Stupid Stealing BASTARDS!

Yes, I still cuss. I'm a bad bad Mommy!

I started my day by not doing the things that I promised myself I would do (work out, take my vitamins, eat breakfast...etc). So as I was beating myself up I was giving myself therapy to get over it and not blame myself for everything. THEN just when I was feeling better someone decided to screw my day up and break into my car and steal my purse. Of course, my purse was sitting out with a big sign on it that said "TAKE ME TAKE ME!", but I just figured that no one would really be that mean. And what's really funny to me is that someone probably stole it hoping to get a high and there wasn't any money in it. There wasn't even anything of value to anyone in it because I went and cancelled everything right away. Of course that didn't stop me from having a sob fest in front of my mom and her hairstylist as they were shampooing.

And even more frustrating is that I'm pretty sure they probably dumped what they had in some gutter somewhere because it wasn't going to get them anywhere. The only things that meant anything to me where a few notes that Joe had written to me when we first started dating. I actually had thought they were lost once before and got them returned to me, so it wasn't as tragic this time around, but the more I think about it, the more sad it makes me.

Of course there is always a bright side to any story. This one is sunshine bright: Shopping for a new purse. I got this adorable new bag (it's more like a duffle! HA HA!). Niki and I went to REI and got me a bag with Yoga straps and a water bottle holder that actually will hold my nalgene bottle! It's super cute. Then we went to CompUSA and I got a new PDA. I got a tiny one that doesn't do anything, but I"m tired on not being able to keep everyone's addresses. I lose them all of the time. This way I'll always have my calendar and addresses in two places, and hope that somehow a catastrophic thing doesn't happen where I lose them all. Cross your fingers!!

On a baby note - Alison is cutting four million teeth right now. I can't imagine the pain, but I can hear it. and feel it all night long as she kicks me in the back in her sleep. It's been a long night. We're about to go to bed and I'm dreading it. Especially since I still plan on getting up at 5 AM and it's already 11.

OK.....time to go night night and dream about cute bags.

Why didn't anyone tell me about the no sleep part?

ha ha...I know. Everyone should realize that their not supposed to get any sleep when they have kids, but it's still a shock when you go through a whole night without getting much, if any, sleep.

There were a number of factors that contributed to us bringing Alison to bed with us at night. The fire that started it all was one night when she wouldn't let me put her down. She would be totally asleep - limp limb and all - and I would lay her down in her crib. If I was lucky enough for her to make it to the laying down part, then it wouldn't be but two minutes later she was screaming bloody murder. She did that for three nights. We tried to have her cry it out. But that only lasted about 45 minutes.

So, of course, now I get parents who like to tell me how she's already walking all over me and how I'll never have a sex life again. Which just tells me that they don't really know what their talking about and that their just scared to move into a direction that isn't recommended by some government medical board. Anyway, I felt that making her cry it out wasn't doing anyone any good. I don't care if a million people tell me that it doesn't hurt my baby to make her cry. It doesn't do her much good and it stresses me out and makes me cry, so sleeping with her seemed to be the best decision.

Now comes the battle of when to get her out of the bed. Because I was to breastfeed until she's about 18 months to two years old, I think that getting her out of our bed sooner would be foolish. I would go back to not getting enough sleep, by having to physically get out of bed at least one to however many times a night to feed her. When now, all I have to do is roll over.

I had a friend tell me how she put the crib next the bed and spent about two nights getting her son acclamated to it by touching him through the bars when he got upset. Now on these sleepless nights I dream of not having her in bed with me.

So at 5:30 AM, when I had intended to be at the gym for the third time in a week, I was looking up baby sleep pattern information on the internet while Alison watched Bear in the Big Blue House and rubbed her eyes because she was so exhausted. My goal today is to keep her awake as much as possible. She normally takes a pretty long afternoon nap, but I'm going to cut it back to an hour today and push her through to her bedtime. Hopefully that will all work. I also think I'm going to try feeding her and bathing her every night right before bed, to try and establish a better routine. Right now she normally just falls asleep in my arms watching tv, whenever it suits her. I'm just too lazy to get on a schedule.

Way too fast

Alison is just exploding in abilities this last week. She started by pulling herself up to her feet, but bent over, to fully standing and walking along furniture. Watching her crawl you can sense her frustration that she can only go so fast. I wonder if that means she'll be a runner and beat up all the boys...or if we're in trouble and it means that she'll just be able to catch them sooner!

She's also starting to really "talk" back to you and play the yelling game, where we volley yells back and forth for awhile until she sees something shiny. It's pretty cute.

Although I'm sure you all just want pictures, so I'll try to send some.