A mini-vacation in Kansas

Last week, Curtis, his brothers, and his dad took a hunting trip to Texas.  Apparently they have all wanted to go hog hunting for a long time (lol) so they took five days to follow their dream.  I knew that five days by myself with 3 kids would be hard to handle, so I talked my mom into heading to my grandparent's house in Buhler for a couple of days.

We tried to plan a few fun activities so the kids wouldn't get bored.  Lane still loves anything space related, so I knew that he would love the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson.  When a friend posted pictures from the Ramada in Hutch, I knew where we had to stay!

We left Thursday morning and ended up in Buhler sometime between 1:30 and 2.  Grandma and Grandpa were waiting for us and were really excited to see us!  Lane pretty much went right for the Lego firetruck and police truck that he knew they had :)  We hung out at their house for a couple of hours, then headed into Hutch to do some shopping.  Grandma wanted to buy the kids each a toy - Lane picked a Lego police helicopter, and Katy picked out a couple of puzzles.  I needed to find Scarlett some 6-9 month clothes and had a really hard time finding stuff!  Grandma ended up buying her some jammies :)

Then it was off to the hotel - Lane and Katy were really excited about swimming!

I knew the kids would love this pool - it was only about 6 inches deep and had space-themed slides and pictures on the wall.  The hotel wasn't the greatest - it was pretty old - but the setup couldn't be beat!

We got Chili's takeout instead of trying to corral these kids at a restaurant.  I didn't realize that it was Kansas state basketball, so every place was really busy!

Lane and Katy LOVED the bunkbeds in their own little room!  It was really nice to have them separate from the main hotel room - I could feed Scarlett in the middle of the night and not worry about them waking up!

After a not-so-restful nights sleep (seriously, can't the hotel turn the a/c on??), we headed to the Cosmosphere the next morning.  Lane thought it was the coolest place - he kept telling me "I'm glad it's all space stuff and no airplanes!"  (Apparently the SAC Museum in Omaha had too many airplanes!)

We were there for about an hour and a half and the kids were pretty interested the whole time.  The museum wasn't very busy, so they had room to run around and look at all the exhibits.

After the museum, we went back to Grandma and Grandpa's house to hang out with them for awhile. Lane had fun playing with his new space shuttle.

Katy really enjoyed rearranging Grandma's pictures on the fridge!

Scarlett was so tired that she took a 2-hour nap on the bed!  I didn't want to wake her up, so we left for home a little later than we had planned.  We passed the time by putting together Katy's new puzzles...

...and playing Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel.

Grandpa really liked the new step stool that Curtis made him!  He made it to match an old Reimer's Inc. sign that we have in our basement - it turned out pretty cool!

Scarlett was good on the trip - she liked rolling around on the floor the best :)  Grandma gave all the kids these little bunnies - Katy and Lane immediately named them Little Bunny Foo-Foo.

It was a good, although tiring, trip.  Lane said that he was glad that his Grandma went with us so that he didn't miss Daddy too much.  It was fun to see the kids having so much fun, and of course, it was good to see my grandparents again!  Lane's already planning the next time we go down!

This is a vent.

I need sleep.  Lots of it.  In high school and early college, I would go to bed by 10 every night and usually wake up around 6:30 or 7.  (In my junior year of college, I realized how fun it was to stay up until 12 or 12:30 every night...it helped that I didn't have class until 10:30!).  Even now, I'm not well-rested unless I get at least 9 hours.

Having kids has really messed up my sleep.  Both Lane and Katy didn't sleep through the night until they were a year old.

Katy was a pretty good sleeper in the beginning - she typically only woke once a night.  Lane stopped napping when he was two, but since he was good at quiet time, I could still get a nap while Katy was a baby.    I was always impressed that if Katy was tired, she would just keep sleeping.  But...when she turned two, everything fell apart.  Now she's up multiple times a night and won't sleep in anymore.  She also gave up naps when she gave up her pacifier.  No more naps for me!  Lane won't nap and doesn't sleep well, so he's constantly tired.  Two tired kids = alot of crabbiness!

I really thought that maybe Scarlett would be a good sleeper.  She started out well - by 2 months, she was only waking once around 4 or 5 to eat and would wake up for the day around 8.  Naps were hit or miss, but since I wasn't able to take a nap during the day anyway, it didn't bother me.

The past 6 weeks have been horrible!  Scarlett is finally taking longer naps during the day, but her night sleep has gone to crap.  She's up at least every 3 hours to eat and will sometimes wake in between either needing to burp or just for a cuddle.

We moved her from the rock n play to her crib a couple of weeks ago, thinking that it might help.  I also decided to let her cry it out in hopes of stretching out her feedings and teaching her to fall asleep on her own.

FAIL.

It was a long week of crying.  She did learn how to fall asleep for naps on her own without nursing.  We also listened to her cry when she woke up before 1 or 2 am depending on when she fell asleep.  I thought things were falling into place - we had one wonderful night where she just woke up at 3:30 to eat and slept the rest of the night.  I thought I was pretty smart :)

And....now we're back to square one, except worse.  Scarlett is up 3-4 times a night still and will not go back to sleep without nursing.  She can still fall asleep on her own at night, but sometimes it takes a little while if she gets stuck on her tummy and isn't quite ready to sleep yet.

Naps are not going well.  As soon as I walk into her room with her, she starts freaking out.  She won't let me rock her, but if I just put her in her crib, she screams and screams.  Eventually she will calm down enough to let me rock her to sleep.

I'm also frustrated because I had no plans to continue nursing past 6 months, but she won't take a bottle.  Maybe she will figure it out in the next couple of months, but I'm not holding my breath!  It's also hard to take her anywhere in public with me - she's not a good nurser and gets fussy while eating unless things are perfect.  And...she basically won't fall asleep anywhere but her crib or carseat, which makes church, Bible study, and going to friends' houses really tough.

Sigh.  I know that "this too shall pass," but it's kinda tough while I'm going through it.  I keep thinking about how fun things could be if we were all well-rested, but right now that seems impossible.  I've come to the point where I won't try to fix things...hopefully at least Scarlett will figure it out on her own (and hopefully it doesn't take months!).  And maybe I should just accept that I'm going to always be exhausted and start drinking coffee?