Things I’ve learned today:

1. There are no bathing suits* that will make my poor post-baby body look like anything resembling someone who has never had a baby.
2. Target either never sold, or is now sold out of, one-piece bathing suits. Target, how could you fail me like this?
3. Tweets, which seemed insightful at first glance, are even more insightful and make much more sense in context.
4. Sunkist is sweeter and more caffeinated than I remember.
5. Sugar + Caffeine + not enough sleep = super wired. I don’t know why I forgot this. My eyeballs are pinging. Seriously.
6. Having my brain moves faster than I can type is problematic.

That is all.

* at least at shops that I can afford to shop at

I’m a-gonna have house guests, I’m a-gonna have house guests… and talk, and do fun things, and go to the beach! And maybe be a girl for a while.

Although the going to the beach thing might be interesting as I don’t currently have a bathing suit that fits, and since I’m a mommy now it’s generally frowned upon to go skinny-dipping in the ocean (at least in front of other people’s kids). Although, come to think of it, it was probably frowned upon before i was a mommy, too. So we’ll see what happens – I’ll probably either end up wearing an ill-fitting one-piece swimsuit from high school (oh yes, I still have it), or an ill-fitting two-piece from before I had stretch marks and 25 pounds of baby fat. Either way, it should be fun.

And Brianna has a bathing suit, at least, so it should make for some cute pictures (as long as I stay out of them!).

Be thinking about my dad – he’s in the hospital again, and we don’t really know why. Apparently (I get all my news 2nd hand at best) last night he started getting really really confused – like he thought he and mom were married in 1988 (try ’79?), and that I was born in February (of this year) and lots of other stuff like that. At first, they thought maybe it was his blood sugar, but apparently it isn’t, so now he’s on the neurology floor of the hospital, waiting for the doctors to figure it out. CT scan showed nothing any more abnormal than usual, but they tend to be pretty unreliable for Dad since he’s had so many head issues. So we’re waiting for the MRI, and whatever else they care to run while he’s there.

Meanwhile, I’m full of nervous energy (not in a good way), and running on caffeine and adrenaline. The baby hasn’t slept much, and i have slept even less, and I’m second guessing my parenting abilities (at least as far as sleep scheduling goes…). So here’s some snark, to hopefully help me diffuse some of my negative energy, lol.

Five things for five people who will (probably) never read them:

1. You’re better off without him. Just don’t immediately latch yourself onto the next piece of driftwood that you see – it’s ok to be single for more than 5 minutes.
2. If you have to constantly tell me that something you’re doing isn’t “bad”, you might want to take a second look. Are you justifying to me, or yourself?
3. The things that bug you now will only be amplified as time goes on – can you live with that? Really?
4. You have family everywhere around you – don’t take that for granted, even if they are crazy. You’ll miss them when you leave, I promise. (I do).
5. Honesty is really the best policy. And it is way less annoying than being lied to. Even on the little stuff.

1. Daycare crisis resolved. Yay! We found a school that looks like it may be a better fit for us, and is way cheaper (which was surprising). They (by what can only be the grace of God) had *1* spot in their infant room. All of the other good places were full, or even had waiting lists (I was told at one school they would have room for a 6-month old in February. Which is more than 6 months from now). So we’re very glad it worked out. There was much stress in the interim.
2. Tonight is Parents Night Out. So Chad and I are going out, sans baby, who will be in good company with other little children. No clue what we’re going to do yet – dinner or something? At the very least, we’re going to go somewhere and pretend that we are real people and not worry about the stroller or when the baby ate last or if she’s getting fussy (unless she’s so fussy they call us to get her). That’s the plan, anyway.
3. Tomorrow is scrapbooking day again. Yay for getting out! We’ll see how much I get done (I need to print more pictures…)
4. It looks like our insurance will pay for the leaky windows. So yay for that… now we just have to get the work done. And figure out how to do it while still living in the house, since we’ll pretty much need to rebuild the back wall of the house. Lucky for me, Chad gets to deal with the logistics of all that.
5. I watched The Watchmen this week. I don’t know what I expected, but that sure wasn’t it… at the end of the movie? I still wasn’t sure exactly what the point of it was, or who was a good guy and who was a bad guy. Or if there even were good guys and bad guys. And what was up with Dr. Manhattan’s super-anatomically-correct nakedness? Anyway. It was ok, but not really great. Maybe if I read the graphic novel or something, it would have made more sense.
6. I found out this week that not only did the guy who plays Jim Brass on CSI have a bit part Mrs. Doubtfire… he was also in 3 Men and a Baby, and a ton of other random stuff. imdb.
7. Leverage is in it’s new season, and I think it’s just as good (or maybe better?) than last season. Funny stuff – when I have time for TV

For more 7 quick takes posts, go to Conversion Diary.

Crazy, crazy weekend. Seriously.

Chad was called to KSC, so he left early early Friday morning (he’s back now, yay!) – but we didn’t know he was going until Thursday night, so it was cray and last minute and stuff. But I survived Friday, just a little lonely and tired from dealing with Brianna, who was a little fussier than normal.

Saturday, we drove all over the place, as Brianna was only happy when we were moving in the car or when she could see something new and different. So we went to Hobby Lobby, Michaels, the Pearland mall – and even drove down to the Baybrook mall, just in time for it to start raining there, and for the power to go out for a few minutes. But overall, the day wasn’t too bad. After (Brianna’s) dinner, I managed to give her a bath by myself, and took her to sit on the porch swing and go to sleep. It took her a while, and about hte time she started to doze off, a storm blew in. Once it started raining, I went to head inside… I had just gotten to the door when the hail started! I put the baby in her bed and checked the weather – no storm warnings. So I called Chad, to see what he was up to – by this time, I couldn’t see the back fence or the end of the driveway through the wind and rain…

While I was on the phone, I realized that there was water pouring in the back door. *Pouring* in. The wind was pushing all the rain right into the back of the house… I went upstairs, and water was pouring in both the nursery window, and our bedroom windows. And the power went out! So I was trying to mop everything up in the dark. Thankfully – at least the baby slept.

Eventually, it stopped raining. Which was good, as I had run out of towels. I was so tired, I went to bed without dinner!

Brianna was up every hour overnight, and I was exhausted by Sunday morning… but i had to go to church, and there was a tea for the preacher’s wife, and I had all this stuff to do… so I put the dog out in the yard, and got me and the baby both ready for church. I went to let her back in – and she wasn’t in the back yard. She was in the front yard. I thought the yard guys had left the gate open… nope. The storm messed up the fence, so now the gate won’t shut. Walking around the yard… I saw that the storm had also exploded our shed. The one we replaced after Ike. Note to future self: Rubbermaid sheds are not weather-proof.

I sent Chad a note, and then headed for church (forgot breakfast) – and then started helping set up the tea (whilst holding a fussy baby!). Luckily for me, there was a ton of food (not diet friendly food, but honestly, I didn’t care). So the tea went well, and I managed (with help) to keep Brianna entertained. Once we went home, I worked on gettign her to sleep – which eventually worked, lol. I read part of the no-cry sleep solution book, and went to bed myself. Brianna was still up a lot, but not as much…

Monday morning, she was sooooo fussy. I took her to daycare, and they told me they thought she had thrush! I looked in her mouth, and sure enough, there it was. I felt dumb. So I took her to the doctor, and got medicine for both of us. And took her back to daycare. And come home, to work for a while.

When I picked her up from daycare, her teacher handed me a note saying the daycare was closing. On Friday. Well, shit. Friday?! Seriously?! I was on a waiting list for like, 8 weeks to get into this place! How am I going to find another in just a few days?!

So yeah. I’m working from home and looking at daycare places today. It’s been so long since I first looked, it’s like starting over – but Chad’s supposed to come with me to a couple places today. I’m so frustrated, because Brianna just got settled at this place, and now we have to learn a new routine and a new set of people… Blah.

At least Chad’s home to deal with the insurance people. I told him he’s never ever ever allowed to travel for work again, unless I can go, too, lol.

1. By an interesting set of happenstances, it looks as thought I may have a great deal of free time this weekend. (Assuming you can count any time spent baby wrangling as “free time”, anyway). My goals: Not to watch too much TV, to actually accomplish something, and possibly several somethings. More to prove I *can* than anything else. We’ll see how that actually works out.
2. Brianna’s doing fine, still fat and happy and we finally got rid of the ear infections. Yay! She’s sitting very well now, and trying to pull herself up to a sitting position from laying down (she still needs some help). She loves her solid food, and has been eating like a champ (even prunes!). But not sleeping. Combinations of snuggling her lovey and being swung on the porch swing usually get her to go to sleep… but staying asleep is another story – we’ve been up 4-5 times several nights, and it sucks (for me anyway). So yeah. Might impact the “getting stuff done” goals of this weekend.
3. More geek humor, because that’s the kind of girl I am.
4. It seems I spend a lot of time these days asking myself questions – and typically ones that don’t have good answers (and mostly parenting related these days). Stuff like, Am I doing this *right*? Do I feed her enough? Too much? Do they feed her too much at daycare? Why am I so behind? Should we be doing more educational activities, whatever that means? Should she still be using a paci? Should she be using a sippy cup? Am I ruining her teeth by letting her nurse to sleep at night? Why are we not sleepign through the night? Will I ever have time to read The No Cry Sleep Solution, to try to solve this? Do we want more kids? When? Should I get a new ob/gyn? When am I going to make it to the dentist? When do I need to take the baby to the dentist? … … … Most of these questions occur to me at like, 4am. Not conducive to great problem solving. But, I guess it all goes with the territory.
5. I joined a scrapbooking group, which has been fun. they meet a couple times a month to work on pages and socialize and stuff, so I went last weekend and had a great time (even if I only got one page done). It’s odd to get out and be social again – I’m kind of out of my comfort zone, but that might be a good thing.
6. Also went to the local La Leche League meeting – again more being social. They were really nice, not the crazy-breastfeeding-nazi people that I half expected, lol. Lots of good information, and good discussion with other mommies. Still haven’t solved my supply problem, but at least I know I’m not alone. And I’m getting out! And talking to people! So I feel a little less isolated.
7. And I have more socialness this weekend – there’s a Women’s Tea at church for the new preacher’s wife, and I signed up to help, and to bring finger sammiches (which means Sunday morning will be more crazier than usual, lol). Slowly, I’m getting the hang of this whole non-hermit thing. It was so much easier in college… there, you had to work to be a hermit. In the real world, you have to work *not* to be. So Yeah. I’m working on it

For more 7 quick takes posts, go to Conversion Diary.

So sleep has become a battle at our house. Brianna, going to sleep, at night, in her bed, at a reasonable time, is just something that hasn’t been happening. Every night, we go through the same thing – culminating in a whiny, overtired infant who only goes to sleep after an hour (or more) of being held, rocked, and swung, and a mommy who gets nothing done and gets to bed late.

We’ve been trying to get a consistent bedtime routine. We tried reading stories, lavender lotion/bath stuff, and a ton of other things to help her wind down and sleep. But nothing seemed to help much – I had almost decided that it was a phase we would have to weather.

But then – I saw on one of my mommy boards, an idea to try. So. I tried it. Monday night, I took one of Brianna’s soft fuzzy animal things (it’s hard to describe, it’s like a little blankie, but the center of it is gathered up and made into a little cow. Sounds odd, but it’s cute, and really soft), and while i was running through our bedtime routine, I stuffed it in my shirt. Yes, I know this sounds crazy. You should have seen me walking around the hosue with a lovey stuffed in my shirt for an hour. Luckily, Chad was working late that night. He might have had me committed. When it was time to put her to sleep, I put her in the swing (I chickend out of trying the bed right away), and gave her the now-mama-scented lovey. She snuggled it, and talked to it, and was asleep within five minutes. Success!

Last night, we tried the same thing, except – the lovey was already mama-scented, so no need to walk around with a cow in my shirt. And. We actually put her straight in the crib. Gave her the lovey, and she did the same thing – snuggle, chatter, and off to sleep. Success again!

This morning, she was a little whiny getting up to go to daycare, and cried in her car seat… I gave her the lovey, and she was happy.

So that’s what works for me. Hopefully, it will keep working! And hopefully, we’ll never lose that cow, ’cause I’m sure that would be a meltdown, lol.

For more Works for me Wednesday tips, go to We are THAT Family. (I didn’t follow this weeks theme, but I think that’s still ok… I didn’t have any great recipes to share, since most of my cooking lately has involved driving through a fast food joint, lol).