I'm scared.

I was breastfeeding Davey the other day. He was sleep feeding, a favorite activity of his. Anyway he suddenly startles and bites down on my nipple. Ouch! This was before he got his two front top teeth (he already has the bottom two). I'm afraid of what would have happened if they were in when he did this. All four are in now. I'm scared.

Beer, free time, or both?

I miss beer. I know I can have a beer now and then and it is OK even while breastfeeding. But I don't want just one beer. I want the whole 6 pack.

It has been a long time since my body was mine. I've been pregnant or nursing since August 2004 with only a couple months off between breastfeeding and the second pregnancy. I love my kids. I would do anything for them so avoiding alcohol and artificial sweetner is not asking a lot.

It is just everyone now and then I remember how yummy a beer can be. I remember the light feeling I used to get after having a couple of beers. You know the one I'm talking about. It is the one that makes you want to hug your friends and dance on the table. I know that I'm not the only one to dance on a table.

I guess what I miss more is being able to just drink a couple of beers and not worry about taking care of children. Even if I was not breastfeeding I wouldn't have the opportunity to drink very often anyway. BK (before kids) we had Captain Sundays. Captain Sundays consisted on hanging out at someone's house, pool, or boat and drinking Captain Morgan and cokes all days. I don't think I will have a Captain Sunday again till the kids are in college. By then I'm guessing I won't want them anymore. I guess it is really the free time that I miss more than the beer.

Having kids is a trade off in some ways. Your time is never your own anymore. There are no sick days. I can't just lay on the couch and watch really bad television shows. The kids still need to be taken care of. While it can be hard at times, they bring me so much joy. I love the sound of their laughs. I love watching their faces as they figure out something new. And of course I love holding them in my arms. And I can watch as much Wonder Pets as I want when they are around.

Fun with Thermometers

We have been checking the kids temperatures since Monday. Caitlin has had a low fever everyday since then. Davey luckily has not. (I'm knocking wood right now.) Anyway here is the story which is funny but probably a little bit TMI. We use one of those forehead scanning thermometers. We took Caitlin's temperature before bedtime. After we tucked her in Dave says we should take the temperature of my butt. It always seems chilly. He does a quick scan it is only 84 degrees. I make him scan himself. His is 95 degrees. I guess I really have a cold butt.

So was this TMI or funny?

Sick Kids

My eyes feel puffy. Davey decided to start the day at 5:06 am. I tried to drug him (Tylenol/Vitamin T), feed him, and then put him back to bed. He disagreed with my plan. So we played till 6:20 am. I went back to bed too. I fell asleep for maybe a half hour when Caitlin started hacking up a lung and was up.

Two sick kids, one of which is teething, both are not sleeping enough or at the same times, means I have puffy eyes and that lovely foggy feeling in my head. Poor kiddos, not much you can do for them when they have colds. Silver lining is they are sick this week so they should feel better next week. I am flying solo next week since David is traveling for business.

See you next season...

The Packers didn't make it to the Super Bowl. It is OK Brett. I still love you.

I'll be watching Brett.

I've been watching football since Dave got up at 10:45 this morning. Yeah that is the time he got up. We take turns sleeping in on the weekends. My turn was yesterday. I slept till 9 am. I picked the wrong day to get up. I was up with Davey at 4:30-5:30am and again with Caitlin at 6:30am.

OK back to the topic on hand, football. I don't mind watching the games but 4+ hours of pre-game is a little much. I want the Pats to win against the Chargers so Dave is happy. I like the Pats too. I kinda hafta being married to the freak, um I mean fanatic. I want the Packers to win over the Giants because I love Brett Favre. How can you not love him? He is so cute, likable, hard working, and actually older than me. Doesn't it get a little depressing now that most sport stars are younger than we are? I think a Pats vs Packers Super Bowl would be a good game. That way I would like either team that won.

Potty Update

I don't think we are done yet with the potty training but Caitlin is doing very well. Without all the gruesome details, she is out of diapers all the time except for nap and bedtime. She even wakes up dry from nap often. So we are all very happy.

Eating

I make sure Caitlin gets a well balanced diet. Or at least I try to. I give her a vegetable, fruit, protein, and a carb at each meal. She doesn't always eat everything. She usually doesn't in fact. Overall I'd say she eats well. She mostly eats fruits and vegetables.

Now why can't I force myself to eat meals as well balanced as the ones I prepare for Caitlin. When I'm stressed or just plain busy holding Davey on my hip, I tend to eat the not-so-good-for-you-snack food. I know I should prepare cut veggies ahead of time or put Davey down and listen to him squeal like I do when I have to get Cait food. Why do I do that for her but not for me? I guess it is because I hate listening to the squealing and I'm a little lazy. It is easier to grab a handful of goldfish or jellybeans than make a salad.

My husband, David, forgets to eat sometimes. If he is watching the kids or busy doing chores, he forgets to eat. I have never forgotten to eat. I wish I could. I'm jealous of his ability to forget to eat.

As you can tell from this post or if you know me in real life, I'm struggling with my weight at the moment and eating issues. The weight has not come off as quickly as it did when I had Caitlin. I'm going to Weight Watchers. It is hard to work the program but I know I need the structure so that I can finally lose the weight. My goal is to lose it by Davey's first birthday. I have a little less than 4 months.

I want to be able to go into a swimming pool this summer and not think about how I look in a swimsuit. I don't expect to be a swimsuit model. I just want to get into the pool.

Vacuuming makes me happy!

The swoosh of a vacuum really picking up all the dirt and pet hair off my carpets makes me happy.

We have gone through probably 4 vacuums in the 6 1/2 years since we got married. We didn't buy the cheapest or the most expensive. My mom actually brought our current vacuum for our anniversary last year since she knew our other one stopped working well. We probably do a little more vacuuming than the average household since we have a big yellow lab, 2 babies who play on the floor, and 2 adults who don't always take their shoes off when they came home.

Our current vacuum picks up the dirt and dog hair well but gets clogged easily. I felt a little sad vacuuming yesterday with minimal results. I hate spending time on something that clearly is not working well. I felt like MacGyver trying to figure out where the clog was. I used the bottle brush to no avail. Finally I used a child's hanger to dislodge the offending clog and blew the rest out of the tube. I little gross but effective.

I felt triumphant when I turned the vacuum back on and actually was able to clean the floor well.

My questions for you is what kind of vacuum to use love? Is the expensive Dyson worth the money? I have spent more money on all the vacuums over the years than it would cost to buy one. Should I have bite the bullet and brought a Dyson?

People are suggesting blog topics to me. Y'all (except Martha and Rebecca) must really have hated all the posts about the potty training. The vacuum topic was suggested by Dave as I stood there and bitched that I wanted a new vacuum.

Finding Out

One of my favorite bloggers, Swistle, asked an interesting question: how did you find out you were pregnant? Here are my stories:

With Caitlin, we started trying one cycle after stopping the pill. I didn't want to bother to chart. We wanted to keep it fun so we just did it a lot. We hoped that things would work out. My cycles were so not regular yet. So I took a test 4 days after when I thought I should get my period. It was negative. Three days later I still didn't have my period. I took another test as soon as I got up before work. I went back to bed with hubby to wait. We giggled and talked about the possibilities. I had set a stop watch, so when the time was up I went back into the bathroom. I looked at the test in disbelief. I ran back into the bedroom with the test and made Dave look to confirm it was positive. We jumped up and down. Then we snuggled till it was time to get ready to work. I went to work that day with news I wanted to share with everyone but knew I should wait at least a little longer. I felt like it might burst out. It didn't.

With Davey, we said we would wait a cycle after stopping the pill to start trying to conceive. I was having weird abdominal pain. It hurt to bend to tie my shoes. I had it for about a week before I went to the doctor. The doctor told me it was ovulation pain. Talk about embarrassing. He did say that he has had some patients go to the hospital for the same pain. I didn't even know that you could have ovulation pain. So knowing I was ovulating, it was a no brainer. I was pretty sure we had conceived. I waited the appropriate time. I took the test in the morning. It was pretty much a repeat of when we found out we were pregnant with Caitlin. We hugged and talked about having two babies.

Both times when we talked about the future with the babies, we had no idea what the reality of having the babies would be. It has been both harder and more rewarding than I ever dreamed.

No more poop discussion ...

I promise no more poop discussion until the whole potty training is done. Then I'll just post that I think it is done. Like Dave says, no one wants to hear about it anymore. Sorry if I bored y'all too much.

So nothing to report today :)

More potty woes

I'm wishing that I hadn't started potty training now. Picture the scene: I'm feeding David. The dog is barking at the same neighbor that walks by our house each and every afternoon. Caitlin says she needs to pee. Ok, I give David a teething cookie and rush to the potty with Caitlin. She sits for a minute and seems to just be fooling around. I say enough and back to the dining room. She repeats this two more times. The last time the dog steals Davey's cookie so Davey starts to whine to boot. She actually pees on the third trip to the potty so all is well in the world, right? Wrong. I just start feeding David again and Caitlin says uh, oh. Really she should have said oh, shit. That's right she pooped her pants despite the three trips to the potty.

Oh, did I mention the doctor put her on a laxative for a week to help with the constipation issues due to the potty training. Needless to say, the laxative worked way quicker than expected.

I kinda wish I didn't start the training now. I guess I'd have to deal with it eventually anyway.

What is worse than potty training?

What is worse than potty training you ask? It is giving your daughter a suppository to get things moving. Actually the worse was the crying Caitlin did for 10 minutes after putting the suppository in. I didn't actually put the suppository in either. Dave did. God bless him.

Well potty training is going well sorta. Caitlin is consistently peeing on the potty but she was not pooping on the potty. In fact she went from once a day to once every other day (in her underpants). Well I assumed that she would continue in this manner for a while. I had talked to the doctor on Thursday, he didn't seem too concerned. Well by Friday night it had been almost 2 full days without a poop. Caitlin started to complain that her butt hurt. She refused to go even in her diaper. Dave and I started to get a little panicky. Of course this took place after the doctors office hours. I talked to the pharmacist and she suggested the suppository. Well it worked. In fact she actually went 2 times. She was so proud of herself and relieved instantly.

Dave and I are pumping Caitlin full of water, juice, and fiber rich foods. We are trying to ensure that Caitlin doesn't start to hold it again. I hope that she has gotten over the potty fear. I was feeling pretty bad for potty training last night.

Resolutions

- to get back down to my pre-pregnancy weight by Davey's first birthday. (The weight I was before Caitlin)

-to keep my house clean enough so it is not embarrassing for someone to stop by

-to not worry the house isn't perfectly clean when friends visit (if they are really friends they are not going to judge a little clutter)

-enjoy each day with my kids even the tough ones

-take the kids to the kids museum more often (we have a membership)

-find a way to express myself creatively and maybe make some $ too. (I'll post on that when I figure out the details.)

-get out more with Dave and by myself.