We're Gonna Make It

New day, new day, new day!

The maintenance man was already here this morning to fix the water heater.  I'm convinced it's already turned itself off again but we'll see in an hour.

Whether I get to take a hot shower or not, life is short and I'm not going to let these cookoos take me to Crazy Town with them.  I have too much to be thankful for...like The Boy!  

Okay, Let Me Get This Straight

MONDAY

Put beloved cat to sleep.  Cry.  One hour later sign a lease and send money on an apartment 2500 miles away that you've never seen in a state you've never been.  Laugh.  Comfort teething infant.

TUESDAY

Find all belongings damaged at storage facility.  Laugh.  Question construction workers and on site staff but receive no information as to how this happened.  Cry.  Comfort teething infant.

WEDNESDAY

Overhear drunken landladies upstairs arguing about how drunk they are at 6:30 am. Laugh.  Return to storage unit and bring home 4 boxes of damp clothes to be washed and re-boxed.   Cry.  Comfort teething infant.

THURSDAY

Find there is no hot water available in current apartment.  Call landladies who live upstairs and discover that a) they are already drunk for the day, b) they want you to know they blame you for no hot water, c) they hate you and want you to leave, d) they feel bad for your infant son, e) you should get ready for court.  Cry, cry, cry.  Five minutes later, see drunk landladies outside your door who coo at your son and assure you that hot water is essential and they're working on it.  Take cold shower.  Make infant son laugh.  Laugh.  Get call from storage facility who is now blaming construction company and assures you they want to make things right.  Eat cupcakes.  Comfort teething infant.  

FRIDAY

Laugh.  Cry.  Comfort teething infant.  

At Capacity

As I posted last, we had to put our cat to sleep on Monday.  It was tough, I've never had to make a decision for a pet to die like that.  An hour later we had to sign a new lease on an apartment in L.A.  

Yesterday I met with a moving specialist who suggested I get over to my storage unit and assess how much stuff we have to send out west.  Good idea, I thought.  This was the storage unit we had to purchase to house some of our belongings because we lost the free storage we enjoyed when we had to vacate our water-logged apartment last October.  We've been piling up stuff in there as we've prepared for the move too.  I was feeling quite organized which is a good feeling to have.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  

We arrived at the unit yesterday only to discover that all of our belongings had been damaged from water and wet cement.  Initially, the storage facility wouldn't tell us when this happened or what had actually happened.  In fact, they went so far as to suggest it was our fault with paying them to store things that were valuable.  We finally found out that they had done some fireproofing and failed to notify anyone of this.  The lease we signed with them said we weren't covered for things like mold, mildew, natural disasters...basically everything.  HOWEVER, why did they have to purposely ruin my stuff?  They didn't even notify us or give us the option to move our belongings.  I could have covered my stuff in the alley with a tarp and it would have been better protected.  A lot cheaper too.   

You're not supposed to put valuables in a storage unit?  WTF?  

An antique Faberge egg I understand but we were housing clothes, my wedding attire, our queen sized bed that doesn't fit in our apartment, tons of books, pictures, pillows, blankets, etc.  And now they are all damp and coated in cement film.  They've been this way for 3 weeks apparently.  

I love how we got this unit to protect our belongings from water damage only to be damaged by water.  I'm really trying to figure out why all these hardships have been challenging us lately.  And I am just about at capacity.  A little more and I may have to take a mental vacation.  

Fatty Catty

We had to put our cat down to sleep today.  "Fatty" aka Lunes was old, ill and not in good condition.  I've never had to put a pet down, my parents always handled stuff like that.  But now I'm a parent and I have to do these adult activities I guess.  Of course I called my mommy throughout the day for support.

Goodbye, Fatty, we love you!  

Chompers

The Boy is teething.  There is a little bottom tooth popping up and out of that gum line and it is wreaking havoc on our lives.  That tooth is my new nemesis.  

I don't want to say that because little boys need their little teeth but it just bites (double meaning there) when you just get out of the colicky newborn phase, have a brief stay in sleepy town and then plow head first into teething.  

My mother gave us this adorable little silver rattle that was mine.  She said I loved teething on it and thought The Boy might enjoy it as well.  He did.  He enjoyed it so much that he made his gums bleed like crazy from ramming into his little mouth.  We put him in his crib with it for all of 2 minutes unattended and returned with him oozing bloody drool all over the mattress and himself.  Lemme tell ya, you haven't lived until you see your babies blood.  Talk about a heart stopper!  

Okay, he seems to be asleep for 30 seconds so I gotta make the most of this time and attempt sleep myself.  (Yes, we're still living that way.  He's asleep?  Quick!  Get down! Get down before he wakes up and sleep yourself!)  

Loud Fan Magic

The Boy took a solid 2.5 hour nap in his crib.  Not just the travel crib in our bedroom but the actual crib in his nursery.  !!!!!  

The only downside to this is that it was until 6:45pm.  

Needless to say, he's been up tonight late.  He slept in the crib again from 9-9:45pm but I'm pretty sure he thought that was just a nap.  Mr. Jarcy just lulled him back to sleep again with our stovetop fan and we're hoping he's down for the count now.  

I don't know what we're gonna do when we have to leave this jet engine like fan behind.  Have a screaming baby?  Well then put him in front of a loud fan and watch him settle!  We'll have to disassemble it with the attached microwave and take it with us I guess.  I have yet to find a fan that trumps it in loudness.  You need it to be loud.  

Change Is Now

Hello!  

Well, it has been an exciting few weeks.  It's also been a stressful few weeks.  Mr. Jarcy, Boy Jarcy and Mrs. Jarcy are relocating to L.A. the beginning of September.  We had been planning this move for months but after yet another ridiculously unhealthy exchange with our alcoholic landladies (they live in the building) we decided to speed things up.  [Note to self:  do NOT inquire about frivolous things like heat (specifically lack there of), water damage or air quality with new landlords.  Also note to self:  Do your best to weed out alcoholic landlords who live in the building.]

In the course of one day, we arranged to move 2500 miles away to an apartment we've never seen, learned one of our pets needs to be put down in the next month and cleaned up massive amounts of rice cereal The Boy puked up.  So yeah, it's been interesting.  

That said, we're hopeful.  Life will get more settled, life will get more settled...  

4 Years Going on 60

Mr. and Mrs. Jarcy have been married for 4 years today!  Sadly, neither one of them even remembered this momentous occasion until a few days ago.  The celebration will have to wait until later in the week when they can secure a babysitter for a few hours (day hours of course).  

The Boy gave his parents a present though.  It was a present more precious that gold--it was sleep.  Thank you, Boy, we love you too.  

He's Up

Oh hello.  So, I called a postpartum depression hotline tonight while scarfing down dinner.  What did you do? 

Oh brother. 

I wouldn't say I'm clinically depressed--in fact, I know I'm not-- but it helped to call a total stranger who's a licensed therapist that I don't have to pay.  And I don't know how one gets through these first months without some blue periods.  So it was helpful, I got to vent and get support, however, there was a moment during our conversation that's sticking with me.  About 3 minutes into our talk I heard a little kid's voice and she had to cut me off, call out to her husband and get the child tended to by him.  I knew from that moment she REALLY knew what I was going through.  I also knew that moment that this struggle for time to yourself is never ending.  

And now I hear The Boy has woken up yet again.  Our bedtime ritual takes hours.  HOURS.  He just doesn't want to miss a moment I guess.  

Pooped

I am exhausted.  I'm not sure if you're aware of this but having a baby is utterly draining.  It's also magical, wonderful, meaningful, blah blah blah.  A common theme to mommyhood, however, is the exhaustion.  

I also have a new theory--you can follow all the advice the "experts" dole out in their best-selling books, however, no change will ever truly take place until you've hit that exhaustion wall.  For example--

1.  I had heard about co-sleeping--sleeping with your baby--but didn't think this was something I'd ever do.  In my experience, babies slept in cribs.  But it wasn't until Baby refused to sleep anywhere else but on me that I caved and began the new sleeping arrangement.  We were both exhausted and this was the solution.

2.  Then we both started to outgrow the co-sleeping arrangement.  Baby flailed around wildly and nursed all night so neither one of us was sleeping.  Then he clobbered my eye so bad that I had those 3 lovely trips to the eye Dr.  We were both exhausted, I was severely wounded and the solution was back to separate sleeping vessels. 

3.  I've never given The Boy formula.  He has thrived (and I mean thrived because he's bigger than 95% of all other babies his age) solely on breast milk.  And I've taken joy in this.  It's like a success amongst constant failure in this new job.  To each his own, I don't care what you feed your child, however, once I put in all that agonizing work to use my boobs to feed him, I was hooked and not willing to give formula.  But now that "exhaustion" word is popping up again and I think soon he will have his first helping of formula.  It won't replace the nursing but it will allow me 2 hours out for a pilates class while he is taken care of by his father.  We're both exhausted, my sanity is teetering so a little fake boob juice can hopefully be the solution.   

Dear god, I hope there is another mommy out there reading this.  If it's just my friends who are living the good life on an 8 month cruise in Hawaii then this post will be terribly boring.  My apologies, I'll blame it on exhaustion.  

More Unpredictable Than The Chicago Weather

The Boy is asleep.  ??!?!!!  HE IS ASLEEP!

Now I know you must be saying to yourself, "Well, Mrs. Jarcy, it IS past 11pm so OF COURSE your baby is asleep."  

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.  Yeah, it doesn't work that way with him* (*= I can only vouch for my own child).  

Earlier today he screamed his lungs out for 10 minutes because he was overtired and nothing would lull him to sleep.   Then later on I let him nurse/sleep off me for close to 2 hours because I thought I might die of exhaustion.  Now I know you must be saying to yourself, "Well, Mrs. Jarcy, surely there are other ways to make your baby sleep."  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  Yeah, it doesn't work that way with him. *.  And I don't know about you, but one must be really, really desperate for rest if they sign up for this activity.  It's not like he ate that whole time, that was just the way I could keep him mildly sedated/half asleep so I could be mildly sedated/half asleep.  And you are definitely tired if you can sleep through my little alligator nursing off you the entire time.    

Tonight he's been up for close to 3 hours (babies his age should be awake for 2 hours and that's about it) so I thought FOR SURE we'd have Meltdown City like earlier (well and last night if you want to count more than one day).  

But no!  He is asleep.  

He just flopped around in his pack and play for a little bit and then PUT HIMSELF TO SLEEP.  No cries, no carrying on, no marathon nursing session.  And for those of you who are saying to yourself, "Well, Mrs. Jarcy, I put myself to sleep all the time.  I don't see why you're making such a big deal about this."  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  Yeah, it doesn't work that way with him*.  Let me tell you, my friend, getting my baby to sleep--especially when said baby is toasty tired--is like lulling a wired up heroin addict to sleep while they experience heavy withdrawal.  Actually, it's way tougher because you're not expected to breastfeed the heroin addict. 

I better shut my own wired up brain down now.  If I don't start getting myself some more rest soon I will be looking for something with more of an edge than caffeine.  Like heroin.    

  

It's A Mindf*%#.

Yesterday was one of the most amazing days ever.  EVER means in the last 5 months.  

The Boy took 2 solid naps nowhere near me.  He was in his crib.  And he made it so easy--he just settled into the bed and nodded off to dreamland on his own.  

I needed sleep but also needed to complete essential tasks like paint my toenails and drink coffee.

This morning I tried the same strategy and felt confident it would work.  It did not.  Now he's wide awake and I am deflated.  

Um, when does this sleep schedule work itself out again?  I'm thinking when he's in college and I no longer have to sleep in the same house as him for most of the year.    

Baby's First Swing Ride

The Boy is 5 months and now he's swinging at the local park.  I sent this to Mr. Jarcy's phone and at first he thought he was running.  I guess it does look like he's charging at you, huh?  He thoroughly enjoyed it and lasted about 45 minutes in this position and happy as a clam.