To move or not to move?

We live in a two bedroom apartment, but it is the size of a 3 bedroom. Which means that our master bedroom is HUGE! I have a king bed, two end tables, twin bed, toddler bed, crib, dresser, computer desk, vanity, two bookcases, and a jewelry chest in our room, and we still have tons of floor space.

The problem is that both our kids sleep in our room. My son falls asleep in my bed or my arms, and then is placed in his crib. He wakes up at least twice a night. The worst night he was up 6 times. I think if he had his own room he might sleep through the night. I think that some of the times he just gets woken up by noises we make. Daddy snores, mommy coughing, and sister crying or laughing.

My daughter sleeps in our bed still. I can't try to get her to sleep in her own bed because if she screams and cries (which she will) she will wake up her brother. Then I will be dealing with two extremely unhappy children at one time. If you have more than one child then you feel my pain. One cries so the other can't sleep then they both start to cry followed by you crying as well (if you can't beat 'em, join 'em).

I think that if we had a 3 bedroom I might be able to get the kids to sleep in their own beds and sleep through the night. I am not sure if this plan would work, but it sure does sound good!

We looked at renting some houses, buying right now is not an option. To big, to small, to expensive is all we found so far. The problem is I love where we live. We park indoors so during inclement weather I don't have to take the kids out to go somewhere. I love our neighbors (on our floor). So I want to stay there, but I want 3 bedrooms.

A 3 bedroom opened up on our floor. Which I felt was a sign from God. My husband won't even look at it. It costs more, has less square footage, and has only 1 bathroom. We currently have 2. Another apartment opened up on the 2nd floor, and is exactly like ours. The only difference is that it has 3 bedrooms. Basically our big bedroom only with a wall in the middle.

We told our landlord that we would take it, but now my husband says "No". He says it is stupid to move into the exact same size apartment, but pay more money (70$ more)! I agree, but desperately want the 3rd bedroom! I understand his concerns about money especially with the economy the way it is. Plus, with me not working I feel that when it comes to money I don't have much of a say! We already turned off the cable to save money for a while. I know if I made a fuss he would move for me, but what if he is right and it's a bad decision.

I guess my biggest problem is that I don't know how to get my kids to sleep when I want them to sleep. I am trying for a bed time before 9pm, but most nights I am left at the mercy of my children and when they decide to fall asleep. I don't know what to do! I can't just throw them in bed and let them cry, and I won't

Poor Little Guy!

As if choking wasn't bad enough. My son spent most of the weekend sleeping. I guess he was preparing for his marathon of vomiting and diarrhea. He woke up Monday morning vomiting, and it didn't stop until late Tuesday night. He was able to keep enough down that he didn't get to dehydrated. He is feeling much better, but still has the diarrhea. The doctor said it was, "Gastroenteritis".

Worlds Worst Mother!

It is official I am the worlds worst mother. I gave my son pizza crust. He is 8 1/2 months, and eats biter biscuits, wagon wheels, crunchies, and puffs (all from Gerber). I thought that he would be fine. I was sitting right next to him carefully watching him. I kept checking to make sure he didn't bite off a big piece.

I don't know how it happened, but it did. Some how he took a bite that was just the right size to choke him. He started vomiting. I didn't know what to do. I have had CPR classes, and am CPR certified. Nothing I learned prepared me for what happened. I didn't expect anything that happened to actually happen. I didn't know he would vomit, and he definitely didn't grab at his throat. I guess that's only for adults. I held him forward so gravity could do it's job, but other than that I froze. I was so scared I couldn't do anything.

After he stopped vomiting we thought all was ok. He never stopped breathing. I was holding him close, and feeling really bad. Then I realized he wasn't fine at all. I yelled for my husband who put his finger down Christopher's throat and discovered something in the back. Unfortunately, all he did was push it further back. During all this time he was breathing fine. So I think it was just stuck in the back of his throat.

He eventually swallowed it, and was fine. I held him close for ever, feeling horrible. Afterward he was sore for a while, but back to his usual self after about 15 minutes of resting on Mommy's lap. Even though he is fine I still feel awful. I can't believe I could have killed my son. I feel horrible. I can't let it go, and right now can't forgive myself.

Help Please!

I don't know what has happened to people today. It is as if offering to help someone has become a crime. I'm talking about any kind of help from opening the door, driving courteously, and what ever else you can think of. I know that with my two kids there are many times that I look like I need help, because often I do. It is really hard to do simple things like open doors when you are pushing a double stroller. Most times people don't even open doors for me. In fact I have held open doors for a lot of people who don't mind pushing by me and my two kids.

Fitting a double stroller in an elevator is hard to. I once had a lady move in front of me and stand as we waited for the elevator. I think she didn't think we would fit, and wanted to make sure she would get in. We had been waiting for the elevator for a while because we were on the top floor. When the elevator came I finally said, "We will all fit if you let us get in first." That way I could push the stroller up against the wall and not other people. I just can't believe how rude people are.

Due to the fact that my husband works nights I am often left to do the grocery shopping by myself. Or at least I am the only adult. Shopping carts are designed for one kid only. Even some of the newer ones that hold more than one kid are not baby friendly. I carry my youngest in a front carrier and my oldest goes into the cart. It is very hard to maneuver this way. Try bending down to pick up something with 20 lbs strapped to your chest. Yikes! And it is next to impossible to pick up anything heavy like a case of bottled water or pop. Do you think anyone offers to help! No.

I don't know what is wrong with people. You don't have to carry the kids, change their diapers, or buy my groceries, but would it hurt to be polite and hold the door?

Schedule!

I am fighting my kids and my lazy procrastinating inner urges and trying to develop some type of a daily schedule. It is not going so good. One night both kids are asleep by 8pm then they both wake up around 9 and are up a couple of hours. I am trying, but this is actually really hard.

To complicate things even further my kids couldn't be more different from one another. My daughter is like me and would rather stay up late and sleep in. My son is ready for bed by 7:30 most nights and awake at about 6:30 most mornings. You could set a clock to him. When he starts to get cranky at night I know its almost 7. He needs the schedule most of all because if he is up to long. He becomes a screaming monster!

I know my daughter needs some regularity with her daily life to. Most days she has trouble taking a nap. If I can't get her to sleep before 4 I make her stay up. Or at least I try to. She can't sleep after 4 or she will be up until midnight or one. The worst night was 3am when she fell asleep. Then of coarse baby brother was up at 6:30 all smiles! I just don't know what to do.

Part of the problem is she has never learned to fall asleep on her own. She falls asleep in my arms or in the car. That's it! So if baby brother is awake then I can't lay down with her. I tried putting her in bed and letting her scream for a while that had disastrous consequences. For now I am just doing the best I can. Hoping the day I can just tell her to go to bed comes sooner than later.

I am flexible on what we do during the day, but I try to get some things in. We watch Muzzy or some thing in Spanish at least once a day. I don't make them watch it, but I have it on so they can watch if they want to. I try to play with each of them separately a few times during the day. As well as letting them play together and by themselves. We read every day, and work on sign language. My daughter learns them quicker than I do. Plus, she makes up her own if she doesn't know one for what she is trying to say. We go a lot of places as well. Which also makes a schedule hard to follow.

Cloth diapers!

I desperately want to help out the environment. I am embarrassed by the amount of diapers that I am constantly adding to land fills. However, I have looked into cloth diapers and am at a loss. Some newer ones are super expensive, and the older ones are a joke. I don't want to invest a lot of money in something that won't work. I also don't have tons of money to throw around either!

The cheap ones at Wal-mart like stores look ridiculous. You fold them around your child like your kid is Square, and then you safety pin them on! I am not comfortable pinning anything on my babies. How did people survive before we had disposable diapers. I tried these cloth ones and my fingers are sore. Not only are my kids not square, but they also don't lay still long enough to pin anything on! And let me tell you what it only takes pinning yourself once or twice before you give this up!

I really want to do my part. I have two little ones in diapers and use up to 100 diapers a week! I buy 3 boxes of 92 diapers every 2 weeks. Sometimes we have some left over and some weeks we run out! If anyone out their has an ideas or tips I am all ears.

The emergency room.

Everyone hates to go to the emergency room. However, the worst things always happen at night. They either get worse at night or begin at night. So what do you do. As a parent you and I both know it is torture to wait until the doctors office open when we know our children are suffering.

My son is clearly in pain this evening and I have no idea why. It looks like gas pain, but I can't get it to go away. He has Acid Reflux and that in itself can be painful. I don't know what to do. I was literally in tears earlier holding him, because I could just feel how much he was suffering, but I didn't know what to do. I couldn't do anything but hold him. I feel so worthless to him. I want to take him to the ER, but I also know it is not life threatening, or I believe it's not. That doesn't make the situation any easier. He is 6 months and clearly in a lot of pain.

He's grunting and tightening up his entire body. His temp is 100.9. And he keeps lurching like he is going to vomit, but doesn't. Sometimes it sounds like something came up but he swallowed it. His eyes were watering like he was crying from the pain. I kept trying to burp him, but it didn't seem to help. I gave him gas drops, his acid reflux med, tried to feed him, and gave him Tylenol. He finally fell asleep. I want to take him to the ER, but at the same time I really don't. Nobody wants to sit for hours and hours unless you truly have to .

I know when your supposed to go to the emergency room, but it is hard to watch someone so little suffer. Since he's resting I will wait, but if he isn't able to sleep due to it then we will be off to the hospital. I am really afraid he will vomit in his sleep, and I won't hear him. He's only 5 feet from my bed, but I am still worried. Thank God he is still on his apnea monitor. If he wasn't I would probably be at the hospital already. Because of the machine I know his heart rate and breathing are OK. Hopefully he can rest until the morning then see the doctor.

What more than likely will happen is that he will have an unpleasant night, but be fine when I finally get him in front of the doctor. Which will then make me appear totally insane, but I am used to that. Every since my son spent most of March in the hospital, and half of that in the Pediatric Intensive Care unit, I have rushed him to the pediatrician for every cough, sneeze, and fever. I am not taking any thing for granted. The time he spent in the hospital were some of the worst days of my life!