A Little Of This, Little Of That ...

Our church had a blood drive on Monday. Since I am now a SAHM (that is "stay at home mom", for all of you behind on your blog-ese lessons) and cannot, at this season of my life, take off on short term mission trips or be a summer camp counselor on a regular basis like I did in my single days, I look for opportunities to give back, while not straying too far from the people who need me most. So, I jumped at this chance.

Now, I am not a big fan of the needles. I am more often that not, what they like to call a "hard stick" - meaning they have trouble finding a vein and, usually, when they do it is either buried beneath all of my "fleshiness" (I think that this is a polite phrase for FATTY CELLULITUS TISSUE!!), it does not hold still - did you know that veins can roll?!?!, or it is very small.

"Very small" is what we had this time. She was not sure that it would last for a whole pint. I had heard that before and everything had been fine, so I decided to go for it. And I was wrong. It WAS too small. They only got about a third of a bag before it started flowing so slowly that it was clotting before it reached the bag.

Clotting quickly - good should I ever, ya know, lose a limb or something. Not so good if you are trying to fill a big ol bag o' blood with the fluid flowing in a puny little vein!!!

That being the case, I did not receive the highly acclaimed "I Gave Blood Today" badge of honor. Instead, I was stuck with the sad little "I Tried" sticker and this lovely "Badge Of Honor" ...


Pretty, huh? I know YOU want one!!!
(Guess my career as a druggie will not be very fruitful. What with being forced to walk around with the arm that says "please arrest me and send me for a urine test IMMEDIATELY - I promise I will fail. And I don't even have to eat a poppy seed muffin!!!")

In other news, Sophie is not sleeping well again. This time it has NOTHING to do with her sinuses. She just wakes up a LOT!!!! She is not hungry - the most she will drink is MAYBE two ounces. She cries till someone comes to her. Continues to cry until she is given a bottle - which, as I mentioned, she barely touches before drifting back to sleep.
Yesterday we went to see the doc to be sure that it is not her ears or anything else and, after she took one look at the bulging luggage beneath my eyes, she asked me around four hundred and eighteen questions about Sophie's sleep patterns. And then she gave me a verdict:

Trained Night Cryer/Feeder

So, basically we have a LOT of work ahead of us. See, Sophie - even though she weighs in at just over 24 pounds, is not a big eater. We are lucky if we can get her to eat more than 6 ounces at a feeding. I never thought too much of it, since she get the recommended amount in on a daily basis. However, she gets it in a little at a time. This means that she eats smaller amounts more often through the day. SO, she is used to having feedings closer together. And this is why she wakes up. She is not hungry - she has eaten enough through the day - she is just used to eating more often. It is a comfort, so she cries for it and needs it to get back to sleep. SO, I now have to increase the time between feedings - and thus the amounts of food - through the day so she can go longer between feedings at night.
We also need to help her be able to soothe herself back to sleep at night. She is fine with this at nap time and when she first goes to bed. We turn on her music and the thing that puts fishies on the ceiling and she goes right to sleep (even without the fishies at nap time, because it is too light to see them). But at night, if she wakes up, she cries for a bottle and some attention.

SO, here is where I need your help. How does/did your children get back to sleep in the night? Any products that helped - a crib soother (hers sits on a table, where she cannot reach it to turn it on herself), special music, tricks or ideas.

PLEASE, I need any idea I can get! Ask your friends, send em my way. I will take any suggestions I can get. ANYTHING at all!!! I am tired ... and desperate!!!

Thank you in advance. You are rescuing us all.