Thursday, March 17, 2011

Mission Accomplished

Jake practiced and practiced last night and earlier today, and this evening, his practice paid off- he rolled from back to tummy!

Nobody was actually watching the first time he rolled from back to tummy, unfortunately. Mike was playing with Zach and Drew, and I had just left the house to go pick Maggie up at the vet. Mike said Jake was on his back on the floor, and then Mike looked over and he was on his tummy! I was on the phone with my mom on my drive to the vet, and we were talking about the previous post's video of Jake almost rolling over. We hung up the phone, I walked into the vet's office, and I got a text from Mike with the photo below and the caption, "Got there on his own."


That figures. I am with that baby all day long and much of the night, and here he goes and rolls over when I'm gone! That's ok. I look forward to seeing him do it tomorrow or the next day. Mike then got this little video.

So tonight I didn't swaddle Jake when I put him to bed, because I don't think it's safe to have his arms tied up if he rolls onto his tummy in the night. I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for a night worse than the last 5 have been. Even though I know it may be a rough night, I have a feeling I won't be ready for it. It may be my third time at this rodeo, but it's still so hard to have my sleep interrupted so much. It feels like aside from Jake, I'm the only person awake in the whole world. I shuffle back and forth between Jake's room and my own room, and each time I enter my room I'm greeted by the various breathing patterns of Mike, Maggie, and Foudy. Foudy at least wakes up to give me a look of acknowledgment, but Mike and Maggie just snore away, totally oblivious. Lucky Mike- I wish I had the ability to tune everything out like him. Even on the extremely rare occasion that he does hear Jake before me or that I wake him up to tend to Jake, I still lay there awake, unable to sleep. I think it's the mother's curse. Lately Jake is awake about an hour to an hour and a half after I go to bed, which is one of the toughest times for me to get up, maybe because it makes me feel like the 10 minute stretches of "sleep" are just starting and will go on all night. I try to have a positive attitude, and every time I get back in bed I say a little prayer, "Please, God, just let Jake sleep for 3 hours straight. Please." Some nights I handle it ok, but other nights not so much. I feel myself getting closer to the point that I remember with Drew (who let me sleep no more than an hour at a time many nights for the first 4+ months) where I would just get really emotional. I have had a few nights of tears from exhaustion, frustration, etc. One of my friends, who had her own third baby about 5 months before Jake was born, said to me, "Just try to look at the positive side. I know it's hard, but this may be the last time you get to hold a baby in the middle of the night. Try to enjoy it." If I was only up once a night, I might be able to follow that advice. But at this point, I'm just so tired. A typical night looks like this: sleep an hour, then get up every 10-20 minutes for almost an hour, then sleep 2 or maybe 3 hours (on a good night), and then get up again a few times before finally getting back to sleep for 2 hours before I have to get up for the day at about 6:30. That leaves me tired and short on patience, which sadly means Zach and Drew get a crabby mom to deal with. I don't like living that way. This is definitely my last time with a newborn, and I would happily get up with Jake once a night or hold him most of the day, but I am ready to sleep again!

Ahh, I digress. This post was supposed to be just about Jake rolling over. On a side note, the vet. Poor Maggie had to have surgery today to have some lumps removed and have her teeth cleaned. Maggie turns 11 on Saturday, and for the past few years, she has been what our vet, Dr. Allison, calls a "lipoma factory," meaning she has many little lipomas (harmless cysts) growing on her body. For the most part we don't worry about them, but she has one that has grown a ton in the last year, and at least one more that Dr. Allison couldn't aspirate and that worried her. There was also one right by her eye, and we were worried about it growing bigger and obstructing her vision. So now the poor girl has to wear an E-collar (Elizabethan collar- clever name, I think) for 2 weeks, no stairs, no jumping up on the bed (where she sleeps every night), no real exercise, outside on a leash only , etc. Maggie weighs about 55 pounds and there's no way in or out of our house without doing some stairs. And, in case you forgot, I've got a 5 year-old, a 3 year-old, and a 3 month-old, so I have no idea how I'm going to manage carrying Maggie up and down the stairs and staying with her on a leash. I think it's safe to say she won't be going outside much when Mike's not home. Poor dog. That cone collar really is throwing her for a loop. I can only imagine- she's got no peripheral vision, the thing sticks out far so she runs into everything, and it probably is pretty uncomfortable. She was whining just a few minutes ago, so I took her out front on her leash, and it's like the second she touched the grass she basically dove for the stairs. I don't know what that's all about, but I have a feeling it's going to be a long two weeks.

Here's one of Maggie's incisions.


Look at that sad face. She is miserable, and I feel terrible for her.


So between Maggie and Jake, I have a feeling it will be a no-sleep night for Sarah. *Sigh*

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