Dawson. And I though little kids must love this walking cartoon character of a man. However Mr. Dawson just looked at him like "what planet did you come from?"

Now I get to collect a stool sample. Sweet, can't wait to scoop up some poo and carry it to the hospital! Oh the things we do for our kids - about 6 months ago I would have been totally grossed out by this. Now I don't even care just want the little man to get better.

The holidays

I have neglected my blog. But with five kids at my house and a sick baby I think anyone could understand that.

Here is a bit of my time in Illinois for the holidays.

TW and Brys with the look.

Christmas time in a nutshell:

Freezing rain, skating rink in my driveway, baby with a cold, husband with a cold, flooding, 60 degree weather, tornado warning...
......mom's damp dark basement with 9 kids, 4 dogs, 4 adults and one baby, one soupy poopy diaper and baby vomit down my leg. Could it really be December? How lovely!

Rita's diner. Patience made this on her new marker board. Love it!

canceled pizza night, pizza night resecheduled,

a ruptured ear drum, influenza b and nebulizer treatments -- my poor baby!

my poor baby didn't feel good. This was his First Christmas - more on that later. I plan to devote an entire entry to him later this week.

The case of the rubber flying cupcake that shoots flying icing....yum! Really Abby got this individual "cupcake" maker and she was sooooo excited. She arrived Christmas night and told everyone she was making desert. You mix a batter and put it in the microwave for about 30 seconds -- it came out looking like melted rubber cow patty. Then you put it on the "cupcake maker" which spins it around and adds icing through a tube at the top. In our case, Maria put the cupcake on the spinny deal and then it shot out and hit her in the chest and then the icing shot out at everybody too. So funny.

Aunt Rita with THE cupcake. Abby with THE rubber flying cupcake.

No one wanted to eat this scary cupcake. Not even Abby. But in good grandma fashion grandma Rita dug in.

Believe it or not it was actually a pretty enjoyable time. Hope everyone had a Great Holiday Season!

Out of the rut!

I am finally out of the mommyhood rut!

Dawson has slept through the night! Wow I am amazed thank you Dr. C!! Thank you for patiently talking me through it. And thank you sweet, beautiful baby boy for being such a wonderful little baby!(even when we had the sleeping problems)

After three nights of letting Mr. Dawson cry himself back to sleep he slept through the night Sunday night. Amazing. Now we just have to work on naps and teaching him to put himself to sleep at bedtime. But I am now headed back towards sanity and it feels great!

Today is a good day...

Mr. Dawson is at Daycare (I miss him so much when he goes :( but I get to have dates and sleep :)

So TW and I met for coffee at Flavors. This man + carmel machiato = yummy happiness!

I picked TW up from the library where he was hanging out with the coolest group of men. Seriously a really great group of men. Most are in their 60s or older and they meet at the coffee shop in the basement of the library every Tuesday for coffe, some tall tales and good company.

This morning they brought Christmas goodies and all sat around eating and sharing their goods. When I came in everyone greeted me with smiles and warmth and Fred invited us out to dinner with he and his wife. Very nice. I look foward to that becasue Fred is a pretty cool guy so I bet his wife is too, well not a guy but a cool lady.

In a little bit I'll pick TW up at the office and head to the joint Kiwanis/Rotary lunch. Fun I get to do grown up things today with my cute hubby.

The dr says cry it out.

A few reasons I'm ready to do this:

1. This dr much nicer about it. Took the time to talk me through it. Related it to what he went through with his son.

2. I'm losing my mind. I have hit a low point and hope to now bounce up.

However I'm not going hardcore. We helped him get to sleep at 8. Then he was on his own and we did not pick him up once when he woke up. He cried himself back to sleep but it only took a couple of minutes. Much better than the non stop screaming when we tried to let him cry himself to sleep.

We will continue to help him to sleep for a little while. Then after we get better at night sleeping we'll work on that. I can't go hardcore with hours of screaming.

We'll see how it goes. I hope we have turned a corner towards adequate sleep.

P.S. glad to read Nie surgery sucessful!

Sleepless nights

No naps
Recently I have hit a low point in the motherhood journey. Because my now almost 6-month old son Never sleeps. He does not nap for longer than 20 minutes during the day - although on a good day sometimes he makes it 45 min. This has been going on since about 6 weeks of age.

Up all night
At night he is up every hour or more. Sometimes every 20 minutes. The best we do at night is two hours. This has been going since about 3 months and each month it gets progressivly worse.

Needless to say I am exhausted! How do I get him to sleep? Our doctor looked at me like I was a silly first time mom and kept telling Dawson "You've got mommy wrapped around your little finger." Like it is my fault. I told her how often he is up and then told her he is going to daycare two days a week now so that I can get some sleep. And then she said oh is it really that bad? Did she not hear me say every 20 minutes? She said just let him scream it out he can scream for hours.

First of all.. Not a fan of this technique. Second IT'S NOT WORKING!!!

Advice...please!!
So first on my agenda find a new dr who listens to me. And ask for help!! Does anyone else have this problem? What have you done to get your baby to sleep better? I can use all the good advice I can get.

Winter woods

On a recent trip to my mom's we snuck away for a trip to Homer Lake.

Walked in the woods and then watched the sun set over the lake. Beautiful! The winter woods were very peaceful. Winter is actually my favorite time of the year to be in the woods. I love to go around dusk. If you are quiet you can hear an owl hoot, coyotes call, the wind rustle the tree branches high above while I am nestled safe from the wind in the forrest. Sometimes I even run across deer gatheredin herds in the darkening woods. Amazing. It always fills me with such peace to watch the dark cold river flow by among the big old trees. I even love the way the woods smell at winter.

Thanks Darlin.

I'll leave you with the words of one of my favorite poets and poems.

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

-Robert Frost