The good, the bad, and the ugly

Good...

I finally gave in to the temptation (I had been saving it for Taxman's busy season, when I will truly never have access to a decent grocery store except for late Saturday night) and ordered from Fresh Direct. Basically it is a full service grocery store without a "store"--unfortunately no kosher bakery, but a kosher butcher, produce (which I didn't order, because it was expensive and I am really picky), huge dairy section, fish counter, organic stuff. I didn't even explore the whole site because it is enormous. The first order took longer to place than I expected, but then I equated it to moving to a new town and going food shopping for the first time....as you learn your way around things go faster.

Overall, I was completely impressed. On the site they say they can only guarantee yogurt and other dairy products (other than milk) dated something like 12 days in advance, so I didn't go crazy. But all of the yogurt we got was dated 5-6 weeks off. They don't have every flavor that Stonyfield Farms makes, but they do have very competitive prices in the dairy case.

I got to choose my delivery date and time, and the order came directly to my door. It wasn't until I was unpacking the boxes--in my sweats and bare feet!--that I realized that this is truly worth every penny of the delivery charge. Had I gone to our favorite grocery store, I would have a) needed our car, which was 30 miles away, b) paid $3.50 in tolls, c) had to contend with parking on the way home, d) needed to manage to get everything and everyone upstairs to the apartment, and e) had the x-factor, Miss M. (Sometimes she is fine at the grocery store, but often about halfway through she signs and says "All done!" and wants to get down.) Oh, and you can change your order after you place it! For a Tuesday afternoon delivery, we were able to futz with the order until 11pm Monday night...and we did, because Taxman said, "Did you not remember that I don't really like the blueberry yogurts?" Alas, I had not, so at 10:57 we exchanged them for strawberry. Nifty!

We're definitely ordering from them again! Because who wants to go food shopping at 10pm? NOT ME!

Bad...

Miss M's night sleeping has gotten ridiculous. A month ago I was so excited because she was nightweaned and waking once at around 3, coming to bed with us, and falling back to sleep.

Now she has replaced requests to nurse with requests for water or just plain screaming. Multiple times. I have returned to my lovely state of not being able to fall asleep because I am anticipating her first wakeup (around 12:30am). A special kind of insomnia for the insane.

Last night she was up and crying at 12:30, 1, and 1:15. At 1:15 I really could not get out of bed again, so Taxman took it. Well, first, Miss M got out of her bed and trotted to my bedside. I hugged her and told her I loved her and that Abba was going to take her back to her bed and she should go night-night. And she proceeded to wedge herself between the bed and the night table and tried to dig her toes into the carpet; when Taxman picked her up...oh the screaming. She did settle down pretty quickly, but then Taxman took one for the team and slept on the floor right next to her, with a stuffed Eeyore as a pillow, to act as her personal bouncer.

There was another wakeup--but it was self-soothed--at 4 something, and she stayed in her bed until her morning nursing at 7.

We have no idea if this is more separation anxiety (a possibility, given her age) or what. All we know is that we feel like crap. Two schools of thought on how to deal: 1) that she should be in our bed from the start to cut out the middleman; 2) move her to her own room so she can't see us when she sits up in bed. Personally I don't think that will eliminate the screaming and will only make our neighbors repeat their year-old advice about Ferber. (No, we weren't Ferberizing incorrectly, or at all...we were allowing Miss M to cry in arms.) Or we can just continue muddling through and being exhausted beyond description.

Ugly...

What I think my weight gain will be at the OB's on Friday. I have a feeling that now, at three-quarters cooked with the b2b, I weigh as much as I did at 40 weeks with Miss M. A special shout-out to Taxman, who thinks it's fun to bring me a Krispy Kreme donut and say, "You know, you don't have to eat it." Seriously, who the hell is he kidding? (It was yummy!)