We’ve been having a time of it here at Chez Funkytown. Knittymunchkin has been going through an extremely exhausting fussy stage, complete with wailing, waking up several times a night (from dead sleep to frantic crying in 1.5 seconds flat), not napping, and crying & pulling while nursing. The only thing that keeps him mildly content is for me to carry him around all day long. Needless to say, my back hurts. Though he’s taken quite nicely to the Baby Bjorn that he used to hate. Bonus!
When he was born, we found out he had acid reflux, which can be really common for preemies. We have been giving him medicine for it for a few months and he’s been doing so well (not spitting up & not grunting with discomfort while laying down) that we thought we’d try discontinuing the medicine. He seemed to be doing really well for a day or two, other than the increase in fussing & the waking up at night. Silly me, I didn’t put two and two together until he started spitting up again the past couple days. D’oh! Maybe it’s because he still needs his medicine, dummy! So we’ve started that again and I’m keeping my fingers crossed it will bring him, and us, some relief. Because this waking up every two hours all night long has got to stop. I feel like spawn of the dead, all groggy and stuff all day long. And knitting? There’s been zip.zero.nada.
Sometimes this works too.....
I started doing some more extensive reading when he began having so much additional trouble sleeping recently. It could also be a growth spurt or teething, but I don’t see any evidence of new tooth sprouts, so I don’t know about that. I really think it’s the reflux coming back. But I also found out that, apparently, I am a prime candidate for the SMITU award (
Shittiest
Mother
In
The
Universe – smite you! – I just made that up), for even considering the notion of letting my child “cry it out”
like I mentioned the other day. Dr. Sears says so, so I guess it must be true. I was just going by the books I’ve read up to this point which tell you you need to “train” your child to fall asleep on their own, otherwise they’ll never learn how. But surprise surprise, Dr. Sears says you’ll just cause your child to cry
more because you aren’t meeting their needs and when you do this you are cheaping out on creating a wonderful relationship with your baby. Wow. I really have
a lot to learn. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ll probably never be a militant full-on
attachment parenting advocate (people should do what’s right for them, without judgment), but I do think we’ve benefited from a kinder, gentler, approach towards bedtime. Yes, he does still need to be rocked to sleep for the most part,
but he falls asleep faster than he used to and cries less. Plus, I think we’re bonding more. I guess it really is a win-win.
Meats & Veg In One Big Pot!
Despite all this crazy mama drama, I have still managed to find time to try one new recipe (part of my Day Zero Project
goals). I apologize to all you vegetarians out there who will be offended by my pot roast photo up there. I’m sorry, but I still do eat meat. I’ve never been very good at cooking it because, frankly, when I lived alone I mostly ate chicken, veg, & pasta. But I now live with a bona fide carnivore and meat is what’s for dinner. It’s been dang hot here so I was looking for something to cook in the crock pot that wouldn’t heat up the house. A friend of ours came over to meet Knittymunchkin for the first time and was talking about going home to cook a pot roast. He made it sound so easy I thought, why not? I hopped on the inrawebz and found a likely recipe
here. Following some of the advice of the reviewers I changed it up a little and settled in for a 10 hour wait. It smelled great and looked good when we dished up. The flavor however, was missing something. It’s not like it was
bad, it just wasn’t
amazing. R. Darling gave it an 8 and I gave it a 7 for the meat and an 8 for the veg. As in, I would cook it again, but it sorely needs
something. Any of you lovely readers have a secrety squirrel ingredient you’d be willing to share for fantastic pot roast? I thought the balsamic vinegar I added would do the trick but sadly, no. Maybe I didn’t add enough.
Well, it’s all part of my learning curve. I’m still on the upward climb, but I will get there someday. I have to!
November 23, 2007
Thankful!
Posted by knittymuggins under Blogging, Holidays, Knitting, Life-n-Stuff, Links, Pals, Thanksgiving, Thoughts | Tags: Blogging, Citizen of the Month, Holidays, Knitting, Thank Your First Commenter, Thanksgiving |[7] Comments
Sneaking in some Thanksgiving Day knitting – Nov. 22, 2007
Thinking about Thanksgiving, and feeling the urge to post something meaningful here, I cast about the mighty intraweb on Wednesday searching for something different than the usual memes about what my favorite Thanksgiving dish is (turkey or pie – it’s a tie), whether I have to travel to get to the celebration (a little), do I shop the day after (NO!), or what my favorite Thanksgiving tradition is (don’t really have any). Of course I could post about the things that I’m thankful for, but they are so many and so widely similar to everyone else’s that I just didn’t feel inspired. Let’s just say that I feel overall, extremely thankful for all that I have (or don’t have) and all the people that I care about (and hopefully, care about me too). And I did spend a lot of time reflecting on that yesterday cozied up on the couch with R. Darling after the festivities.
But, being as this is a blog and I’m a bloggy sort of peep now, I looked harder for something special and unique. And I think I finally found it at Citizen of the Month*:
Thank Your First Commenter Day!
What a lovely way to give back to the blogging community, and those people who keep you blogging day in and day out (because lord knows, I’d have quit a long freakin’ time ago if it wasn’t for all of you commenters – and you know who you are – who take the time to stop by and listen to my nonsense and share a piece of yourself).
So a big Thanksgiving Thank You Shout Out goes to my very first commenter ever Robin M. of Yarn Crawl! This is what she wrote on my post:
“Wow, what a nice story! I enjoyed reading it and I do believe in soulmates too.”
I can’t describe the feeling it gave me to find that comment waiting for me on what had been, until that February day, a commentless blog. It was kinda like that time my junior year in high school when I got invited to this richy-rich-future-cheerleader girl’s 16th birthday party even though I was definitely a dork and definitely not in her usual crowd. I didn’t know why she’d singled me out for an invite (well, I wasn’t exactly singled out – there must have been 75 people there), unless maybe she had a moment of pity for the nerd contigent, but for just a single precious moment I didn’t feel like such a loser. So thank you Robin for the big invite to the knitting blogosphere! I can never thank you enough for taking the time to leave that first comment and every comment you’ve left since then. You’ll never know how much it meant; how much it means to me still.
And thank you to everyone else who has taken the time to stop by here and share a thought or a laugh! I get a warm and fuzzy feeling from each and every one of your comments. You all mean a great deal to me and I hope that each of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and have so much to be thankful for, from this year into the next! Best wishes from me to you!
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
* Citizen of the Month is also hosting an online Arts and Crafts Fair! Check it out – it looks cool!!