It's Amazing!

How much difference a good night's sleep will make.

I took the patch off yesterday afternoon because I'm tired of the way it screws with my sleep. Either I can't get to sleep or I wake up six or seven times a night from messed up dreams.

Slept pretty good last night, woke up once when the train was going through and Farmdog just had to sing to it at the top of her little puppy lungs... but I slept.

And, I'm not too spastic about the nicotine being gone so far this morning. Put it this way, I'm doing better with not having that mood leveler from the patch, and instead having gotten an actual night's sleep.

We'll see, throughout the day. I may decide I need to go back on the patch... I may decide I need to go ahead and step it down.

In reports on the rest of the fam, Farmmom has made seventy two hours plus, go her! And Mamaw has hit the twelve hour mark, yay!

We're all made of win and awesome!

Seconding LawDog

I point you to TOTUS.

I'm not political, but it makes me giggle that someone has created a blog for Barak's teleprompter. And a Twitter account. And a seal.

Go, Look, Laugh.

That is all.

72hrs Plus

Haven't smoked at all since Sunday night.

Muscle soreness, mostly from tensing up when people say things that make me want to strangle them, I think, is pretty bad. Sometimes I feel like someone beat me with a baseball bat.

Sleep schedule is... non-existent. Either I'm out like a light at nine, but waking up every fifteen minutes or so, or I can't get to sleep until after eleven, and... waking up every fifteen minutes or so.

Blargh. I'm a girl who likes her sleep, and I really hate it when there's interference without good cause. Plus, lack of sleep doesn't make the cranky thing any easier.

That's getting a little bit better as it goes along... frankly I think I've done rather well, as far as not snapping at people goes. I haven't completely alienated any of my good friends, anyway, and I've manage to keep my hands to myself, so no assault charges.

Just because it's getting easier not to light up, doesn't mean it's feeling better.

Farmmom hit 24hrs without smoking last night, I dunno if she's smoked since, but major kudos to her for making it!

And Mamaw... wow. She's still holding it way under what she used to smoke. Honestly, I think maintaining at two or three puffs at a time spread out through the day would probably be harder for me than not smoking at all.

We're all getting there. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go take more advil, change my nicotine patch, and try to remember not to eat the first person who acts all cheerful.

Oops...

Back on the first 24 hrs again.

Also stepped down the patch, and I haven't noticed any more cravings or twitchyness than I had on the higher dose.

And, the dreams aren't nearly as bad, or weren't last night. Of course, I was completely exhausted last night, so that may have been it.

Anyway... starting over. Not nearly as bad as it was the first time, so far.

Day Two, Smoke Free....

Well, since I seem to be absolutely determined to be evil to myself, I decided this morning not to put a new patch on... I left yesterday's on until I started getting antsy... and then took a little bit of a nap. Woke up still antsy, so, I had some chocolate.

I may owe at least half of my quitting smoking to these little guys. More specifically, the peanut butter eggs.

Oh, and Hershey's kisses, and Dove milk chocolate eggs... it's a very cheerful bowl sitting always within arm's reach, all pastels and little cartoon bunny faces.

Doing all right now, although some of the physical symptoms (hot, then cold, then slightly nauseous, mild headache) are back. The headache goes away with Advil, the rest of it, well, none of it is so bad I can't deal with it... maybe my appetite is off for a few days. I may decide to get the step down on the patch and go ahead with it, we'll see how I feel in a few hours when the remnants of the last patch get out of my system.... Or, I may decide to go ahead and quit it all.... or I may figure out that I'm an idiot and put one of the big patches back on.

I don't know yet... but by gawd I'm going to lick this thing if it kills me. Coming up on forty eight hours without smoking... I'm pretty impressed with myself. I'll be more impressed when I can say forty eight hours without nicotine, but that may be a ways away.

The longer I've gone without lighting up, the easier it's been to not light up. Had the urge a few times today, and I leaned pretty heavily on the cig (un-lit) that I've been mauling since ten yesterday morning. Let my body go through the motions, but not get what it's wanting out of it.... it helped a lot with the nervous twitches yesterday, and seems to be helping today with the complete lack of nicotine. I've noticed that I'm "dragging" on it more today, whereas yesterday it was more just holding it... and even that is starting to ease off as my body seems to figure out that it's not working the way it used to.

Anyway, sorry for the rambling, weird post, but I promised updates. I'm not sure where Mamaw is at today, or Farmmom, but that's where I stand.... Hopefully over the hump and on the downhill side.

One day,

Smoke Free!

Huzzah!

I feel pretty safe saying it now because I'm one tired cookie and I'm about to go to bed... not much chance to slip in my sleep.

Farmmom is doing great, and so is Mamaw.... Mamaw came up with a very original method of distracting herself and keeping her hands busy...

She's got a Nicotrol inhaler, from a previous attempt to quit... and instead of the nicotine soaked filter thingy, she put a tic tac in the end. So she chews on it, blows through it, and rattles it around to keep herself occupied. It seems to be doing something for her, since she doesn't hardly put it down.

Farmmom held it down two two cigs all day at work, and two or three after she came home.

As she said when I told her I hadn't smoked all day today...

We are all made of Win and Awesome!

Update

Yes, yes, I know it's been a couple of days. Trust me, it's been a rough couple of days.

Three cigs a day total, has been my average. I was going to go for none at all yesterday but that got blown when I got my mail and had a bill from the college and they hadn't even sent my aid refund yet.

Turns out, all it was was the flu shot that Etta had to have last semester... since it was a charge on last semester, she couldn't take it out of this semester's aid, but she couldn't release the refund either. So they were holding a little over four grand, over... wait for it.... $15.

Got it taken care of, got my refund checks deposited, got my first class taken care of, learned all about what we're gonna be doing for this class, joked around with folks I haven't seen in months, went to Wally World and decided to celebrate by buying a movie.

Wanted is pretty awesome if you can turn off your "but that's not possible" button.

Managed not to smoke after dinner last night, so I may be able to make it all the way through today. Gonna try it, anyway, with the help of my magic little stop-smoking pills (Tic Tacs, flavor Orange.)

They're not food so I don't have the major craving after one, but they're something in my mouth so it kills the craving for a few minutes. It's working fairly well so far, anyway.

Mamaw is still slipping some, but still way less than she was smoking before, so major kudos to her, too!

Farmmom is on the patch now too, and she's doing really well, especially considering that Farmdad is still smoking. Having someone in the house still smoking makes it tough, as I know from experience.

We're still pluggin away, I'll update again when we have news...