Me Time

Among the hundreds of things that change when you have a baby one of the biggest changes is "me time".  In my previous life running to the grocery store, reading a magazine, watching my favorite TV show or sitting down to watch a movie were all easy tasks.  I've wanted to be a mom for as long as I can remember so I am in no way complaining about not having as much me time.  However, me time is so important for my well being and let's face it, my sanity.  Nowadays even an hour to myself can bring on a whole new sense of being refreshed. You have to choose your activities wisely though. Some days the grocery store is enough to do the trick.  Some days require a good run on the treadmill.  But the past few days I've been feeling less than inspired so Sunday for my hour I needed some inspiration. I needed to get my craft on.  So I set out for the fabric store.

First I made a slight detour. A trip to the fabric store is always enhanced by this:

It's funny the way your interests and activities change the older you get.  I can remember being a little girl and being so annoyed by being dragged through the baby section at Wal-Mart or some other department store while shopping with my mom.  Instead of looking through onesies and tiny little shoes I would have rather been shopping for Lip Smackers, Debbie Gibson tapes, and tapered ankles jeans.  Fast forward 20 years and I find myself right back there in the baby section but by my own choice. Who knew?!  Another place I was always taken against my will was the fabric store with my aunt.  I didn't really mind it in small doses but there was no such thing as a short trip to the fabric store.  I would drag my feet up and down those aisles while she would pick out zippers, buttons and bolts of fabric.  Once again fast forward a couple decades and where do I find myself?  In the freaking fabric store!!  Now I get it, it's a place of creativity and inspiration.  I don't consider myself the most creative person in the world.  I see people knitting, crocheting, painting, sculpting and sewing and it makes me so jealous. There are so many projects and things I wish I could do but there is just not enough time in the day, month and year.  If I choose semi-easy projects I get my creativity fix.  We have some friends that are having a baby in November so I thought I'd try my hand at these bibs and burp cloths.  I found this super cute fabric and can't wait to see how they turn out.

I know it will take me awhile to make the bibs and burp cloths since I am so new to sewing but my craft craving needed to be fulfilled.  For a quick crafty fix, I decided to make my little guy a cozy blanket. I went with the old-school, no sew fleece blanket. He loves the fringes. 

Our house has been a bit nuttier than usual these past few days.  We had to finally bite the bullet and work on getting the babe to sleep on his own in his own crib.  I always said that I would never be the mom that lets her kids sleep in bed with her.  I've got nothing against those that decide to co-sleep, it is a personal preference and there are more studies coming out recently that promote the family bed. As a result of lack of sleep we've found ourselves with a bed buddy and a baby that refuses to sleep in his crib.  I have to admit though, I don't really mind it all the time.  I love waking up in the morning next to my baby.  He rolls towards me and  looks at me with those big blue eyes and smiles at me every morning.

We stretch together and ease into the day by snuggling just a little longer.  I love catching an unexpected whiff of his sweet baby smell in the middle of the night.  I love hearing his little sigh right before he falls fully asleep.  But with the good comes the bad.  We have a vicious cycle of the three of us (sometimes four if the dog is part of the slumber party) waking each other up.  Corey will snore and wake up the baby, I'll wake up and get the baby back to sleep and then because Corey is snoring I can't get back to sleep so I'm nudging Corey telling him he's snoring. I don't think we've had a good night's sleep as a couple since January.  In addition to the constant waking, when I do finally get to sleep I'm still aware of his tiny little body next to mine and I will sleep perfectly still and wake up stiff and sore from laying immobile for six hours.  Over the past couple of months I've said so many times, "this is it, I can't do it anymore, we've got to get him to sleep in his own bed".  So I'd go into it a little half-assed and fail every time, overwhelmed with his crying and too tired to fight it.  This weekend I said it again but this time I followed through.  The first night I eased into it and gave up at 11 pm.  Night number two was nothing short of brutal.  For four hours I tried to fight through the gut wrenching soul beating cry.  I'd give him five minutes and then go to him and soothe him for two to three minutes.  We did this for FOUR HOURS.  Worst. Night. Ever.  Finally at 1 am I gave in and brought him to bed with us where he fell fast asleep the second he put his sweet little head on my mattress.  But I considered it a bit of a success, I made it two hours longer than I did the night before.  At this rate maybe we'll be sleep trained by December, bleck!!!!  But Saturday night we did it!  I decided to let him cry for 10 minutes before I went in to soothe him and it worked!  I only had to go in and soothe him twice and he slept for 9 hours!!! NINE! I, of course, couldn't sleep.  I was wide awake at 2 am twiddling my thumbs and not knowing what to do with myself.  Not to mention the fact that I had to pump.  So I did, and checked my email, cruised Facebook, checked the weather forecast and caught up on my celebrity gossip on my US Weekly app.  I didn't want to jinx it though. We did spend most of the day outside so I figured the fresh air got him all tuckered out.  I didn't want to count my chickens, but last night it was 12:30 and he'd been sleeping since 7 and I had barely heard a peep out of him.  Don't kid yourselves though, I went into his room no less than ten times to make sure he was still breathing.  And so there I sat, wide awake, feeling a bit lost without my bedtime snuggle buddy.  I really shouldn't have drank that Dr. Pepper at six o'clock.  I'm still not counting my chickens before they hatch.  I know that it takes two weeks to form a habit and I'm sure that our sleepless nights are not completely over but I'm going to take what extra "me time" I can get.

P.S. Did you know that Friends is on Nick at Night? What the what?! Nothing like making you feel older than dirt.