Archive for the ‘RAD’ Category

Paging Dr. Ferber. (Nights 1 & 2)

3 Comments
Posted 29 Jan 2011 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category baby business, other people are awesome, paparazzi, RAD, The Hubs

Last night was the dreaded first night of sleep training. I’m not going to lie, I had butterflies in my stomach the minute I walked in the door after work.

Day One.

At 8:15, we got Abby ready for her bath where she played with her Yo Gabba Gabba bath toys, and got in her jammies. We sat on the couch, I read her Goodnight Moon, fed her a bottle and she was close to snoozing. I quickly got up and put her in her crib. (I admit, at this point I panicked because I just wanted it over with. In hindsight I would have read a book or two to her in her room in the rocking chair.) The minute I lowered her into her crib, it was hysterics turned up to 11. I said “Night night, I love you, time to sleep” and left the room with the door nearly closed.

I sat on the couch and looked at the clock. It was 9:03. I couldn’t go back in until 9:06. She was screaming “MAMMA! MAMMA!!” and crying harder than I’ve ever heard. I waited a bit and looked at the clock again. It was still 9:03. ARE YOU EFFING KIDDING ME. Tears started welling up in my eyes and I started posting on Twitter to distract myself. FINALLY it was 9:06. I went in, she got more hysterical for a moment, kept reaching for me and saying “DOWN! DOWN!” so I leaned into the crib, hugged her and laid her down again (which was a joke cause she was back up again in 2 nanoseconds), told her I loved her and left the room again. That’s when the gag-crying started. I knew it was going to happen. (She didn’t barf, THANK GOD.)

The hubs announced he wanted to take the next one, which was good since she’d given up on asking for MAMMMMAAAAAAAAA and had moved on to DAAAAAADDDAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! It was 9:08…he had to wait 5 minutes this time. It was still horrible, but then she started getting quiet. We’d peek on her video monitor and she’d be down. We’d look at each other in anticipation, and just like that she’d stand up and start screaming again. Then down & quiet. Then up and screaming. It got to be 9:13 and she was still crying sort of but not really. The hubs went in and it started up all over again, except when he left, she was quiet and asleep within 5 minutes. It was 9:20.

Abbers after a good night's sleep

She stayed asleep all night and didn’t wake up until 7:30 this morning.

Day Two.

"you have no idea I'm not going to get a good nap today."

Abby did not nap much today as we were out running errands during her prime nap times, resulting in a couple cat naps totaling maybe 25 minutes. It got to be about 5:30 and she was passing out, so we reluctantly let her catch a couple z’s WAY later than normal.

getting ready for bathtime

I made dinner, the hubs gave Abbers her bath around 8:30, she had her bottle in the living room and instead of getting sleepy like she did last night, she asked to be put down. NOT GOOD. I picked her up and brought her into her room, where I had a stack of books waiting, along with dimmed lights and a glass of coping medicine for mamma (read: wine).

The setup.

I read books to her for 25 minutes until she FINALLY seemed tired, kissed her, said goodnight and laid her in her crib. She immediately stood up and started screaming, but before I could even get the monitor from our room to ready myself in the living room, it was quiet. SHE WAS ASLEEP. WITHIN 15 SECONDS.

It’s 11:21 and she’s still asleep.

Now, I fully expect a relapse night or something because (and by saying this I’m sealing our fate) this was WAY too easy. And/plus/also WHY DIDN’T WE DO THIS SOONER? It went a lot like people said. The first night was the hardest and also why didn’t we do this sooner ? I mean, I know we didn’t because of holidays and being away…but we really should have done this MONTHS ago.

I’m so glad we did it. Even if the next few nights are hard…I’m so very glad.

Thank you everyone for words of encouragement and advice over the past few weeks.

BOV (blogging on vacation)

1 Comment
Posted 20 Jan 2011 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category motherhood, RAD, The Hubs

Yes, I am taking time out of my dwindling vacation to blog. I might be insane. Or this might be the first time since we got here that the internet connection hasn’t shitted out and we don’t have any impending activities to keep me busy.

So far, this vacay in Puerto Vallarta has been a big ole’ success. We’ve ziplined, taken a day trip to Sayulita (a little surfing village north of here) and have spent copious hours at the pool, and drinking & eating ourselves to near comatose levels. This is the first time I’ve taken a trip with this many friends, and it’s been super fun. I did manage to lose our point & shoot camera before we got off the airplane (Sun Country – call me if you find a camera with eleventy billion pictures of the same little girl) and also had a gallbladder attack the first night (I swear I ate less than a tablespoon of guac, medical professionals. Diagnose THAT!) but overall it’s been nothing but bliss.

But MY GOD do I miss my little girl. Since the internet has been spotty, we haven’t been able to Skype since we’d JUST get signed in and we’d lose it again. Last night though, it finally worked long enough to be able to see our little Abbers. She looked so much older already. I didn’t cry (even though I wanted to), just like how I barely held my shit together when we dropped her off on Saturday. I DID cry when I heard the hubs playing a video of her on his phone. He tried showing it to me and I yelled DON’T SHOW IT TO ME OR I’LL CRY which was stupid because at that point there were already gigantic tears in my eyes, so I yelled WHATEVER I’M ALREADY CRYING and watched it anyway.

I’m not lying when I say I never want to take a trip this long without her ever again. (This is, of course, being said by someone who has never tried taking a toddler on an airplane before. I know I’ll regret that the first time I ask her to “try to sit still and be quiet” for four hours in a tin can that will make her ears explode.)

Today we’re going to tool around the main drag and try to find a few gifts for Abbers (as well as myself because DUH), tonight we have reservations at an awesome place up on the hill with everyone, tomorrow is pool/recovery day, and then Saturday morning we hop back on the plane and I get to see my little girl. I will try not to think about the fact that with the windchill, it will be 100 DEGREES COLDER in Minnesota when we land. Did you see what I just said? ONE HUNDRED DEGREES COLDER.

On second thought, maybe the hub’s parents should just put Abby on a plane and we’ll just stay here.

And now, I will continue to clear out the over 400 posts in my Google Reader. I will not let it get that backed up EVER AGAIN.

I’m trying not to be smug.

8 Comments
Posted 06 Jan 2011 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category motherhood, other people are awesome, RAD

But, dear internets, it is SO VERY HARD not to. I would like to scream “I told you so,” but I won’t.

(i told you so)

Yesterday, this story hit the newswire…again, discrediting “Doctor” Wakefield and severing the ties between vaccines and autism. From the article:

In the United States, more cases of measles were reported in 2008 than in any other year since 1997, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 90% of those infected had not been vaccinated or their vaccination status was unknown, the CDC reported.

“But perhaps as important as the scare’s effect on infectious disease is the energy, emotion and money that have been diverted away from efforts to understand the real causes of autism and how to help children and families who live with it,” the BMJ editorial states.

These two paragraphs speak VOLUMES. I’ll reiterate from the post from a little over a year ago that I wrote on the same subject – I’m not going to make any valiant attempts at changing anyone’s mind about whether they will vaccinate or not. However, if you’re on the fence, PLEASE look at the facts, and think about your child’s future. Or how horrible you’d feel if not only your child contracted measles, but then gave it to your best friend’s kid who also wasn’t vaccinated.

Autism SUCKS, I understand that. However, from what I understand polio sucks a lot harder. Like, a lot. I mean, FDR was a great dude but he suffered pretty bad. And whooping cough is no walk in the park either.

Let’s just break it down here; science is awesome. Smart people are kick ass. They know what they’re doing. Vaccines were created because of both of those things. Take advantage of them. Pretty please?

Look! Look! Abbers in Ohdeedoh!

1 Comment
Posted 24 Dec 2010 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category Abigail, RAD

Yeah, I know, it’s closer to Baby Jesus’ birthday than Abby’s, but LOOOOOOOOK.

Christmas time is here…

No Comments
Posted 21 Dec 2010 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category Abigail, blog bidnass, RAD, The Hubs

Good afternoon, my fine readers. I’m writing this on my couch in my babyless house. Yes my friends, I’m on vacation. Of course, the gods of comedy thought “Wouldn’t it be HILARIOUS if the one time Jenna took time off work to just relax…SHE GOT A COLD? Muah-ah-AHHHH!1!!11!”

And so it was. Granted, I knew it was only a matter of time before I got sick. The hubs has had a cold since a couple weeks ago. But…it had been so long that I kind of thought “HECK YES. IMMUNE SYSTEM!” and then we fist bump. But, after our Christmas party Saturday night (which included a 4:30am bedtime) – my immunity had left the building.

Anyway, ZOMG CHRISTMAS!! I’m so excited. I mean, I’ll be more excited after we have the five hour drive to my parents house under our belts, but excited none the less. We’ll be gone for five days, which is pretty sweet. All my gifts are wrapped, I have one left to purchase and I am READY for Santa to visit Abbers. In fact, for your viewing pleasure, here’s a cell phone picture (of the picture) of Abbers and the big man.

Okay, this is going to be one of those posts where I have no attention span because I TOTALLY FORGOT. It was discovered during our Christmas party that we suddenly have a ton of HD channels we didn’t know we had, like Comedy Central, VH1, MTV, TruTV, FX, THE WEATHER CHANNEL (!!) , E! and The Travel Channel. Can I tell you how my life is now complete? I don’t want to do anything anymore. In fact, since I woke up this morning, I’ve been watching “Most Shocking: High Speed Pursuits” on TruTV. Yep. Aside from my cold? BEST VACATION EVER.

Alright, that’s all I have right now. I still have a bunch of unpublished posts in the hopper, so keep your eyes peeled. In case I don’t get back before then, Merry Xmas to your and yours, happy belated Hanukkah, and happy solstice!

← Previous Entries
Next Entries →