Well, Adie has been sleeping really well for almost a week now. It's been awesome, and we've decided to be better at taking advantage of her sleeping hours by going to bed earlier ourselves. I am not one that normally follows the early to bed early to rise mantra. I am such a night owl, so going to bed before 11 pm is quite a feat for me. We did go to bed early both Sunday and Monday nights though. Adie slept beautifully and we ended with so much great sleep. Then, last night happened...(or should I say tonight since it's currently 5 am of that same night).
We stayed up talking until just after midnight and I was already planning on getting up early because I wanted to hit the gym early. I knew I wouldn't get to it any other time of the day being that it's Halloween. Of course it's nights like these that Ads doesn't sleep so well herself. I actually can't blame her. When I went in to check on her after a few minutes of crying and not putting herself back to sleep I discovered she had somehow managed to get one of her arms out of the sleeve of her sleeper and her hand was practically coming out of the neck hole. It was actually pretty funny and if it hadn't have been the middle of the night I might have taken a picture.
Anyway, it took a little while to get her settled, so you know what that means, I am wide awake.
This time though I decided to take advantage rather than lay in bed bugged. I just got up and found some household items that I could use to "lift weights." Sure, lifting Costco-sized jugs of olive oil isn't quite the same as the machines at the gym, but it's something. Now, I am not so annoyed to be awake. I feel like I am at least using my time effectively and I can sleep in a little longer if I do get back to sleep.
It's funny though that the days when I go to bed early and could probably afford a couple of hours to be awake in the middle of the night Ads sleeps soundly, and the night when I need every second I can get because I went to bed too late and needed to wake up too early Adie pulls a crazy arm stunt with her sleeper causing me to be awake in the middle of the night. Isn't it ironic? Don't ya think?
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
San Jorge
We took a quick trip to Saint George this last weekend to visit friends and family. It was a good trip, but as always, too short. Some highlights included going to my cousin's football game, making smoothies, a campfire in Snow Canyon with the Blockburgers and Phippens, Fantam / Fantan (Not sure how to spell that, or pronounce it for that matter. Clark, please help me out!), Coldstone and actually getting sleep. Ads is sleeping well again. Hallelujah! I was going to post some pictures, but Blogger doesn't want me to, so they will be forthcoming.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Sleep, I need sleep!
Adie has been struggling in the sleep department lately which, of course, translates into Brett and me not sleeping well either. She has been having separation anxiety lately, so if she wakes up and realizes we aren't there she'll start crying. On top of that, she is teething and has had a cold. This is a recipe for poor sleep for a baby as you may well guess.
There are a few extra details that make this a particularly sticky situation. The first is that we live in an apartment (I can't tell you the excitement I have to own a home). In the mean time, the "cry it out" philosophy that so many tout in order to prevent your child from making you wake up every night and rock them back to sleep really isn't so easy to execute when your child is sharing a wall with two children on the other side of the wall and another toddler above her. I really can't justify allowing her to cry for an hour at 4 am in those conditions. Hence, I wake up and do whatever it takes to get her quiet as quickly as possible.
Second, I have some crazy insomnia problem lately. If Adie wakes me up in the middle of the night and I am up for more than 2 minutes, it's not likely I'll be able to shut my brain off for another 1 - 4 hours. It used to be that if I got a good workout in that day or didn't get much sleep the night before I was able to fall back asleep easily. Lately, it doesn't matter if I'd been up for last 24 hours, if I am awoken in the middle of the night, I can plan on not falling back to sleep. This causes a problem when I need to take advantage of every sleeping hour I can get. I know this is my just desserts because my mother suffers from the same problem and I definitely caused her to wake up many, many, many times throughout the years. My poor mother!
Third, Ads is a little picky about who holds her when she's throwing a fit in the middle of the night. Despite Brett's valiant efforts to relieve me, he's basically useless. This is part of the whole separation anxiety thing. Sometimes, only mom will do. Not only that, but even when Brett does manage to at least calm her down, I am usually wide awake by then, so I just go and get her to finish up getting her back to sleep because Brett might as well get some sleep since he can fall right back asleep and I'll be up regardless.
The other issue here is that I am not a nice person when I get sleep deprivation. This has always been the case with me, but it seems to have gotten worse and it seems I need more sleep now than I did 5 years ago too. I get so cranky if I have more than a couple of nights without decent sleep. This makes me a less than stellar mother, wife, neighbor, etc.
Anyway, I don't mean to be such a complainer. Here I was the other day complaining about diets, etc., and now you read my rant about sleep. I know I will survive. I really do have a good life, something my visiting teachers were talking about tonight, which was the perfect message for me. And, even though it's hard to be so tired, it can be so precious holding your child in your arms as she falls asleep. I love watching Adie sleep, and frankly I love sleeping too. I am hoping and praying this phase passes quickly so I can re-enter the land of the functional again.
There are a few extra details that make this a particularly sticky situation. The first is that we live in an apartment (I can't tell you the excitement I have to own a home). In the mean time, the "cry it out" philosophy that so many tout in order to prevent your child from making you wake up every night and rock them back to sleep really isn't so easy to execute when your child is sharing a wall with two children on the other side of the wall and another toddler above her. I really can't justify allowing her to cry for an hour at 4 am in those conditions. Hence, I wake up and do whatever it takes to get her quiet as quickly as possible.
Second, I have some crazy insomnia problem lately. If Adie wakes me up in the middle of the night and I am up for more than 2 minutes, it's not likely I'll be able to shut my brain off for another 1 - 4 hours. It used to be that if I got a good workout in that day or didn't get much sleep the night before I was able to fall back asleep easily. Lately, it doesn't matter if I'd been up for last 24 hours, if I am awoken in the middle of the night, I can plan on not falling back to sleep. This causes a problem when I need to take advantage of every sleeping hour I can get. I know this is my just desserts because my mother suffers from the same problem and I definitely caused her to wake up many, many, many times throughout the years. My poor mother!
Third, Ads is a little picky about who holds her when she's throwing a fit in the middle of the night. Despite Brett's valiant efforts to relieve me, he's basically useless. This is part of the whole separation anxiety thing. Sometimes, only mom will do. Not only that, but even when Brett does manage to at least calm her down, I am usually wide awake by then, so I just go and get her to finish up getting her back to sleep because Brett might as well get some sleep since he can fall right back asleep and I'll be up regardless.
The other issue here is that I am not a nice person when I get sleep deprivation. This has always been the case with me, but it seems to have gotten worse and it seems I need more sleep now than I did 5 years ago too. I get so cranky if I have more than a couple of nights without decent sleep. This makes me a less than stellar mother, wife, neighbor, etc.
Anyway, I don't mean to be such a complainer. Here I was the other day complaining about diets, etc., and now you read my rant about sleep. I know I will survive. I really do have a good life, something my visiting teachers were talking about tonight, which was the perfect message for me. And, even though it's hard to be so tired, it can be so precious holding your child in your arms as she falls asleep. I love watching Adie sleep, and frankly I love sleeping too. I am hoping and praying this phase passes quickly so I can re-enter the land of the functional again.
Friday, October 19, 2007
The Last 15
I hate diets. No, I really hate them. I love to eat and have an overly healthy appetite, and I hate to be told I need to restrict or eliminate this or that. If I am in the mood for something you might as well get out of my way because I am going to eat it even if I promised myself I wasn't going to. Brett has often tried to help remind of any self-imposed restrictions and has learned he probably just shouldn't butt in.
With that said, I have resigned myself to the fact that if I want to lose these last 15 lbs from my pregnancy I have make a change. Not even running enough to be able to finish a half-marathon (running the whole way, mind you) was enough to get it all off. Basically, unless I want to spend my whole day at the gym, I won't burn enough calories to get back to pre-pregnancy condition. I have to change the way I eat :(
Don't get me wrong, I actually love fruits and veggies and would rather have anything whole wheat rather than white. I also don't like most condiments, dressings and sauces, so that takes away some of my calories automatically. I also prefer drinking water to anything else. It takes at least a whole year usually to get through a 12 pack of 7-up in our house. We just don't do the soda thing and only keep 7-up on hand for illness. So, I am not the picture of horrible health and bad eating.
Where's my weakness? Well, it's actually two things: Portion size and sugar. I like to have generous portions. I read these diet books talking about portion control and all I can think is I will starve. Who eats that small of anything? Well, a lot of people do and apparently you have to in order to lose weight :( And sugar...There is not much of anything that contains sugar that I don't love. I am a total dessert / candy junkie. With the exception of foods with shredded coconut or marshmallows, I'll pretty much eat anything that resembles a sweet treat.
The working out part of weight loss is just fine with me. I actually really like to exercise. Well, let me rephrase that, I like how you feel after a good workout and how much better it seems you can manage your life when you're working out on a regular basis. I have been fairly diligent at getting some exercise, but probably not enough effective exercise to really make a difference. It was really hard to make enough time for it when I was doing the full-time work / mother / RS pres all at the same time. I still got something in at least four days a week, but it was often a weak attempt and probably didn't last much longer than 30 minutes at a time. It's all I had time for.
Now that work is no longer a factor I am getting back on a 6 day / week workout schedule and I am really excited about that. I haven't been perfect at that yet either, but I know that's something I can be successful at because for the six months or so before my mission I was a gym junkie and I loved it. Besides that, Brett has always been really supportive of my exercise efforts and makes sure I have time and support to work out. Having a jogging stroller really helps too.
Anyway, I didn't intend this to be such a long post about diet and exercise. Really, I just wanted to know if anyone has any tips that help in weight loss, especially in changing my dieting habits. I realize it's a life change, not a 3 month program that you just do and then you can go back to eating huge meals and dessert everyday :) So, any advice I can get to help out would be super helpful.
With that said, I have resigned myself to the fact that if I want to lose these last 15 lbs from my pregnancy I have make a change. Not even running enough to be able to finish a half-marathon (running the whole way, mind you) was enough to get it all off. Basically, unless I want to spend my whole day at the gym, I won't burn enough calories to get back to pre-pregnancy condition. I have to change the way I eat :(
Don't get me wrong, I actually love fruits and veggies and would rather have anything whole wheat rather than white. I also don't like most condiments, dressings and sauces, so that takes away some of my calories automatically. I also prefer drinking water to anything else. It takes at least a whole year usually to get through a 12 pack of 7-up in our house. We just don't do the soda thing and only keep 7-up on hand for illness. So, I am not the picture of horrible health and bad eating.
Where's my weakness? Well, it's actually two things: Portion size and sugar. I like to have generous portions. I read these diet books talking about portion control and all I can think is I will starve. Who eats that small of anything? Well, a lot of people do and apparently you have to in order to lose weight :( And sugar...There is not much of anything that contains sugar that I don't love. I am a total dessert / candy junkie. With the exception of foods with shredded coconut or marshmallows, I'll pretty much eat anything that resembles a sweet treat.
The working out part of weight loss is just fine with me. I actually really like to exercise. Well, let me rephrase that, I like how you feel after a good workout and how much better it seems you can manage your life when you're working out on a regular basis. I have been fairly diligent at getting some exercise, but probably not enough effective exercise to really make a difference. It was really hard to make enough time for it when I was doing the full-time work / mother / RS pres all at the same time. I still got something in at least four days a week, but it was often a weak attempt and probably didn't last much longer than 30 minutes at a time. It's all I had time for.
Now that work is no longer a factor I am getting back on a 6 day / week workout schedule and I am really excited about that. I haven't been perfect at that yet either, but I know that's something I can be successful at because for the six months or so before my mission I was a gym junkie and I loved it. Besides that, Brett has always been really supportive of my exercise efforts and makes sure I have time and support to work out. Having a jogging stroller really helps too.
Anyway, I didn't intend this to be such a long post about diet and exercise. Really, I just wanted to know if anyone has any tips that help in weight loss, especially in changing my dieting habits. I realize it's a life change, not a 3 month program that you just do and then you can go back to eating huge meals and dessert everyday :) So, any advice I can get to help out would be super helpful.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Laziness
So, I have had a number of things to blog about lately, a couple of great weekends in a row at cabins, the incredible talks from Conference, playing DDR for the first time, all of Adie's latest moody antics, my opinion on the school voucher issue or other politics, etc. However, I have felt lazy lately and haven't felt like posting. I do appreciate all of you with blogs that aren't lazy though and give me something to read when I am lazy and don't feel like posting.
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