Lord, Have Mercy!

**Note** This post is long. You might need some coffee.

I know, I know. My posts are few and far between these days but I do have a teeny bit of an excuse. And by teeny I mean the grape size baby growing inside me. With Demand I had exhaustion ONCE. ONE DAY. With "Valentine" it's 5-6 times a week. And this isn't "I'm a little sleepy" This is "I just took a fist full of sleeping pills with a glass of red wine" sleepy.

Last Saturday it hit me in the middle of Mr. Sloth and Obscure's birthday brunch and I had to take a nap. At 11am!! Some days I just have to sleep on the couch while Demand runs the place. Usually she just watches cartoons but the other day my "spidy-sense" kicked in and I knew she was no longer downstairs. I dashed upstairs only to meet her halfway. Later, Mr. Sloth said, "Huh. That must have been when she came up and tried to wake me."

I've just had nothing to give for weeks now. The house is just below par at best, but Mr. Sloth is making quite a nice housewife and mother these days.

Yesterday was a big day. We turned Demand's crib into a big girl bed. It was a step we had been dreading since we loved the luxury of having a caged bird but she made an escape attempt the night before and we decided it was time. Her crib is a "lifetime" crib. Which means it changed from a crib to a toddler bed, to a day bed (for small people) and later to a head/foot board of a full bed. We bought it with the intention that it would follow her as she grew up and we'd just buy a new crib with the next baby.


I didn't have time to convert the bed before nap time so we just put her mattress on the floor and hoped for the best fully expecting her to just get up and play. But we put one of the gates in the doorway just in case. I headed to bed for a much needed nap myself and although I had the monitor on I closed the door thinking "Mr. Sloth is here if something goes wrong." (are you following the foreshadowing?)

Forty minutes later I decided to check on her. I presumed she was sleeping since the monitor was quiet. I was wrong. She was sitting in the playroom playing with one of her new birthday toys. OK. I thought, Mr. Sloth must have let her out since the gate is out of the doorway. Then I noticed that the bathroom door was open and started to get suspicious. Before I solved the mystery my trusty senses told me that Demand needed a diaper change which she quickly agreed to. (I should have been suspicious about that as well.) I put her on the changing pad only to find that she had indeed "done some work down there" but was in fact missing her diaper. I repeatedly called down to Mr. Sloth but didn't get a response. I started Demands bathwater and dashed downstairs to retrieve Mr. Sloth. I didn't find him but I did find her diaper. So after some Nancy Drew Work we came to the conclusion that Mr. Sloth received his much desired computer and ran back to the office. He didn't tell me because he didn't want to wake me. Meanwhile I think he is home and Demand is breaking out of her cell. She must have gotten the gate open and headed downstairs where she removed her poopy diaper. (Note that her hands never touched the contents and the only mess I found was where she sat on the carpet) After removing her soiled diaper she sat on her potty chair (which didn't take a CSI detective to figure out.) I was actually really proud of her for that.After finding no parent or responsible guardian around she headed upstairs to play like any normal two year old would. This all took place in ten minutes.

Scary, huh? With the bathroom door open should have taken a bath herself or decided to cook something in the kitchen. *sigh* Tell me there are no Guardian Angels!!

After that ordeal I pressed on with my day as scheduled. I bought a bed rail from Ikea. (Great deal. $10 and it fit perfectly) It took all of ten minutes to convert the bed. Well, correction, if I didn't have pregnancy brain it would have taken ten minutes, it took me a half an hour, and keep in mind I had a toddler "helping" me as well.

Demand thought it was fantastic. As soon as I put the mattress in she started gathering all the toys and books she wanted in her bed. She was so exhausted at bedtime that she climbed in with dirty clothes, diaper and feet completely willingly. I convinced her some new attire and a wipe down might make her slumber more pleasant. After books and some milk I put her in bed...where she stayed and fell asleep. She must have read for a bit but fell asleep without getting out once. AND she woke up at 6:30am fell back asleep and when we in at 7:30am she was still in crib asleep again.

How fantastic is that??? Tonight she didn't want to go to bed but made not attempts to get out of her bed and fell asleep within minutes. I'm enjoying it while I can.