Being Momma G: Day 51

Whether he knew something was amiss or the party last night wore him out, Sean stayed asleep until 5.30am before wanting a feed. As promised, Jonathan got out of bed, made up a bottle of formula for Sean and fed him before resettling the little man and coming back to bed.

Sean woke again just after 7am and had another feed, and enjoyed some time with Daddy who really needed some cuddles. Jonathan was pretty sad today, after Mina refused to stay last night and screamed to go home rather than try and sleep at our house. No one is any the wiser as to why she was having so many issues with sleeping over at our house, and we had planned to talk to Mina today to find out what was bothering her, so that we could try and fix it once and for all. The Evil Witch had not been able to shed light on the problem either - then again, the Evil Witch wasn't keen on asking Mina what was bothering her, so we are all in the dark.

With Mina having so many problems with sleepovers in recent days, Jonathan and I discussed the ramifications if Mina continued to have these problems. Mina seemed more than happy to spend one night a fortnight with us, so our sleepovers would change from Friday and Saturday nights every fortnight to Saturday nights only every fortnight. If this was to continue, there was absolutely no way in the world that I would be willing to take Mina to New Zealand on a week long holiday. Purely because there was no way we could take her home if she was to kick up a tantrum while we were overseas - we already have one baby to look after, we didn't need Mina to be a big baby either.

For Jonathan to give in to Mina last night, she was now aware that she could get her way if she was to simply throw a tantrum. I can only hope that last night was a one-off and it won't happen again, but chances are events could be repeated in a fortnight's time, which was already slated to be a 1 night sleepover because Jonathan and the Evil Witch want to "ease Mina back into the sleepover routine". I don't agree with this - a bit of tough love never hurt anyone and whilst Jonathan was optimistic that Mina would eventually return to the previous routine - 2 nights for sleepovers - I wasn't so sure.

Here are my concerns. What if Mina was having issues sleeping over all together? What if Mina threw another temper tantrum during the next sleepover and screamed to go home? Would Jonathan give in to Mina again and agree to let her go home? Or would Jonathan put his foot down and tell Mina to toughen up, stop fussing and go to sleep? And if Jonathan was to dish out some tough love, would we be put through the wringer again after the sleepover, when Mina got home and told her mother that she was forced to stay at our house and never wanted to sleep over again?

After spending so much money decking out her room, only to have her be the spoilt brat that she was fast becoming, I almost feel like telling Mina that she doesn't have a room at our house - she was allowed to sleep in the guest room because she was a guest and not a member of the family. I told Jonathan this, and felt a bit awful banging on about the money that I felt we'd thrown away, but Jonathan understood - money was quantifiable, whereas emotions weren't.

Another consequence was that Sean would not develop a close relationship with Mina, who would become an occasional visitor as opposed to an integral part of our family, as we'd always told her. With me already pulling back from Mina, and me planning to spend time away from Jonathan and Mina during her visits, Sean would obviously need to be with me wherever I went, and Mina would miss out on getting to know her little brother if she was only visiting us 1 day a week, instead of 3 days and 3 nights every fortnight.

Around 9.30am, Mina called Jonathan and asked if she could be picked up so she and Jonathan could come back to our house and go on their adventure to explore the nearby parks. Not bloody likely was my answer which was being screamed inside my head, and I didn't even have to say it - Jonathan was of the same mindset. Mina needed to learn that there were ramifications to her temper tantrum last night. Jonathan told Mina that once she went home, that was where she'd stay, and there was no way he was going back today to collect her. I couldn't hear Mina's answer, but from Jonathan's voice, Mina walked away from the phone after that.

I asked Jonathan to tell the Evil Witch about the knock on effects with Mina's wish to sleepover 1 night a fortnight being granted and pandered to, being that unless she was back to sleeping at our house for 2 nights every fortnight by the end of May, and continued to sleep over 2 nights every fortnight for at least 2 months, there was no way we would be taking her to New Zealand. Judging by what I could hear, which was Jonathan's side of the conversation, the Evil Witch was not happy with that idea - if we didn't take Mina, it would mean she would have to forego or alter whatever holiday plans she had with her partner to include Mina. I could almost hear her brain clunking away at the thought of having to alter her plans. Just more fodder for her to make herself even more of a martyr if she continued to give in to Mina. Yay.

Jonathan and I decided to head out to Top Ryde Shopping Centre for an outing, so we headed out after the 10.50am feed. With Mina's birthday just around the corner, we needed to get her a birthday gift. Plus we needed lunch, and there were areas of the shopping centre that we had yet to explore. First port of call was the food court, where I had a laksa and Jonathan had an Oporto burger.

We wandered around the centre after lunch, and before long, Sean also wanted his lunch, so we went to find a Parent's Room to feed. The room was warm and stuffy and understandably, Sean didn't enjoy being there and fed very quickly. Afterwards, we went to Big W and straight to the toy section to see if we could get something for Mina's birthday.

The toy selection wasn't that great, but we still managed to find a couple of things that would suit the purpose. We chose one, and then we stumbled on the clearance table, where Jonathan came across the K'NEX Sonic Blizzard Coaster. He was so excited with his find, and the price was right, so I encouraged him to buy the kit. That should keep him occupied for a while!

On our way to the checkouts, we went past the Easter Egg section, and decided to buy Easter Eggs for my nieces and nephews today, instead of waiting until closer to Easter and be fighting the crowds for chocolates. We chose a couple of things, as well as a couple of treats for ourselves, and headed to pay for everything.

It wasn't until we were well and truly out of the shop before I realised that we'd forgotten to pay for a packet of Cadbury Mini Creme Eggs. Quite by accident, we had sub-legally acquired these treats, as I'd put them on a different part of the pram and away from the other goodies. The packet was partly obscured by everything else, and we'd walked out of the shop without paying for them. Oops!

The remainder of the afternoon and evening, with the baby waking every 3 hours for a feed. We've just finished another feed, and with Sean getting progressively unsettled with each feed, we are all going to head to bed and hope for a restful night.