On the mend

Aubrey seems to be feeling better...and I am feeling a bit better.

When Wes got home from work yesterday I just laid it all out to him. He is a person that if you explain it in great detail he seems to get it better.

I told him that first and foremost I thought he was an amazing father and I do appreciate all that he does for me and Aubrey. I just felt like he got a lot more down time and time away from the reality of having a baby. I realize that when I chose to be a stay at home mom that I would be with her all day every day, and don't get me wrong I love it, but sometimes I need some time to remember who I am, and recharge my batteries. Lauren I agree with you on her nap times not counting. That's when I am trying to get everything else done that needs to be done. I like how you put it..it's a race, and no that's not what I qualify as me time. I explained that if I had a chance for some downtime I would be a much happier person, therefore being a much happier mommy and wife. I don't like being crabby, and I definitely don't want to nag.

I then explained how it hurt my feelings how he knew how sick I felt the night before, and that if I could just take some medicine and get some sleep I'd feel better, but yet he still insisted that he needed the whole nights sleep. He is normally a very caring person and that just wasn't like him at all.

I told him that I function off of very little sleep every day of the week, and yes I don't leave the house but I do have a full time job here. I need sleep too. I asked him to reverse the roles...if I was the one with the outside job and he was a stay at home dad. Would he consider it fair that he had to get up alone with her 5 nights a week and also take half of the weekend shifts as well? And sometimes I still get more of the weekend ones...she tends to wake up at 11-11:30, 1ish (this one isn't every night...she seems to be cutting this one out), 3ish, and 6-7ish right now. On weekends I am the one who takes the 11 one, he'll take the 1 if it happens and if not the 3, then I get the 6 and she is up for the day, while he gets to sleep in. If she does get up at one, I get the 3 and the 6 and stay up with her. So I never get the luxury of sleeping in on Saturdays. Oh and I am also the one who puts her to sleep at 8. So yeah I wasn't feeling we were on even ground here.

So we have agreed on he will put her to sleep at 8, and take the first feeding at 11 on the weeknights. That way he is still getting enough sleep for work the next day. On weekends he'll do the first two feedings and let me get some sleep. I'm okay with getting up with her for the day at 6 or 7 because I am a morning person, but it was getting hard when I had been up all night too...but with him letting me sleep virtually from 10 to 3 helps a ton.

I might have to push him for a few days until he gets used to a little less sleep, but I feel better about it since we talked. I didn't want to get to resenting him. After our talk he told me to go take some medicine. He then proceeded to wash up the bottles I had used during the day, and fixed dinner for us. I rested on the couch all evening. I then took some of the nighttime medicine and I got to sleep till the 3am feeding this morning. I am feeling a little more normal, although I still have this nasty cold, but it'll go away after a few more dates with Tylenol Cold :) I'm still hoping and praying Aubrey doesn't catch it, or that we haven't caught the stomach virus she had. Wes is off work next week so we have lots of family time things planned and I don't want it ruined by sickness.

Oh and Colleen, that magic 8 number is next Wednesday. Like I said above she seems to be cutting out the 1am feeding...she didn't last night but I suspect it's because she's been sick and up until 8 last night we had been giving her only 2oz of formula and 2oz of pedialyte. But under normal circumstances the previous 3 nights up to her getting sick she slept from either 8pm-1pm or 10pm-3pm depending on when we got her to bed. So I am hoping this is going to start being normal.

So hopefully the McClanahan household is on the mend :)