Day ? of Lockdown.. I've lost track...

I'm Cute!!!

It's icy outside... what's new. I did actually get to leave the house for the first time last night. Clay is a saint and picked us up in his truck and brought us back to their house to watch the OSU/Texas game. He also been Aaron's taxi to and from work this week. We thought that we could maybe get one of the cars out this morning, and since the Chevy TB is rear-wheel drive, the Honda seemed like our best bet (Our driveway is on a pretty big incline.) Apparently, Aaron pulls out and starts to slide down the hill, heading straight for the rock wall on the side of our driveway. Luckily the rear wheels started to curve, and he ended up sliding sideways down the driveway into the street. He got to work safely, but it was a close call. We know that since he barely got down the driveway, there is NO way he can get back up it. We don't really know what to do with the car at this point because it is not safe to leave it on the street since the neighborhood is so hilly and cars are sliding up and down the streets. It's also frustrating when you look at the forecast this week and not only is it NOT going to get above freezing, but now there is ANOTHER chance of a winter storm headed our way.
Needless to say, I've been pretty bored. Camden's 3 month B-day is coming up, so I've been reading "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer" again, trying to get out any more information on how to get Cam to sleep through the night. The books say it should happen around 10 weeks, but I am not buying it. The books also said that morning sickness leaves around 13 weeks, but I still had my head in a toilet at 21 weeks, so what do they know... I also have tried to read "What to Expect the First Year." I must admit I have pre-conceived judgments on this book. It is a follow-up to "What to Expect When You Are Expecting", and I despise this book. I looked through it a couple of times, but the cover of the book always made me mad; There is this picture of a homely pregnant woman sitting in a rocking chair with this serene, happy look on her face gently resting her hand on her enlarged belly. It is such a lie! She shows no signs of nausea, heartburn, back pain, or exhaustion. The cover of "What to Expect the First Year" is not as distorting, so I think I might give it a try. There needs to be a book that will tell you what REALLY happens during the first three months.

I'm so bored out of my mind right now that I'm going to include the top 3 things the books left out...

1. Expectations
Don't have ANY hopes of sleeping or eating a full meal. This way you won't be disappointed when you don't sleep or eat longer than 5 minutes. The first night we got home from the hospital, I put Camden in his bassinet, turned off the lights, and got in bed naively thinking that we would all sleep for several hours... after all, the books say that newborns sleep 18 hours a day. Two minutes later, he started crying. I quickly figured out that as long as I held him, he wouldn't cry. I remember sitting up in bed for a couple of hours, holding him while he slept, listening to Aaron and Gracie snore loudly and thinking "This is just not fair!"

2. Declaring Victories
-Do not declare a short-term victory until 24 hours after the event. For example, do not assume that your baby is asleep when you put him down because the moment that you shut the door and high-five your spouse for being such a "baby tamer", it is guaranteed that your child will wake up in the next five minutes. Save your celebrations and whatever bragging rights you have until the following evening when you have to go through the whole nighttime process once again.

-Do not declare a long-term victory until a month after it has happened... I learned this the hard way. Last Friday night, Camden slept from 10:30pm-5:15am. The next day, I called my mom and was so excited to tell her that Camden finally slept through the night! She warned me that it was probably a fluke, but I was certain that he was finally sleeping through the night. I put him down at 10:30 again, doing everything that I had done the night before... that night Camden woke up at midnight, 2:30am, and 6:15am. He hasn't even come close to sleeping that long since then. Next time, I'm waiting a whole month of full nights before I admit to myself that he is "officially" sleeping through the night.

3. Vices
The books tell you to be careful what you do to soothe your baby. They warn you that pacifiers will not only create nipple confusion but also create a bad habit that you will just have to break in a year or two. They warn you about rocking your baby to sleep because then they will expect it every time. They also warn you about feeding your baby to get him to sleep because then the baby will associate eating and sleeping; therefore, they will never go to sleep with eating first. The truth-Use pacifiers, papooses, rockers, prayer, bribery, and whatever works to get that child to sleep! I said before that I have promised everything from a pony to Disney World, and I'm not kidding. The other day I offered Camden 50 bucks if he would go down for his nap... I just need to remember to stop doing this when he starts to understand what I'm saying. I'm also not worried about using a pacifier whenever necessary; I'll choose that battle after a few months of having a full night's sleep.