My bracket is totally busted.
I had 3.5-year-old and Poopsplosion going into the Sweet 16 and Mastitis going at least into the Elite 8. Total suprise.
Anyway, here is your Sweet 16 bracket to download.
We're doing two days of voting, today and tomorrow. 9 am EDT (late start today) through 9 am EDT the next morning. Then Thursday and Friday we do the Elite 8, and Friday is the Final Four. Taking the weekend off, then Monday is the finals.
Four match-ups today, one from each division. Here we go!
Sears Division:
9-month sleep regression
vs.
Child begs you not to go to work
VOTE
Weissbluth Division:
Persistent diaper rash
vs.
Baby pukes in your mouth
VOTE
Leach Division:
Pet wakes baby from nap
vs.
Partner can't soothe baby
VOTE
Babywise Division:
Asked "When are you due?" when baby is a year old
vs.
Nanny quits
VOTE
Four more match-ups tomorrow, then we move on to the Elite 8!
I see a trend in the voting. Short term pain vs long term pain. We might be on to something here in terms of counseling struggling moms!
Posted by: Amyintexas | March 27, 2012 at 09:59 AM
I call foul on the 3.5 year old. Weekend voting skews the results.
Posted by: Brooke | March 27, 2012 at 10:19 AM
I can't believe 3.5 was trounced so early. That's so many months of horror.
Posted by: Slim | March 27, 2012 at 10:22 AM
I'm going to guess that a lot of people voting have children under 3, so they have not yet experienced the exquisite never-ending horror that is 3.5. I would take a nap strike over 3.5 any day.
Posted by: electriclady | March 27, 2012 at 10:53 AM
I voted for the nap strike over the 3 year old. AND I am about to be a mother of two under 2. SOOOOOO - I'm blissfully unaware of what's ahead! :-)
But I always cope better if I sleep. So, anything that affected my sleep or down time I chose as a trump over the other. Plus, I'm clinging to all hope - and don't want to be told otherwise - that my 3.5 year old will still nap. I'm 38.5 weeks pregnant so don't you dare tell me that's not true. I can't risk going into labor yet! :-)
Posted by: Sheila | March 27, 2012 at 11:01 AM
@electriclady & slim - that was exactly my read as well. Nobody who had a 3.5 y.o. would ever vote for nap strike over the shrieking horror of 3.5. I've lived through nap strikes; 3.5 brought me to my knees (and I was sleeping great). Spitting, screaming, flopping, throwing, hitting, name calling, taunting, threatening - every. day. all. day. For the love of God, the only advice Ames gives about this age is "Spend as little time as possible with your child."
Posted by: Erin | March 27, 2012 at 11:10 AM
My 3.5 year old has been waking me up at night. So, torture during the day AND I'M SO EFFING TIRED.
Thank God for preschool.
Posted by: Brooke | March 27, 2012 at 11:16 AM
I havea 2 year old and a 5 year old, and I'll vote for any sleep issue over anything else! 3.5 wasn't a monumental pain for me. At least not that I remember.
Posted by: Jill | March 27, 2012 at 11:19 AM
The comments on the 3.5-year-old had a lot of "my baby is only 2, so I'm voting for the nap strike."
Posted by: Elizabeth | March 27, 2012 at 11:22 AM
Oh gosh. Do we tell them? Is that helpful?
Posted by: Slim | March 27, 2012 at 11:56 AM
I think it's much like having a newborn in that no one can ever adequately prepare you for what it's like. They'll just have to find out in their own way.
Posted by: electriclady | March 27, 2012 at 12:09 PM
The 18-month developmental leap and 3.5 years old were the all-time parenting lows for us. Colic, persistent diaper rash, WOHM/SAHD woes, and puke in mouth had nothing on 1.5 and 3.5. NOTHING.
I'm guessing most voters have younger children?
Or our 3.5 was particularly horrific because it coincided exactly with a new baby brother?
Posted by: Anna | March 27, 2012 at 12:17 PM
If it wouldn't be so logistically horrific I was thinking of doing an under-3 and over-3 division (based on the ages of your kids).
I'm not starting with 64 problems next year, so maybe the two separate divisions would be possible...
Posted by: Moxie | March 27, 2012 at 01:17 PM
I don't know...to me, it always came down to sleep. As long as we were all getting enough, including naps for the kid who needed them, I could pretty much handle whatever came along. My kids are 10 and 7 now, and while I totally agree that three was a challenging age, I will choose lack of sleep as tougher than any developmental phase so far. In my opinion, sleep is the glue that holds it all together. Without it, everything falls apart.
Posted by: Got It, Ma! | March 27, 2012 at 01:23 PM
I've been reading this blog for 3 years, and I still don't know how to send Moxie a question... is my sleep-deprived brain missing a great big "Ask Here" button? (this would not surprise me.)
Posted by: notwavingbutdrowning | March 27, 2012 at 02:08 PM
Oh, Anna...a 3.5 year old and a new baby? That almost brings ME to tears, I can't imagine what that was like. How did you survive? I have a new-ish baby (2 months), and he was born when my daughter was exactly 4.5, to the day. I thought dealing with these two was bad enough. ;)
Posted by: Pascha | March 27, 2012 at 02:38 PM
I guess I lucked out with my daughter. 3.5 just wasn't bad. 2.5 - almost 3 was horrible, and 4.5 is tough right now, but I voted against the 3.5 year old each time.
Posted by: Meg | March 27, 2012 at 03:48 PM
And now that I think about, I'm getting worried. We just found out that I'm pregnant w/ #3, and my son will be 3.5 when this one is born. Uh oh...
Posted by: Meg | March 27, 2012 at 03:52 PM
wow, my son is now almost 11 and I'm just finding out that he wasn't the evil, awful 3.5yo which he was, solely because he had a new baby brother? I could swear I'd found Moxie by then too....
Posted by: My Kids Mom | March 27, 2012 at 04:00 PM
"I see a trend in the voting. Short term pain vs long term pain. We might be on to something here in terms of counseling struggling moms!"
Totally, this is how I'm voting. Poop everywhere? Lasts a few minutes. Not sleeping? May last years.
It's not that mastitis is not horrible, it's that it went up against a bigger titan of terror: Lost breastmilk.
The age of three is the worst ever. For us, it started AT three. 3.5 meant nothing, just more of the same.
Posted by: Foster | March 27, 2012 at 04:26 PM
I have an almost-three-year-old and he is consistently really... challenging. By which I mean screamy, contrary, awful, and defiant, without reference to how I respond. AAAAAAAH. When will it end????
Posted by: Jenny F. Scientist, PhD | March 27, 2012 at 04:34 PM
I'm wondering about gender breakdowns on the voting...like, is it 3.5 year old boys or girls that tend to be worse. For me, 3.5 has been a blessing, but for my first 2.5-3.5 was bad and for my second 2-3 was terrible. Mine are both boys. Also, I'm guessing perspective is different if you have 2+ kids versus only 1 that has passed through all of these stages.
Mostly, I have to say that I think this can be used to feel better about bad situations! And used to realize how many things don't really faze us too badly. I mean, with the exception of the food allergies, most of these things pass rather quickly in the grand scheme of things, right? And I have two kids with life threatening food allergies to multiple foods and I'm handling it pretty well and it's just become the norm for us -- you know, but for the fear that they might die whenever they are out of my sight!
Posted by: juliag | March 27, 2012 at 07:02 PM
Definitely all about (a) long-term pain and (b) sleep. I mean, poop and such you can always wash off. My kid is 6 and I'm still recovering from 4 years of lost sleep.
That said, there's also med./long-term pain for you/for your kid. GERD and "partner can't soothe baby" mean medium-term pain for each of you respectively. Food allergies are long-term issues - though I know many people handle them extremely well, they're difficult. (I feel lucky we're just dealing with a food intolerance and a medication allergy - the former is a pain but not life-threatening, and the latter, well, it's highly unlikely someone's gonna give my kid penicillin without my knowledge.)
Mostly, though: This is making me feel very grateful we're through years 0-4, and in a stage where they can pour themselves a bowl of cereal, get your jokes and crack you up with their own, and still be consistently snuggly.
Posted by: Lisa | March 27, 2012 at 08:31 PM
My guy is 3.5 now (3.75 to be exact) and I voted for sleep/nap issues EVERY time. So far, the tantrums have not been constant and most days are manageable. Sleep deprivation, on the other hand, is still kicking my ass (and it doesn't help that DS is now getting up at 3am again (not for long, but still...it's been a while since he's done that and it's killing me. I'm exhausted.)
I agree with @Got It, Ma! that if I get enough sleep, pretty much everything else is manageable...though Mastitis vs. 9 month sleep regression would be a very hard vote for me. The pain! Oh, the pain!!!
Posted by: the milliner | March 27, 2012 at 09:36 PM
Just have to add that I voted against the 3.5-year-old, and far from never having experienced it, my girls are currently 8, 6 and 3 and 4months. Maybe I've just forgotten it??
Posted by: Tonia | March 27, 2012 at 09:51 PM
I voted for nap strike over 3.5 year old (and I have a 5.5 year old). At least for me, 5.5 is worse. Though, when she was 3.5, we were in the midst of selling a house, buying a house, moving, and I was pregnant, so I don't really remember her being any more of a stress than anything else in my life.
Posted by: Ann Z | March 27, 2012 at 11:27 PM
For all of those with an under 3.5 y.o., my almost 5 y.o. was not a terror. He cried the entire first year of his life and was very hard until 2. Just sayin that it isn't the case for every kid!
Posted by: Kim | March 28, 2012 at 08:37 AM
Some of us may have voted for the 3.5 year old even though we don't have one yet because we've been reading all of your comments about how difficult/horrific it can be! 17 months has been a roller coaster ride so far for us, I have to believe that it will get better at some point before he goes to college. Mostly I'm talking about sleep. When I'm drifting, the mantra runs through my head: ~He won't need to nurse to sleep in college, he won't need to nurse to sleep in college, he won't need to nurse to sleep in college...~ some days that's the only thing that keeps me going :)
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