Mommy Had a Breakdown

"What a Day!"

My perch all night next to his crib

Could the day get any better?


For the past 4-5 nights Jack has gone down great but then the witching hour hits and it is downhill from there. He will wake up crying about every 30 minutes to an hour and takes a small army to calm him down, put him down, and by the time we drift off again...he's back up screaming. Since I am staying home I am alright with taking the brunt of it...but I can't do it all night because then during the day I am not stable enough to tend to Jack. Last night we set up a time table where if Jack gets up doing your slot you are the sole person in charge of tending to him. Last night Nick tried everything from walking, rocking, swinging, singing, gas medicine, Tylenol (in case he was teething), and nothing worked. We decided to let him cry it out since it seemed like it could be separation issues but after about 15 minutes we were worried the neighbors would call CPS so we rescued him and calmed him down in our bed for a minute. Out of desperation I thought back to Super Nanny's that I had seen where she would have the parents sit at the crib with their hand on the baby til he/she fell asleep...after a night or two of that you move to the end of the crib. Then to the door, the hall, etc. Hence the picture of my stool that I sat on for 1 hour and a 1/2 last night. I'm not sure if it is a stage, teething, or something we have done....but we cant go on like this...any suggestions would be appreciated.



Burning on fumes Jack and I headed to the Nissan in McKinney to get the Pathfinder serviced because it was Tuesday, Ladies Day, and you got a discount. When I pulled up there were a ton of cars but I had an appointment and was told when it was made that the service was only a 45 minute procedure. When we checked in the man said it would be an hour if I skipped the car wash. I love a car wash but with Jack in a dirty Service Area at the dealership I said, "No wash today!". The place was packed and an hour and a half later I went to check since the Pathfinder hadn't been taken back yet and the bug man was coming at noon. The first lady was rude, the man that checked us in told me he tried to find me earlier to tell me it was going to take longer so I could reschedule (hello, I was walking around trying to keep a bored baby happy-have you ever heard of looking harder, paging me, or calling my cell phone), so with tears in my eyes I told them to give me my keys because we were leaving. They insisted they would take the car then and fix it- 30 more minutes later the car was ready leaving us 15 minutes to make it home for noon.



On the way home the tears were held by my panic to make it home in time. As we walked in the bug man was ringing the doorbell. When I opened the door a bill from Manuel the yard crew was on the doormat. He has been cutting our grass since Jack was born so Nick could spend time with Jack and since it is so hot. For $20 a week front and back it is worth it...especially since up to this point he is so unorganized that he hadn't billed us. We were hoping he wouldn't realize...but he did so there in front of me was a $450 bill for lawn service. My stomach was turning looking at the bill all in one sum rather than monthly tolerable increments. The bug man looked at the samples we saved and I know we live in another country...but we can't possibly be close enough to Argentina for their ants to invade our walls. The price tag to spray for them...$100. Really?!?!? They are ants. I kept rambling to the man that I had just quit my job and was there any other way to kill them and was he sure that is what they were....when the water just kept running in the bathroom...it never does that and it was loud. By the time the $100 stopped ringing in my ear...I couldn't ignore the water and looked around the corner to see about an 1 of water covering the floor. In a panic I broke down in tears (big tear with crazy breathing-you know a full fledge breakdown) begging the bug man to help me shut off the water. He assured me it was an easy fix, talked to Nick about the bugs and toilet, he sprayed the house, and left Jack and I alone to breath.

Forget anything else responsible that I should have done this afternoon...Jack and I went and crawled up in my bed and slept til Nick got home.

After a little nap....we are going to fix the toilet, have dinner, and pray for a better night and day tomorrow. Sorry this was so long...it has been one hell of a day!