Yeah, yeah, I know

February 1, and today's weigh in: 230.4

Yeah, I know.  Haven't lost any weight.  Haven't really tried.  Been too tired, too busy, too overwhelmed with life.  The usual.

Well, I have sort of tried.  I did work out.  One day.  And really it was just 100 crunches.  And yesterday and today I have tried to eat better.  I even brought celery for lunch.  Yay me.

But the fact remains that I haven't lost any weight, and now time is not on my side.  My goal is STILL to lose 20 lbs by June 1 (the end of the school year).  But instead of losing 2 lbs each month, which was the original 10-month plan, I now have to lose 5 lbs each month.  It's not looking that great, is it? 

I really need to do three things: 1) actually start working out, regularly; 2) eat better; and 3) get some sleep.

Still not getting any sleep.  Ian has had a terrible week, sleep-wise, but we think we've at least figured out what the problem is.  He has been horribly constipated.  Ian has always had more trouble, digestion-wise, than Brendan ever did.  I suppose it's because he's a formula baby and not a breastmilk baby.  I mean, we are only just now at the point, about 7 1/2 months (well, closer to 8 I guess), that my supply finally dried up and we had to switch Brendan to formula.  And all the processed stuff (formula, baby cereal, solid foods) are fortified with iron, which does cause constipation. 

What this adds up to is a backed-up baby who spends his entire night sleeping fitfully, 45 minutes at a time, then moaning and crying and squealing until somebody (me) manages to get him back to sleep for another 45 minutes.  But we did finally figure out that was the problem.  We hit the store and got him some prunes, which we'll start giving him daily until it seems he's "regulated", then maybe cutting back to every couple of days.  I also started putting his probiotic drops in his bottle at night again.  The pediatrician had suggested those to us back when he was so colicky in the hopes it would help.  Didn't seem to help then, but the whole purpose of probiotics is to regulate the gut (like those Activia yogurt commercials claim), so maybe it'll help.  And, as a last resort, I picked up a box of glycerin suppositories.  I have used them on Ian before.  Had to use them maybe once on Brendan.  Anyway, Ian slept for three hours last night (which is pretty impressive after the 45 minute performances of late) before waking up and eating.  Then he only slept for an hour and started up with the moaning and crying.  Ross tried to soothe him back to sleep, but finally at 3:30 I opened the box o' suppositories.  About a minute later, out comes a bunch of hard little pebble poops (which must have hurt like the dickens), some gas, some clay-consistency poop and more gas, and finally some easy-flowing poop and gas.  No wonder he's been fussy.  Poor guy.  It took a little while to get him back to sleep (I had turned the light on so I could see what I was doing, and heck, if somebody had stuck that up my butt, I'd have a hard time going back to sleep too), but when he did, he slept quietly until Ross got him up to get him dressed, more than two hours later. 

I really hope we've gotten this sorted out and we can get the poor little guy on the right digestive track.  He really should be able to make it through the night without eating at all.  I'm going to start weaning him off that if I can.  He does take less from the bottle at night than he used to; instead of draining the bottle he usually only eats about 2 oz at a time at night. 

Brendan, on the other hand, is doing great.  He eats like a horse (he's gotta be in a growth spurt right now), and he downs gallons of milk at a time, I swear.  At least I know where he gets it.  He also continues to be an engine of destruction.  He killed my tablet computer.  He poured water all over it.  The tablet spent several days in a bag full of Minute Rice, but it still won't start.  Boo.  Then he poured milk all over the laptop.  That, at least, still works, although the keys were a bit crunchy for a couple of days, and I shudder to think what the inside looks like.  But it's hard to stay mad at him (although he frustrates the heck out of my and brings out the horrible parent side of me all the time).  His favorite saying right now is "Goodness gracious!"  He also thinks the word "coconut" is hilariously funny.  His current addiction is The Micky Mouse Clubhouse, which I guess is an improvement over Elmo's Potty Time and all the Sesame Street videos, but he also loves to read (and to try to extend his bedtime by reading thousands of books).  What a goober.

I've been pretty lonely and depressed lately, so I hope that the diagnosis of Ian's recent trouble may lead to more sleep, which will improve my life dramatically.  I hope.

Happy February!