Snow Days Means School Until July!

Last Tuesday night I kept saying a silent prayer that we would get out of school on Wednesday. I just wanted one day off so that I could break up my week a bit and spend a day with my beautiful little girl. Apparently God REALLY wanted to answer my prayers because I didn't just get Wednesday off of school, I got Thursday and Friday off too! The very good news about this is that I basically will have gotten to spend 5 days with Sadie before I have to go back to school on Monday (maybe?). The bad news is that at this rate I'll be going to school until July! This past fall, while I was on maternity leave, my students had 4 days (I think) off of school when we had no electricity (due to the Hurrican Ike winds). Then we've had a day off because of the weather being too cold and 3 days off this week because of the snow and ice. Another good part about the days off is that this is ultimately cheaper for us. We are blessed to have a babysitter who only charges us when Sadie is actually present (I know - we are EXTREMELY lucky for this!). So, this week we will only have to pay for two days! Unfortunately another downside to this weather is that both Sadie and I seem to be going a little stir crazy. Neither of us have left the house since Tuesday night. Adam and my parents didn't venture out until yesterday, but everyone but me is back to work full time today! I think we may try to join my parents and uncle for dinner tonight just so that we can escape the house.

Since most of you loyal readers are also readers of Amy's blog, I feel like I should also share the following stories. This will assure Amy that she is not alone! Until about the age of 4 months, Sadie was a very reliable pooper. She would have one good poopy diaper per day. She'd grunt and really have to work at it, but she always managed to get at least something out. Then she hit the ripe old age of 4 months and something changed. She will now go as many as 6 days between poopy diapers. This is extra concerning because then when she does have a poopy diaper, it explodes and covers her and her clothes. This happened on Wednesday this week and since Daddy was home, we immediately went to the bathroom and took a bath. This was possible because one of us could hold her without setting her down to move around even more in her poopiness. Since we had the explosion on Wednesday, I really thought we were done for the week. I guess I should have thought twice.

Sadie did not nap much during the day yesterday, but she went down without fussing at 8 pm. This was lovely since Mom was EXHAUSTED! Dad was volunteering at the Cozy Cat Cottage yesterday and didn't get home until almost 8:30. My mom came over for about a 2.5 hour stint in the afternoon, but I spent most of the day with Sadie. Since she was refusing to sleep, this meant I had a very active day moving around and trying to occupy a rather fussy baby. Anyways, I got up around 12:30 am and pumped. I was fully expecting to have school today, so when I came downstairs to put the milk away, I also loaded up the dishwasher and did some minor cleaning up of the kitchen. Then I returned to bed around 1 am. As unfortunate luck would have it, Sadie woke up crying at 2:30 am. So, Daddy got up with me and changed her while I got myself ready to feed Sadie. (Again, I feel very thankful for having a husband so willing to help!). So I fed Sadie and then rocked her and sang to her. She was snoring, so I thought it would be safe to take her back to bed. No such luck. As soon as I put her down in her bed, she woke right up and was fussing and staring right at me. I tried for 5-10 minutes to settle her down by singing and rubbing her tummy, but no luck. So, I picked her back up, brought her back into our bedroom, and put her in the swing. After 5-10 minutes of swinging and Mommy continually popping her passy back into her mouth, Sadie finally went to sleep. By this point it was almost 3 am. We let her swing for 15 minutes and then Daddy carried her back to her bed. She slept soundly until 5:15 am. She woke up again and was fussing. It was time for me to get up for school anyways, so I put her passy back in her mouth and went to the bathroom to start getting ready. She actually ended up going back to sleep, which was great since I got a call around 5:30 that school was again cancelled for the day. Sadie slept until 8 am, and Mommy slept until about 7:30 am. So, some sleep was made up. At 8:20, Sadie ate breakfast. By 9:30, she actually agreed to a nappy while Mommy rocked her. She slept about 45 minutes and was then WIDE awake again. Around 11:00 am, I fed her again in hopes I could get her to take another nap. (She was quite fussy when she woke up from the first nap). I took her upstairs and put her in the swing. I kept sticking the passy back in. After about 10-15 minutes, Sadie had several MASSIVE squirts. (See, this whole saga relates back to pooping!). I picked her up and carried her to the changing table. She had poop dripping down her leg, all inside her onesie and her outfit, and it required 10 wipes to get her all cleaned off. Obviously, she must have been having some cramping from all of the poop built up inside her!

So, while Sadie doesn't seem to have quite the trouble that Bryn has been having, she does seem to be creating some problems all her own! Right now she is happily watching "Sesame Street." It's wrapping up, though, so cross your fingers that Mommy will be able to convince her take another nap.

It's been a snowy, icy, and poopy week here in the Smith house! There's another storm on the way on Tuesday, so who knows what may happen next week! Hope all of my readers have been able to dig themselves out!