Saturday, January 31, 2009

Another night at the Sweeney residence

Well, RED40 - NEw Bed!

I JUST DON'T KNOW!

So, Last night Natalie took an hour to go to bed and all was well until 1130 she crawls into bed with me until Stephen came upstairs to get her. She slept from 12 - 7 no problems. Her attitude is better today. I told her the t.v. was still a little angry at her for waking mommy up. So its 830 and its still off.

Sylvia has a stuffy nose so she couldn't use a pacifier or nurse which led to being up every hour.

I am thinking that all these sleepless nights have created the same effect as if I have smoke crack because I am considering getting the girls ready soon and going to Borders and then to Chick - Filet for lunch. I need to go to the grocery store as well - Oh my goodness, where is my crack pipe, I must have put it down and just can't see it at the moment.

My only hope of surviving this day is my dear friend Noelle aka Owen. I text messaged owen and let her know my plans and see if she was "down" well, nothing... no response. She probably read it and threw her phone out her window (through the glass because her window wasn't open, being that its January) in fear of spending a day in public with all the Sweeney girls!

I will keep you updated - I have my third poopy diaper to go change already this morning!
and.... Natalie is on top of the dining room table yelling that she needs help getting down.

also, quick diaper complaint - why the hell, after I have changed thousands of diapers, do I still put them on backwards with the sticky tabs on the top? I must do that 4 times a week... why can't they make the ones with stickys a different color : (

Happy Saturday to all -

Friday, January 30, 2009

Natalie Irene Sweeney


The Nucleus of the Sweeney family.

Not sure how she did it in just 24 months but Natalie has managed to become the center of our family. If she's in a bad mood, we are all in a bad mood, if she is tired we are all tired... and if she decides to throw a fit - sure enough - we all throw a fit!

Our latest issues with Natalie started about 2 1/2 - 3 weeks ago. She all the sudden decided she did not want to sleep in her room. So let the fits and temper tantrums begin. These were not your "let her cry it out" tantrums either, she ripped off the door knob safety cover, she kicks the door, she screams and cries until she gets sick and she doesn't slow down, not even after an hour.
Now how do we fix this ......
Trying to figure out what changed and how to fix it became our mission almost immediately after the problem began.
A couple factors were apparent -
#1 Sylvia had croup and was up during the night and I couldn't spend any time with her in the evening
#2 She started to open door knobs by herself
#3 a t.v. addiction forms to the show JoJo, seems as though daddy went from letting her watch one show before bed to watching show after show, after daycare - JoJo- Before Daycare JoJo - at night JoJo .. JO JO JO JO JO JO I could puke on the little clown right now!
#4 She had been getting into the candy drawer all by herself (we let this happen, we know it was bad, but we didn't want candy to become this big forbidden treasure) we aren't talking LOTS of candy just the occasional Dum Dum, Rolo, and tootsie roll why I even admit to this is because this brings us to the first thing we try to do to fix the problem ELIMINATE ALL RED40 from Natalie's Diet!!!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allura_Red_AC
I did my research and there has been people whose kids have been diagnosed with ADHD and when they removed RED40 from the diet, all was better. so, why not ... worth a shot -
Well, its a lot harder that "give it a shot" RED40 is in everything! Not only things red, which is what I originally thought. Anyways, long story short - after three days Natalie showed immediate response. She wasn't as angry. Started sleeping better not great but better...it became more of sleep walking. She was getting up in the middle of the nights throwing fits, now she just brings me stuff in her sleep - sweet that she is so kind at 230am but somewhat annoying at the same time. She brings me blankets, stuffed animals, books, you name it ... Problem is, we will never really now if its the RED40 until we can control her entire diet and we haven't gone as far as sending her food with her to daycare but it may have to come down to that. We had a relapse on Monday evening into the night .. screaming yelling, crying, got up at 345am ready to go - Mommy went downstairs and hung out with her and Sylvia, whom she woke up, and hung out on the floor... because I refused to turn on the t.v.

The T.V.
The t.v. is the devil and all those people that say it will rot your brain completely meant to say "it will make your two year old evil, and demanding" I truly hope and believe that Natalie can get over this addiction. We may have to put her in a program but she can do it!
We got her off of JoJo but .. ... the little red headed clown (not me) was replaced with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse - to which she refers to as.. Mickey Mouse and clubhouse.
Oh Mickey, Mickey, your not so fine.. . your not so fine, but you do blow my mind!
I love Natalie coming to me in a sleep daze at 5am after a long night of sleep walking and asking to go downstairs and watch mickey mouse and clubhouse - NOT
We had a break through Thursday morning because, after a night of Natalie coming to me at 230am and demanding to sleep on top of me for an hour and then me having to go spend another hour putting her back to sleep in her own room to get back to my room at 430 to get back up at 6 ... anyways, you get the point - so after all of that I rushed down at 6am and turned the t.v. on and changed the screen to a black video screen of some sort - I then proceeded to tell Natalie when she came downstairs and said.. OH NO - T.V. Broken - that the t.v. was not working because the t.v. in Mommy's room told the big t.v. downstairs that she didn't sleep in her room last night and that the t.v. only works if she sleeps in her own room - then I played it off and said.. that silly t.v. - Wouldn't you know she looks at me and says,, Oh darn it - I need batteries for the t.v. - then she sat at the table and ate breakfast like a good girl with no fights! Later on that night I brought home a bed frame bed that I had gotten on Craig's list and put it up in her room and told her that the t.v. got it for her so she could sleep in her own room... and ... wait for it.... Last night she slept all night not one peep from 9am to 7am! (still takes a while to wind her down to sleep, about an hour it took Stephen)
So, my question to you is this,
Is it RED40 or T.V. and will we ever know?
I should mention that she was out of daycare Tuesday and Wednesday because of Snow soooo, her diet was completely in our control.... RED40 , T.V. , RED40, T.V. ??


My Vent Box

I finally came to the conclusion that I have been bugging my sister and mom with these "issues" if you will of parenting and family life in general. I feel like I need a place to vent - so this will be my vent box. When I have issues I will jump on to gmail and bring up my vent box and go to town. Knowing me I will vent, finish venting, and then 20 minutes later jump back on the vent box and delete everything I wrote. I can feel my hand reaching for the backspace button now as I write... delete it.. Jessica.. delete it... you should be working ... not blogging... delete it Jessica....

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO .. Jessica Stay Strong ... VENT