This is what we eat over the course of a 28 day cycle. Add oatmeal, yogurt, milk, eggs, flour, apples, bananas, etc. to cover breakfasts and occasional baking. Otherwise, this covers 90% of dinners and lunches. I used to make 14 meals per 28 cycle. I rarely got through them all. About 9 dinners gets us through just barely. We always have two choices of leftovers in the fridge (so lunch and dinner are different) and I cook a dinner when one runs out. So long as we like what I made in the first place – it works out well. If we don’t like what I made… well, that’s when a trip to Arby’s is in order.
I also freeze meals that are too large to eat in several days or if I just want emergency rations in the freezer. Some months I eat a lot out of the freezer and other months I don’t.
January:
Chicken Spinach Parmesan Linguine (was a side dish – I added chicken)
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Burritos
Steak, Bread, Roasted Veggies
Meatloaf, Bread, Green Beans
Ham Potatoes Supreme (another side dish with meat added)
Handy Meat Pies + Roasted Veggies + Rice
February:
Pizza
Red River Beef Stroganoff (allrecipes.com)
Whole chicken plus homemade bread
Chicken Potluck Rice Pilaf (was a side dish – i added chicken)
Parmesan Herb Chicken + Rice + Salad
Baked Potato Soup (allrecipes.com) – Surprised us by being REALLY good!
Bean Burritos (beans, chili powder, tomatoes, onions, garlic, salt)
White Cheese Chicken Lasagna (allrecipes.com)
March (use up what’s in the cupboard plan):
Stroganoff
Cream of Rice Soup
Pizza
Chicken Spinach Parmesan Linguine
Burritos
Baked Potato Soup
Spaghetti & Meatballs
No-Meat Enchiladas (with white beans instead of refried)
Chicken Rice Casserole
Several hours on the phone and piles of paper later, I now have chosen a new insurance provider and submitted a rebate. But why….. why is my stack of papers on the counter still growing and not shrinking?
Yesterday I decided that it was time to give the ol’ cry it out a try with Maggie. We did that from early on with Anna… but it isn’t much fun and I didn’t want to do it again. I told myself, before Maggie was born, that I would wait until she was 3 months old. I really felt like it was TONS more effective with Anna after she was older than 3 months. Well, 3 months came and went with Maggie and I still didn’t want to do the crying thing – after all, we were comfortable, if a bit sleep deprived.
Well, eventually some of us decide that enough is enough. I hoped it would work. Maggie cried for 1 hr. 15 minutes the first nap and then only napped for 20-30 minutes. She cried for almost an hour for the second nap, then I fed her because she cried into her next feeding time. After being up for another half hour (the poor thing was beat!) I laid her down again and she cried for another little while and then slept for only 20 minutes. Went for a drive and she got another 20 minutes – YAY! That extra 20 minutes helped immensely.
SHE ONLY CRIED maybe 10 minutes before falling asleep last night. And then she woke up and cried maybe 2-4 times (I was tired and didn’t count carefully)… 10:30pm, 11-something…. maybe that’s all? Each time she cried only 10-20 minutes. Not that bad. And she hasn’t worked up to the gagging, hysterical crying. Just mad, loud, tired crying. A little confused perhaps, but not frantic. This is good. Frantic is very hard on Mommy. I have gone in and rubbed her back now and then and said “night-night” when she seemed to be more lost than usual. Oh, and she’s staying on her tummy now instead of rolling all over, which is great, because that’s how she sleeps best.
Today she has cried for about 2-30 minutes (wide range, I know) before each nap. She takes four naps a day and eats five times a day, just so ya know. Oh, and she was NOT fed last night except at 5am because mommy was bursting and had planned on feeding her at 2-3 am but we slept through it. Oops? This is going well. This is way better than waking up every 1-2 hours to give her the pacifier or feed her. Nope, she’s not using the pacifier at nap time now. Just when she’s awake and cranky. Which she is. She’s napping ok, but is not well-rested yet.
Sorry for the rambling – it’s the way my brain is working now.
Thoughts on sleep:
Maggie takes good naps. She takes 30-45 minute naps and she takes 1 1/2-2 hr naps. She still takes about four naps a day. (three during the “day” and one in the “evening”. I use quotation marks, because some of you call our “evening” the afternoon and our “day” the morning. What can I say?) To fall asleep, I stand next to her and hold the pacifier in her mouth until she falls asleep. She rubs her face down on the bed and turns her head back and forth and tries to grab her pacifier…. so this is actually a tricky thing to do. It is much easier on the back than carrying her until she falls asleep, but leaning over the crib isn’t so hot for your back either. Just the same, she is an angel when asleep.
At night, she usually takes a little longer than the 5-15 minutes it takes to get her to sleep during the day. Sometimes is takes a full half hour, Brian and I switching off “holding” the pacifier (we’ve already discussed how this is more complicated than it sounds). We have pretty good timing too – laying her down when she is tired and fed and changed and just Ready for sleep. Anywho, during the night she sleeps 3-4 hours in the first stretch. Then she wakes up and yells for food. Then she wakes up every 30 minutes to 3 hours for the pacifier and nursing. She always goes back to sleep for at least 1 1/2 hours if I feed her. Not so much if I give her the pacifier.
All that was just fine for five months. (Almost five months anyway.) It is a comfortable, familiar pattern. And I wake up with energy. But I am pretty tired come the afternoon. My brain functions so much better on sleep. And my brain stops functioning in the afternoon and evening. Brian is used to hearing me say things like, “I don’t know the answer, you need to decide.” Because I can’t always process thought. So I think it’s time to try something. Time for her to break a few habits. I hope it’s not too painful.
People, you have read far more baby sleep books than I have. If you have read something or just DONE something – tell me your thoughts. What should I tackle first? Second? How should I tackle it?
On TMJ:
Researching insurance, researching doctors, need to get some treatment for my jaw which clicks and grinds something terrible.
On Brian’s work:
BPA offered him the job – with matched salary and improved benefits! (Exact same “job” but with BPA instead of through a contractor) So this is great news! Really need to figure out benefits now so B can sign up.
Maggie watching the book reading in her awesome loud diaper:
I can’t leave her on the couch any more.
My favorite baby hold that I’ve used for some time. You can hold one or both legs. Works when they’re even younger… you just fold them up tighter if they’re floppier.
Add a swimming suit, a rubbermaid tub and some new toys and you’ve got entertainment for an hour:
We made “bread cookies” with bread and cookie cutters. Then we made some cream cheese runnier and added red food coloring. Then she “frosted” her cookies. She could use some more frosting practice. 😀 Video below:
Talking on the computer with Grammy who was with G-Gma the first week while she was recovering.
I like the game, “Everybody Lay on the Bed”
First food: home-canned pear in a mesh teether!
Anna learning to spread thinned, pinked cream cheese onto bread cut out into shapes with cookie cutters:
Anna getting crazy dressed:
“We’re going to Grandma and Grandpa’s on Saturday” (done on Friday night):
Anna and Maggie – Maggie rolling from front to back:
Here’s a little song I sang last night while trying to sit on the couch with Brian…. but Anna kept needing things and then Maggie woke up. Eventually it was all of us on the couch wiggling and trying to get comfortable. The tune is to I’ll Fly Away.
I’ll hide away oh glory
I’ll hide away
from the crying and the whining
I’ll hide away.
just a few more weary days and then
I’ll hide away.
In the dark and quiet oh yeah
I’ll hide away.
