De Ja Vu

This was originally on Sunday, May 10, 2009:

I haven't had a chance to write our full update yet since Logan's birthday two weeks ago because I have been wiped out! In my last post I mentioned that Logan didn't go to Babysitter's the week we returned from Iowa (where he goes 2 mornings or 8 hrs per week) - well, he didn't go the week after either because several kids came down with the flu, so we waited until this past week for him to return. (I was so glad he'd been in Iowa the week before because you know what they say - you usually get sick a week AFTER you've been exposed, so we picked the best two weeks for him not to go.)

Thankfully, having gone 19 days since his last time at Babysitter's didn't seem to affect him. She said both days he got cranky around 10:30 but it passed around 11. That I think would have happened at home, too, because he decided both of those days to get up at 5:30 am! Yes, that's right, and I thought 6:30 am was bad! (Like I said in my Birthday Boy post, he's been getting up at 6:30 again rather than the 8 am that he had been doing for awhile.)

It felt like de ja vu because other than the week we began feeding him rice cereal when he was five months old (Feeding Solids Won't Make Your Baby Sleep Better), being up for good prior to 6:30 am had never happened in his almost 13 months of life. We tried making him stay up later the nights before but that didn't work. So I figured it was the change in his eating again (this time from baby food & formula to all adult food and cow's milk). I noticed that he eats the majority in the morning & afternoon so I thought he might be waking up early because he was hungry. So now he's grazing all day & evening (back to eating every two hours rather than the standard three meals and two snacks a day), but it's working better (knock on wood he's been sleeping 8 pm to 6:30 am since then and takes a 3 hr nap in the afternoon). I know grazing is healthier for our bodies anyway, we're all supposed to do that, and we have years before he's in school and has to change so I'm fine with it.

Anyway, I noticed the difference with him not going to Babysitter's; this past week that he did go didn't seem like enough of a break for me because he's more active than ever! It's "my time of the month" so I feel like just lying on the couch doing nothing, but of course I can't with a one-year-old. :p At least he's been well-behaved (no more temper tantrums since my Terrible One's? post two weeks ago) - I'm thankful for that!

So, even though in my post Stay At Home Moms (and dads) Rock, I said I could never do more than 8 hrs a week after I tried 12 hrs the week of April 6, next week he's going to have to go to Babysitter's three half-days (so 12 total hrs) again because my brother is flying here from California and I have to take him halfway to Des Moines. I love my 2001 Ford Focus, but now with a baby both Joe and I could really use a bigger vehicle. Maybe next year. . .

Anyway, I'm still confident that 8 hrs a week is the best break amount for Logan & me, but I've come to accept that "one week each month" it's going to have to be 12 hrs. When I picked Logan up last Thursday he was playing outside with Matthew & Joshua and seemed like he was having so much fun sitting & running around in the grass. I wished I'd had my camera, it was so cute!