Life Rearranged

First of all, THANK YOU for giving me some content!

There were some great questions from this post!  I’ll answer some now, some later, and a few might even get their own blog post over the next few weeks.  (Maybe by then my writer’s block/boring life will make a turn for the better?)

If you had a “you day”, where would you go and what would you do?

For me, a “Jeannett Day” would consist of being completely and totally alone.  I love my friends, I love my husband, but ultimately I like alone time too.  So I would probably get in the car and drive to Santa Barbara or somewhere similar that has fun outdoor shopping and casually stroll and window shop.  I’d eat a sandwich on a croissant (probably turkey, bacon, and avocado) and read a book in the sunshine.  I’d get an ice cream cone (butter pecan please) and people watch.  I’d sit on the beach with my toes in the sand and listen to the waves.  And if budget constraints allowed, I’d get a luxurious massage at a fancy spa place.  And then I’d miss my family terribly and buy my kids a little trinket and drive home too fast because I couldn’t wait to kiss those little cheeks again.

What do you do for yourself in the midst of life’s craziness?

I’ve said it before, but I believe that the most important thing I do for my sanity and for my family is to get up really early in the morning and have “Mommy Time”.  Sure, it sounds miserable to get up at 5 a.m. (and sometimes the clock still even says 4!) but the trade off is priceless: absolute silence.  Uninterrupted time to think.  Time when I don’t have little hands (cute as they may be) pawing at me and ask, ask, asking me for something.  The rare days I sleep longer, I’m a disaster and feel really frazzled.  That being said, I get PLENTY of sleep.  Which I also think is super important.  I get up early, but I go to bed early too.  I still get at least 7 hours of sleep every night.  I cannot fathom the women who will tell me that they only get a handful of hours every night…I’d be the meanest, most impatient mom in the universe.

What’s your secret guilty pleasure?

A celebrity gossip magazine, white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, milk in a (white) mug, and locking myself up in my bedroom after my kids are in bed.  As you can see from my last three answers, some form of alone time is critical to me.  Not everyday, but after a while I start to just feel kind of anxious and I know it’s time to not speak to another human being…adult, child, or otherwise.  I love my loud crazy house of chaos, I really do…but I need to decompress too.  It doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive…just some time to clear my brain.

How do you get your babies to sleep?

(That’s a bitty Jill in my all time favorite polka dot dress. Could you just DIE?)

I included this question in this post because I firmly believe that being well rested is the absolute best thing you can do for your family.  Now, the whole “getting babies to sleep” thing is controversial and there are people firmly entrenched in their own camps.  I will tell you what worked for US.  If you hate it or didn’t use it, I totally get it.  But the question was how do I get MY babies to sleep, so I’ll answer from my experience.  We used the cry it out method and and my kids are FABULOUS sleepers.  Incredible.  Sure, I thought my heart was going to break into a million pieces on those first few nights but I cannot tell you how amazing it is to kiss and play and cuddle your baby, get a big gummy smile, lay them down in their crib and walk out of the room to nothing but the sound of sucking fingers…and not have to go back in for 12 hours.  The same holds true for naps.  When it’s nap time, they all lay down and pass out.  (Actually, Lucy’s been playing with her kitchen for about half an hour before that, but she lays herself back down after her cookie making is done…or I go in and tell her enough is enough and she has to sleep now.)  Keep in mind that you have to be sure that they are physiologically ready for CIO…both Henry and Jill were teeny, itty bitty babies and ranked below the 3% for size…my pediatrician (who is an advocate of CIO) advised that they actually NEEDED to eat in the middle of the night much longer than the average baby.  (Particularly Jill who burned so many calories because coordinated movement was such an arduous task and she had been getting Physical Therapy since she was three weeks old.  It was like going to the gym for her!)  I think Lucy was sleeping through around 3 months but I had to wait until about 8 months for the other two.  That being said, I still sleep trained them to go to bed and self soothe (which I think is an incredibly important life skill) at bedtime…I just had to get up with them about halfway through the night for a quick nursing session…but right back to bed they went.  They’re little sleeping rockstars.  (Now watch, I just jinxed myself and this next baby is going to be a sleeping disaster.)

I used Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Childas a guide (and the twin versiontoo!).  I would highly recommend actually reading the first half of the book which is a really long and kind of boring almost medical journal type of thing that explains the WHY’s behind CIO.  It is boring and you’re temptation (particularly if you’re sleep deprived right now) will be to jump right to the section that tells you HOW to solve your problem, but you’ll be so much more confident in your efforts if you have a good handle on why this is so important and why it matters and some of the science/statistics behind it.  Even if it’s boring while you’re reading it.

Alright, I think that’s it for today!  Happy Thursday!!!