Friday, January 01, 2010

Life

So my husband is home and we are living life as a family of six.

It's wonderful, but still very different.

The Army gives soldiers 30 days of leave after a deployment, and since it coincides with the kids' Christmas break, everyone has been home for the past two weeks. We've gone from a fairly structured day to nothing.

I think it's starting to make us all batty. Routine, or at least something, is a good thing and we don't have one right now. The kids going back to school is going to be a step in the right direction.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm thrilled for this down time and that we are all together. It's just a big change and like any change, it takes a few to get used to.

I'm ready to go back to Life 2008. Right now I feel like I did when Dave was home on leave, and it's still hard to think that he's not leaving soon.

I guess the best word is that I feel unsettled, and I am emotionally preparing for him to leave in a few days. It's taking time to sink in that he's going to be here tomorrow, this week, this month . . .

On a totally different note, we have started to "Ferberize" James. I know this word makes some people sick, but we're at our wits' end. I could list everything we've tried prior to last night, and it would take most of my morning. I'm desperate for sleep. I have not had a straight night of sleep since he's been born.

Maybe that's why I feel unsettled. I'm in a chronic state of exhaustion and everything in my life reflects that - my house, my weight, my lack of organization, etc.

Last night was night number one, and it went very well. Nursed him to sleep, he fussed for a few seconds when I put him down, and then we had peace for about an hour.

When he started to cry, I sent my hubby in to resettle him. It took three visits and about 12 minutes for him to fall back to sleep. He was up two other times, Dave went in, and had him back to sleep in about two minutes.

He was up for the day at 5:30, which is not ideal, but at least we didn't suffer through hours of crying like I was dreading.

Will see how tonight goes.

Wish me luck.

I HATE the sound of a crying babe.

2 comments:

trooppetrie said...

i hate the sound of a crying baby too, but we had to do that with our first child. it only took a couple of nights. ahhhhhhhhh sleep

Kelly said...

good luck Amy. I just read your FB post about a setback. I've read the Ferber book front to back several times (along with about 5 other books!) I too tried everything first. Yes, some people think you are mean for doing it, but people don't do it because they WANT to, its because, the HAVE to. Out of everyone I talked to only found 2 people who didn't some version of it.....both their kids still sleep with them at 7+ years! Feel free to email me if you need support!
Kelly Ray