It's a party...

My big 3-0 is Wednesday, September 2nd. Tom threw me a (total) Surprise Birthday party on Saturday 8/29. It was a complete shock. I had a great time.... Let me start at the beginning....

My best friend Lora turned 30 in April. Her husband, meaning well, planned a family trip to the zoo. Not quite the most exciting celebration. We joked that my 30th would have similar plan.. maybe I would get to go to the Aquarium. Lora mentioned that she would have to check in on Tom to make sure he did not plan a trip the Zoo or the like.

Back in June-ish my sister was home for a visit. She said she was planning on one more visit to PA before the end of summer and said it was the last weekend in August. I filed that in my memory since I miss her and like when she visists.

August is approaching and I begin to wonder what I will do to mark the end of my 20's. I mention it to Tom and he kind of blows me off. I make a few suggestions with no real response (typical).

Come mid August, I ask again and Tom tells me that on the evening of August 29th, we will be going to dinner to celebrate. I start asking questions..."Do we need a babysitter?", "Where are we going?", "What time are we leaving?".. all of which are answered quickly with no real detail. This drives me NUTS. I love to plan, I love to have control, I need to know things.. not knowing what my plans were was seriously making me mental.

What did I do? I had to let it go. I could not nag and/or keep asking questions. I figured either
A) He was trying to plan a nice dinner with a few people there to surprise me and I would ruin the surprise by nagging
B) He had nothing really planned and I would find out and get all up in arms, starting a fight and ruin any potential good time.
So I let it go. But told everyone and anyone that would listen about my plight and my inability to truly let go.

Here comes Saturday 8/29....my sister is in PA and we have plans to go to lunch and get manicures and pedicures. We did this last year too so it did not seem out of the ordinary. She came over at 11 and we were gone by 11:15 ish. We went out for a late breakfast, went to CVS followed by a mani/pedi. Kara was texting a few times during out outing but that is normal.. people text all the time.

We start to go home and she plans to stay awhile and hang out with the girls. We are driving in my Dad's truck that she borrowed and I am looking at the pictures he has of Fiona, not at all paying attention to my surroundings. We get back to my house and walk to my front door. I hear people talking and laughing but assume it is coming from the neighbor's house.. truly not thinking anything of it.

I open my front door and the 1st two people I see are Jackie, my good friend from work and my best friend Lora who lives in Arizona. Jackie yells "Surprise!", followed by several other shouts and faces appearing from my dining/living room. I get choked up a little and just laugh. I was SHOCKED.

As I moved in closer I see all my friend's from work, their husbands, their kids, my grandmothers, parents, neighbors, etc. There is a HUGE spread of food and tons of beer and drinks. I am amazed. Truly amazed. People even kept arriving after me!

Tom had texted Lora (my best friend from AZ) back in MAY to ask her to try and make it. My sister had planned this back in the start of summer. Tom coordinated the food with my parents so that I would not be tipped off by the stockpile of stuff in my house. He also had the guests bring a dish or an appetizer and some drinks. He ordered and picked up a cake for me, just the way I liked it... BIG icing flowers all over it!

He did this all for me. The man who HATES making plans, made them back in May.... the man who HATES large crowds of people had 30 plus people in his house... the man who is not a big fan of parties in general,... planned and threw one for me. The man who I thought may not make a big deal of my birthday made a HUGE deal of my birthday.

I kind of cry thinking about it. I felt very loved that day... by both my friends, family and Tom too. I am lucky to have such an amazing group of friends who are generous and fun. I am lucky to have a great family who help out with every turn in life. I am very lucky to have such a caring husband who will exit his comfort zone to make me feel this special and happy. I will always remember my 30th birthday as a happy time!!

Thank you to all who helped me celebrate!

Oh How I Love Ferber

Do we recall Hannah's sleep "issues"? A quick rundown....

• Must be nursed and/or rocked and/or held to go to sleep.
• Must be careful when you put her down.. if she is not 100% in her deep sleep she will wake up and scream.
• Process must start over.
• Some nights it took me 45 minutes and lots of stress to get her to sleep (not to mention entertain a 2 year old while I did it).
• Wake up every 2-3 (4 if I was lucky) hours.

Weekend of 8/15, Tom and I went to a wedding. My mom stayed with the girls overnight. I warned her about Hannah. She was unfazed. When we got home, she reported that Hannah slept from 9 PM until 5 Am. WHAT? Did she go to sleep easy? Yes.. just cried a few minutes.. WHAT?

I got a short lecture about how I needed to stop the crap and teach her to put herself to sleep. That night I used the same old routine and she woke up every 2-3 hours. Shoot me.

That is when I decided enough was enough. That Monday (8/17), the doctor at CHOP (for her pooping issues) assured me that she was physically fine and mentioned Dr. Ferber to me.

Off I went to research and that very night I implemented his plan.

Here is what my night was like:

• 8:15 PM-Nurse, cuddle, rock for 10 minutes... put Hannah down awake. Commence crying.
• 8:18 PM-Enter room, give pacifier, pat on back , SHHHHHH. Leave by 8:19 and 30 seconds. commence crying.
• 8:22 PM-Enter room. See above.
• 8:27 PM-Enter room. See above.
• 8:30 PM-Crying slows. Stops.
• 8:32 PM-Crying begins again.
• 8:32 PM - Enter room. See above. Small cries when I leave.
• 8:35 PM-Silence. Sleep.

She slept until 4:30 ish AM!!!!!

The next night I extended the times between re-entering the room. We went a total of 10 minutes.

Wednesday night - Same routine, nurse, cuddle, kiss, in bed awake. Cried 2 minutes... sleep. THROUGH THE NIGHT

Thursday night - See above. Total crying... 10 SECONDS. Yes, seconds.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and now Tuesday night..... Same routine. Put in her bed awake. She rolls over and goes to sleep. All. by. herself.

I am amazed.

She sleeps for long stretches at a time.. waking between 3 and 5 AM to nurse and go back to sleep.

I was convinced that doing this would make her withdrawn, untrusting, more clingy, and miserable the next day. I was wrong. She was her normal self, absolutely no change.

Ferber is NOT crying it out. He has a systematic way to teach babies to soothe themselves to sleep and when they wake up in the middle of the night so that they do not need their mother to help them. I love him.

Here is some information that I used to come to the decision to try his method:

BabyCenter

Sleep Baby Sleep

Wikipedia

Both Sides

August .... Through the years

Ok, so only 4 years...but still fun

2006

2007

2008

2009

Wordless Wednesday

Sleep Like a Baby

After a good night's sleep, people often say "Wow I slept like a baby". They were obviously not talking about my kid.

How is it possible to give birth to a fantastic sleeper and then a really terrible one?

Here is a sample of Hannah's sleep yesterday---

8 AM - Awake for the day

11AM - 12PM - Nap at DeeDee's

3:30PM-4:45PM Nap in the car

8:15PM - This is when I began the process of getting Hannah to go to sleep. I had her down and out and in her crib by 8:25 when Fiona burst in to say "HI". Start over.

8:30PM - Keeps falling asleep in my arms but when I put her down she screams. Two times I let her cry for two minutes.. . that worked well **Sarcasm**

8:50PM - Finally asleep.

I think it was 11:49 pm. About 19 minutes after I went to bed. Awake....Back to sleep rather quickly.

1 AM ish...awake again. I gave up, brought her in bed with me.. we both pass out.. this is a hazy memory.

3 AM: Tom comes to bed ... I pick up Hannah and put her in her crib.

3:37 AM: Wakes up and screams. Get her back to sleep by 3:41 Am

4:07 AM: Awake. I give up again and bring her into bed.

5:37 AM: Awake. Eats, back to sleep

7:30AM: Awake for the day.

HELP ME MAKE HER SLEEP LIKE A BABY!!!!!

I Must Really Love Them

Today I took both girls grocery shopping with me (their father was hungover from a Bachelor party). I have only done this one other time. That day, Fiona sat in the top/front area and Hannah stayed in her infant seat inside the cart with the food carefully placed around her. It was not ideal

Let me preface the next part of the story by saying that I HATE the car carts. They steer like crap, they do not have good balance, they are heavy, she gets in and out at her leisure, and unloading groceries is a total PITA and they are just a regular nuisance. I always tell Fiona that they are broken and we have to get a regular cart (she still believes me, I am so mean).

Today I decided to try the car cart. I figured that Hannah could sit in the front basket part buckled in and Fiona could ride in the car part. Fiona was ecstatic. We got to the 2nd aisle and Fiona was already out of the cart and wanting to sit with Hananh. Sigh. So I put her in the front part with her sister (they are big and have room for two in that front basket). By the 4th aisle, she wanted to get down and go back in the car.

Trust me, she is 2 and it is NOT worth the fight, so back to the car she went. By the end of the 4th aisle she wanted to get back in the front with "Baby RaRa". I was trying not to curse. I think I might have though. Then I got a brilliant idea... put Hannah in the car with Fiona and bribe her with candy to stay put and be nice!

So I did just that. I unbuckled Hannah and put her in the car, buckled in tight. I gave Fiona the job of teaching Hannah to drive (these beasts have TWO steering wheels). I told her that if she was nice to Hannah and stayed in her car, she could get candy from the bulk candy aisle (my favorite place on Earth). It worked! They had a blast and I even kind of, sort of, felt like I was shopping alone. I had all this room.. it was amazing.

Fiona picked gummi watermelons today. The one and only time she will hear me say "Do NOT share these with your sister."

The only thing that I found was Hannah sucking on a pack or Rolo's at the checkout aisle. I swiftly took them from her and put them back (poor guy who buys them).

All together it was a success and I may have to get one again.. but only if BOTH girls are with me, otherwise, those things will be "broken" again.

Vacation - Days 2 and 3

On Day 2 - Fiona decided that it would be a pool day. We went for an early morning bike ride into Assateague Park. The trails and sites are amazing. We saw so many animals (birds, a baby elk, etc.).



Afterwards, Tom & Hannah took a 3 hour nap while Fiona and I went to the pool, to the candy store and for a walk to look at more ponies (and pet them!).


We went to a Go Kart/Mini Golf place where they had a huge inflatable slide for Fiona and toddler play area. Fiona peed in the toddler play area. We left.

That night was much better than the 1st. We got smart, and put Hannah's pack and play in the bathroom so she could sleep in silence and we could be "loud" in the main room.

On Day 3 (Saturday) - We got up early and went to the beach.....for SIX hours. The girls had so much fun. The highlights included Fiona getting a mermaid tail (courtesy of Tom), jumping in the waves, finding seashells, and Hannah pooping in her swim diaper (but the poop had "disappeared" by the time I went to change it... GROSS)



That night we had pizza, followed by a long bike ride (which both girls fell asleep followed by some toad hunting at our hotel. The hotel had a makeshit "beach" and the toads loved to hang out there at night. Tom and Fiona chased them and even caught a few.






We drove home Sunday..we had a great time!

Vacation - Day 1

This year, we vacationed in Chincoteague, VA. We visited there mainly to see Assateague Island, a national state park known for its wild ponies, natural setting and beaches (it did not disappoint). We arrived in Chincoteague on Thursday, July 23rd after 4ish hours of driving. We stayed at the Blue Heron Inn. It was located right near the entrance to Assateague. The room was very small, but we were not planning on spending much time in it so… it should be okay, right? They had ponies penned on site, a small play area, and a pool.

The first thing we did was drove our car onto Assateague to check it out. On the way in, we saw a ton of egrets and other birds in the marshes and bay areas. We made our way to the beach, parked and checked it out, even though we were not in our bathing suits! Fiona loved it and had fun touching the water and getting wet.

We left, got ready for the beach and went back so we could do it the "right way"


We ate dinner at Steamers all you can eat crab place. After the girls and I finished we left Tom to eat all he could, while we went for a walk. We ended up at The Bear Factory (a place like Build A Bear). After Tom was full of crab, we went back and the girls each made their own stuffed animal (well, Fiona made Hannah’s for her). Fiona made an elephant that she named “Mike” and Hannah got a monkey that Fiona named “RaRa”.
Meet “Mike”


We attempted to all go to sleep and it was hellacious. We ended up with Tom leaving with Fiona to drive around the island to get her to sleep and me staying with Hannah to get her to sleep in silence! They both woke up a lot that night.. we were not looking forward to the next 2 nights (which proved to be not like this terrible night).