Update on sleep issues.

It may too early to call it good, but I think I've solved why Kadyn was waking up. I had a hunch since half of her wakings were solved by just putting on the covers and telling her to go back to sleep that maybe I should just try putting heavier PJ's on her. I really think she was waking because she was cold and then realizing after she woke from being cold that she could really go pee. So anyways, the past two night I've made sure she is well covered and put her in heavier PJ's and the last two nights she hasn't woken once. Yea! Hopefully the problem is solved and I can go back to dealing with my own sleep issues at night instead of dealing with hers too.

My cold is almost gone. I am able to breath again, just having to deal with the left over crud that involves a lot of coughing and occasional blowing of the nose. I think I may survive my trip to Colorado after all. Toodleloo until next time. Have a safe holiday!

Our little corker

The picture with the toilet paper really explains how difficult it has been to teach Kadyn how much paper you need to wipe. In other pictures you can see how obssessed she has become lately over her pink sunglasses. The picture with the marshmellow was her second experience eating marshmellows. The first time she enjoyed roasting them but though they were a little too "dirty" when they would get burned and really didn't enjoy being sticky at all. She's such a girl! The second time around she did much better. The picture of her in the plastic bin was taken with her best friend "Liam." He is the only daycare kid I have left now and she adores him. She professed her love to him the other day during lunch saying, "Liam......I wuv you!" She eagerly waits his arrival everyday. Having him around actually makes my day less stressful because they play so well together and it keeps her occupied and happy. Last but not least, there is another picture posted where she is helping me cook, this is something she loves to do and we always find away to practice counting when she helps me so I have been able to manage to sneak a little learning into every session.

wipe, wipe, sneeze, sneeze

Ugh what a weekend. Kadyn started to get a cold Wednesday and I had it by Friday. So basically I spent most of the weekend on the couch blowing my raw nose a thousand times and sneezing all over the place while trying desperately to breath. Eating and breathing through your mouth is SO hard. I finally put on a humidifier last night and that did help a lot. I just hope I can get over this soon because we will be flying out of KC on Thursday for a very long weekend in CO with my parents. I don't want to be that sick person on the plane getting dirty looks but I have a feeling my nose may be better by then and I will be coughing all the left over mucous at that point. Boy I hope not. Being pregnant and sick sucks!

Jeff got to be Mr. Mom most of the weekend. He quickly found out that cooping Kadyn up in the house all day leads to an early morning the following day. Sunday he got her out to the park and grocery store and she seemed a little better.

Lately Kadyn has been waking in the middle of the night either to A. go to the bathroom or B. get covered up because she's too cold and groggy to figure it out herself. I must say I don't like this new change. She has almost always been a good sleeper with a few set backs here and there. Why now is she having to wake up to pee? She was waking up dry for the past couple months without having to pee in the middle of the night, what in the world has changed? So now I'm plotting in my head to have Jeff be on Kadyn duty every night while I am on Brennan duty once she makes her grand arrival. Of course that's still 3 1/2 months away so hopefully it won't be an issue anymore by then.

Well that's about it for now. Hope all my readers had a better weekend than me:)

Slowly gaining control of my life

This week has been the first week I have only had to watch 3 kids in over a year. It has been such a breath of fresh air. Next week, that number goes down to two kids as another one of the boys will be leaving us for good. For the first time in months I am starting to feel normal again. I feel more like a mom and less like a policeman. The kids are not fighting nearly as much and I even got to go to the park with them twice this week. Going anywhere when I still watched four kids before any of them left was pretty much impossible. I was a prisoner in my own home. I think the effects of being cooped up in the same place all day was having its toll on everyone as the kids just seemed to do nothing but bicker all day long and I was the policeman there to break up fight after fight after fight.

I guess my whole point is that I am finally starting to feel my sanity coming back. I'm feeling like regaining control of the parts of my life that were once spiraling out of control. I have regained the motivation to keep the house clean again, I have regained the motivation to do more stimulating things with the kids again, and I have regained the motivation to start eating better and exercising again.

Speaking of taking care of my body, when I first started this pregnancy I had somewhat decided that I wasn't going to worry too much about overeating this time. I was just going to eat as much as I want and worry about the rest later. After all, this could be the last time I'm pregnant since we are still unsure whether or not we will have any more children. If there is one time in your life when you can really splurge and get away with it, it has got to be during pregnancy when everyone expects you to get bigger anyways. This line of thinking has been liberating and stifling all at the same time. While my taste buds rejoiced in the fact that I had set no limitations for myself, the way my body was dealing with it was not as pleasing. I'm almost 6 months into this pregnancy and when I look at my body in the mirror I hate everything I see except for my round belly. (Pardon the imagery, just being honest here) There is cellulite in areas I've never had cellulite before.

Last night as I was observing the metamorphosis of this body I now posses I felt compelled to not wait until the baby was out to do something about it. I know that women need a few more calories when pregnant than normal, but I was definitely overeating. I decided to start off counting calories making sure to take into account the extra I need to keep baby healthy. This should train me to cut back my portions again. I really think if people would just pay attention to the serving sizes of the foods they eat and then make sure to have a balance of foods on their plate, they would find loosing weight not nearly as impossible as it seems. I have done this one other time in my life and lost 31 pounds doing it. After awhile you no longer have to count the calories. If you do it long enough, you just know that you can have so much of this or that to make your days quota of calories. And most importantly, allow yourself to splurge at least once a week or you'll never be able to keep it up.

Of course regaining control of the body you let go for so long also requires you exercise it too. So...I drug out my "What to Expect When you are Expecting Book" ( forgive me I can't figure out how to get that book title underlined in blogger) and tried the exercises they mentioned. The kids had a ball trying to do them with me or just trying to crawl underneath me when I was on all fours doing the "cat arch." Then I followed it up with 25 minutes on our new exercise bike while watching one of my favorite cleaning shows. I feel better already.

So here's to a new healthier, happier me; hopefully I can keep up with my new fitness and eating goals. But my overall goal at this point is to just spend these last 3 months of my pregnancy continuing to regain me and who I want to be and once was and somehow lost during this daycare and pregnancy. Hello Darci, it's nice to have you back.

Motivating TV

Lately it seems most of what I watch on TV I find motivating. Since we have been watching the Olympics both Jeff and I have been motivated to get our butts off the couches at night and go for walks or work in the yard. Jeff has been riding his exercise bike every other night too. Then I started watching this show called "How clean is your house" on BBC. The houses on this show are so disgusting that it makes me want to get up and clean and sterilize my whole house. Yesterday they had a gentlemen who hadn't cleaned his house in 10 years! He had no furniture and his floor was littered with trash including bags of tissues he had used and never threw out! His oven had so much grease, grime, and hair balls on it that it was black. His toilet had hard crusty filth all over it that looked like wall plaster. It really was amazing to me that people can actually live like this. I am humored by the old ladies that go into these houses to try to help these people learn how to clean their places properly. I get a hoot out of watching their reactions when they walk into these places. They even get out out their q-tips and take samples and see what grows from them in petri dishes. One lady had poop spores growing all over her entire house from not washing her hands properly when using the restroom I assume. Just makes me want to vomit!

Anyways, I guess my point is. I find these shows really motivating and it makes me not feel as bad about watching the television if the end product is a more productive me.

In other news, today is my first day without the youngest daycare kid. He has already found a new sitter and now I am down to two boys and Kadyn. I made a rope out Jeff's socks and they all hung onto it and we walked to the park close by our house today for the first time. It was soooo nice to get out and about a little. I would never have been able to do that with the youngest boy here. It would have been too much. So anyways, things are looking up in the daycare. Once the other boy goes, I have big plans to actually take the kids out and about in the van. I am looking forward to this sooooo much! I will no longer be a prisoner in my own home.

Speaking of the olympics earlier, I almost forgot to tell my cute story of the weekend. We were watching Micheal Phelps race his last race of the olympics and cheering him on. Kadyn threw her hands up in the air yelling, "Go Michael, go Micheal, go!" Then after he won she exclaimed, "And you did it naked!" Ha!

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

So different

Today my biggest trouble maker isn't here. It is 9:15 and I haven't had to break up one fight or send anyone to time out. It is so much more......peaceful and quiet, no tears or screaming fights. He will be back tomorrow, so all will be back to normal, but I am rather enjoying this change of pace and looking forward to the more peaceful times to come. I think I may even be able to actually let the kids go out to the front yard and play with the tricycle in the front driveway today. I don't anticipate any squabbles between Kadyn and the other eldest boy. They get along fabulously and should do a good job sharing. There would never be anyway I could do that with the other boy here because I know it would result in screaming fights and a very stressed out Darci.

The youngest child will be leaving us for good on on Monday. I was very surprised his mother was able to find arrangements so quickly. It's also looking possible that the other boy may be leaving sooner than later. I won' t know for sure probably until the end of next week. I never thought I would have been able to reduce my number of daycare kids this quickly. I was prepared to have to watch them all until the baby was born.

So....this is shaping up to perhaps be a easy fall. Great timing considering I am set to begin my last trimester in September. I was dreading putting up with all of this while being very large and uncomfortable. I am already starting to find it more difficult to bend over and to get up off the couch without rocking back and forth to get some momentum going. I am looking forward to packing up the kids in the van and going to the park, library, playdates with other mothers, etc. That's right, I said other mothers. I may actually be able to have adult contact during my day. Maybe I should put that loony bin number away. Looks like I won't be needing it after all:)

Oh sweet Lord, thank you for this break and the one to come. I know you are listening to me now. Sorry I ever doubted you.

Artwork photoshoot

I think there comes a point in every mother's life where she gathers a pile of her child's artwork and scratches her head thinking, "What do I do with all of these?" Although the fridge is a wonderful display area for such masterpieces, eventually new art is made and old art must come down. There is this guilt that throwing it all away is like throwing away a part of your child, a part of their history. However, if you are like me, you HATE clutter. You know that to keep every single piece of your child's artwork would eventually take up boxes and boxes of space. The art would rarely be enjoyed when shoved into a box somewhere in your attic. So should you pick just a couple pieces very special to you and dump the rest?

Then, I found a happy solution in one of my parents magazines. One mother simply took pictures of all of her children's artwork and then made them into a powerpoint screensaver so that they could be enjoyed over and over again without taking up any space. Thus, I had my own little photo shoot with all of Kadyn's artwork. It will be filed away with all other artwork to come during her second year of life. I figure I will organize them all by her age in my computer. I'm excited about being able to go back and look at the progress in her development from these files and know they are forever encaptured in time, even if it is on a microchip somewhere deep in my computer. I'm really looking forward when those scribbles start becoming real shapes and forms. I can't wait for the day I take my first picture of an actual stick person.