Phew...

It's been two weeks (yikes!) since I posted a blog and, SOOO THANKFULLY, we're all doing much better around here! I tried to respond to everyone personally who sent along wonderful wisdom, encouragement, and advice (ok, Michelle P- I still owe you an email!), but I guess I should've updated the blog, too...
Mitchell's "non-sleep" spell lasted for about 10 days and, AUGH, that was rough! Looking back on it all, I'm thinking it was a combination of a growth spurt for him with a few other minor disruptions. Part of me feels like I was throwing my own little pity-party, but I know that I needed some wisdom AND "you can do it" cheerleading, so I APPRECIATE it all! We've had three nights in a row of sleeping 10 hours again, so I'm praying that this lasts for good!
I need to update the blog with pictures of our incredible snowfall (about 18 inches!!) and the wonderful Christmas we had, too. Maybe later tonight...or maybe tomorrow. I'll get to it soon, I promise!

Help, other mommies!

Ok, so this may be Too Much Information for some of you, but deal with it. We're having major issues with Mitchell and I need the wisdom of other Moms who've maybe experienced similar situations...so, if you're not experienced in breastfeeding, you may want to stop reading! =) Sorry.
Mitchell is 3 months +1 week old. He's great. Since (LITERALLY) Day 2 of his life, he's followed a 4 hour schedule of eating, awake-time, then sleeping. He'll eat at 8am, noon, 4pm, 8pm, and then usually 1x overnight. That's GREAT and I love, love, love the routine of it all! We follow the 'Babywise' principles of scheduling, but also know that sometimes there has to be some flexibility. Also, I LOVE breastfeeding. Of course it's not always the most convenient, but I love the overall bonding experience, the health benefits to everyone, the ease of it all, etc... but the last week has been a nightmare with Mitchell! So, I would appreciate any and all advice in figuring out what to do...
A week ago, Mitchell had slept all through the night (like 10 hours straight) for 5 nights in a row. I was a NEW PERSON...I loved the full night's sleep, I was a better mommy to Elise and Ainsley, I had plenty of energy to work out during naptimes, etc...it was great. I figured we'd turned the corner on Mitchell's overnight sleeping and he was going to follow Elise's footsteps and sleep through the night from 3 months on. Yay. I thought.
About 10 days ago, Mitchell 'changed' his nursing routine a little...just started eating only about 10 minutes instead of 20. No matter what I did, he WOULD NOT eat more than that. He was totally content and would still last until his next feeding four hours later. So, no big deal, I guess. And, hey, it's easier on everyone if he eats quicker. I assumed he was just more efficient. Maybe that was unrelated, but I'm trying to give out all the info possible. =)
Last Monday night, he woke up just 3 hours into nighttime sleep. I was shocked, groggy, and confused. I fed him, no biggie, I'd only been used to a full night's sleep for a week or so anyway. He ate well (actually, he ate MORE than he usually does- probably 25 minutes!) and then went right back to sleep. He woke up again 3-4 hours later. Same thing. That was a rough night. I figured it was nothing and just a bad night but it would go back to 'normal' after that. The following day was fine, he ate/wake/slept just like he'd been doing for the last few months. UNFORTUNATELY, that has continued for 6 days now!!!!!!!!!!!! It's killing me. Adam worked a ton of crazy hours last week and that didn't help, either. During the day, he's still following his normal routine, he's not sick at all, nothing new going on, etc...but he's just a disaster at night.
Overnight, he's actually getting worse! Last night, he woke up every 2 1/2 hours and I ended up feeding him at 10:30, 2am, 5:30, and he's waking up now at 8am. WHAT!?! We've tried letting him "cry it out" some- after 30 minutes of hysterics, I have to go in and feed him. He eats great so I really think he's hungry and not just 'stuck in the routine' of eating every few hours... Last night I even tried to 'force cluster feed' him in the evening in hopes that he'd 'store up' to get him through the night. I fed him yesterday at 4:30, 7:30pm, 10:30- that's squeezing in an extra full feeding. No such luck.
So, not only am i totally exhausted b/c I'm chasing around Elise and Ainsley, but I'm losing over an hour of sleep a night feeding him, PLUS the extra energy that is sucked out of me with two or three extra feedings in a day. I don't have any energy to work out (which is a cyclical thing, I know...IF I could work out, I'd have more energy in general..but it's absolutely impossible!). I have absolutely NO patience with Elise and Ainsley b/c my lack of sleep and I HATE that they're feeling the brunt of this! I don't know if this is just a growth spurt (how long do those last? I forget....), we know his room isn't too hot, too cold, etc... nothing else seems to have changed. And still being fairly new to this city, we don't have any "people" that I can go to and drop off Ainsley for an hour, or just sit and talk with across the kitchen table (JEAN and ALLYSON especially, I NEED YOU GUYS!!!!). And that old concept of "sleep when the baby sleeps" is impossible with three kids under 4 years old. There's no way it works out that they all sleep at the same time... and, Yeah, it's the Holiday Season, so there's extra stress in life overall, right? We're having a party here this coming week for Adam's co-workers, and then my entire family is coming a week from now. I've GOT to figure this out!
So, PLEASE! If you have any advice, let me know! shoot me an email or FB message and know that I'll be eternally grateful. We also tried giving Mitchell a bottle 2x last week of breast milk, just so we would KNOW if he'd take a bottle. No luck. Adam worked with him for about 30 minutes and so did Nana (Adam's mom was here for a few days' visit). Mitchell won't even close his mouth around the bottle. So, as of right now, the idea of supplementing with a little formula to fill him up a little isn't really feasible. I want that to be a last resort anyway...I'd love to breastfeed exclusively for at least 6-8 months. But, I'm getting desperate!
Thanks again, everyone! I appreciate your patience with reading a million details and being long distance "people" for me. Love you all, Erica =)

3 months...

It's amazing that Mitchell is already THREE MONTHS old. Wow. He's a sweet, sweet little boy and it's so fun to have him in our chaotic and goofy family. He's been smiling like crazy and giggles whenever we tickle his ribs or thighs. His giggle is outstanding, too! The girls love to listen to him and they come running when he's laughing. I love it. We love his two webbed toes and the fact that he has one goofy "Moseley" ear and one normal "Martin" ear. Outside of the last two nights, he's slept 8-10 hours at night for the last week and I (Erica) LOVE getting a full night's sleep. He's a great eater, and that's saying a lot! The poor kid is constantly hugged, kissed, petted, tickled, AS he is breastfeeding! Ainsley is potty-training, and of course she wants to 'practice on the potty' whenever he's eating...so the peaceful, quiet bonding time that I cherished with Elise....absolutely NONEXISTENT. He'll be resilient b/c of all this, right?! We love you, Mitchell. =)

ssssssnnnnnooooooowwwwwwww!!!

After six years of living in basically "snowless" cities/states, I (Erica) squealed with delight when we woke up Saturday morning to a solid dusting of snow here in VA. YAY! It's been pretty mild up until this weekend, and it's now officially winter. The girls had never seen snow, but were all kinds of excited to play in it...I'll put a little description next to each picture I've posted and let those tell the story of the morning.


This was Elise's first few seconds in the snow...she thought it was so pretty and was amazed that it was COLD!!! I guess we never really elaborated on that part when prepping her for a Winter Wonderland. We don't have snow boots for her, so rain boots + extra socks worked fine.

Elise LOVED trying to catch snowflakes in her mouth. It was so sweet to watch.


After Breakfast, Ainsley was all bundled up to go outside! Notice the SOCKS on her right hand! So pitiful....we had that other glove just a few days ago!

Just moments later, she pulled off the glove/socks and stepped out into the snow...she wasn't really excited about the cold, wind, and wet. But she is cute.

Elise in HEAVEN in the snow! She loved running, throwing snowballs, chasing Gus, etc...

You can see Elise off in the corner & Adam playing with Gus who was running like crazy!

Mitchell came out for a few minutes- totally wrapped up and warm. We had so much fun!

If there is one picture in the world that sums up Ainsley's attitude, this is it! Click on the photo and check out her bottom lip...we see "this face" ALL THE TIME!

Oops...

To be honest, I had NO IDEA that it's been over two weeks since I've written on this thing. Although many hours in each day drag on s..l...o...w...l...y, the days as a whole disappear quickly and the weeks FLY by! I feel like Mitchell should only be about 6 weeks old instead of almost 12, and how is it possible that we moved from South Carolina almost 9 weeks ago. yikes.
But, all is well in the Moseley household. I turned 33 last weekend and had a GREAT birthday! My wonderful, wonderful sister-in-law was in town visiting, so she kept the girls for SIX HOURS one day while Adam and I got to walk around downtown, take our time window-shopping, went to an awesome Greek restaurant for dinner and the local (and maybe the best we've ever had!) Ice Cream shop! After being used to being mom to all three little ones, it was so easy to just have one kid with us for 1/2 a day!
***side note... we had Mitchell with us since he's still breastfeeding and we haven't yet tried a bottle at all...it's just easier that way right now! But, he needed to eat right before we got to the restaurant and we were checking out this really cool high-end furniture store. It was pretty much empty and the sales lady suggested I just pick a comfy chair to nurse him in so I'd be more comfortable than going out to sit in the car. very nice. I sat in a super comfortable upholstered rocking chair, nursed the kid, then we took off for dinner. Adam told me later that he looked at the price tag...it was about $3300!!!!!!! WOAH! I'm pretty sure that's the most expensive piece of furniture I've ever sat on...and I was just kickin' back like I was on our 5 year old kid-used, dog-slept-on couch!
Anyway, great birthday, good Thanksgiving (more on that later!) ...all is well here. More later. Thanks for checking back when I forget to even look at this thing for weeks in a row!

Stubborn, Stubborn, Stubborn...

I blame Adam's genetics, he blames mine...but Ainsley may be one of the more stubborn kids on the face of the earth. The most common battle is food. Simply put, she doesn't like to eat anything. Ok, she likes fruit and cereal. That's about it. So we're trying the "she eats what we put in front of her or she eats nothing". That's a fun lesson for everyone. How's it going? Horribly. One day last week the only food she ate all day was lunch. She refused eggs for breakfast (which she ate tons of just a month ago! I even put syrup on it to appeal to her sweet tooth!) and I took these pictures about 3 hours later. She stood at the pantry door, doing the sign language for "eat" while saying, "Me. Eat. Pwease" Over and over again! Augh. look at that face. I kept offering the eggs, but she wouldn't even try them. She was pitiful. But, I stayed strong and didn't give in. Notice she never even dropped her purse...it was that hard on her!





I finally pulled her away from the door and this was her two minutes later- happily playing with the lens cap.




She ate a great lunch an hour later, but then refused dinner totally. It was pizza, for cryin' out loud. What kid doesn't eat pizza? I guess mine...

Update

So, back to the "school dilemma" from a few weeks ago... we ended up switching Elise to the prestigious private school here in town. It just made sense on so many levels. I (Erica) HATED making the call to the Director and teacher of her school to tell them we were pulling her out. I felt like a snob, that I was letting them down, etc... but that stuff is just hard for me just being such a 'people pleaser'... I felt bad all day once I talked to them, had to explain to Elise that she was going to change schools AGAIN, etc... but that didn't last too long.
Elise's first day at the new school (3rd preschool in 7 weeks!) was on Monday and within MOMENTS of picking her up at the end of the day, I was 100% assured that we had made the right decision. She was 'herself' again. YAY! It's hard to explain that she just seemed depressed since day 1 of the other school here in VA. She was just sad, un-motivated, extra grumpy, etc...and not her typical self. She's back to being Elise now and this week was a huge turnaround. She already has a best friend in this school- and apparently they hold hands constantly, sit together whenever possible, share their lunches with each other, etc...so adorable. The teachers are great and we couldn't be happier!
So, the class was talking this week about Manners. I think we're pretty strict about manners around our house, but I guess it's different (and more memorable) when she learns it at school. A few things that SHE (yes, a not-quite-4-year-old!) told us this week:

"Mommy, please don't talk when you have food in your mouth."
"Daddy, that's called interrupting.That's not good manners"
"Ainsley, you forgot to say 'please' when you talked to me."
"Here, Ainsley, hold my hand in the parking lot. That's good manners."

Adorable. A little annoying when your 3 year old 'corrects' you, but I guess that's part of it all. Here's her little "I have an attitude" face that we rarely see out her...but it's pretty funny. She's such a sweetheart, but when the occasional 'look' comes out, it's hard not to laugh. I got it spontaneously on film last week: