Sleep! Glorious Sleep!

It's no secret to anyone who knows me around here that I've been having some sleep issues.  When I'm pregnant, I get insomnia something awful.  When I'm stressed, I simply cannot shut off my brain.  The last few months have been particularly rough.  The baby started teething at 7 months, and he's gotten 8 teeth in 10 weeks.  My husband traveled one week, and the next week was the baby's surgery.  With his surgery and medications, there was still no sleep.

A typical night involved waking at 9:30, 10:30, 11:30, 12:30, 1:30, 3:30, 4:00, 6:00.  So I've been a complete wreck. I have, in desperation, gone to sleep on the floor of Nick's room (cold and hard and it didn't really work for me).  Still the most sleep I got was a single 3 or 4 hour stretch, and that, only twice.

You see when I wake up, my brain starts thinking about work.  And I cannot turn it off.  We've had 4 major changes/ reorganizations in the last month, and most of them have not been in my favor (especially the most recent).  That, which causes no sleep, makes mama cranky.

Yesterday was particularly bad.  We have an entire team of people on vacation and they left without ensuring that all of their instructions were in order.  So I ended up spending 4 hours at work figuring it out.  On a Saturday.  I missed lunch and I missed both workouts - the only day I've managed to get to the gym at all is on Saturday lately because of lack of sleep.  I was PISSED.  I'm feeling incredibly old, fat, and tired.  I can't get the gym weekdays because I'm not sleeping.  I haven't been able to run because of a knee issue and ankle issue, and I don't have time to go to the doctor.

But yesterday my husband moved the crib into Nick's room (now known as "the boys room").  I slept until 4:15 am!  6.5 straight hours!  Then I slept another hour after using the bathroom.  In fact, everyone slept great.  The baby didn't even wake up.  Maybe the medications were causing problems and waking him up.  And just so you know, our house is so tiny that if he cries, you can hear him.  The ONLY place where you wouldn't be able to hear him is if you are in the laundry room with the washer and dryer running.

Now I just need to get working on my diet.  Losing weight while breastfeeding with a job and two kids is no joke.  You see, I'm the chief cook in the house.  I do the majority of grocery shopping, meal planning, and cooking.  That alone is a huge task.  If I were only cooking for myself, I could meal plan, shop and cook easily.

But I have four people.  Sure, one of them is a baby.  I feel bad because I'm sure he's ready for more finger food.  A lot of the babies his age are eating finger foods.  But I really only have energy to go to the local organic store and buy Earth's Best baby food by the case.

So I have to plan for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the three of us.  Packed lunches every day, meals every night.  Enough fruit to last the week, enough veggies to last the week (no time to shop mid-week).  I spend the vast majority of Saturday and Sunday shopping and cooking because there isn't time to do much during the week.  I generally get home at 4:45 and dinner is at 6 pm.  During that time I'm feeding the baby, trying to start dinner, and helping the first grader with his homework.

After all that, just making sure there is ample healthy food, the next level for weight loss is counting calories.  Man, so that means entering all of my food into My Fitness Pal, including recipes (AFTER I've cooked it).  Weighing and measuring.  Planning everything that I will eat a day or two or three ahead.  It works.  But I don't have the energy for it when I'm not sleeping.  Hopefully last night was not a fluke and I will be sleeping more and more.

Well, now I need to figure out what kind of exercise to get in today.  Sundays, generally, there aren't many classes at the gym.  I could walk.  I could attempt a run.  It's earth day, and the festival is 2 miles from my house, so maybe I'll head over there for a bit.  The reorganization of the boys room means there are items to purge - clothes, toys, etc.