What time today?

L seems to be playing a little game. It is called - screw the schedule!

the last few weeks he has been dropping his morning nap and going down just once a day. Then we went on a road trip holiday and for 5 days he took a morning nap at 10:40am until noon ( or when we work him up for lunch) then an afternoon nap around 3:30ish. Then we came home, and he still wanted to sleep in the morning, but not so keen on going down in the afternoon. He even had a three hour nap sleeping right through lunchtime the other day!
THEN yesterday, he woke up at 6ish, and fell asleep in the car at 9am, sleeping until 10:45 ( which was kinda handy as we were driving across town, and the roads were a bit heavy). Then we had a huge day out with friends and he was playing all day, and crashed in the car in the way home at 6pm, and slept through the night from then....until stirring early this morning, eventually up at 5:30am.

now I thought he would sleep by 9am again this morning, and even threw him in the stroller as opposed to the winne the pooh trike for a walk with R, but wouldn't you know it, he is STILL going strong right now, at 10am!

so do we try for a 10:45am type morning nap today? What to do? What to do?
I just wish he got the memo about the new nap times,and that whatever they are, he would STICK to them! Lol

gaining one

no, not me gaining a kilo a day (although it sure seems like it) this is about L and sleep!

I find it kind of odd that L has gone from 3 naps a day to.....4! He is GAINING A NAP!

He has started sleeping better at night, of course he still wakes up a couple of times to nurse, and I am ok with that...I learnt the hard way with K that stressing over sleep only made it worse for me. I logged her awake and sleep times, and put so much pressure of myself to have her sleeping that I am sure it rubbed off on her, haha!! Anyway, L goes down to bed about 8pm, and until even a week or two ago, was waking up several times from 8pm until about midnight when I went to sleep. i would pat and rub his back etc to get him back to sleep easily, but now it seems that he can do this himself (not pat his own back, but get back to sleep easily ;) The only problem is, that he does it by rolling over onto his tummy and sleeping there. Ok, so obviously it is the most comfortable position for him, as once he is on his tummy he doesn't wake again until 1 or 2am for a bit of a nurse, but I am in a dilema as to whether I should be turning him back onto his back or not. At 6months old, he can obviously hold his head up and roll over himself, but should I still be worried about SIDS? hmmm. And of course every time I roll him back onto his back, he wakes up (albeit briefly) but it disturbs his sleep.

Unfortunately, probably because of his better and continuous sleep at night, the other thing is he has taken to waking up at 6:20am. Like an alarm clock every morning (>.<) I HATE alarm clocks (lol) Lucky for him he is a happy person in the morning, all chatty and smiley and cute.

Then because of this early wake up, he is all tired again by 8am, and goes back for a nap then, on top of his regular three naps a day.

Have you ever heard of a baby that gains a nap??????? lol

day 2 of the 5am challege

and I totally flaked it.

Just went straight back to sleep (sitting up in bed with L in my arms!! lol)
Looks like I am with you, Nay and Lulu and the "not before 7am biz" haha.

I don't feel bad though - I must have been on some spring cleaning high yesterday, and actually got more cleaning and househould stuff done in the afternoon too, so today I kinda feel ok to just vege. This is always my problem but - try to do it all one day, then crash and burn and then spend the next week veging, then have to do a mammoth clean the next week. Oh well. Baby steps.

Today we are heading to the local ymca for a free kids concert ("with all your favourites from Okasan-to-issho", or so they say on the flier), which starts at 10:30am. It is a bit overcast though, so not sure if we should ditch the idea of walking and drive instead. Hmmm. Anyway, gonna make some onigiri to take with us.

early morning wake up call

For the last few nights the little fella has decided that the hours between 3am and 6am are to be his "fun time". Lets just say not so much fun for mummy... But he is back to "normal"(??!!??) today with sleeping through until about 5am, then wanting to be awake. Sooooooo, I have had a bit of a revelation: instead of just sitting around in the bedroom trying (in vain) to get him back to sleep, that I should actually GET UP!

yep

start MY day at 5am too!!!!

crazy way of thinkin', ain' it! lol.

I am NOT by any stretch of the imagination a morning person, but I have realised that if I put my mind to it, I can get up and actually GET SOMETHING DONE while the kids (or at least one of them) is still asleep. I have even done it once or twice before today, too ;-). And obviously now that it is nearing summer, it is light outside from about 4am or something rediculous anyway!!

So this morning, it was a 5am wake up call. And a very productive one at that: I got a load of washing hang out, and another put in the machine; took the dog for a walk - there is my morning exercise too:-),managed to get a blog post in, and even got a cuppa, all before 7am!

And on my walk, I saw several houses with their washing already hanging out too - so obviously this revelation of getting up early to do things has hit others too (insert cheeky grin) coz of course no on in Japan would hang out their washing the night before or worse still not bring it in overnight (insert cheeky grin times two).

But one thing that has me baffled: why is it that 99.9% of the time, babies will wake up anytime you try to put them down quietly after being in the sling or held when you DONT want them to wake up, but if you put them down somewhere innapropriate (like on the sofa, where they can possibly roll or fall off) for just a second so you can get the baby bjorn ready, then why is it that the STAY in a DEEP sleep only then? When you can't even really leave them there for fear of them falling off the sofa??)

Anyway, still got a bit of time before the fam wakes up (although I assume that all my "tiptoeing" around has probably woken J up at least) and we head out to playgroup today. What fun thing can I do for the next 45mins or so of my new-found FREE TIME? haha.

and so, of course, now....

....I can't sleep.

I have been awake since before 4am.
finally decided to cut my losses, and come sit down under the kotatsu with a cuppa.

this is so typical.

*sigh*



.....and now, not even 20mins after getting up (and having been awake in bed for nearly an hour and a half) I am tired and wanting to crawl back into bed.

Make up your mind, already!!!
(Lucky I went for the decaf tea...might try the zzz's one more time.....)

3rd tri fatigue

I just can't seem to find any energy these days.

It is almost hard to believe that pregnancy fatigue could come back with such a vengance and be WORSE than 1st trimester fatigue. I guess at this stage, I am also sporting an extra 10, 11, 12kilos - most likely more?? (haven't jumped on the scales recently, too scary) which is not helping. Getting up from any kind of sitting position is a major task.

I feel sorry for K, but I have been a crabby, snappy, tired, and easily annoyed basketcase (more than usual anyway) for the last few days. I put it down mainly to over-doing myself by going to a wedding on the weekend, having PIL over for the weekend (to look after K while we were at the wedding, but we (I) still had to look after them when I got home and the next day since they stayed over), and then planning a morning tea-playdate for the following day. I am buggered.

After our friends left yesterday, both K and I went down for a lovely nap, then hit the sack early last night to sleep in til the lovely time of 9am this morning. Yep, 9AM!!!!!! You would think that would get me back on track, but I was yawning again by midday, and had to lie down with K at 1pm for a nap (which I had, but she didn't, oh well, at least she was VERY VERY good and just lay there in bed with me (me thinks) reading and tearing up tissues while I was passed out, haha! )

But I still feel like crap, tired and have a headache now too. Considering that K didn't actually nap today, we can probably get her down to sleep early tonight, so I might just have to join her, at like 8pm! I know that sleeping too much can sometimes have the opposite effect, but I am even yawning again as I type this, so figure it best to at least give it a chance again tonight in the hope that I am able to bounceback to somewhat human by Thursday for playroup.

And J is away again this week, so while I don't have to be making proper dinners, which helps, it also means that poor K is getting no active-rough-and-tumble-type play at all, since I am just too wasted to stand up half the time.

This tiredness sucks. The rain (currently SNOW here actually) and cold outside doesn't help either.

bedding down

Have been thinking about the bedroom lately (not in a light the candles and get jiggy with it way), but we still haven't got anything set up in the upstairs rooms. Well, the old cheapie bed frame we had before is up, so we are not sleeping on the floor, but otherwise nothing.

I am uncertain what to do about the bedrooms. There are 2 upstairs.

I think I have written before that we co-sleep, but at the moment we have a make-shift side bed for K out of futon mattresses. It doesn't really help, and we end up being squashed in together (with K kicking at ME all night/early morning). I want to get something worked out for the bedrooms before TJ-baby arrives, but realistically, since our latest electricity bill came in, I don't think it is feasible during winter at least, to have seperate bedrooms. So what do we do?

J wants to buy bunk beds for the "kids" room, and a double bed for us, in the main bedroom, probably that has storage underneath it. But I also want the "kids" room to double up as the guest room, at least for now. We still have futons we can use in the third room(downstairs) in a pinch, but for J's parents when they come, and if my parents come for TJ-baby birth, then I think they would be best put up in the 2nd room upstairs. So if we got bunk beds, it would need to be beds that can also be used as singles (not the pipe type) which then cuts out the IKEA bottom is a double bed/top is a single bed bunk bed which I think is really cool (and it always reminds us of a hostel we stayed in at Foz do Iguacu, on the Brazillian border, near Iguassu falls.) Also, I can't see bunk beds being useful until K is a LOT older. I even saw a triple bunk bed (with a trundle bed underneath) that I would like to get, but again, it wouldn't be useful until at least mid-primary school age, I would think.

But if we put a double bed in there(kids room) now, K probably won't sleep there anyway, but will end up still sleeping in with us, so it doesn't really solve any problems, I guess. Even a half of the bunk bed, still means that if someone comes, we need to fiddle around and set up another bed in the room for them.

Do we therefore attempt a family bed in the bedroom? (I already have a cot for TJ-baby, which I am hoping to put beside our bed, for easy night time feedings) which means we will have to also add a single bed to the equation for K, because we can't all fit on the one bed for much longer and still stay sane.......but I then the baby will probably keep K awake during the night AND the room will end up being FILLED with beds, and no space for anything else(I would like to get some built-in cupboards for the room too ....but don't want to end up with no floor space! lol). And I can't find a bed in Japan that floats my boat at all...they all look so BORING and THE SAME.

Aaarrrgghhhhh. Who would have thought just trying to get some zzzz's would be so difficult to work out?

what can you do in 36mins?

* iron 4 and 3/4 work shirts
* watch half an episode of private practise
* put the water on to boil for a cuppa (but not get around to making it)

oh, and if you are a 2yo girl by the name of K, wake up from your nap. I did manage to get her back to sleep (which is why I am now blogging) but still - surely 36mins is too short a nap. yesterday she had none. day before she had a 45min one. hmmmm. it can't be bye-bye nap time yet PLEASE NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

and today...

well, we had a half-hearted piddle on the toilet in the morning (and no more toilet trips for they day, oh well)

BUT K went to sleep again by herself! yay! After the bedtime routine, I turned off the lights, and told K I was going outside to check on something, and would be back. I waited about 10mins (no sound) so thought she was asleep, but she was still awake, so I said, ok lie back down, and then....another 10mins later and K was SOUND asleep.

I am likin' this!

wow

surely it's not this easy.

3 pees on the toilet, and one on the potty today! yay K!

bedtime - asleep in less than 15mins ALL BY HERSELF!! J or I usually lie there with her until she falls asleep...sometime between 30-45mins. But tonight, I did our usualy bedtime routine: brush teeth, read books, turn off light. then instead of just lying there with her, I said to K "Mummy just has to go check on something in the other room. I will be baack in a minute, can you lie here quietly until I get back." then went outside the room for a min or two, then went back in and said "I am back" (to which she was VERY excited to see me. Then a few minutes later, I did the same thing, staying away for 2-3mins, then went back in. Then again, planning to stay away for 5mins or until she yelled out for me....but there was no cries, no running around the room. Just a little girl who fell asleep! yay K!

let's see what happens tomorrow.....

a bit of fun

can't sleep....again. so I thought I would purty up my page.

the last few nights I have been a bit insomniac-y.
it *might* have something to do with finding CastTv (thanks Illahee!!) where I have started watching "Samantha Who?" and "Private Practice". I watched S04E01 of GA, but then found that I had to pay to watch the next several episodes, so have taken my viewing elsewhere until I find a suitable free GA S04 viewing platform. Oh, I tried "Lime Wire" but all I ended up downloading was the audio, no vision- (did I do something wrong Nooh??? )

all martha-ed out

my two days of visits went well, and it was so nice to have people over. Anyone ever in the vacinity, please drop in!

K had lots of fun playing with friend's daughter R-chan(or is it L-chan? transliterists, what are your thoughts? Can i choose as i see fit? I go for L-chan on this one) on Tuesday, although since they got here at about 11:30am, K was having soooo much fun that she forgot to nap. So when they left about 4pm, it didn't take long for K to get grumpy. She ended up falling asleep in my arms as we were skyping my folks just before 5pm. Classic. I decided to let her sleep (like I really had any say in it) and took R for a walk, with K in the ergo, then put her on the bed for more napping. She woke up after about an hour, but was still obviously sleepy, so I thought a shower would freshen her up, and tide her over at least until normal bedtime, which it did. She was still a bit tired today though, so I put her down earlier than normal for a nap, at about noon, then she slept a good 2 and a half hours, waking up just before our friends came over for a cuppa this arvo.

Yesterday I made a quiche using this recipe for the pie crust, and this recipe for the Brocolli filling (although I did add mushrooms and bacon). The filling was very very yum-yum, but I failed miserably on the pie crust. My symptoms - crumbly crust, which apparently means I overworked the dough. I also think it may have something to do with the fact that I can't work out the US measurements (yes, I realise that you can change the units on Zaar Recipies but then you end up with something like 15.67ml of blah blah blah), so I might have added too much butter to start with, then ran out of flour when I realised I had added too much butter, so couldn't even tweak the dough. Oh well. I am having another attempt this saturday in my quest for the perfect quich pie crust. Did I really just write that - god my life is boring.

Today I made lasagna for dinner - I know, I must be going through a yo(洋)phase this time. I used a recipe off the internet very loosley, with mince, onions and mushrooms in a jar of pasta sauce, but made my own white sauce (the only thing made as per the recipe), and used red cheddar cheese and mozzarella cheese, as well as some parmasan for sprinkling on the top. (gaijin wife...I will still accept your lasagna recipe if you ever want to send it my way!) and I thought it tasted good, but J said it was lacking a bit. He *always* says that though (rolls eyes) , so I just told him that just because all Japanese food tastes like soy sauce, doesn't mean that western food needs to have an overbearing flavour to it, and he should learn to appreciate subtle flavours (or starve - his choice really, hehe).

tomorrow we are going out to play - have to be out of the house before 10am to catch a train. God help me. In this heat, I can barely even sleep at night, and that is WITH acey on in the next room (not in the room we sleep in).

and finally some great news - I got two fantastic packages in the post today. One was the book LOSING KEI which I won on Nay's blog, (yay, I finally got it...bit of a mix up at this end, oops, with not realising the postie has tried to deliver the book while I was out one day, as the message card they leave was tossed in amongst some pizza-la campaign fliers so I almost lost Losing Kei, but all is well now, and I am really looking forward to reading it - thanks Nay, and Nay's mum for sending it!) and a friend from home send over a care package of magazines! yay! So I can find out now that Brangelina are expecting a baby - ok, the mags might be a *bit* old, but hey, English lit. Gotta love it!