Aidan took a nap!

Ok, so I know that's not a big deal to most of you, but for me it's a HUGE deal. He actually slept for 2 1/2 hours straight. This child has not taken a nap at daycare for more than 30 minutes EVER. His afternoon teacher is a genious. Apparently they make a machine that makes a noise like a heartbeat. She put him in his bouncy chair next to the machine and he finally took a nap at daycare. Anyway - I was very excited because usually he comes home with huge circles under his eyes, red eyes and he's crying because he's so exhausted. It was nice to not see him look like that today.

I think it's amazing how once you become a parent your entire life changes. I mean, you always hear people say that, but you can never fully understand that until you have a child. In the beginning, it was so exhausting and so difficult taking care of Aidan. Now, even by myself, it's just become habit. Every day with him is a little miracle, and I'm even getting used to waking up a couple times a night. As long as I can get 3-4 hours of straight sleep, I'm good to go. Usually I get 3 hours straight, then 2 and then 1. So I suppose collectively I get about 6-7 hours, but it's certainly no 6 hours straight. I honestly don't even think I could sleep 7 hours straight. The other night Aidan slept from 7 p.m. to 4 p.m. I woke up in a huge panic, thinking something was certainly wrong. Nope. He was sleeping peacefully in his crib. Oh - did I mention that? He's a big boy now, and he sleeps in his crib in his very own room.

I'm still nursing exclusively. (Sorry if the following is too much information, but deal with it =)
Anyway, I pump at work, and I have to say it's exhausting! Not to mention very difficult to find the time. I had originally planned to stop at 4 months (well actually there was a time I wanted to quit at about 5 weeks or so). I'm definitely going to keep nursing him, but I think I'll just take it month by month. I certainly don't know how women do this for a year though. That's just crazy.

Hmmm. I'm trying to think of something interesting to tell you besides stuff about Aidan. You don't get sick of hearing about him do you? Nah - didn't think so.

(WARNING: POLITICAL RANT TO FOLLOW)
Anyway, so they made a huge announcement about all active duty troops in Iraq being extended by 3 months. Who didn't see that coming? Fort Hood is the premiere post for deployments, and I think we're so used to this it's ridiculous. There are guys going over there for a third or fourth deployment. I can't begin to imagine how awful that would be. Everyone in my office thinks they're doing this to coincide with the elections. They want to get as many troops as they can over there, that way the Republicans can say "the troops are over there, so we might as well leave them there." I don't really have anything to say about that, except for the fact that I've seen first hand what this war is doing to people - people all around me. Many Americans don't fully understand the toll this is taking. Here at Fort Hood, everyone understands. There are 50,000 troops on our post, and absolutely the majority have done at LEAST one tour over there. When I was in Iraq I was fully supportive of the war because I saw what us being over there meant for the Iraqi people. But now, several years later, I'm not going to say I don't support it (absolutely not) but things are out of hand and I really feel sorry for the thousands of families being pulled apart because of politics. Ok - enough of my rant. Sorry if I got too political for you.