No More Being Behind Bars

July 19th, 2009

A few weeks ago we bought Ace his very first “Big Boy Bed”.

Since then we have been trying to get used to being woken up by a two year old who has woken up, destroyed the whole entire upstairs, soiled his diaper, and then decides it’s time to tell Mom and Dad it’s time to get up.

He still doesn’t talk all that well, so he resorts to physical attempts at waking us up. Which would you prefer?

Having a toddler waller himself up into your bed and plop down on the blankets between you and your significant other successfully strangling the breath out of the both of you until you can wake up enough to figure out what the hell is going on and sit up…
Being woken up by a 30 lb toddler stepping on your nads first thing in the morning. (Now that is a wake up call.)
Being hit in the face by a toy truck as it gets thrown on your bed…because it’s play time didn’t you know? 😀
Having a 30 lb toddler sit on your face…dirty diaper and all.

There have been a few night where Ace has woken up in the middle of the night because he has fell out of bed, had a bad dream, or for whatever reason he is crying. We’ll give him a cup, put him in our bed and he’ll fall back a sleep for a few hours until the sun comes up.

Last night Ace came into our room at 3 AM wanting a drink. I got him a drink and put him in our bed. I fell back a sleep and when I woke up in the morning Ace was not in our bed.

Oh shit…I rolled Momma over to make sure she was not lying on him, then I imagined him falling down the stars last night, being abducted by aliens, packing a bag and heading to Vegas…where the hell was he?

I looked on the floor, in the hallway, in his play room, and finally found him curled up sound asleep with his blanket on his own bed.

I guess he is tool cool to sleep in Mom and Dad’s bed now since he is a “Big Boy”. What next, I gotta drop him off down the street from the park, so that the other kids do not see me?

Tags: bedtime, big boy bed, crib, sleep, waking up
Posted in: Family, Funny Stuff, Growing Up |
Views: 7,945
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(Non) Sleep Study

February 3rd, 2009

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I went last night and did the sleep study that my doc recommended, but I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep. 😀 Maybe it had something to do with the 30 wires, sensors, and probes that joined me for my slumber…

Sleep Study Plug-N-Play

It took about a half an hour to get connected, then I could do whatever I wanted and go to sleep whenever I wanted. So, I got out my laptop like any good blogger would do and realized there was not an outlet to plug into and also no available wireless connection. Shucks!

So, I got out my web cam and took these photographs before my battery ran out of juice. (Check out my fancy $15 PJs that will never get worn again.)

All Connected For My Sleep Study

All Connected For My Sleep Study (Side View)

My other alternative was watch TV with the other lab rats, read a Readers Digest from 1997, or go to sleep. I opted for a little shut eye. 😀

This room was dark…haunted house dark! Where was the TV and the glow from the street lights that I have grown accustomed to? The only light was from an Infrared Flood light above the door. It was a very faint red glow that I could barely see, but would allow the sleep technicians to watch my every move using an infrared camera. Ever wake up feeling like someone is watching you sleep? Try waking up knowing someone is watching you sleep. 😀

What bad habits do I have at night when I am sleeping? What do I scratch? What bodily functions do I lose control of? (They did have a microphone in the room too. )

Maybe all of these thoughts running through my head, plus the wires, plus the fact that I could not get comfortable, plus the fact that I can not remember the last time I had worn more than my underwear to bed…is why I did not sleep well.

So, morning came after what seemed like 12 hours of lying in a dark room. The technician said that I might have a mild to moderate sleep breathing disorder (I guess I actually did sleep some)…but the doctor will make that call and let me know next week.

Until then I am going to sleep in my own bed, with no wires/sensors/probes, with the TV on, scratching whatever I want whenever I want, and doing it all stark naked if I feel like it. 😀

Tags: doctor, Health, sleep, sleep study
Posted in: Funny Stuff, Health, Misc Ramblings |
Views: 9,108
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The Bionic Sleeper

January 28th, 2009

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You might remember my recent hospital stay where they detected that my heart had gone into atrial fibrillation. It has been happening to me since I was in high school. I had learned how to make the abnormal heart beat convert back to a normal sinus rhythm by holding my breath…and so I lived with it. Yup, real fun stuff. 😀

My new heart doc has me taking some medicine that helps control it. And so far it is working. I’ve had a few freak episodes, but they only lasted about 2 seconds…nothing like the 10 hours of 190 beats per minute while I was in the hospital. 😀

I’ve been doing good. I have not had a drop of caffeine…and I have not gone back into a-fib for more than 3 or 4 seconds. Those couple times were really my fault. I had been working outside all day cutting wood. I had not ate or drank much of anything. Dehydration and lack of potassium are just of the couple of things that can trigger a-fib. Whoops…my bad. 😀

The next step of my treatment is a sleep study…this Sunday…yep Superbowl Sunday. I get to sleep at the doctors office with about 3 million wires and sensors attached from head to toe while some really lucky nurses get to watch me toss and turn over a camera, and listen to me saw logs over a microphone.

Based upon the results, I may have to sleep like this from now on…

cpap

Looks comfy right? Well, maybe I will actually feel rested in the morning. I can look like the bionic sleeper if it makes me feel like the bionic man the next day. 😀

Do any of you that read DadThing use CPAP machines? If so let me know what you think about them in the comments.

Tags: cpap, doctor, Health, hospital, sleep
Posted in: Health, Misc Ramblings |
Views: 10,379
22 Comments »

PB & J Overdose

March 23rd, 2008

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Here’s a quick video for your entertainment needs…

[youtube]iTAILuhlq84[/youtube]

Also, I wanted to give a quick thanks to Alltop.com for listing DadThing.com in their directory! You’ve probably already heard about it from one of the other dad bloggers, (I’m behind the ball as usual) but just in case you haven’t…check out their cool new Dads section.

Tags: eating, food, funny story, sleep, video
Posted in: Funny Stuff, Growing Up, Videos |
Views: 8,070
12 Comments »

The Smoke Monster Got Me!

February 12th, 2008

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Smoke Monster By: [177] (http://flickr.com/photos/banky177/)
Photo By: [177]So, yeah….I’ve quit smoking (kinda).

Monday, I did pretty good. I only chewed one fingernail down to the bone. I don’t like bone chips in my teeth, so I smoked two cigarettes that day to keep from gnawing any deeper.

Tuesday, I was in the office…bored outta my mind! The thought of a cold smoke (a term my friends and I coined in high school) frequented my deliriously nervous state of mind. I was able to fight off the nic fits by taking it out on a small piece of flavored rubber…other wise known as chewing gum.

Wednesday, I traveled for most of the day down to tornado land Tennessee. You CANT smoke in the airports or on airplanes these days so I just tried to sleep as much as possible. That night I stayed in a smelly hotel. I asked for a non smoking room, but was *this-close* to lighting up to get rid of the stench. Also, since I slept so much on the plane, I was up all night…and what else is there to do at 3AM besides smoke and surf the net? I held out due to the sign that stated a $100 fine for smoking. 😀

Thursday, things started to get easier. However I only worked for about 3 hours and then spent the rest of the day and night in a better smelling hotel room surfing the net. Boredom has to be my worst enemy! Even though the Internet is huge, you can only distract yourself from the smoking urge for so long before smoking a cigarette or passing out from eye strain. I passed out. 😀

Friday, again was mostly a travel day, but the urges and withdrawal side effects were less fierce. I only growled at one fellow traveler as they bumped into me at the airport.

Saturday, however, was a different story. We were spending the night at my Mom’s and I forgot my patches at home. I got pulled over and spent all night drinking in a bar. I just couldn’t overcome the urges. I gave in. The smoke monster got me.

Sunday, I still didn’t have my patches so I smoked one more pack. Better than going nuts and committing a mass homicide, right?

Since Monday, I have been back into quitting mode again. It is Tuesday afternoon and I have not had a smoke in the past day and a half. Do you think I can make it through this weekend without lighting up?

Tags: cigarettes, friends, hotel room, sleep, smoking, tornado, weekend
Posted in: Misc Ramblings |
Views: 5,770
12 Comments »