So I started this post about mothering earlier today. About how it's hard and wonderful and how I'm learning so much about my attitude. Complete with a little anecdote and some neat one liners. You know. The usual fair from the R Log when Kate gets deepish and introspective.

But then my little brother redboxed Ironman 3, and I'm a sucker for a weeknight blockbuster. Of course I whipped out a wedding gift: The old. The faithful. Whirley Pop. 

Perhaps the same Whirley Pop I used last night when the same brother brought home Saving Mr. Banks. Perhaps the same Whirley Pop that I used the night before that for the run of the mill Shark Tank viewing. 

Perhaps I have a problem called popcorn, but if you still microwave yours then you have a bigger problem than I do. This baby does caramel corn and kettle corn and you never really have to clean it, it also will roast your coffee beans, but I don't know a lick about that because I'm not that hipster. 

This post brought to you courtesy of my iDevice from a crib mattress on the floor of my bedroom as I lie next to a squirmy 7 monther who almost won't sleep without two feet nestled into my stomach and one hand gripping my shirt. I will soon summon my semblance of abdominal muscles to extricate myself from the tete a tete in a vain and at best halfhearted attempt to teach the baby some soporific independence. No judging. Martha climbed into her son's actual crib, if I remember correctly. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. 

See you on the other side.

7QT: Weather, Coffee, Child-Rearing, Broken Records

- 1 -

The older child has been running me hard this week. The terrible twos have overall been pretty great, but I hope the business of this week isn't a harbinger of what the threes have in store. The worst moment was when I had to pop his balloon as a consequence for running away from me in the library parking lot. (He was running on the walkway next to the parking lot and not in the parking lot itself, but still...) I popped a little boy's balloon, and it was the saddest thing. We both cried. 

- 2 -

Weather here in Houston has been amazing. It's almost like...we're living in Los Angeles again.

But unlike Los Angeles, this weather won't last, and while Houston only has an excuse for a winter, it certainly has a grueling summer that will probably start sometime next week. So we will carpe our mild sunshine and picturesque evenings for the next five days or so.

- 3 -

I keep running into posts about laundry recently. Laundry is pretty close to my heart and, unlike cleaning the toilet or mopping, is actually something I enjoy. I grew up folding a lot of our family's laundry. I spent many an hour with Anne of Green Gables beside a mountain of towels, gym shorts, and T-shirts. My mother used to tell me how good I was at folding. I was pretty proud. Now of course she had major ulterior motives for that encouragement, but she was right. I am a badass folder. And it's a competency that will probably be more consistently valuable to me than my master's degree.

- 4 -

Speaking of master's degrees, I love staying home with my kids.

I'm nervous to say that out loud. I'm nervous that the joy I'm experiencing will magically pop as soon as I admit to the world that - at least for now - I'm more than happy to be home with my kids.

With a big fat caveat: WHEN THEY NAP.

The mornings are so full of hope, you know?? And then that afternoon nap strike makes the whole rest of the day a big poopstorm. (SO sorry about that word. It's just that I'd already used my colorful word for this post, and that was all I could think to swap it with. I'm a first time potty trainer, you'll remember...and it's amazing how much literal and metaphorical excrement I have to filter while blogging about our life. Shocking really.)

- 5 -

Someone's being too quiet, so I'm going to run see if today was a naptime win.

Oh, most definitely a win.

- 6 -

Lucy June is still the awesomest baby. I'm experiencing her babyhood so differently than Jake's. Every time I try to write a post about the difference I start crying.

But it boils down to this:

Jake's infancy = emotionally tough
Lucy June's infancy = sugar and spice.

Except that she's recently become uber attached to me. When she's cranky - so in the evenings when there are finally other arms that can hold her - she wants me and only me. I find it endearing, and I love it, and I want her to outgrow it immediately.

- 7 -

Next weekend Jacob goes from working half days on Sunday to not working on Sundays at all. An (almost) real weekend!! I'm so excited for him. And for me. And for our kids. And for me.

Off to Jen's for more Quick Takes.

Goodnight Sweetheart

or

Bad night after bad night after bad night....sweet...heart.

So here I go. Getting real. Needing some catharsis or something. For those of you who don't want to read about Baby Jake's sleeping habits, I've posted pictures for you that are otherwise completely unrelated to the text. Enjoy them. 

For the first few months of Jake's life he only woke up a few times at night. Maybe 2-3 times a night. He would nurse, I would put him back in his bassinet or I wouldn't and the family would ease back into a peaceful slumber.

I was never exhausted during the day. I never felt sleep deprived. I was so encouraged by the apparently good sleeper I had birthed.

Somewhere around six months old Jake got really bad at sleeping. It happened slowly so it took me a long time to notice. If you’d asked me a few weeks ago about his sleep schedule, I would have given you his general newborn to six month routine. I would have told you his sleep schedule was something like this:

7pm Sleeps in his bed  

1am Wakes up to nurse and we put him in bed with us where he stays

Wakes one or two more times to nurse. 

 7am Wakes for the day

But that was four months ago, and it has become VERY apparent just how bad of a sleeper baby is, solid foods be darned. 

I'm making a big effort to write down his sleeping patterns. So I give you last night:

7:45pm Jake goes down in his crib.

10:13 Wakes up and nurses - 10:30 Back down in his crib.

10:58 Wakes up and papa rocks him back to sleep. **Jacob and I go to bed**

12:19 Wakes up, nurses, stays in our bed.

1:23 Wakes up nurses.

2:30 Wakes up nurses

3:57 Wakes up and fusses, nurses, kicks, fusses, gets rocked, gets sung to, fusses

4:15 Falls back to sleep.

**5:30 Mom gets up to get ready for work***

6:15 Wakes up nurses and is up for the day

Reality check, Mama Rhodes. I've been avoiding making a record of how much he slept because the record would you know...make it real. Because otherwise maybe it was just all a dream. I don't think I'm tired...but then again maybe I just don't know what it feels like to have slept enough. Alleged non-sleepiness aside, on about mid afternoon I start to fear the nighttime.

I'm not really a cry-it-out proponent (...yet) but I tried it once not too long ago. I let Jake cry for five minutes while I hid in the corner of the room watching him and praying that God would spare us both. I was curious to see what would happen. Little whimpers became huge wails became baby standing in the crib and rattling the bars and making futile attempts to climb over the rail...so yeah...

My mother was really deliberate to get her babies to sleep through the night from very little. She did the whole let them cry a little then go in and comfort, put the pacifier back in, let them cry a little longer next time, before you go in, comfort, put the pacifier back in...That's an idea...a pacifier...how do you get a 10 month old to start taking a pacifier? Have we missed it AND the cry it out train?

Getting her babies to sleep was pretty necessary for my mother since until her third kid she was working full time at the clinic, was on call, and was delivering babies at the hospital, so sleep was hard enough to come by. When I told her about my sleeping woes she said, "I've had patients like you." Thanks for the empathy, mother dear.

For the good of everyone in the family - Mama, Papa, and baby - we have begun some sleep training. I hope and pray we'll have good news to share with you soon.

Now isn't that just what you wanted to read about this Thursday afternoon? Perhaps I shall rename the blog: The Riveting Rhodes Sleep Log. What say you?