30 LBS
It’s official. I have lost 30 full pounds. I even moved the scale to two different locations to be sure. It feels great.
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Update
It’s been a while since I posted anything and there are a few reasons for that. One: I’m tired. Two: I’m busy. Three: Um, repeat one and two?
I haven’t decided whether or not to file for bankruptcy. After my appointment, I am giving it serious consideration. However, I want to take enough time to weigh out my options, because while it’d be a nice way to absolve myself of some debts, it would stay on my record for ten long years. And I’m just wondering if I can’t work out some debt settlements with some of these companies, especially with the hard times everyone is going through right now. The financial institutions might be a bit more apt to take a settlement now than in a good market. So that’s kind of on hold until I get an hour of peace and quiet to think things through and make my final decision.
In other news, Chris is looking at buying a home for us. I should probably explain a bit. lol. While my personal debt is rather high and somewhat embarrassing (and might I add, is all mine from before I even met Chris– see debaccles of The Year 2004), he has quite decent credit and a good standing. So he’s decided he would like to move our little family into a better home. I am so excited about this because the mold has begun to spring up on the walls of the old trailer I moved into before he came along (it’s on a four-acre riverfront parcel I rent from my cousin). The roof has been leaking when it rains, the walls are paper thin and I’m worried about the baby in that environment. We figured out how much of a payment we could afford (whether I file for bankruptcy will not affect our payments or his income at all, so we still are able to do this), got ahold of our now very trusted realtor and mortgage lender to whom we were referred by our friend Tammy, and began our search.
When Chris and I first started house hunting a few weeks ago, we didn’t have the first clue about what we were doing. Well, we really still don’t, but we understand the terms, the process and the general play-by-play now much more than we did before. We’ve looked at probably 15? 20? houses? We determined that going a bit higher on the asking price was worth it, because the lower-priced properties just need so much work. We would like to be able to close and after a good thorough! cleaning, move our kids into their new home. Put the dog in the yard. Let the cats play in their new abode. Basically, not have to worry. Just… enjoy.
Chris put an offer in on a house last evening and our realtor expects we shall hear back on it as early as Tuesday. It’s a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home built in 1988. It’s got a large wrap-around deck, a full basement, a 2 stall garage and sits on about 3 wooded acres down a private road. It’s not much in the way of grandeur. It would not look right dressed in Pottery Barn or Bombay, but oh! to have a kitchen sink that has water pressure in the spigot! To have a dishwasher! To have floors without holes! These are the things dreams are made of.
When I was a little girl we lived in a 10×50 singlewide until I was twelve years old. I remember the walls just dripping with moisture. The smell of the woodstove and my mom sewing Christmas dresses at a card table in the tiny living room, with a curtain around her so no one could see their presents. I don’t want to live like this anymore. I want a quality of life. And I don’t want much. I just don’t want my kids exposed to mold or holes in the floor or falling trees with no safety. I just want a home. So I’m really happy that this is the path we are taking together. It feels really good.
In other news, I may finally be close to a medical solution to my ongoing “problem” (Men – look away. I’m talking about girly stuff here. What am I saying? Men don’t read this!!! lol). For nine months straight I’ve had post-partum bleeding issues. Like, every day. I have been on four kinds of birth control, four or five? rounds of Estradiol (estrogen) and to no avail. The last week or so my symptoms became downright painful. I had acute cramping, into my back, which felt seemingly like back labor, accompanied by chills and increased bleeding. I was starting to become very concerned that aside from the pain aspect, my health may actually be in danger. So, after some bloodwork to rule out retained placenta, I made an appointment to see the doctor yesterday (once again!) and get an ultrasound. The ultrasound came through clear as a bell. The doctor said it was negative for any concerning retention. This relieved me, but he seemed puzzled. He said that there were two avenues we could take. He said occasionally, women’s bodies reject birth control pills. Birth control pills are destined to thin the lining of the uterus. However, it is possible that my uterus was already thin and taking the increased doses of hormones simply made my body reject more and more. Basically, he said it’s possible that it could be bleeding because in essence it is a raw wound trying to heal itself. So he suggested I stop taking birth control pills altogether and let my body attempt to right itself.
He said the other possibility was to do a biopsy, since we’ve by now ruled out all of the “obvious” reasons for the continued bleeding. This biopsy would rule out fibroid tumors, cancer or pre-cancerous issues, as well as any kind of undiagnosed infection. My answer was a firm “Absolutely.” So, we did the biopsy right there. The results will come back on Tuesday and we should have a better understanding of what’s going on. He said that based on the biopsy collected, he was quite certain there’d be nothing to worry about.
So, I guess Tuesday is The Big Day!!! I’m really hoping for some good news!
Oh, and by the way, the weight loss and workout thing is still going strong. I’m still on a plateau but found out I’d been eating too little. I increased my caloric intake accordingly and have also increased my workouts. So far, nothing new to report, but I’m confident things will continue to progress.
Spring is almost here, everyone! I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Filed under: Fun Stuff, Health & Fitness, Just Me | 2 Comments
Getting Harder
It’s getting harder for me to lose weight now, because my allowable daily caloric intake keeps being reduced (because as a person loses weight, they require less and less calories per day to maintain their current weight. The same thing happens when you are dieting, only more restrictively). I’m now only able to eat a little over a thousand calories a day to keep my weight loss going. That means another change in my eating habits. No more Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches each night (a treat I saved calories for) or Lean Cuisine paninis at lunch (a whopping 400 calories, but filling and tasty). No more N/A beers (I could usually drink one per day when I came home from work).
I’m going to have to make some more food budget cuts. That means further increasing the vegetable consumption. While I like vegetables, I can overdose on them easily enough. I need to create some new recipes to keep it interesting, so I’m not just ho-humming it all the time.
Ideally, I will be back on the workout track soon, and that should help me to keep some food in my diet. And you know, while I’m starving like a hostage most of the time, I am confident that the payoff is well worth it. I know I’ll feel that way for sure when summer comes and I don’t have to worry about snausage cankles.
In the meantime, *Dr. Evil voice* “Somebody thraow this dog a bewn, will ya? At least I can gnaw on that for a whoile…”
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Sad, Tired, Frustrated
I try to be a good person, you know. I try to be understanding, sympathetic, kind, patient (I’m working on it), tolerant– all around just… as good as possible. And even good people have bad feelings now and then. I try to remember and employ the Golden Rule and be to others as I’d have them be to me, and I try to turn the other cheek, but I am so tormented and frustrated about a particular individual right now, I could just break down crying.
I feel like no matter how many times I’ve turned the other cheek, it’s been slapped. No matter how many times I’ve been decent to this person, I find out down the road that I’ve been betrayed or humiliated.
The person I’m dealing with has some issues right now, and I take that into consideration as much as I possibly can. The trouble is, I feel very weak at this point in fighting off negative emotions, due to this person’s perpetual manipulative and backstabbing tactics. I can’t win for losing most of the time and I’m almost at the point where I feel like I’m going to snap and give that person a real piece of my mind. This concerns me, for one, because I am distantly related to this person; two, because I know that if I speak the truth I feel, it’ll be turned around and misconstrued to everyone that person knows and I’ll be “the bad guy” one more time; and three, because it makes me no better than them. I still believe two wrongs don’t make a right.
So here I am trying to teeter on the edge… trying to be kind, decent, good… everything I was raised to be and everything I believe a person should be… but I am finding it SO hard, because this person is REALLY nice to me to my face and then turns around and stabs me with a double-edged sword to many of the people I care about ALL the time. That person also comes to my home and talks badly about many, many other people. So, while I feel in my heart that if I did stand up for myself to this person, I would be fighting a losing battle, I have to believe that someone else out there knows the level of gossip and deceptiveness this person is capable of.
I’m so torn. Not just morally, but also emotionally. I’m tired of hearing rumors about me through the grapevine. I’m tired of the fakeness to my face when I know it’s fake and all I’m trying to do is be patient and sincere. Quitting this person or writing them off, it’s just not an option (though I do try to remain as removed as I can from the situation as much as I can). Unfortunately, I must be pretty intricately connected to the individual. And you know, while I see the good in this person’s heart and strive to make that my main focus, when I am around them…. I don’t feel good.
If anyone’s got any advice on how to get through this, I’d be ever so grateful.
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Fashion Christians
Let me first say this: I am a recently-converted Christian. By recently converted, I mean that I have recently had a reconnection with my faith. I’ve determined what exactly it will and does mean to me and how I believe. I believe in “God” (as a higher power, generally speaking). I believe in the Bible as God’s word and also in part as a profound history book. I believe that it is the job of human beings to be the very best they can be. I also believe that it is the duty of all who seek good in all things to share joy and spiritual kindness with others, because that is how God would want us to live. I live each day to do my best and be my best and share my best with the world. I live to be the change I wish to see…. Now, with all that in mind, I’m going to rant like a crazy person.
Plug your ears.
I’m really sick of hypocritical, ridiculous, bible-thumping, overbearing God-mongers. I’m sick and tired of being bombarded with Godspeak every second of every day. I’m sick of people who are so HYPED UP in the falsity of RELIGION that they can’t find SPIRITUALITY. It’s not right.
Spirituality is supposed to be a humble, quiet, personal relationship with your Lord. It is meant to be a relationship based on trust, comfort, confidence, a lack of pride or boastfulness. It is meant to be a loving relationship and one that makes you feel safe and peaceful. It is a relationship wherein you are able to have deep and solid meaning – the deepest meaning. And you shouldn’t have to tout it to anyone. You shouldn’t have to shout at the top of your lungs how tight with the G-to the -O-to the -D you are, nor should you have to ADVERTISE it to the world by claiming your righteousness. That is not righteous at all! It’s obnoxious!
I also don’t think you should act like everything that happens to you is because you believe in God. I don’t think that God wants you to have cancer, or a tough life, or is teaching you a lesson by making you suffer (contrarily, I actually think God gives us a basic path to follow and we do our best to follow it and anything that happens to us is because of our actions and choices. I don’t expect most people to believe that; it’s just how I feel). I don’t think God DOES stuff to people.
I don’t believe that God and politics are one and the same. I don’t believe that we are in a world where some sort of major underlying spiritual war is being fought daily and that it is the seedy undercurrent of all world angst. I believe people aren’t always decent to each other and we reap what we sow with each other and war sometimes is the end result. I believe that there are bad people and good people and people in the middle, but that ultimately, God doesn’t make those people any which way- they choose with the power of free will.
I don’t believe that because a person is loud about believing in God that he’s going to get farther in the Kingdom of Heaven. I believe he’s still going to be “the noisy guy with the sign”. My only hope is that he isn’t allowed to bring the sign to heaven (since you can’t take it with you), so he’ll be forced to be just the loud guy, without the sign.
I don’t believe that evangelism is where it’s at. I don’t believe in bible-thumping, hypocrisy, religious supremacy or that politics are ruled by some ridiculous spiritual undercurrent. I don’t think God wants you to brag about your relationship with Him in a boastful way. I don’t want what “The Lord says” crammed down my throat and I don’t think that your one particular interpretation is right.
Argh, this gets me worked up.
At the end of the day, we’re all the same. We’re all imperfect. Some of us will suffer more than others, some of us will have more money or material possessions, some of us will have beauty, some of us will have afflictions, some of us will live lives deemed more pure than those of others. But no man stands on this earth with the right to judge another man. I’m not right in judging these people, but I know that. And that’s the difference.
I am actually trying to learn to be tolerant of what I call “Fashion Christians”. But it makes me mad… because I value my relationship with God. I don’t want all Christians to be seen in this light. So do us all a favor— put away your thorny crowns and your battlecries and your hypocrisy, because if you are a real Christian, something in you has to be telling you that is just plain wrong.
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The Irony of Our Gluttony
It’s no wonder dieting is hard for most Americans. It dawned on me today as I was sitting here stuffing my face (with some rather delicious sushi, might I add) that there is a completely logical reason most humans – humans living in a food-rich environment, like the majority of the American populace, are challenged not only with the act of, but merely the thought of, dieting.
For two million years, man functioned as a food-seeking animal. It is man’s innate instinct to hunt, gather and feed as a means to survive. And for many years, eons and eons, in fact, that is precisely what we did. We hunted, gathered, grew and defended our spoils against others who wished to take those rewards for our work away from us. The gathering and growth of food was a painstaking endeavor and doing the best job meant getting the best outcome. The more one put into his garden, the more one would reap of his harvest.
So, the more work man did to keep his food stores plentiful, the more likely his rate of survival. I laugh to think about what a pioneer would have said to someone who told him they were going to go on a diet… If you’d told someone you had intention to consume very little food they’d likely have thought you crazy and you might well have wound up in the sanitarium.
Throughout human history, the fatter someone was, the more well-fed (and by default, well-educated) a person was. That person was said to have come from money or power, because often those with money or power were able to eat (and eat well) when others went without a meal. It was a sign of wealth and nobility to stuff oneself at a meal and to belch loudly at the end of a meal, to show appreciation for the fullness in one’s belly due to good cooking.
What began as a quest for nuts, berries and seafood grew to gluttonous desire, only recently peaked in this consumer-driven supply and demand industry. Now, not only is food available to those with money and power, but much more readily available to those without, as well. The lack of aristocracy in modern society and implementation of many democracy-founded programs allows people of all walks to embrace the consumer industry. While this is not in and of itself a bad thing, the types of food available to those of a lower socio-economic class are not as nutritious as those available to folks with more monetary stability. As such, most low-income families consume an overall higher rate of processed, dyed, preserved and additive-inclusive foods (they are cheaper and last longer).
This is not just a problem for the lower-class income groups, however. Much of our foodstuff is now laced with additives, fats, preservatives, colorings and other not so healthy chemicals like phenylalanine. In a society recently obsessed with weight we are now forced to purchase preserved and enhanced products for our convenient consumption (due in great part to our inability to any longer produce and consume our own home-grown products). We no longer have to grow our onions. We don’t need to do this because someone in foodland grows them bigger, better and sweeter than we could and it requires no work on our parts. This means that all we have to do to get the biggest, sweetest onions is simply work 50 hours a week for some non-negotiable legal tender, drive our consumer box to another consumer box, and purchase the prized onions under the flourescent light of a temperature-controlled environment.
While power has always played a role in food supply (the most powerful generally have the tools, power or ability to get the most food and thereby live healthier lives – survival of the fittest-), we as consumers living in today’s society have made easy work of food consumption in our supply and demand environment.
Food was once something we had to work for, but is now something we simply get. We purchase, we consume. We purchase more, we consume more. I would be at a serious disadvantage if I had to forrage for all that I consume each day. I’ll also be significantly leaner. That brings me to my point.
We’ve grown into this fat, disgusting gluttonous mass of a society. As a whole, we don’t grow our vegetables ourselves, we don’t make our own breads. We let other people do it for us and we pay money to companies that provide those services and goods.
This is disconcerting for two reasons. One reason I’m bothered by the fact that America is a mass-production-consumption society is that if there were ever an incident of national proportions (for argument’s sake, say it’s something microbial and infects the entire US commercial gluten supply)– we’re instantly exposed. The other reason I’m concerned is on a smaller scale. It makes us FAT. Fat, and lazy.
While I am just as likely as the next guy to sit around complaining about the government and the economical concerns related to trade embargos or treaties, I’m just as guilty as everyone else in mass-consuming products. In this world, you have to be. You can’t make your own toilet paper, tinctures and spaghetti sauce and still have energy for a 50-hour a week corporate job. It’s not possible. Like the masses, I buy my home supplies and I do my job and all to buy my 2-story home and big car and one day die and leave it all behind, to be assessed by the state. But this isn’t my point and I digress.
Even though I don’t think there’s anything we can do on a large scale, I’m a little concerned about our nation’s health. I’m concerned that we rely on mass-produced goods and I’m concerned that we are going against our fundamental natures in doing so. But we’re stuck. We’ve created this oh-so-great wonderland of STUFF, and some day soon I fear we’ll be stuck in it, foodless and medicineless and hopeless because we’ll have no applicable knowledge of how to DO anything for ourselves.
I cannot make soap. I do not know which of the plants in my backyard are edible and which can make medicines. I do not know how to make a poultice to reduce infection or how to build a sturdy lean-to. I do not know how to cure the meat of a fallen animal from disease or spoilage. I do not know how to pull a tooth without a dentist or clean a wound without peroxide. We of this generation know one thing and it is how to consume. I fear for us should there ever be a reason to know more.
So, yeah. Here I am, dieting in a world full of consumption, where I don’t know how to do anything for myself.
Ahh, the comfort of knowing that man has come so far.
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Judas Priest starts with “J”
There is something awry with my overall physical condition. I’m not feeling sick, I’m just unwell (cue the angsty teen garage band!).
I’ve got overall bluch. Like, my body hurts and my nose is runny and my throat’s a little scratchy, but mostly like, I am drained. Eewmoigowd, drained. The kind of drained you get with a combination of month upon month of postpartum issues (No, I don’t have depression. I’m talking about a physical condition, actually.) and some sort of weird cold/flu virus and a newborn. *ZZZZZZZZZZ.
I had labwork done (per my doctor’s request) to see if I had an iron deficiency and/or thyroid issue, which would explain the tiredness, but a recent voicemail from them assures me these are both normal. This means that my extreme tiredness and overall yuck are attributable only to my now extensive amount of sleep deprivation and oh yeah– that whole narcolepsy thing. Drat. I thought maybe I had an excuse.
I’m going out with my friends tonight and haven’t seen them in some time. We’re going to have a few drinks and dinner.
It occurred to me while I was in the shower this morning that there’s a thing with J names with me. What? Is that weird? That I thought of that in the shower? I think of a lot of things in the shower. Like how I really need to clean the ceiling but how do you clean a ceiling without a scaffold and a free day and would I need safety goggles and forget it that’s too much work.
Anyway, it seems J names are bad for me. I can give you an extensive list of people with first names beginning with “J” (most of them male), who have personally had a part in making my life a little worse for wear. My ex-husband, Jim. Ahh, there’s a character. A character best portrayed opposite James Gandolfini and best costumed in a bodybag. He was totally The Biggest Jerk (interestingly, jerk starts with “J”).
And really, I mean, I’m not bitter or anything, I just hate him to his rotten steenking guts is all. I saw him in the grocery store a few weeks back — at least I am pretty sure it was him. It looked like a slimy, sleazy douchebag, so I was pretty sure it was him. While I don’t know any voodoo hexes per se, I did my best to wave a corn cob viciously in the air while thinking angry thoughts directly AT him. (I don’t think anyone saw me!)
Then there’s my ex-boyfriend, Josh. Ever notice how the best con artists are blatant ones? I bet if he’d said, “Hi. I don’t really love you. I’m actually in your life because you make good money and my total goal is to use that money, and your credit rating while I’m at it, for my betterment. I’m going to be a dick to you for quite a while and during that time, I plan to ruin your credit while you support my sorry ass. One day, I see you living in a trailer down by the river because you were too kind to say no. …You’re good with that, right?” I’d have been like, “Hmm…. OKAYYY!” Oceans Eleven Tool! Tool, tool, tool!
Joes. Jims. Joshes. Jumpin Jehosephats. Listen, you J letter. You Mr. J with the Jumbled Junk– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Letter_People —and your Jingling Jangles and Jumping Jacks and your Juhh, Juhhh..Dammit I can’t think of anything else that starts with Juh! I am taunted by you, Evil Letter J! I hope your junk IS jumbled, so there! In fact, I hope it’s Jislodged!
PS – J is evil. So there. JAHHH!
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Daddy’s Home!
Chris, or as Audra has taken to calling him (and no, I really don’t know why) “Chuh-riss” (fun with pheonetics?)… is laid off for two weeks.
This means we are sans daycare. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? It also means that we are down to one vehicle running back and forth to town (Chris’s work van is only mobile when Chris is, and we’ve already established that he’s not).
This brings to mind the need to get Chris’s actual, like, real vehicle– aka– the Pink Stallion, back on the road. But do you think I can convince Mr. Procrastination that we need to do anything post-haste? I’m lucky if he hears me talk half the time, let alone pays attention to my hounding. Mehh, that’s just how it is in our house. lol.
We play this game I call “Oh Yeah??? Well, what was I saying, then?” to see how much he’s actually focusing on what I’m nagging- er I mean– gently reminding– him about. You’d probably be pleasantly surprised to see how much a human can retain while reading and watching a movie out of one eye. Hell, maybe the guy’s a genius now that I think about it.
Anyway, he didn’t get to the SOS today so I went and did a little googling on Lost Title at the Michigan.Gov website. Save your fingers, kids. That thing’s just confusing. I’ll wait til Hell Freezes Over and he actually goes in person to find out how this all works instead. It’ll be faster.
So, the nighttime ritual’s going well. I think. I mean, it’s easy for me to say, since Chuh-riss has been getting up with him because he is Unemployment Line Man (haha, sucka!!!) and I am the Gainfully Employed Girl Wonder (read: still have to get up at the butt crack of stupid am), but Ian seems to be amazingly adjusted to his new routine already. He fell asleep in under 3 minutes last night AND only woke once, at 4:30 am. Times, they are a-changin’.
I’ve got this throat thing. Not really like, a full-blown cold. Just a sore throat. It’s weird. And annoying. And do you realize that Chris and I both have tanning packages we bought like uhhhyear ago that we’ve never even used one minute of? I think they’re like 400 minutes each! How sad is that? I’m saving mine for spring. I figure if I’ve gone this long, meh, what’s a few more weeks?
Oh yeah, and the Pseudo Mac doesn’t come with the Chef’s recommendation. It was ok. It needs some alterations. Like one less bottom bun and some real meat. Or maybe next time I’m really desperate for a Big Mac, I’ll just succumb and eat broccoli for the rest of the day.
Which reminds me! I got a killer cauliflower recipe I’m gonna bust out tonight. It involves lemon juice, garlic and the word “roasted”. Slurp, drool. I’ll fill you in later.
Filed under: Food Experiments, Friends & Family | 1 Comment
The Big Mac is like my favorite fast food sangwich…um…ever. Well, until BK came up with the mighty Steakburger. But the Mac is in a league of its own, and I dearly miss indulging in one a few times a month.
I considered making a pseudo-Mac recipe for some time but feared I’d be unable to get a close second to their “special sauce”. At last, my fears have been subdued. I can now complete this recipe after recently trying the T. Marzetti brand of Fat-Free Thousand Island Dressing.
The Big Mac is touted to contain 540 calories, with 29 grams of fat. Wowzers. Think about the fact that most people pair this with a large fry combo and, without a drink, they’re looking at 1040 calories and 64 grams of fat– for one meal. Zoinks. I’m not even going to try to compete with McD’s fries– they are tasty and delicious and heart-cloggingly wonderful. But now that I’m down to smaller portion sizes, a burger comparable with their Mac would fill me up nicely anyway.
So here’s what I”m thinking.
- 2 Morningstar Farms Grillers Original Patties
- 2 Slices Fat-Free Kraft American Cheese
- 2 Sandwich-size Leaves of Lettuce
- Hamburger Dill Slices
- 1 Tbsp. Minced Dried Onion
- 1 Whole Wheat HB Bun & 1 Bottom
- 3 Tbsp. T. Marzetti’s Fat-Free Thousand Island Dressing
Reconstitute onions by adding 1 tsp. water, then draining in a paper towel. Cook Morningstar patties in a pan according to directions. Add cheese to top patties and cover for a moment, then remove from heat and set aside. Spray buns with non-stick cooking spray and heat in same pan for a moment until lightly browned, remove.
Layer bottom up: Bottom bun, patty & cheese, 1 Tbsp. dressing, bottom bun, patty & cheese, lettuce, pickles, onions, 2 Tbsp. dressing, top bun.
Pseudo-Mac totals:
Total calories: 450 * Total fat grams: 9 * Total fiber grams: 6
Big Mac totals:
Total calories: 540 * Total fat grams: 29 * Total fiber grams: 0
I will try this soon and let you know what I think. If anyone can give me the Weight Watchers point rating, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!
Oh, and PS – if you’re planning to go to McDonald’s soon, here are a couple more modest foods that you CAN eat without endless guilt.
- Grilled Chicken Wrap (no dressing): 185 calories
- Southwest Chicken Salad w/ dressing: 420 calories (only 15 grams of fat, and a whopping 6g fiber– this one fills you up AND tastes good. I swear by it for travel!)
- Asian Chicken Salad: 300 calories
Like BK better? Oh, you and Chris would get along great! Here are a few things for you!
- 6-pc. Chicken Tenders: 250 calories and 15g fat.
- Tendergrill Garden Chicken Salad: 220 calories and 7g fat.
- Cookie Dough Pie: 240 calories and 12g fat (which beats the SMALL shake at 660 calories -gulp!- and 19g fat by a landslide!)
And don’t be fooled that those delectable little specialty coffees don’t add up, guys. A BK Mocha Joe will cost you 380 calories and 10g fat! Woof! Get down with a regular coffee and save yourself like a whole MEAL’s worth of calories, yo!
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Maybe Ferber Smokes The Crack
We all know that babies’ sleep habits can be exhausting. Pick up a magazine on parenting and children and regardless of the issue, you’re bound to see something in that issue that relates to yet another new way of keeping baby asleep longer. After all, that’s the goal for us parents, right?
Ian goes to bed around 9:30 pm (which is too late for me, because by then I’m dragging and you’ll see why if you read on!). He then wakes at between 12:30 – 1:30 am for a whopping 4 oz. feeding and again at 4:30-5:30 am for another 2-4 oz. After that, his sister gets up and gets ready for school until 6:20, when the bus comes. Then I take my shower and, well, to simplify, most of the time, Ian stays awake from 4:30 am til I drop him off at daycare. And that means, so do I.
Mommy and Daddy have been handling this by: Mom goes to bed at 10 pm or as soon as everything is done and is usually crashed by no later than 11 pm, snoring into whatever book she’s attempted to read another page of… Daddy goes to bed after Mom, usually around 11:oo or 11:30 and is awakened within a few short hours of going to bed. He gets up, provides the teeny feeding that takes half an hour, comes back to bed. Mommy gets up when the second screaming round begins and stays up. Daddy sleeps til 6:45. In short, we’re exhausted. And our patience is wearing thin.
I have fielded SO many suggestions to “let him cry it out.” But I won’t do it. Letting a baby cry unattended for a long period of time seems cruel to me. While I know for a fact that Ian has now transitioned from NEEDING a feeding every 4 hours, to needing reassurance and assistance to get back to sleep, I don’t believe that letting him scream is the way to handle that. My child isn’t one of those kids who will just fuss and go back to sleep. If you don’t get to him within a short period of time, he goes from bonkers to ape$h!t in like 9 seconds. Then, he’s nearly inconsolable and he’s in a pure, purple-faced RAGE. The kid has two settings: Perfect and Dangerous, and I assure you that perfect will not show up at that juncture. So, the pure Ferber method just doesn’t do it for me.
I have read all kinds of alternative (not judging, just laughing here–) and rather amusing methods to get baby back to sleep. It seems if you don’t want your kid to cry bloody murder all night, you can place comforting material that smells like you in his crib (one of the least ridiculous options, actually), you can run a fan all night to tune out noise (so he can’t sleep without a fan? ehhh, I like to think he’ll travel someday), do all kinds of crazy 15-step turndown service methods including sprinkling fairy dust on his head– the list goes on. I guess, while I don’t believe he should scream his poor little face purple with no hope of comfort, I don’t really believe that spritzing his pillow with lavender is exactly going to keep him in la-la land either.
Since I have a little experience in the baby department and don’t believe either of these extremes is going to work for us, here’s what I’m working on…
It seems to me that 9:30 or 10:00 bedtime is simply too late for a baby. Especially when I find he’s taking an hour nap in the morning after being dropped off. That tells me that he’s not getting enough night sleep. So, first step, get him on an earlier bedtime. How to do it? Yeah, I know. lol. What I’m doing is putting him down in his crib once I see signs of tiredness (usually around 8:15-8:30). I’m turning on his mobile and setting the white noise timer for around 10 minutes. I then stand at his crib for a moment and say goodnight, then I walk calmly out of the room. He bolts out in this absolutely HEARTBREAKING scream. The length of this scream time has decreased as the days of sequential training have increased. We’re now at a good 1-minute scream. When he realizes I am not immediately rescuing him, he quiets a bit. Sometimes, though, he restarts. When he does, I give him 5-7 minutes, go in, soothe him, caress his little arms, talk lovingly to him, restart the mobile, and walk back out. The scream revisits. I ignore the scream for the entire 30 seconds it persists and he seems to drift off.
This has been going on for 4 days? So overall, it’s going REALLY well. The time, as I said, that he cries has decreased. I have only had to pick him up and cuddle him once, due to persistent tears. So, the bedtime thing isn’t really a problem, so much as the night time thing.
It’s harder to have your wits about you in the middle of the night. You’ve got one eye open as you shuffle down the hall, kicking a cat on your way and trying not to bump into the door jamb like you did last night– you know? It’s a wicked ride, the nighttime vigil.
I want to start working on letting him cry a bit in the night. But at the time all I can do is focus on the screaming that is taking place and stopping it as soon as possible. Lol. Still, I’m hoping that starting with bedtime and working our way up to the middle of the night will help us a bit. I believe if he begins to learn how to adapt to self-comforting it will be easier for him when he wakes in the middle of the night and I don’t think it’s fair to him to introduce too much at once. I want him to know he’s safe and taken care of but also realize he’s perfectly capable of going back to sleep on his own.
I think alot of people overlook this part of their child’s development or think it’s just unimportant. I feel all development is important so I hope I’m making the right decisions.
Once we’ve established the steady bedtime routine, I would like to begin using similar tactics to calm him during the night. I think the security at bedtime will help him to associate those particular things with returning to sleep in the mid-night routine.
This is all great in theory, provided I am not dead from sleep deprivation before Step II gets here.
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