Busy Days and Sleepless Nights

The last couple of weeks have been somewhat insane.

Earlier this month, we had our first fundraiser of the year for March for Babies.  We had a spaghetti and Bingo feed that raised over $500.  Considering that it required only a little bit of effort and was a ton of fun, I'd say that's a good night!

The week of it though, was rough.  I didn't realize how much I had taken on having an infant, 2 year old and 8 year old, plus waiting until the last minute to do much of the work really took it's toll on me.

In the weeks since then, we've been busy every single day.  I've been cleaning the carpets every week, I've made 8 outfits for Rosie the Moose, I've been grocery shopping, errand running, low calorie and low fat dinner cooking, full time cloth diapering for two'ing, starting the landscaping and parenting 3 beautiful little girls.

I keep thinking, "Ok, as soon as this week is over, next week will be easier."  Who am I kidding?  Obviously, this is how I like things.  And that's ok.

What makes it hard is lack of sleep.  I love sleep.  A full nights is just amazing.  I adore everything about waking up rested to take on the day.  Kaitlyn is a great sleeper.  She can sleep anywhere and is out most nights by 9 without anyone asking her to go to bed.  She sleeps through the night and wakes up at 7:30 in a good mood most days.  Charlotte is a great sleeper.  She is asleep most nights by 9 and sleeps until about 6:30.  In her own little bed in our room.  She barely moves through the night.  It's great.  As I've wrote before, Samantha is a horrible sleeper. 

Samantha's sleep was getting better for a little bit and then got worse.  Last week, after going several days of her sleeping only 4-6 hours in a 24 hour period, I made her a doctor's appointment to discuss some options.
I had been considering utilizing melatonin, but read so much conflicting research on it for 2 year olds that it made me nervous.  It made our doctor a little nervous as well.  So, we decided for now to use a little benadryl to try and help her get sleepy at night and see how that goes after a month.  That was Monday.  Last night was the first night she slept through.  So, we shall see.  She also has these "spells" where she just stares into space and you cannot get her attention.  Nothing you do matters, she doesn't blink, she just stares.  I assumed it was because she was so tired she would just phase us all out.  I was unaware that it could possibly be a form of seizures.  Her doctor thinks it's unlikely but we're going to see a pediatric neurologist just to rule it out.

We went about a week and a half of full time cloth diapering both.  It was a lot more work than I anticipated.  Staying on top of the laundry with a little one who spits up constantly was hard enough, washing 20+ diapers a day made it only harder.  So, for now, Samantha is in pull ups and slowly working on potty training and Charlotte is in cloth.  If we're going to be out of the house for more than 6 hours, we'll use disposable.  I honestly prefer cloth, but I'm also all about saving some time lately.

Life has been busy, exhausting and just amazing.

25% of the first year is gone

Charlotte is already 3 months old.

She's growing so fast.  I know I say that a lot, I know I've been through this before and know how fast it goes, but it feels like the days are going faster than ever before.  This month, she passed a couple of milestones, not only did she get her ears pierced, but she's also now older than Matthew lived to be.

Charlotte is up to 13 pounds, a pound and a half from last month (67%) and 24.5 inches long (86%).  She nurses every 2 hours during the day.  I swear, the has it down to the minute.  The exception is in the morning, typically she eats right when she wakes up and is starving an hour later.  We do a lot of cluster feeding at night too.  She's a great little nurser and spits up like nobody's business.  She's outgrown her 0-3 month clothes.  2 weeks ago, I had to pack them all up.  More for length than anything else.  Some of the 3-6 month things look to short all ready too!  She's in cloth diapers full time now and doing great.  She's on the smallest rise, and let me tell you, we got some super cute new ones, I just want to take her pictures in them all.  It's hard to remember sometimes that they are made primarily for holding poo and pee...

She is such a good sleeper.  I mean, amazing.  At about 8:30, she goes to sleep on her own.  She stays that way until about 10:30 and nurses for the last time of the night.  Usually, she sleeps until about 7:30 the next morning.  LOVE it.  She just lays on her back in her bassinet, her head to the side and both arms up by her head.  She wakes up in just the happiest moods and lays there for about 15 minutes before she shares how hungry she is.

She is a happy little girl.  She shares her smiles, loves to hug and snuggle, does great when I put her in her swing, chair or sleeper.  She's just so peaceful.

She is incredibly sweet and finds her big sisters to be hams.  Usually Kaitlyn is fighting for her attention and Samantha is fighting to take away her blanket, pacifier, chair or whatever else, declare that she is the baby and then beg to hold her.  She's taken to holding toys, loving mirrors, rolled over once (by accident) can scoot herself from one side of a blanket to the other on her back somehow and has some super strong kicking abilities.

I'm pretty sure she has us all wrapped around those perfect little fingers.

Life with a toddler

Is interesting to say the least.

Samantha has a case of the terrible twos that is far different than what we experienced before.  She isn't necessarily bad.  I can count on one hand the number of tantrums she's thrown in her entire life.  Samantha has wonderful manners, says "I sorry" when she makes a mistake and is pretty laid back most of the time.

However, she cannot be left out of your sight for even a moment.  Seconds is all she needs to destroy a room.  Give her 2 minutes and you can find lotion rubbed into the carpet, right next to a pile of poo that she finger painted with.  5 minutes of quiet time and you'll discover that she has used hot pink, mood changing nail polish to cover her legs, feet, the carpet, her bed, her bedding and a teddy bear.  Give her more time and you're just asking for trouble.

Today, I found that she had not only figured out how to open the bathroom door (she's been doing this for a while now) but also figured out how to climb on top of the toilet to get on top of the sink to get into the top shelf of the medicine cabinet and bring a bottle of rubbing alcohol down with her.  Luckily, she couldn't open it.  She was shaking it though, trying to open it.  I asked her why she did it.  She told me that she wanted to take a bath.  That kid went from hating baths to wanting to take 4-5 a day.  She thinks if she poops or pees in the potty, stubs her toe, has a boo boo, or makes the tiniest (or largest) of messes), she deserves a bath.  With bubbles.  And toys.  And a tea party...

But, she is just so much fun.  She has so much to say, an amazing imagination, the sweetest voice and the silliest logic.  She loves to throw her little stuffed animals in the air, close her eyes, scream "1-2-3 Ready or not, here I come!" and then find it.  She sings Charlotte "Twinkle Twinkle" and gives off the biggest belly laughs when Kaitlyn plays with her.  One minute she thinks she's grown and such a big girl in heels with a Cinderella purse, and the next she's stealing Charlotte's pacifier, telling us that she's a baby and sucking on it while saying "Wahhh Wahhh."

Our toddler is quickly on her way to becoming a preschooler...