Progress Crying

Q has cried it out 3 nights in a row at this point. The 2nd night went so much better than the first, with crying during only 2 one hour stints. All of the other kids slept right through it, me, on the other hand, not so much.  When she woke up in the 6 o'clock hour, I got up and fed her. She was such a smiley girl, but very hoarse, sadly.

The third night,  I had even more resolve because I could see that it was working. The problem was that I had to go out, so my mom fed her formula and then put her down. I wasn't sure how to proceed when I got home at 10, but ultimately decided to wake and feed her.  She got up once, but this time,  she woke up her big siblings. J was crying , so I told her to come to bed with me.  Then, l woke up, "Mom, Q is crying and woke me up. I can't sleep with her crying!" After sending him back to bed, she cried a little longer and then fell to sleep.  She didn't get up until 6:30. Yay!

Its working! Hoping tonight comes with even less crying.

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.3

Cry it out...both of you

Q had her 6 month well appointment yesterday.  She's a healthy 16.2 pound baby, 25 3/4 inches long.  We thought she was a little chub, but apparently, she's in the 44th %tile for weight, 40th for height and 65th for brain growth (of course she's a genius, look who her mom is).  Everything was going swimmingly well until the dreaded question, "How's she sleeping?"

Uh...How does one answer that?  Um...she goes to bed around 8:30/9, and then she's up at midnight, 1, 2:30, 3:15, 4, 5:30, 6:30 and 8 am.  "Not good.  She used to sleep 9 hours at a time, but now she's up several times a night," I responded.

Now, her doctor is great.  Really. But, I knew it was coming.  "Well, you can keep getting up with her every night until she's a cranky 2 year old, or you can all start getting a good night's sleep now."

His recommendation?  Let her cry it out.  Nevermind that J and C are in the room with her because they'll figure it out.  In a week, they'll all be sleeping through the night.  Well, its now or never, right?  I mean, she just cut her first tooth 2 days ago, so that's done, and her ear infection is cleared up.  No more excuses.

Last night, P put her to bed around 9.  Around 12, C woke up with croup and joined us in our room so that she could have a nebulizer (I know that's spelled incorrectly, but I'm tired, so I'll deal with it) treatment.  12:15...cue Q.  There was no point bringing her into our bed to get sick from C, so we let her go.  And go she did.  She cried all night long.  Okay, perhaps she stopped for little cat naps and from about 4-6:30, but my little angel cried so long.

P got so frustrated that he went to bed in L's room and shut the door.  I laid in my bed, next to a noisy, sleeping C and cried.  I cried because I knew it was okay to let her cry.  She's in a safe place. I cried because I knew that I could comfort her, just by picking her up.  All of her sadness would disappear if I just went in and got my baby and fed her.  I cried because this is my last baby...ever.  Why can't I just savor the moments of complete baby-ness?!

But, the doctor is right.  I am miserable during the day because I am so beat.  I am having a hard time losing weight because I am so tired.  I lack patience.  I lack understanding.  I pretty much lack my niceness because I can't focus on not snapping.  I can't even carry on a real conversation with others because I can only focus on myself and what's going on with me.  I'm too tired to focus on anyone else.  This is how I feel.

Day 1 of cry it out is done.  When P got her from her crib this morning, I was in the shower.  When she saw me, no big smile, just sadness.  Broke my heart.  Regardless, I am definitely going to do it again tonight because, well, let's face it, if I don't then I just tortured my baby last night for no reason.  I'm hoping that this will all be resolved and I'll have my 9-hour-a-night girl back in no time.

Veggie and Chickpea Curry

Yes, yes, yes!  I used my sprouted chickpeas and they didn't taste any different from the others, except that they didn't taste a strong.  I made a veggie and chickpea curry with it.

If you want to give it a try, here's what I threw into the crockpot on high for 6 hours:

1 onion
1 cup of frozen french cut green beans
3 Tbsp curry powder
2 Tbsp cumin
4 chopped cloves of garlic
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
3 cups chickpeas
2 carrots, sliced
1 chopped red pepper
1 (14 oz) can of veggie broth
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 tsp brown sugar

A couple of minutes before serving, I threw in 3 handfuls of spinach and 1 can of coconut milk.

This was so good!  The original recipe called for no cumin and only 1 Tbsp of curry powder, but believe me, it needed more.

I even threw a ladle of the curry into the food processor so that Q could have some.  And guess what, she liked it!  Yay! The other kids though, they whined and whined and whined about having to eat it.  Ugh!  C was going to eat hers until she noticed the other 2 refusing, then she joined in on it.  Eventually, L decided to try it and then ate the whole bowl.  I had to throw J and C's in the food processor like Q' s to get them to eat it.  It was frustrating, but they ate it, so I was thrilled.

Give it a try!

Fighting Fatty McFatFat: Day 8

Today was actually okay.  I stepped on the scale and got several different numbers, the highest being 186. That's 3 pounds down in 1 week.  I'm good with that.  In the past, I've been able to drop more in a week, but I'm nursing and need to be very certain that I am losing this weight responsibly. So, thank you, 3 pounds.  I'll take that!

The food was okay today.

Breakfast: oatmeal with apples, peanut butter and raisins

I was quite hungry this afternoon, so I ate big lunch: salad (greens, cucumber, tomato, balsamic, avocado), 5 pecan cookies (pecans, dates, coconut, 8 chocolate chips) and a slice of sprouted bread with hummus

Needless to say, dinner was just 1 small bowl of Veggie and Chickpea curry.

As far as my workout went, I did my 5 burpees, along with walking (jogged only a short time) for 200 calories on the treadmill, and did a few strength training exercises before my one hour time limit was up.

I'm feeling great and looking forward to another 3 pound loss this week.  Fingers crossed!

Fighting Fatty McFatFat: Days 5, 6, 7

Day 5: No exercise today :-(  Well, I did my 2 burpees, in the waiting room at the car dealership, but that's about it.  I was just running from one appointment to the next all day long.  By the time I figured out what was going on, it was 8:30 and I was ready to hit the hay.  I had a healthy breakfast, but that had to last until 2:30 when I finally made it home to have a quick lunch before quick leaving to get the boys from school by 2:40.  Paul ended up bringing dinner home, so I ended up with a veggie burger to end my blah day.  Food was good until then.

Day 6: We focused on getting Christmas put away, so I didn't have time to get to the gym.  Instead, I did my 3 burpees upstairs in the hallway and then did some strength training in the bathroom in an effort to entertain Q while C and J were in the shower.  She laughed every time I bent over her.  It was a great little workout and even better, it was a fantastic time with my baby.

Breakfast: small bowl of granola with almond milk and a banana

Lunch: ants on a log, apple with peanut butter, raisin and rosemary crackers, and a fantastic salad with avocado, carrots, cucumber and balsamic vinaigrette

Dinner: homemade pizza on a homemade whole wheat pizza crust.  I made 2 pizzas, both with spinach and artichokes. 1 with tomato sauce, feta, Parmesan and ricotta, the other with a coconut curry sauce and roasted red peppers.  I went really easy on the cheese to reduce our animal product consumption and our caloric intake (for the adults only).  These were really good pizzas!

Day 7: I did my 4 burpees this morning before taking J to the hospital (she has an UTI which presented as blood in her urine), but that's about it.  Crappy on the exercise again today.  I can't wait to hit the gym tomorrow.

Breakfast: peanut butter toast and a spinach/strawberry/almond milk smoothie

Lunch: 4 pancakes (which I inhaled because I had to run back up to the hospital), 5 carrot spears, 1/2 orange

Dinner: 2 veggie sushi rolls made with brown rice and 1/2 an avocado roll made with white rice from Wegman's

Today, I'm not feeling too successful.  I know they say to "stop with the excuses and just get it done," but I am really having a hard time managing my schedule, sick kids and this new whole, real food aka no processed food thing I'm trying to do.  Perhaps I've taken on too much.  Either way, I know that I need to tackle the food thing first, or I can work out until the cows come home and I won't drop anything.

Adventures in Sprouting: Chickpeas

There is a nutritional school of thought known as essential eating.  Briefly, the idea is to eat only real foods and in their most nutritious form.  This means buying organic and eating your legumes and grains in a sprouted form.  The idea is that when you sprout legumes and grains, they become easier to digest and increase their nutritional value.  If you want more information, click here or here.

Since P and I have decided to reduce our animal consumption, we need to increase our consumption of legumes for their protein.  One of our favorites is garbanzo beans, aka chickpeas.  I have a recipe for a chickpea curry that I really wanted to try, and I want to make some hummus, so I figured I would give this sprouting a try.

2 days ago, I opened a bag of Full Circle Organic Dried Garbanzo Beans, rinsed and then soaked them for 12 hours.

Next, I rinsed them in a colander and laid them in a pyrex baking dish, still moist, and set them in my oven so they'd be out of the way.

12 hours after that, I came to give them another rinse when I noticed that my garbanzo beans had sprouted.  WooHoo!

As P said, I am really boring.  This has truly excited me.  They are cutie patooties; chickpeas with little white tails.

I also have black beans that are currently in the oven, hopefully sprouting.  Every 12 hours, I will rinse them and drop them back in the dish.  I'm hoping that in another 36 hours, they will be as beautiful as my chickpeas.

Oh, and let me not forget my brown rice.  I soaked them overnight and now, they too have little white buds on the ends, too.  I feel like a sprouting queen princess.  Those black beans are still iffy.  I'm going to store my babies in the fridge for 3-5 days in an airtight container.

Next, I am going to try to sprout some wheat berries and make my own sprouted bread.  Now, to find some more time....

Goal for It and Money Savings

Today was a great day!  Thanks to getting Q's prescription filled at Price Chopper, I was able to save $1.10 per gallon on gas.  That worked out to a whopping $20.29 off of my Sunoco bill this morning.  It made standing in the freezing weather with the wind whipping around me so worth it.  Want to know what was even better?!  When I got the prescription filled that day, I used a coupon to get $10 off my grocery order.  Oh, and let's not forget that Price Chopper offers some antibiotics for free, including the amoxocilian Q was prescribed. You read that right!  That means that Price Chopper paid me $30.29 to take the amoxocilian out of their store.  Thanks!

The kids were also pretty darn good, thanks to a new website I found to help get the kids more disciplined, Goal for It!  Its a web-based behavioral/chore chart that you can customize for each child...and parent.  You pick the background, which chores or behaviors you want to focus on, and then assign a point value to each goal you've created.  I gave each of the kids and myself 5 goals.

L: make my bed, do homework, practice my reading, put my clothes in the hamper, go to bed on time
J: make my bed, put my clothes in the hamper, clean my room, no whining, go to bed on time
C: make my bed, put my clothes in the hamper, no whining, no tantrums, go to bed on time
Me: drink enough water, exercise, make good food choices, go to bed on time, get some laundry done

I assigned each goal a moolah! point value of 1, except for the key goal which got 2 points.  When the kids earn 10 points, they will get a prize.  When they accomplish a task, they get a sticker to show a job well done.  They were so thrilled to get their stickers today.  Though the girls didn't earn their no whining sticker, they tried nonetheless.  I must admit, I even exercised and got some laundry done so that I could get a sticker.  When I get 25 points, I am going to reward myself with something.  Not yet sure what I'll get, but I'll get something.

For the kids' prizes, I'm thinking I'll offer non-material rewards: you pick dinner, 1 hour of alone time with parent of choice, 30 minutes on DS, mommy will make your bed...those types of things.  Of course, I'll have to put a couple of trinkets in the basket to get them interested, but I'm hoping that they will like the free stuff better.  Fingers are crossed.

Oh, and the best thing?  I found out that my sister is pregnant with a little girl!  Yay!  She already has a boy, 11 years old, so this is just awesome.  I know this baby will be dressed to the nines and so cute and frilly.  Just can't wait to see how adorable she is.