Sleep

Three nights ago Alyssa got up 4 times during the night. She would eat for less than 3 minutes and then go back to bed just to be up an hour or two later. I was tired and grouchy. Two nights ago she was doing the same thing, I said enough and Chris and I laid there in bed at 2 in the morning and listened to her cry for an hour and twenty minutes. Sunday night she only cried for about 15 minutes, we thought, yes we are on to something. Then yesterday she woke up with a NASTY nose and a bad cough.

Last night she went to bed at 7 and by 7:45 she was up crying. We comforted her and feed her some more and put her to bed. She did not cry again until 5:00 AM!!!! I heard her moving at 11, and 1 but she would just cough, roll around and go back to sleep. I did not have to get out of bed until 5. It was SOOO nice, especially since last night it got down into the 40's and it is cold.

The bad news is since she got up at 5 and now at 7:19 she is asleep again. I can let her sleep until 7:35 then I have to wake her up and go to work. Hopefully the cough and cold will go away soon and we can have a baby that sleeps through the night AND is healthy ( wishful thinking huh?!)

Lets see what tonight brings.

Zoo

Today Alyssa, Chris and I went to the zoo to meet some people that I talked to my whole pregnancy. They are all women that delivered babies in Feb. There were four other babies there. Alyssa who is usually the smallest of a group was actually one of the biggest. Some of the babies were walking with help, some still couldn't sit up without help but they were all adorable. Alyssa enjoyed looking at them, and Chris and I enjoyed talk to other people that had children and close to Alyssa's age.

We were there about 3 hours and probably would have been there longer but the rain that was supposed to come over night and early morning was on its way. We got in the car just as the rain started, and it was NOT a light rain.

We got home and Alyssa decided that since she saw one of her friends walking she wanted to try it. She has now taken Chris's and my hands and walked us across the floor. She has also involved Vinnie in a game of chase, they both loved it.

Here are some pictures from today.

Busy, Busy

Life has been crazy busy some good busy, some bad busy. This weekend we went to Grant's farm with Alyssa. It was too nice of a day to stay home. Chris and I had a lot of fun, Alyssa could have cared less about the animals but she did love looking at all the other kids and babies that were there. She also enjoyed playing with her stroller.

On Sunday I got to go to the Fox theater to see an orchestra perform Broadway pieces while Chris and Alyssa went to a family birthday party.

Monday and Tuesday have been work and then I have spent two hours both nights working on school work. The good news is I'm done with one class, the bad news is I have another class that I haven't started yet. :-(.

Tuesday was a bad day at work the kids were crazy and I was stressed. I'm going in today with a new behavior system for those few kids that were disrupting my class and I hope that it works. Wish me luck.

Okay off to finish my morning routine so I can make it to work on time.

TGIF

It is FINALLY Friday! This week has seemed to last at least 2 weeks. Monday seems like weeks ago. Since Monday Alyssa has gotten an ear infection and a cold. I have written five papers and taken one quiz. I have taught school five days and Chris has worked five days but had to take off once to take care of Alyssa.
This weekend we don't have any big plans. We do have a family get together with the Knights, but other than that, I plan on just relaxing as a family. Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be nice so we might get out of the house and go do something fun. I will try to get a head on school work but my main focus this weekend is family.
I hope you all have a good weekend too!

Should do vs doing

What should I be doing right now? I should be writing a paper for my grad school class. What am I doing? Checking my facebook, writing a blog and thinking about bed.

To be fair I have already watched a lecture, wrote one paper and edited another paper tonight. I have put in two hours of work, but there is still that last paper. It is due Friday, so it isn't like I can put it off until the weekend. If I was like my friend Chelsea tomorrow night about 11pm would be a good time to start it. However I'm not Chelsea and I have a 7 month old daughter that thinks sleep is for losers so I have limited time to do it.

I'm not as overwhelmed as I was a few weeks ago even though I'm sitting at 22 students, have not had a healthy household in a month and am taking two grad classes. I definitely don't have a lot of "extra" time, and I do think all the sicknesses is coming from not having a full nights sleep in over 7 months and staying up late( Ha HA 10 is late?!).

Okay now that I have rambled and said nothing I will go start my paper, that will make me feel a little better, and then I will go to bed.

Runner

This year I have a runner in my class. For those of you non-teachers that means I have a kid that thinks it is okay to leave a classroom and run away from all teachers and staff. My runner laughs as they are running.
He has run away from four teachers at the school including the prinicpal. Yesterday he ran out of the building because I was outside and he wanted to be out there. The teacher that was supposed to be watching him had to run after him. At one point I went to help her because she had run out of her shoes and was out of breath. It was not funny at the time, but now I think it is kind of funny to see her chasing after this kid who can beat her hands down at running.
So now for my laughing and making her chase him I owe her a drink, I might throw in a pair of running shoes too. Though I might need them for myself as the year goes on. ( He still hasn't run from me yet.)

Acid Reflux

Acid Reflux is something that I have thought Alyssa has had since she was born. When she was really little she would throw up all the time and spit up after every feeding. As she got older it slowed and mostly stopped. I thought she out grew the reflux.
She is now 7 months and still not sleeping through the night and still won't take a good nap at daycare. So I started looking back into reflux. I took her to the doctor on Friday and he said yes it sounds like reflux before I could even finish decribing her syptoms. He put her on the highest dose of meds he could for her age. Wednesday night was the first night she took them. Thursday she took a 3 hour nap at daycare and only woke up twice in the night for me. I think we are on to something. I know it will still take awhile before she fully sleeps through the night since she is used to waking up, but I feel like we might be much closer!
I look forward to this night dearly and can not wait, I think it will make both of us much happier!

7 Months

Dear Alyssa,

You are 7 months old today. This last month has brought lots of challanges and changes. In one week you got two teeth, a bad stomach virus, a new car seat, started to sit up on your own and crawled.

You now love riding in your new car seat. You can look out the window and will spend up to an hour just looking out the window not making a sound.

Your teeth are adorable but sharp. When you smile really big your teeth show and it makes everyone that you see smile.

Yesterday we went to visit your great-grandparents and it made their day, maybe even their week.

You are still not sleeping through the night and though I am not thrilled about that, I have to say if that is what I have to do to keep such an amazing baby I will do it.

You love to put things in your mouth but not food. You will put socks, rags, paper in your mouth no problem, but we give you a grahm cracker and you bang it on the table and not eat it.

You have learned to sit up on your own and you will roll sit up look around, lay back down and roll again.

Mommy and Daddy love you so much and can't believe how much better our lives are with you in it.

Right now you are laying on the floor ripping apart the paper and are so happy that I want to scoop you up and not put you down.

I love you baby girl. Happy 7 month birthday!!

Visit to Great Grandma's

When I was growing up I was very lucky. I knew all four of my great-grandmas. The first one did not pass away until I was 7 with the last passing away when I was 22. I have wonderful memories of each one of them.
Alyssa has two great-grandmas and two great grandpas that are still alive. One set lives in California. She was able to meet them in July.

The other set lives about 2 hours away from us. She has met them a few times over her life time. Yesterday we deiced to go visit them. We have not been to their house since Alyssa was born because over the summer grandma had a stroke and has been in a rehab facility since June. She is now home so off we went.
Alyssa only took a half hour nap on the way down there so we were nervous how she would behave once down there. I don't know why were were nervous, she was her wonderful self. She let everyone hold her, she took another short nap and played all over the floor.
She made both of my grandparents smile many times and I think they really enjoyed having her at their house.
When then came home and she slept the whole way home, making her one wonderful child once we got home!