What a week!

Well, it has been an interesting week, that is for sure. Michael broke my car on Wednesday. I am, of course, joking that he broke my car but he was the person in the driver's seat when this incident occurred. My car would not shift out of park. Apparently, there is a small plastic piece in the shift column that must have broke off and now i can't park my car. I have to put the car in neutral and set the parking brake to be able to park it. At least I can drive it to work and run my necessary errands.

I got a call on Thursday morning from Michael telling me that we are going to Las Vegas for the weekend. Unfortunately, it was not for a weekend get away. It was for a last minute BBQ competition. A few weeks ago, we had a BBQ competition but we didn't make to cut to move on to the next competition. Well, some teams backed out and we were asked to come. Well, we did horrible. We took last place, which has never happened since we started doing this.

My mother's day is not what I expected it to be. I thought that my day would go like this:
Sleep in a little bit
Go to church
Go out with Michael and Caleb for brunch
Go to Michael's parent's house for a little get together they planned
Spend the rest of the day with my baby

This is how the day went :
Woke up at 6am to get the trailer loaded to leave for home. We find out the truck wouldn't start. After a service guy came out, the truck still wouldn't start. Michael was able to disconnect the alarm system so the truck would start.
9am- Breakfast at Carl's Jr. Yuck
10 am- Finally on the road home.
Spend 8 hours in the car with a screaming toddler. I don't blame him too much. 8 hours in the car with small amounts of time running around will get to anyone. Nothing I brought would keep him calm for long. In hindsight, I should have brought my portable DVD player with a few videos for him but this trip was such a last minute thing that I didn't think about it.
Around 4-5 hours in the trip, I was presented with my Mother's day gift in the car. It was a digital photos frames!! I love it.
2:30- We finally stop for lunch at Jack-in-the-box. I don't know why we didn't stop sooner but I was so glad to be able to get food in Caleb's tummy. Michael and I were so upset that his parent's would not stop earlier.
6pm- Finally home. I cooked dinner and then got ready for bed.

Whew. I know Michael tried his best in the situation but I wished I was home for mother's day.

Today is my first weigh-in. I know that I probably gained weight. I was eating horribly this weekend with no chance to exercise. All I can is move on and hope that his week is better.

Frustrated.

I have this unrealistic idea that when I started working out that my weight would just melt away. I was almost at my goal weight when I was breast feeding and I did nothing. I ate junk food and I did not work-out. I know that I am only on my second day of this new routine but how did I gain 2 lbs overnight?? I don't know what else to say about it. I usually think of myself as a patient person but why can I just be happy that I am trying to be healthier? Why do I only think of my success as a number? I ran 3 miles today on my elliptical. Why can I not be happy about that achievement? It also did not help that yesterday, my co-worker brought cake and muffins to work. I joined "The Biggest Loser" at my work. I am praying this gives me the motivation I need to keep track on my diet.

Work has been absolutely insane. I didn't get home till 6:30 last night. It seems I am staying later and later each week. I can't complain because I am making more money now and it will help will the bills. I just want to be home with my boy. That's all I want.

Caleb is doing great with his sleeping. He doesn't cry as long or as loud as before. This is going much easier than I would have thought. He is getting more active which is wonderful. However, it is getting to the point where I am thinking of getting a baby-sitter for Tuesday nights while hubby and I are at small group. I feel that we are not able to be fully engaged in the study because Caleb is running around and getting into things. I would like someone to be home with him to give him his bath and put him to bed at a decent time. I can't think of anyone that would do this for me. I don't want to ask my in-laws because they watch him a lot, and most of my friends go to group on Tuesdays. Oh well, something else on my to-do list.

Looking ahead

I started my work-out today. I got up at 4:30am to start my weight loss journey. This morning I weighed 163.5 lbs. My goal is to weigh 150 lbs. I would love to be 140-145lbs but I don't know if that is realistic or not.
I only planned to do a 30 minute work-out . I ran 2.58 miles in 15 minutes and I did 15 minutes of ab work. This is just the first step. Hopefully I will be able to run 45 minutes without stopping in the near future.
I am looking at doing some classes at the YMCA so if anyone is interested in joining me, I would love a work-out partner. I am thinking about joining The Biggest Loser at work.
Caleb has been sleeping better. He is getting another tooth so he is a bit cranky. I was able to work-out, get ready for work, eat breakfast without being disturbed. It's great.

Here we go again..

I thought by now I would get this sleeping thing on track. We were doing great, until after he weaned. He wakes up at 5am (usually 4:30ish) and is awake. He would then crash at 8:30. My wonderful friends from small group gave me some encouraging advice. I am so glad I have friends who tell me what I need to hear. I decided to gradually get him used to not getting out of his crib until 6:30am. First stage: He is staying in his room until 5:30am. So, on Tuesday night and I turned off the baby monitor in our room. He woke up at 4am. He cried until 5 and then fell back asleep. He woke up again at 5:30 so I took him into my room so I could sleep a little longer. Well, we slept until 9am.
It is now 6:10am and he has not made a noise yet. I hope he keeps this up. I would like to get up and work out in the morning but I need to get him used to his new schedule first.

We are going camping tomorrow. I am very excited. I love camping and this is Caleb's first overnight camping trip. It's going to be a blast!

Blessings!

I got a raise at work yesterday!! I was shocked because I thought it was never going to happen. I get paid directly from my boss's paycheck so I never thought he would decide to give up more money. Michael and I have been struggling financially lately but it seems like things are starting to turn around. Michael is getting a new contract and he is getting a raise with that. We started tithing a couple of months ago. I have felt tempted a few times to not tithe the full amount that we are called to do because of the bank account. However, we have been faithful and I feel like God is providing for us. I hope very soon that we can start paying off our credit cards. I would LOVE to have no credit card debt by the end of this year.

My sleep monster

I seriously believe my sweet little boy is working for the government to do sleep deprivation torture on unsuspecting civilians. This kid will only do short 30 minute cat naps in his crib about twice a day. However if you hold him he will sleep a little bit longer. The past couple of night he has been getting up almost every hour standing up in his crib screaming. It is a little funny at first but the humor quickly goes away at 3 am.

I have tried everything. I am not a fan of the "cry it out" method but I have done Ferber with some success. I blame myself for this little monster I created. Let's be honest, I HATE hearing him cry. The first few nights of doing the Ferber method were torture. I didn't get any sleep which made me question why I was doing it in the first place. The reason why I am doing this is so I can get sleep right? I would always make an excuse why I needed to pick up my boy. I would say, "Well, he is teething so he needs a little extra TLC." or "He is sick". When I mean "sick" i am talking about maybe a stuffy nose.

The Ferber worked ok for a while until one of my excuses came up. Then I would go back to rocking him back to sleep. Don't get me wrong, I love rocking him to sleep. I know that soon he won't want me to hold him. I know that is the reason for his lack of sleep. He likes to be held when its time for bed. I just don't know what to do. I know he needs to learn to soothe himself but its hard when he is standing up in his crib screaming for any period of time. He calms down after i hold him and he will go back to sleep but if I put him down, he screams again.

Michael and I no longer take night shifts because it is impossible for 1 person to take over 1 night and still be able to get up in the morning to go to work. I am probably going to try Ferber again. I know I can't keep going on 2 hours of sleep forever.

9 months

Yep, Caleb had his 9 month check-up today. He is currently weighing in at 22.1 lbs (75 %tile) and is 29.5 inches tall (75 %tile). The doctor couldn't give me a reason why he was having a hard time sleeping through the night. He said it was ok to try sleep training again now that his cold is almost gone. I hope that it won't take him as long to get it as last time. The doctor did suggest filling his bottle with water and leaving it in the crib for him so he can get a drink in the middle in the night if he is thirsty. We also got the OK for finger foods! Yay!

The though that my little boy will be turning one soon scares me. I now have to start his party planning really soon. I am glad that he is growing up to be a strong, independent little man but, i am sad that he won't be a baby anymore. Turning one is a HUGE milestone and part of me is so excited for the next chapter but then I am upset that he will no longer be a baby. He is growing so fast and I just can't keep up. I just want time to slow down just a little bit so I can enjoy this just a little bit longer.