Friday, February 22, 2008

live blogging: sleep school day 2 / nap 2

We were out of the house for the post office by around 10:45. This trip went remarkably well except for when I had to RUN - to the point of taking FLIGHT - to stop Elizabeth from dropping bunny in to the Fed Ex shipping box. Doesn't it figure this is the one time I leave the house without a carabiner.

As we were driving home at around 11:15 - I asked the kids what they wanted to have for lunch. When William shouted "CHEESEBOOGER!" I was struck with a brilliant idea.

Banking a U-turn we drove to McDonald's. This is only the third time our kids have had McDonald's in their entire life and only the second time that I have taken all four children out to a restaurant by myself. But I figured that since they had the indoor play palace - and it was rainy and cold outside - this would help to burn off energy and save me from cleaning the kitchen from lunch.

While they are running around and playing, a nanny comes in with two children in a stroller. She is talking to someone on her cell phone about how she really wants to be a flight attendant and although *this* job is fine, it's definitely not something she wants to do much longer. The parents of the children that she watches fight all the time. She is with kids constantly. She feels like she never gets a break except for on the weekends. While I'm sitting by - trying not to eavesdrop - oh really, who am I kidding?? - straining to hear every word - I was shocked to see Henry grasping french fries in both of his hands and gnawing on a third. As my brain tried to process where he got it, I watched my hand jut out and give him another one.

Good grief!!! Here I am so distracted by someone else's conversation that I'm blindly feeding my seven-month-old french fries when he doesn't have any teeth and his diet has yet to expand beyond six fruit and six vegetables. That's beautiful considering I had just been thinking to myself that NO one could care for my children the way that I do.

The nanny finishes up her call as William and Elizabeth come running up to the table, and she asks me if all three of the children are mine. I told her that there were actually four of them - and yes, they're all mine. She remarks that I look great and she'd never guess I had four children and I tell her she's obviously very lonely and desperate to make friends.

At around 12:20, Carolyn comes waddling up and tells me - and all the other patrons in the play palace - that she wet her pants. Fortunately, she had on highly absorbent underwear, tights and flowered pants beneath the dress that she was wearing, or else there would have been a real mess on the third level tunnel run.

I try to make a rapid exit but of course the kids don't want to leave. Elizabeth lays on the floor and cries, Carolyn waddles around yelling "I WET!" and William keeps repeating that he wants "MORE CHEESEBOOGER!!!" Which of course he cannot have, because I ate it and the remnants of his sister's cheeseboogers. In addition to my Filet of Fish sandwich. I am on track to weigh more than our van by summer.

Ten minutes later, coats are on, shoes are on, hands and faces are washed and all of us are in the car on the way home. Henry is getting fussier by the minute. I can't decide whether it's worse that I fed my seven-month-old french fries or that I should have had him at home, in bed, at least 30 minutes ago.

The triplets were in bed, after so much hoopla that in and of itself could be an entire blog posting, by 12:50. I nursed Henry from 12:51 until I put him down in his crib - asleep - at 1:05.

Now, I'm off to clean up the destruction that occurred in the 15 minutes it took me to get everyone washed up, pottied, changed in to new clothes (climbing on the play structure at McDonald's warrants all new clothes in my book) diapered and put to bed.

I also hope to fold and PUT AWAY at least three loads of laundry.

****

Henry woke up at 1:35, approximately 30 minutes after I put him down.

I could hear him start to stir and grabbing his pacifier, ran in to his room. He was kneeling and crying at the crib rails. I scooped him up, nursed him for a moment, thought to myself "YOU FOOL! PUT HIM DOWN, QUICK!" and then stuck him back in his crib with his pacifier. I rubbed his back for a few minutes and once I could see him start to nod off, left the room.

At 1:50, ~10 minutes later, he was up again crying. I gave him his pacifier and rubbed his back and moved a partially awake William in to our bed with a sleeping Carolyn, because DAMN if I don't keep forgetting to put him on the couch.

At 2:04, William woke up Carolyn.

At 2:05 Elizabeth was clodding around the room in her boots.

At 2:05 and a few seconds, I told everyone to go back to sleep or else they couldn't eat chocolate chip cookies this afternoon. Because come on! Since I shot lunch time with McDonald's, I'll afford them this one more indulgence before I serve them raw green vegetables for dinner.

At 2:10, the phone rang as my mother was calling to tell me to watch Oprah. Jon and Kate are on.

At 2:30 the triplets were up. While they played with a balloon, I cleaned our second bathroom and finished just as Henry woke up from his nap at 2:50.

No laundry put away. One bathroom cleaned. Six Dove milk chocolate squares with almonds consumed. A thorough evaluation of my thoughts and comments on today thus far (and response to questions and comments received), will be provided in my wrap-up, later tonight.

After I do 100 push-ups because I don't want to weigh as much as our van by summer.

11 comments:

  1. Girl, you run after 4 children each day. I don't think you need the sit-ups. I need the sit-ups.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, well! As I sit here in the grandstand watching the show, I say that was a fabulous save of the afternoon nap! 2 hours is superb!

    Don't worry about the french fries. I was throwing whole pieces of pizza at Austin when he was 8 months old. The "second" child doesn't really adhere to the strict food policy!

    I'm making your mother's chicken pot pie today. It's now part of our regular rotation. I also tore the whole house apart today looking for my Sleep Bible and will never know what page 247 says now. DAM IT!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Look at you, pushing on with sleep school even with Charlie out of town! You rule!

    Hopefully Henry will realize that tomorrow is Saturday, and he should certainly sleep until the sun comes up, lest he get a detention or something...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Balloons are choking hazards - I cringe everytime I see kids playing with them. Take.it.away. I hate Trader Joes because of those darn balloons. I let them in the car but once they're home, they fly and be free so I hope they're biodegradable or they melt in the rain or something.

    For my peace of mind, take it away.

    I love your blog. Between you and Michelle S, I get my laughs daily! If I lived closer, I'd have the kids over for playgroup to help you out...and that's a sacrifice because I think playgroups are a fate worse then death. Just sayin...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Here you go Michele! p.247 says "Some babies tend to wake up early, 5:00am or 6:00am and return to sleep after a brief feeding or diaper change. This is a true continuation of night sleep and not a nap... In general it is not a good idea to go to your child before 6:00am, even if he is crying, because if you do, he will force himself to wake up earlier and earlier in order to enjoy your company. The natural wake-up time seems to be an independent, neurological alarm clock in these young infants that is somewhat independent of the part of the brain that puts them to sleep or keeps them asleep."

    ReplyDelete
  6. Holy Heck Jen! You are one brave woman. Sleep school with potty training toddler triplets, husband away on business and you still manage to get out of the house - and your baby is starting to get the picture about decent naps? Just brilliant.

    If it's any consolotation, modern vans now weigh a lot less than they used to!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I've been following this sleep thing very closely and just had to comment about the balloon comment! Was that really the point???? I had to go back and reread the post to figure out what all the balloon talk was!

    I LOVE the live blogging. Like you, sleep training my twins came naturally because we were structured. But with baby #3 due in a couple of months (and dreams of breast feeding on demand) I have no doubt I'll be referring back to these sleep school entries in less than a year's time!!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Don't you worry!!! You look great, plus, your van doesn't weigh that much anyways, right? It's not like it's a 15 passenger van...
    Shayna woke up at 6:30 this morning! So stoked! It's actually making my cold go away - all of this sleep!
    So bummed, my buddy Yau-Man got voted off last night!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I must say that I read your blog often and I love it. You have some of the funniest, real life stuff. Tabatha
    www.minishfamily.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  10. Angelle- Oh my THANK YOU! Okay, I hate to criticize my Sleep God, Dr Weissbluth, but was that just a tad bit confusing, or what? I mean he says that babies go back into slumber with a little feed or diaper change and then he says don't go to your baby. Uhm, WHAT? Send your husband? (What a splendid idea) Huh? I need an interpretor on that one. Is Dr. Weissbluth in the house? How many kids does this quack have anyway? Just sayin!

    ReplyDelete
  11. jen, you are amazing. take it easy on yourself- blog questions and comments can wait! YOU NEED MORE THAN FOURS HOURS SLEEP TONIGHT IF YOU ARE TO SURVIVE TOMORROW. And if Henry's wake times are anything to go by, that means you need to be in bed by 9 PM TONIGHT. Bugger the tidying up for one evening- the kids just mess it up again anyways. ;)

    susan in Australia

    ReplyDelete