Exhaustion

I never knew was exhaustion felt like until I had Alessia. The first few months of her life I walked around like a zombie. She would wake up every few hours to feed and once I fell back to sleep, she was usually ready to get up again.

The last few weeks have felt a lot like those first few months. She takes forever to fall asleep, wakes up in the middle of the night, and even refuses naps. I know a lot of it has to do with the cooler weather. We aren't getting out in the morning on most days so she isn't able to tire herself out. But she runs around the house back and forth...goes up and down the stairs countless times...climbs everything! I'm exhausted from chasing after her. I am astonish at how little sleep Alessia requires especially coming from two people who NEED and LOVE their sleep.

Having Kevin here helps a great deal. Even though he is at work during the day, he lets me sleep in on most mornings and then entertains her at night for a few hours before bed. Sometimes I get lucky and he gets home early enough to give her a bath.

But with the hockey season, come road trips. Usually they are only a few days, but every few months we get a long one...and that long one starts this week. Ten day of Alessia and Mommy time! And hopefully ten days of ten hour sleeps and two hour naps. 

My Baby Hate Me

It is official...my baby hates me.  OK, maybe not, but sometimes I feel like it.  Alessia went from sleeping 8-11 hours straight every night almost every night for two months to getting up 2-4 times a night.

Up until this Monday, I was able to cope because Kevin and my mom would watch her for an hour or two so I could nap.  Now that Kevin has moved to Ann Arbor and my mom is back at work, I am exhausted.

Of course everyone offers their tips.
 1. Let her put herself back to sleep when she wakes up...I tried that at about 4 o'clock this morning and instead she rolled around for 20 minutes and then wouldn't go back down.
2. Let her cry it out...tried that too, but after five minutes of listening to her gag and scream, I can't take it.
3. Fill her up before bed...I switched to giving her bottles so I know exactly how much she is eating...she still wakes up.
4. Put her to bed earlier...we cut out her suppertime nap and now she goes down at 7:30-8:00.  She wakes up after being asleep for about an hour and I have to put her back down.
5. Don't let her take long daytime naps...she never has and if she does, I never let her sleep over two hours.
 
I am hoping and praying that once we get into our house, things change for the better.  She'll have her own room, she'll be in a crib, and we'll be able to get into a better routine.  If not, I'm going to have to do some serious reading up on sleep training because I can't live like this, especially when Kevin will be traveling so much.

And, as we speak, I am watching Alessia on the monitor eat her blanket after taking a 20 minute nap.  I seriously hope she takes a longer second nap because I'm planning on laying down for that one too. 

Working Woman

I'm pretty sure this will be me on Monday.

My 9 months vacation of not working comes to an end on Monday.  That means I have to be up, ready, and out of the house by 7:30 AM.  This is going to be a hard one for me considering I've spent the last 7 months of my life staying up until 1:00 AM and sleeping until at least 9:00 AM (sometimes 11:00 AM).  Now that I'm in Springfield, my sleeping habits still aren't any better.  This is all going to change though now that I'm a working woman. 

Eat, Sleep, and Be Merry!

I've been in Italy for a little over 48 hours now and most of those hours have been spent either eating or sleeping. I am horrible when it comes to jet lag; it takes me weeks to recover from a long flight. And it doesn't help that I never sleep on planes because I am too busy watching movies. I'm pretty sure the large German man sitting next to me was less than impressed with me laughing out loud and crying. But I paid for the seat so I can do what I want, right?

I definitely feel less guilt over the sleeping part than the eating part. A 6 hour nap is perfectly acceptable when you miss a night's sleep. As for the 11 hours of sleep that same night (5 hours later), I can do that any given night so it isn't that impressive. I thought I was all caught up until Kevin left for the rink again yesterday and it was lights out for me. Unfortunately, I paid for it because I didn't get to bed until 5:00am and as I'm typing this, my eyes are barely open. I WILL stay awake though; I need to get on some type of schedule.

On to the food, it was pasta the first night and pizza the second. The pasta was just a little something I threw together at the house. Usually, I refuse to eat pasta sauce out of a jar or a can, but in Italy, I decided to make an exception. It was actually really good. The pizza was great, but then again, I think most pizza is great. Kevin and I shared so I got to try two different kinds. We had one with prosciutto, mushrooms, olives, and artichokes and the other one had salami and hot peppers on it. A-MA-ZING! I've also been introduced to krapfens. They are delicious, but I'm going to have to limit my intake so I don't come home 30 pounds heavier. Let me give you an idea of what my waistline is up against...