Minute for Minute

Mary Grace was up for two hours during the night on Sunday night. Two hours. So, on Monday afternoon, I said, "You owe me two hours of sleep. You need to go to your room and stay there until the timer goes off." I set the timer and went to bed.

Claire needed sleep, too, since MG woke her up during the night, so she went upstairs for the duration. I added time to the timer when MG got up to come talk to me about how mean I am, but I didn't make Claire serve that time. MG got really honked off when Claire was allowed to come downstairs, and then she got supremely pissed when the school bus brought all her friends home, and she still had 30 minutes to go.

Well, wouldn't you know it, but she only came down ONCE last night? HUGE improvement.

She's serving her 15 minutes now (because that's how long it took me to go back to sleep. She's not sleeping, she's up there reading books, but I don't care as long as she knows that for every minute she takes from me during the night, I'm going to take a minute out of her day.

Added bonus - making her stay upstairs during the day by herself is helping to eliminate her (completely irrational and unfounded) fear of being upstairs alone.

Cross your fingers that this solves the problem, because I would really like to get a couple uninterrupted nights of sleep before this baby is born.

In other news, I saw my midwife today. I have gained a total of four pounds in the 24 weeks I've been pregnant (WOO HOO!!!) and my blood pressure is holding steady at 118/62. I go back for the glucose tolerance test (yuck) in two weeks. I could do better with drinking enough water. I did much better with hydration in my previous pregnancies, back when I had time to worry about myself. I've had some contractions, and some headaches from being dehydrated, mostly because I'm a twit.

Since school started last Tuesday, I have remembered everything. This is no small feat, as we've had appointments and both the kids were "helper of the day" so they were responsible for snack for the entire class, and then the school sends stuff home with them overnight that needs to be returned the next day. We've had appointments and playdates and birthday parties... In spite of all this I have remembered to take everything and everyone everywhere that it or she needed to be! Of course, pointing this out is going to jinx me, and I'll forget something really important any minute now, but it bears pointing out that sometimes I completely rock.

Major progress has been made in the rearranging of the rooms, thanks to BJ. Aside from the enormous pile of stuff to take to Goodwill, most everything is back where it belongs. Once we get the office squared away (which is mainly up to BJ because I don't know what half of that stuff is) we'll be ready to start on the baby's room. I can't believe we're really close enough to start making a room for the baby. Woah. The carpet in that room is kind of brownish gold, which is going to be a challenge. I need to think seriously about window coverings, too.

There's a lot to do between now and December, but right now all I really want to do is nap. Maybe I'll put in a movie for the girls and do just that!