Clocking out for the day

When Alex takes a nice long nap, I occasionally get a couple of hours to myself to do some laundry, tidy up or sew. When he doesn't take a long nap (or no napping at all) I get very little time to myself. Even bathroom time is rarely solo. I put in 12 hour days. Everyday. There's also the occasional night time shift. Can you imagine if an employer made you work those hours. Oh wait. I have had crappy jobs where breaks are non-existant. What I did at those jobs is the same thing I do now. I take it upon myself to take a break. When Alex finally goes to bed for the night, I am off duty. I stop the dishes (too noisy anyway), and ignore the laundry that needs folding (there's always more laundry!). I read, or watch a movie, or sew, or just surf the internet for a bit before collapsing into bed. I once complained it's too difficult to iron while Alex is awake and my husband suggested I iron after he goes to bed. Umm no. That's like bringing home work from the office. I don't get paid enough for that.
It's done wonders for my mental health. I'm much happier having a bit of time to myself where NOTHING is required of me. Until the cat coughs up a hairball or mister wakes up from noisy neighbours, and then I'm on duty again. It's about putting on your own oxygen mask first, before helping others to put theirs on.

Play dough anyone?

Ok, I'm going to be lazy and just link to my blog if you'd like the recipe:

Homemade play dough recipe

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week!

(If you're wondering the title of the post is from a children's book ).

This bad week started last sunday night. Alex went to bed at his usual time, but then woke up around 11:30 pm and started throwing up. Ugh. Again. We just went through the stomach flu in this house only three weeks ago. He was pretty sick and miserable on Monday, but then perked up in the evening, even begging me for blueberries which he ate with gusto. Tuesday we went to Mother Goose, but not before missing every possible bus we could miss and showed up late, getting the evil eye from Margaret. Alex stayed by the door for the first half, not wanting to participate. Ok, he's still a bit out of sorts I thought. He perked up at snack time, but then was crabby again by the end. I desperately wanted him to sleep at home, not in the stroller on the way home. Of course he fell asleep on the way home. I hadn't tried the transfer in a while so I thought I'd try. Umm no. Bad idea. Pissy toddler who only got a 15 minute nap. My fault.

Tuesday night I got sick. Very sick. I booked my sister to take Alex like she had done a few weeks ago when I got sick and Husband had to work. Tuesday night, crabby no sleep baby continued to do so, until about 1 am when he finally collapsed from exhaustion. For an hour or so he slept. I spent my entire night alternating between trying to soothe him and being sick myself. Not good. And the husband? Not, um, ahem, helpful. Not at all.

Wednesday Alex started coughing and had a high fever, so my sister took him to the doctor while I got to nap for a couple of hours. I woke up and started disinfecting everything in the house. I felt miserable and Alex looked and acted pretty miserable too. Again, only getting a 20-30 minute nap (when he was up most of the night before). I put him to bed wednesday night and went straight to bed. Just as my head hit the pillow, he started coughing and woke himself up. This pattern would repeat itself another 5 or 6 times. I gave up and slept on his floor, figured it would be easier than trekking across the apartment every 10 minutes. He woke up every 10 minutes, the entire night, finally only sleeping for about an hour, before being UP for the morning.

Thursday he was a zombie, I was a zombie, and still only living off ginger ale. He still wasn't napping so in desperation, I took him out in the stroller. He napped off and on for a good three hours. Good for him, but of course Mama didn't get to nap. Bedtime was a struggle, so I decided to again sleep in his room. At least husband had the good idea to bring up the air mattress that we use for camping (this thing is massive and higher than our actual bed). So I stayed with Alex (better than the floor the night before) and he slept for an hour at a time during the night.

Friday was a slight improvement, he had two one hour naps at home (yay for napping Mama too). Slightly less miserable but still not really eating or drinking much. Husband took the night shift on friday night but then Alex cried out for MAMA at 3am, so off I went. Hmmph.

So today, Saturday, was also a little better. Much less whiny (from everyone in the household). Still not eating and still coughing, and a so-so nap. He went to bed early. Cross your fingers for me.
Edited to Add: Alex slept a solid 10.5 hours last night. Ahh!

So, I tell you all of this, knowing that, yes, all of you have had bad days, weeks, months. I don't want a pity party. I've been so overwhelmed and tired and lonely all week. I miss all of you, miss getting together. I don't want any "poor Jen" replies. Tell me about your week. Something funny, something sad, whatever. I'm tired of the quarantine. I got some fresh air today, now I just need some mental fresh air.

J- Bitey McSwaterson

Everyday I try to get Alex to stop biting and hiting but nothing seems to sink in. I get down to his level, use short words and repeat them everytime. Not working. He hits or bites when he's overwhelmed, over excited, or frustrated. Sometimes I see it starting and I try to distract him before he starts hitting which occasionally works. My husband is starting to lose his patience with Alex and I'm just exhausted.

Does anyone have any good toddler behaviour books you can recommend?

Reading: How the pill changed the world

Just read an interesting article about How the Pill changed the world.
We're all of that age in our group. The starting to run out of time, worry about fertility, I don't want to be breastfeeding at 44 years old group.

Any thoughts on this?

J -These teeth are taking a slow boat from china!

So it's been almost six weeks now and Alex is still getting his four first molars. The one that was the farthest behind, just a speck, is almost fully out now (except for a painful looking little flap of gum across the middle). The others are nowhere to be found. He's only slightly crabby, but the biting stuff is wearing thin. He bites books, I try and give him giant raw carrots to chew on, but sometimes the only thing he wants to bite is us. Any ideas on how to stop the biting? The back of my knee still stings from a good smurf bite I got today. I tell him all day long, ouch biting hurts, no biting. Nothing sinks in. I always think of Darla from Finding Nemo:

I'm a pirahna!