In Which I Don't Really Write A Blog Because It's Super Late And I'm Tired And Stuff

It's really, really late and I'm letting Jer sleep in tonight because it's Father's Day, so I'm off to bed!  The bout was a ton of fun and I didn't break anything, Connor sat through the whole thing (well, almost the whole thing-- he fell asleep on me in the last half of the bout after mine) and overall it was a great day.

If roller derby bouts are going to wear Connor out that much, maybe we should take him to them more often!

~Jess

Sleep

Last night Connor woke up at two in the morning and decided it was time to get up. He began yelling and singing and shouting "nananananana" as loud as he possibly could. Then he started kicking the wall of his crib. He wasn't upset-- just totally convinced that it was wake-up time. After checking to make sure that he was comfortable, that he didn't need to go potty, that his diaper didn't need changing and that his g-tube pump wasn't spraying formula everywhere, I turned around and went back to bed. Connor, since he doesn't have any way of getting out of the crib and playing on his own, went back to yelling and singing. For the next two hours. My poor upstairs neighbors.


So today he was pretty zombified (As was I. I can't sleep unless he's asleep too), and around four in the afternoon he actually fell asleep against my chest-- something he hasn't done in a long, long time. He used to sleep away the afternoon snuggled up against me while I worked at the computer, but now since he doesn't nap it never happens unless he's sick or stayed up too late. This of course guarantees he'll be up till all hours tonight. Oh well. My leg also goes to sleep a lot faster now when he does it, but it's still pretty sweet. It reminds me of just how big he's getting; he's not going to fit in my lap in a few more years. As it is he has to scrunch up and tuck his head under my collarbone already. Seems like it was just yesterday he was practically pocket size.



They grow up so fast.


~Jess

Home Again Home Again...

Jiggity Jig!

Well, we're flying back to Puyallup tomorrow. It was nice to see everyone, though I wish the circumstances could have been better. Also I'm not big on planning a trip in less than 24 hours. Anyway, we'll be getting up bright and early and bidding farewell to everyone in Texas. I wish we lived closer to family, though I don't really want the 100 degree weather that would entail. I'm looking forward to my 75 degree summer days again.

My grandfather is still in the Neuro ICU, and will probably be in the hospital for a number of weeks, if not months. They put a g-tube and a trach in today. He's got a long road ahead of him, but I think that eventually he'll get there-- we'll just have to see. I am glad that I got the chance to come down and see him and that the worst seems to be over, though I wish this hadn't happened.

I made the mistake of telling Connor that we're going back on a plane tomorrow, and he is freaking out. Currently he's sitting on my lap-- he's been bawling whenever I put him down and leave the room. I think he's worried that because Daddy went on a plane ride and left for a long time, that I'm going to go on the plane and leave him here. We're talking a little about it right now, and we'll see whether or not he'll go back down in a couple of minutes or if he's going to do this all night. I hope not-- we've got to get up early.

See you all in Washington tomorrow!

~Jess

Grow Connor Grow!

All right, I'm pretty sure the kiddo is going through a growth spurt. I should have recognized the signs-- he's had a couple before, and they usually start with him waking up in the middle of the night convinced he's starving.

My child, who it's usually a struggle to get any food into at all, had somewhere around 1800 calories today. This is a ridiculous amount of food for a kid his size, but since he's not exactly in danger of becoming overweight any time soon, I rolled with it. Any little extra fat pads we can squeeze onto those skinny thighs in between the times that he goes on hunger strike are great. I mean, the kid is almost three and he weighs a grand total of 22 pounds. I think sumo wrestler is not going to be a good career choice for him.

Other than being ravenous, he was pretty quiet and rather grumpy most of the day-- which was pretty much the mood I was in too. I like my sleep. He lasted longer than I thought he would, though-- the grand meltdown in which Connor announced that he had Had Enough occurred at about 4:30 in the afternoon, after he'd fallen asleep in the car and I had to wake him up to take him inside. I fed him his dinner and he was conked out by 5:30. Bliss.

I then took a ridiculously long bubble bath, had a cup of tea, read for a little bit, and turned out the light at the pitifully early hour of 7:30, only to be awakened at 8:30 by what sounded like an air raid siren going off in Connor's room. Connor was Not Pleased, and he was using every square inch of his lung capacity to tell me so.

Guess what he wanted?

~Jess

You Are Getting Very Sleepy....

Do you know at what time I took this picture? Midnight. Connor has apparently decided that sleeping is for wimps.

I apologize if this is rather incoherent, but I am very, very tired.

He's going through a phase where he tries to put off bedtime as long as possible right now. Every night we read a story, and he asks for more books. Then he needs more water. Then suddenly he has to go potty. Then he needs to snuggle. He tries these delaying tactics as long as he possibly can, but it's all a sham, and usually when we put him down he's out within thirty minutes.

Not tonight. Tonight I put him down around 8:30, which is later than his usual bedtime anyway, and he looked at me and signed:

"No! Eat!"

Assuming this was one of his usual delaying tactics, I told him, "No, honey, it's bedtime."

Then I kissed him and left the room. He didn't cry or protest. He just decided to not go to sleep until he got what he wanted.

I have this issue where I can't fall asleep until Connor is asleep. Does anyone else have this problem? It's simply physically impossible for me to go to sleep while he's awake. After lying in bed staring at the ceiling and listening to him sing for about an hour, I went back in to his room.

"What do you need, baby?" I asked.

"Up!" he signed. I kissed him and told him to go to sleep.

After listening to him yodeling happily to himself in his crib for another two and a half hours, I finally gave up and went back in. He gave me a big grin when he saw me. Victory was his!

"Up!" he signed.

I gave in and brought him into our bed. This is our fool-proof, never-fails way of getting him to sleep. Usually he conks out within five minutes. Instead he rolled over to look at me and started yelling for my attention. My child is nothing if not persistent.

"What, baby?" I finally groaned after it was obvious that he was not going to sleep any time soon.

"Eat!"

It's now 12:54 at night and I just finished feeding him most of a bottle, which is what he wanted in the first place. He's back in his crib, still giggling, talking to himself and listening to Peter and The Wolf on tape for the fifth time. When I put him back down, he grinned and signed: "No!" I'm not sure how long he's planning to stay up. Maybe he's going for some kind of record.

Thank God I don't have anything big going tomorrow (or I suppose I should say today), as I'm going to be good for absolutely nothing.

My son isn't stubborn at all, is he?

~Jess