Insomnia

I haven't done this all the way through the night in three years. Why?

My family has a history of insomnia, with its onset usually in the twenties. My mom and sister both suffer from similar ailments. I figured it was just my time for the dreaded 3-5am wakings. I decided that when I was done having children and nursing, then I would maybe think about taking a sleeping pill. But until then, I would just suffer through the nights... and then the following days.

Since about the age of twenty-two, I would have periodic insomnia. Ryan deduced its cause as a symptom of anxiety. I'd always be awake the night before a new school year, the nights before the school play, the night before parent-teacher conferences, etc. He read online, in my behalf (Love you, Babe!), that keeping a notepad by your bedside would help you record that "one more thing" on your to-do list, and then you'd be able to fall back asleep. It worked wonders for me, until three years ago.

About three years ago I started waking during the night and not being able to fall back asleep for not just a week in a row, but for entire months. I could never think of anything to record on my notepad, because I wasn't in need of adding something to my never-ending list. By this time, I was finishing my teaching and career, and my life was changing. Unfortunately, my body was not resting. Instead of getting that blessed sleep, I just stared into the dark night.

Then two weeks ago my friend came to visit. I was exhausted each night (she has a two-year-old and Collin's 15 months), and suddenly: I started sleeping again! I told Ryan that I must not be getting enough interaction and activity each day, and Jenn's visit had cured me. I knew it'd only be temporary, so I relished the week I slept each night all night.

Then it happened last week again. I was thrilled! ...and confused. Why was I suddenly able to sleep through the night again? What had been wrong for so long, and what was now right?

Here's my self-diagnosis:

Since I have a weak stomach, I began taking a prenatal vitamin before bed so that I wouldn't feel nauseous all day from the folic acid. This was about three years ago. We were trying to conceive, and I knew I needed the extra boost to my diet. At this time, we lived in an apartment with radiant baseboard heating which popped and clicked - imagine a band warming up for their big stage performance! - each time it had to come on. It woke Ryan and me each time it did its horrible job of heating our little apartment. Ryan was always able to fall back asleep, but I'd lay there all night... in pure frustration. I blamed everything of the heat, but then we moved to our beautiful home, and I was still waking.

The next year I got pregnant, and every woman knows the night-wakings associated with pregnancy: peeing, turning over, shifting pillows, rearranging blankets... It is quite and ordeal, and I blamed my wakefulness on all the discomforts of hauling my belly around.

This past year of chronic insomnia was Collin's baby year. With all the night feedings and waking to check if he was breathing (I was such a spaz), I was usually up for several hours after each unknown waking.

Then came last week. Not only was I exhausted each night after chasing Lane and Collin around (as well as constant chatting with Jenn!), but I was also too lazy to fill my water cup and take my prenatal before going to sleep. Then last week I was out of my good habits and didn't take my prenatal all week either.

Ta-da! Sleep!

I told Ryan my suspicions that my prenatal was causing night-wakefulness, and we decided it was probably a placebo thing. I decided that whether it was a "sugar-pill" thing or not, I was sleeping, and I didn't mind if I was just playing games with my brain.

Then I found THIS (gotta love google-ing). Insomnia is a documented side-effect of prenatals! Alright, now does everyone else know this already but me? If you already knew this, then shake your head and move on to the next blog. If you didn't already know this, have you had any problems like this? Do you know that your waking could be caused by your vitamins?!

My SIMPLE solution is that I've started taking my prenatal first thing in the morning. (To my surprise, it isn't even making me feel sick, and I am definitely still sleeping!) Awesome, huh? Simple solution to a HUGE problem.

Disclosures: I know you are dying to know... No, we are not expecting, but I am still nursing Collin once a day. I figure extra vitamins are good for me anyway, and why not take a prenatal over any 'ol multi-vitamin? Hope that satisfies your extra curiosity.

Happy sleeping to you all, because I know I'm sleeping tonight!

Shameless Plug

My sister-in-law Emily and mother-in-law, Lori, are super creative. I just saw this video about their boutique in Boise last weekend.

http://brollproduction.com/

Amazing, right? All the dresses were made by Lori, and one of the adorable little models is my niece Ella. Emily ran this boutique and several others, which have been traditionally held before Christmas. This one was a bonus Spring/Easter one.

If you are interested in buying a dress for your niece, daughter or granddaughter, leave me a comment and I'll get you in touch with Lori. She'll also have a website up and running soon, so keep checking back here for the link to that.

So do you now understand a little bit more of my feelings of inadequacy in the craft department? These Williams' have lots of talent!

Jenn's Visit

This past week my friend Jenn came to visit from Madison. Her husband had a conference all week in Louisville, so he dropped her and her almost-2-year old off "on his way." We played all week, and it was wonderful.

We spent time at two of the parks by our house, since it was 65 and sunny for three days. Yippee! Collin is warming up to sitting on my lap on the swing and slide, but he still doesn't love the infant swings. We also sat in the yard and relaxed one afternoon. Lane and Collin struggled to share the one child's camping chair we have. It was funny to watch Collin race - crawling, of course, since it's faster - for the chair each time Lane stood up.

We also went shopping (but not buying; go us!) and out to eat (at a fabulous trendy restaurant by the unversity here - One World Cafe). On Friday morning we went swimming at a local gym for Preschool Splash. Lane loved it the first thirty minutes, and Collin loved it the last thirty minutes, but it was fun anyways.

Jenn even babysat - after Collin was asleep - on Friday night so Ryan and I could go out. We saw Diary of a Wimpy Kid and got Coldstone. Delish! It was only our third non-temple date since Collin was born, and we were in heaven.

Even though we were tired, Jenn and I spent each of our evenings after the babies were asleep working on 4th of July door wreaths - that turned out pretty cute, I think. I got the idea HERE.

Foam form: $2.99 at Michael's
Fabric: 1/2 yard each of 3 different types ($2.79/yd at JoAnn's)
Craft glue: $2.79 at JoAnn's
Total: about $10

It was a great week with great friends. Collin is super lonely today, and I think he's even been looking for Lane. I can't believe how quiet the house is. Thanks for coming Jenn, and thanks for sharing your family with us Dave!

Collin is 15 months

(I just saw this post from FOREVER ago, and apparently I never posted it - it's been saved as a draft. Pardon the need for me to post it so I have it for our own history's sake.

Yes, I know that Collin is now almost 3! You don't have to read it.)

Physical Statistics:

Height - 31.5 inches (57%)

Weight - 23 lbs, 8 oz (32%)
Head Circumference - 46 cm (16%)

Language Skills:

Speaking - Collin says a lot of words, though much of it is based on the situation...
ball, this (meaning "What's this called?"), juice, cheese, mom (the only perfectly enunciated one!), dada, woof (when he sees a dog).

Listening - He claps his hands when we sing "If You're Happy and You Know It." He heads towards his highchair when I tell him it's time to eat. If I say, "It's time for Sesame Street," he walks to the living room, and stands in front of the television smiling. If we ask, "What does a cow say?" He answers, "Mmmmm." If I say ANYTHING about "outside," he goes to the sliding back doors and looks out.

Understanding - I think Collin understands most everything. That might seem strange, but he seems to know a great deal of what is going on. For instance, when he hears the garage opening, he heads to the laundry door, and stands saying, "Dada," and then eagerly waits for Ryan to come in. He also waves bye-bye when we put on his jacket (summer temperatures have really confused him!). If we are putting on our shoes, he brings us his. He also tries to put my socks or shoes on my feet when he wants to go outside. If I put on my workout clothes, he stands at the baby gate to the basement (where the exercise equipment is).

Mobility Skills:

Collin's walking! I never officially announced it to the blogging world, but Collin started walking two days before his 14-month birthday. Now it has been a full month, and he is probably walking 50% of the time. If he wants to get somewhere fast or if he's feeling lazy, he'll still crawl. But he is gradually adding more and more walking to his day. His favorite thing to do is to walk holding someone's hand - much safer, and much faster!

Of course walking means ouchies. This doozy happened at the end of Sunday School, and the whole ward heard/saw it! Pews are hard and sharp!

Sleeping Schedule:

Nighttime - Collin sleeps regularly 7:00pm-7:30am. If it gets messed with (example: driving to St. Louis and not arriving until 8:30pm) things get ugly... and I mean, UGLY! Collin has quite a temper, and I've seen enough tantrums in the last week to fill my lifetime. Fortunately, I discovered the problem, and Collin's catching up on his sleep. He is a much happier little guy.
Daytime - I had moved Collin to one nap, starting somewhere between 11:30 and 1:30 about a month ago. I loved the freedom to do things, especially since almost every kid-activity in this city starts between 9:30 and 10:30am. Unfortunately, though some days one nap is what Collin wants/needs, there are still the days where he desperately needs two.

Just imagine the difficulty I'm having scheduling doctor appointments, appointments for shots, visiting teaching appointments, play dates, and meeting friends at the park. I never know if he'll be on a one-nap or two-nap day! Sigh. One day my life will be routine again, right?

Eating
Colling eats three meals per day and one snack (mid-afternoon). Here's some of his main dishes: hot dog, fried egg, peanut butter & jelly, pizza rolls, grilled cheese, baby oatmeal. For snack, he usually eats something from this list - which are also sometimes his side dishes at meal time: peas, black beans, pretzels, string cheese, goldfish, strawberry yogurt, applesauce.

Oh, and Collin LOVES his juice - orange juice! He's only allowed one sippy-ful per day, and he guzzles it in just a few minutes. The rest of the day he sticks to whole milk.

Other Silly Tidbits

He used to just unload the cupboard, but now he climbs in and takes the appliance's place!

Ryan caught this classic one morning when he went to get snotty-nosed Collin from his bed.

Yep, we've got a Roman toga boy in the works!Collin loves to take things out of a location and then replace them. This time it was the silverware from the dishwasher container.And this time it was an entire bag of Goldfish!

Caught in the act! We dug out these dart guns for a Scripture Mastery Friday game, and Collin thought he'd "pack" them along for the grocery store. Probably shouldn't allow my baby to play with guns just yet...

(So it was actually just super fun for me to read this. Brennan is in most of this clothing now, and luckily is not quite so mobile. I'm sure my days are numbered though...)

Reading!

What do we do when it's 65 and sunny?

Pick up a good book, kick up our feet, and relax...

basking in the rays!

More Crafting

One of the purposes/goals of my crafting is to spend next to nothing. I like feeling I can make things for nearly free. So my new goal is to post each of my projects and leave an accounting of how much I spent. I love THIS blog, which is where many of my ideas/projects come from.


As requested, here are some explanations of my last projects:


1 - Collin's High Chair

We've hated the covering on Collin's chair since we pulled it from the dumpster 2 years ago in Madison. In January, we finally bought the fabric at JoAnn's. It was pretty expensive ($10/yard?) but we only needed a yard, so it wasn't too bad. And we had the red pleather leftover from a project many years ago to recover the seat of a motorcycle Ryan used to own, so it was free.


I traced the old cover onto the fabric (folded in half so I'd get two) - allowing for a seam allowance - and cut it out. We found a W online in a font we liked and printed it. Then I traced the W upside down on one piece of the black, shiny stuff. Then Ryan helped by using a razor blade to cut it out. We placed the red pleather (just a square piece) behind the removed W-shape, and this is when it got tricky. It had to be sewn from the front, but the black stuff was so sticky, the foot of my sewing machine couldn't advance it. Ryan got the great idea to place a piece of tissue paper over the area. Then he sewed around the W (I was afraid of messing up)then gently removed the tissue. It worked perfect: he could see the outline of the shape to sew around, but the machine was able to grip and advance the fabric accordingly.


To finish up, I sewed right-sides together (like a pillow case), turn it right-side out, and stuffed the old cover inside. Admittedly, I still haven't closed up the hole I left open. It is just tucked inside, and hardly shows at all, since it's along a hidden edge. Voila: a new throne for the Big C man!

2 - Love Letters Mailbox

The BYU ward (10th Ward Tigers!) Ryan and I met in had a tradition of collecting and distributing notes among the ward members. The notes were placed in a #10 can shaped like a Honey Pot. Ryan and I often sent each other "honey pots" as we dated and then got engaged. When we got married, we wrote each other notes and put them in each other's lunches. Since having a child, I've noticed we don't write each other notes much, and I always loved this tradition. So for Valentine's Day, I bought this mailbox - undecorated - to begin the tradition of note-writing again. I got the idea HERE.

Red Mailbox: Michael's $2.00

Foam Adhesive Lettering: Michael's $1.99 (a splurge - I could have made these and they would have been fine)

Glitter Gems: JoAnn's $1.50

Black Ribbon: free

Hot Glue: free

Foam Base: free

We've enjoyed putting the flag up to signal "You've Got Mail!"

3 - Rosette Wreath

These was the most fun fun project I've made so far. It was super easy, and it turned out better than I could have hoped for. I just love it! HERE's where I learned how to do it.

Felt: JoAnn's $4.99/yd (I bought 2 1/2 yards, but I only needed 1 1/2 yards)
Heart-shaped form: JoAnn's $2.99
Black Ribbon: free

And here's what I've been working on this month:

1 - Easter Wreath
I got the idea HERE, but I didn't like the bow as you can see. If I were making it again, I would do it differently. I spent far too much time worrying about the placement of each and every egg and varying the colors in order to make it look random. I think I could have throw them on in seconds and gotten the same look, but oh well. I was worried about how it would turn out, but I think it's okay. It isn't my favorite, but it was the best I could find online for the best price and easiest construction.



This project cost me $5.50:
- Plastic Eggs: 3 bags of 18 eggs each (Dollar Store: $1 x 3)
- Ribbon: I bought a whole spool, but then I opted to skip the bow, so I really only used it to making the hanger. I could have used anything else and saved this dollar. Live and learn. (Dollar Store: $1)
- Grass: 1 bag of grass (Walmart: $1.50)
- Cardboard: We've got tons of moving boxes in the basement. I just cut one up.
- Hot Glue: I used a lot, but I had a lot, so this was free, this time.

2 - Magnet Letters
Collin has been getting into all kinds of trouble while I work in the kitchen, so this project was an attempt to provide him with something to do that I approved.

This project cost me $0:
- Foam: leftover from a project my students did when I was teaching
- Magnetic strip: also leftover from my teaching days
- Hot glue: Had just enough to finish up this project. I'll have to buy more for the next craft though.


And that's my crafting of late. What cheap crafts have you found? Do you enjoy feeling like you can make things for almost free?