Naptime

Naptime has been sacred around my house since I put my firstborn on a schedule around 3 months old. We have lived our life around said schedule. This may be crazy to some but it is what has kept our family sane- well at least me! Our designated naptime is approximately 1-3 pm and this means we are home at this time EVERYDAY (weekends included). We have rarely made exceptions. Our firstborn is so much more well behaved when he is on a schedule and when he has his nap. Then when I got pregnant with our second child, I really need that nap. And the same when I got pregnant a third time.

Our second, J, has begun to realize he is now the middle child and getting less of my undivided attention than ever before. He screams when I leave him at school, naptime, bedtime ...oh and now at pick up time too! Now tell me, why in the world he would fake-cry at pick up time? If daddy puts him down at nap time, J slept almost 3 hours but then 1 hour for me! Oh and then I catch me eldest son, D, downstairs eating chips! And this entire time the baby has been sleeping for 5 min then fussing until I help her get back to sleep.

I guess it's about time that I give up my nap! And I think I can do it if baby T will only wake up once a night jan stead of twice. She is slowly beginning to sleep a 5 hour stretch (some nights). She went in for her 1 month appointment last Friday and already weighed 10 pounds!

Speaking of doctor's appointments, I feel like we are constantly going -- today it was for our dog Lily. She is healthy, just past due for her annual shots. And I got het some medicine for her 'crazies.' Yes, our dog is crazy! She is a very sweet border collie, but is very obsessive since she hurt her leg in 2010, coincidentally around the same time our first child was born. Lily was not allowed to run at all for about 6 months and began to obsessively lick and destroy anywhere she saw light flickering. I know that she needs more exercise, but even after a long walk or run she will lick/ destroy an area where the light flickers. She was also bit in 2008 by another dog and gets scared and aggressive around other dogs. It scares me to take Lily on a walk with all my kids because she growls at other dogs and may instigate a dog to attack. So, all this to say she is not exercised like she should be. Maybe this should motivate me to get up early and run her... But so far sleep is still winning. 

And thinking about exercise, that is really a goal of mine. I would like to lose 10 pounds to be back at my pre-pregnancy weight but I have a hard time losing it while breastfeeding. Maybe because it's hard to run until after a feeding, maybe my body just wants to hold onto it for reserves, or maybe I am just hungry. But whatever the reason I really would like to, but I will be ok if it takes awhile as long as I can find a time to exercise. Any suggestions when to exercise with 3 kids around? And my other problem is that my abdominals split during my pregnancy and I'm not sure how to be careful with them - so I've been trying to research that.