Day #1 (let's be honest - week #1) of the learning happiness experiment

So, my daily blog post just didn't happen this week.  We were all sick with a nasty cold this week - coughs, plugged noses, pink eye, the works! Any extra time I had this week I spent sleeping - not blogging.  But we're on the mend, and my Henrik even slept through the night last night - 12 full, blissful hours - for the first time in his 7 months.  Needless to say I had an unusual amount of energy today.

On to the experiment...

The first day of Laura's series is all about telling our kids what to expect because:

"It’s human nature -- typically, we don’t like surprises. Little people, who are still learning the ropes and are easily overwhelmed, are even more afraid of the unknown, generally. So -- it’s only fair that we clue them in, have little chats about what they can expect, and let them know what we expect."

The challenge with this one is that's it's already something I do with my Bryn, so this wasn't something new.  But I do find that sometimes, when I give her a few warnings that something she's not fond of (bedtime, leaving her cousins' houses, etc) is going to happen soon, sometimes she responds better - no kicking and screaming fights and tantrums.  Sometimes.  I do think it's worth it.  When she responds badly anyway, I can forgive my mean mommy response ('I'll pick you up and take you out anyway') if I've given her fair warning.  

And the more often I can forgive myself the better. 

Tomorrow: Life Commandments 

I'm coming out...

I have postpartum depression.

It's not something I like to talk about much - in fact I've only told one person outside my family.  It's mild and pretty manageable; most days I function just fine. But my emotions range from pretty grumpy to downright angry most days.  A good day means I'm just blah.

I've been trying to find something - anything almost to take the edge off my constant grumpiness.  I'm nursing my boy  (the absolute best part of motherhood for me), so I can't take anti-depressants or even St. John's Wort.  And I didn't hear about the great mood-lifting properties of placenta pills until it was way too late!  I already eat pretty well, and I get as much sleep as I can with a 7 month old that hasn't learned to sleep through the night, so that leaves, well, not much.  I came across this blog series  - "31 Days to Happier Children" and decided that I could give it a shot.  I want my kids to believe that they had a happy mommy, even if it is a bit of an act.

So here's the deal. Each evening I'm going to read one post about Laura's ideas on learning happiness.  The next day I'm going to try the idea.  That evening I will blog about my experience and read about tomorrow's idea.  Simple, eh?  Well, I've never written a daily blog.  And life is crazy, so I may not actually succeed.  But I'm going to try.

Tomorrow - Day #1: What to Expect

My cute girl...

Bryn does this cute thing where she sucks in her tummy and says 'Skinny Belly!', then pushes it out and 'Round Belly!', back and forth, over and over..  We'll video it sometime and I'll post it.  But the other day I was helping her get dressed and she points at my middle and says 'Round Belly!'.  All I could do was laugh - how was she to know it's rude to call one's mother fat?