We have co-slept with all 5 kiddos. It works well for us since I nurse. However by 3 months the kids are sleeping through and can wait to eat till 7-8 am. Not Sophie. Maybe it's because she's a big girl but she has become REALLY bad about night nursing. I'm pretty much doing it from 3 am-6 am. Yes, the whole time. Sleeping myself mostly through it. As soon as I get her loose she wakes up and starts pressing on me trying to give me a clue. So I've started turning around laying on the very edge of the bed there by the alarm to get away from her. She then starts scratching my back, kicking me, or doing that thing that sounds like a laugh but it's really that she's annoyed you aren't figuring out what she's wanting. She started sleeping through at 4 weeks and now for the past 2 months I've been having to do this. Do you think she knows how to get her way at 5 1/2 months? The only good part is that usually by 6:30 I can get up and then she'll sleep till 9:30 like a log.
Yesterday was a busy day. I cleaned as much as I could in the morning, prepared our Brownie meeting in between the cleaning/taking care of the kids and remembered our school district was putting on a Health Fair for the students and families. I called up one of my playgroup mommies from church asking if she would want to go with me since there was freebies! She said yes so I went to pick her up.
It was 2:30 when the 6 of us finally got to the administration building. I was a little worried about us showing up so late because my minivan only holds 7 so I didn't know how I was going to take them home. I told her we'd need to leave by 3:30 to be sure we beat the bus to my house because the kids would be home by 3:45-3:50. We lost track of time, the boys were having a good time and the next thing I knew it was 3:40. I think I threw the kids in the van in like 2 minutes flat and then we flew to my house. We actually followed the bus home and she dropped off my kids who ran to the door trying to break it down not even noticing we were behind the bus.
When Alex realized we were pulling in the driveway, she ran over to the garage door, entered the code and went in. Don't know why I was so worried!! Geesh! I told Camille I would be back and went in to talk to Alex and Dom. I explained to them that I only had enough room for 1 more person in the car and I needed to take Camille and her son home so I wondered if Alex would be ok with staying home alone for about 20 minutes so I could run them into town. Well Dominic didn't think it was cool that Alex could stay home and he couldn't. He didn't want to come with me at all and made a stink. So I told them both they could go ahead and stay home but they had to be big kids and follow my rule of not going to the door if anyone rang or knocked. They had to hide. lol They agreed. They also had a cell phone to call me on if they were scared or something was going on.
I went back, got in the car, told Camille the plan, and we left. lol! I can't believe I did it but they are almost 9 and 6. Alex is very mature and Dominic has really grown up as well. We drove to town and dropped them off and I came right back. 10 minutes there and 10 back. I had a 1,000 questions when I walked in. Interrogating if anyone had called or came by, what they did, etc. Alex says "Mom, you weren't gone long, we just watched TV. We were FINE!"
I called Daddy and told him what I had done. He wasn't happy because we had recently discussed leaving Alex home for short errands if she wanted to and he was totally against it. I had asked Alex about then and she said it would be fun so I was pretty sure when asking yesterday she'd say she wanted to. I know sometimes the kids hate running errands. I would never leave the 3 younger ones home with them. I think though maybe for short trips to the bank or a drive thru we'll probably try this again. I must be starting to loosen up because I swore I'd never let them stay home alone till they were 12. lol
If you have a grade schooler, the forms have probably started coming home. The forms telling of all the fun summer activities to help a parent out. Or as I refer to it: activites-to-keep-them-busy-so-they-don't-kill-each-other. We do swimming and ball every summer however this year Alexzandra enters a WHOLE new league. Camp. Yep my first is graduating 3rd grade which means there are a wide variety of camps she can go to...not just little one day camps.....week long camps! She is really excited about these opportunties however she is still a girl, and a shy girl at that and she may chicken out at the last minute. There are 3 camps coming up that she is interested in. 4 H which would be the furthest away in Junction City, KS which would be her favorite because of horseback riding. Then there's church camp which is not far from us at all, a whole week with her friends from church! And last Girl Scout camp which is about a 30 minute drive away. I'm hoping my sister will be willing to send her daughter to a few of them so that Alex would want to go. I know if they were to stick together, she would be ok. I can already imagine driving 3 hours to Rock Springs, paying $95 for camp only to have her change her mind when we get there. lol She's got another couple months to decide though. It's pretty exciting for me to see her going into this next stage of childhood!
I've been meaning to post but have just been busier than ever. First Damien is sick again. He's been sick since Monday throwing up and just under the weather. I am pretty sure he's got the 7 day bad flu just the way he's ran a fever and the puking has not let up. I've left the house twice this week only when Daddy has came home, once to Girl Scouts and the other was last night to the store. The good thing is, I finally am able to clean puke without puking myself. It's taken almost 9 years to accomplish this feat!! The poor boy has been puking about 15 + times each day so I think I've just got myself used to it.
I was supposed to have a follow up appointment yesterday on myself but had to cancel due to Damien. They did call me with my lab results though. All blood work pertaining to Graves Disease and Diabetes was negative which is so relieving to hear! It's been over 2 weeks now that I've been taking Prozac and it's helped quite a bit which is scary. I do not want to have to be on pills to feel ok. I feel much better about myself, can actually clean and do things! I still hate my husband's hours but what can ya do. I decided to just breastfeed on demand and cut out all the pumping and trying to stay ahead of Sophia. I'm alot happier now with breastfeeding than I ever have been with any of my kids. I give her two 4 oz bottles of formula a day without cringing and hating myself for it. She is a big girl so I'm just going to have to supplement and not feel bad about it. 
Tomorrow is the end of this year's Girl Scout cookie saga. I've received a few parent's payments on their girl's orders. After I gather everyones, I will make the enormous grand deposit in the bank and be done!! So much stress and it's all completely volunteer!
