How Tired Was I?

I woke up to MetaGirl's crying...again. She pretty much didn't nap that afternoon, and I was exhausted from the night before. So I dozed off while nursing.

Since she had eaten, and was obviously disinterested in sleep, I figured I'd check to see if she had a dirty diaper. I didn't want to turn the light on so as to avoid fully waking her. So I rummaged through the drawer looking for the flashlight that I hoped MetaBoy had put back from his game earlier. Nope. Then, I found a highlighter. And I thought "ah hah!" Somehow, I thought this highlighter would help me see in the dark. Eventually, my underlying suspicions won out and I realized that the highlighter was in fact an instrument to highlight text, not to light text. That was a sad realization.

Nap time was over.

Mothers' Hair

Ya, this is how I feel. Is Suave the answer?

It Could Be Worse

Recently, I haven't been getting a full night of sleep. Waking up every 3 hours (if I'm lucky) to nurse. Sometimes, MetaGirl is quick to go back to sleep. SOMETIMES!!

Le sigh.

Mornings are painful. I'm past the worst pain from my c-section, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. Getting up in the morning after a feeble attempt at resting despite the crying newborn...well, I'll say it again...

Le sigh.

Getting through mornings that involve feedings, several diaper changes, wardrobe changes, and getting mommy dressed, all while balancing the reality that one crying child leads to two crying children. Say it with me...

Le sigh.

But then, you sit down to nurse the cranky newborn and turn on the TV to find a show you've never seen before. To find out that despite how tired you feel right now, there are people who have taken tired to the next level. These people make me feel like such a whiner for saying...

Le sigh.

Meet Jon & Kate Plus 8.

I love my only two.

Caffeine

Oh, heck!!

I just realized I haven't had caffeine in like 3 years. No wonder I'm so tired!!!

Spontaneous Sleep

Poor MetaDaddy was falling asleep on the sofa. You know how it goes when you're tired and had a long day. But falling asleep on the sofa will just leave you with a sore neck, and hardly more rested.

But now, I have the perfect solution. And she comes in a wee little onesie.

No worries, folks. MetaDaddy's cured from falling asleep on the sofa.

May all your days be as fortunate :-)

xoxo,
Bleary-eyed MetaMommy

Around the Internet

ABC news video on helping kids sleep: Parents Prolong Problem Sleepers - It turns out that it's really important to teach babies to fall asleep on their own because it impacts their sleeping habits as adults, too. It makes sense, doesn't it? From what I've learned, everyone occasionally wakes a little in the middle of the night, so it's not unusual that a baby does it. But if he can sooth himself back into sleep instead of relying on his parents, he's better off...heck, everyone is! Personally, MetaToddler's ability to self-sooth has been crucial in his tendency to sleep through the night, and we consider ourselves tremendously lucky. Especially after those first few (um...6? 9? 12?) brutal months.

Fat isn't flavor - A clever commentary negating the common phrase "fat is flavor." There are a lot of wonderful, beautiful, delicious flavors that make for mouth-watering treats. Do they replace fat? No. Does fat replace them? Duh. No.

Santa Monica to ban the bag - Santa Monica's all abuzz with the the progress to ban the one-use plastic bag and biodegradable plastic-like bags. Paper bags would still be allowed, but ideas are being thrown around to reduce their use (e.g., a small fee). A halt in the waste of the bags at supermarkets and farmers' markets alone would be a huge improvement, so I'm really looking forward to see this pass.

First Puzzles via Dooce - Oh, I so have to get these. How cute is the Peter Rabbit one!?! Um, for MetaToddler, of course ;-)

MetaToddler Update

I don't mean to bore you, but this is probably more a family update than one of my usual posts. You have been warned ;-)

Things our little Boogie has been up to lately:

• Taught MetaDaddy how to sign avocado.
• Made up a sign for monkey. Does it with the "ooo ooo, ah, ah" sound effects.
  
• Made up and taught us a sign for tissue/baby wipe.
• He'll ask for a tissue and wipes his own nose. Not very successfully, but a good start.
• He learned to kiss, and is getting a lot of joy out of it. He'll kiss either of us or blow kisses upon request.
• We take our shoes off when we get home in an attempt to avoid tracking outside dirt inside. It really does work! We tend to leave our shoes lined up near the door at the bottom of the stairs. One day, MetaDaddy took his shoes off quickly to dash after MetaToddler. When we passed the door later, we realized all the shoes were neatly lined up in their usual spot. Our little Virgo at it again :-x
• He used to go to sleep pretty easily. That is, after his night time rituals, he would lie down in his crib, thumb in mouth, and drift off into a quiet slumber. Then, for no apparent reason, he stopped. Every time we put him in his crib, he would scream, cry, etc. At first we reacted by comforting and doing what we could assuming that it was teething or something else. Then we realized he was just being stubborn. Surprise, surprise. He just didn't want to go to sleep, despite being miserably tired. Nap time was just as bad. We kept to our same ritual and slowly, things have gotten better. Then one day for nap time, I left him in his crib and said "night, night." We waved at each other, blew each other some kisses, I closed the door...and silence. Golden. I'm sooooo crossing my fingers for a trend :-D
  
• Every time he sees me use a brush or comb, he asks for it by signing brush and proceeds to "brush" his hair.
• He danced to a Madonna song. It was totally unprompted since I don't really like Madonna.
• We saw a fire truck recently, and it's wailing siren really got MetaToddler's attention. Since then, he signs car every time he hears a siren, truck, plane, etc. If we're at home, he'll run to the window and look out for the fire truck.
• Some new favorite snacks: blueberries, mango, dried fruit (e.g., cranberries, cherries, black currants).

OK, that's it for now. No really, I'm done. Whew!

Daylight Saving Appoacheth

Did you know Daylight Savings is coming up? Yup, it is. Sunday, March 9th, to be exact.

On that note, this Washington Post article on Surviving Daylight Saving Switch. The Post isn't known for comedy, but as far as I'm concerned, this is not one of those times.

When an article suggests that one start adjusting to a one hour change a few days beforehand, well, I must read on.

A few of the more entertaining tips:

• Modify your eating schedule by having dinner one hour earlier.
• Be careful when driving or operating machinery on the day of the time change.
• Keep a light schedule -- such as minimizing driving and avoiding strenuous physical activity -- on the Monday after the time change.

Seriously, if you have kids or if you've ever endured jet lag, this is precious. Who seriously follows these tips? And what did people do before this article was written?

I'm just saying.

Traveling with a Cold

Caught a mild cold in Ireland. No biggie. It did however sweep over the household in all of it's mildness. A few sneezes and sniffles, but no more. There were no aches and pains. No severe bouts of exhaustion.

Then, we got on the plane. The sneezing and coughing in a confined space laden with dry, recirculated air is not pleasant. Symptoms were exaggerated, as is my memory of it all. Upon descending on our approach home, my annoying but tolerable sinus pressure hit a high point where sharp pains started attacking my eye. It felt like needles were plunging into my eyebrows, and all I could do was apply pressure to relieve the pain. Incredulous, I was really to drive to my doctor when we got off the plane. MetaDaddy said I should just chalk it up to flying with sinus pressure. Grr.

When we got home, the "mild" cold actually got worse and I started experiencing exhaustion and various other symptoms, surely not aided by jet lag. That night we went to sleep at 7, and after waking several times due to congestion, I woke up for good at 2 A.M. along with MetaToddler. He was seemingly struggling with jet lag, so after spending about an hour with MetaDaddy, I took over for the night (he had work the following day, and I was already awake for the night). MetaToddler didn't go back to sleep until his 11 A.M. nap, and I didn't go back to sleep until 8 that night. Oddly enough, I didn't feel too tired, so I didn't feel like I was unduly pushing myself (despite what MetaDaddy says). Except for MetaDaddy, we all slept a bit better than night. Apparently, I was breathing heavily, on the verge of verbalizing my exhales. I think I heard it a couple of times, but for the most part, I was ignorant to my moans. Poor MetaDaddy!

Thursday went well, until the evening. I suddenly got ridiculously tired, and it was all I could do to drag myself to the dinner table to eat, much less make dinner. Frozen leftovers came in handy there. Mmm...coq au vin, courtesy of MetaDaddy.

While overall I was better, my cough got worse, which is par for the course for me. I forgot what my doctor called it, but when I get a certain kind of cold, I have a kind of asthmatic reaction causing difficulty breathing. It also means I have unproductive coughs, so I cough more often. The result is a severely sore throat after a while, potential coughing attacks where I can't catch my breath, and a cough that lingers for weeks past the initial cold. When I started using an inhaler, it made a huge difference, including reducing the longevity of the lingering cough. However, I don't like the edgy, shaky reaction I get from using it, so I keep it to a minimum. Last night I used it, and sleep went well for everyone, including MetaDaddy.

Fortunately, MetaToddler didn't experience a similar escalation of symptoms like I did. I'm past the worst of it, and should be up and dancing with him in no time.

Good Times!

Baby Jetlag & Christmas Wishes

It feels like forever and a day since I've posted.

We've since packed, did everything (we hope) that we needed to at home, and flew 9 hours to Dublin, Ireland. Funny enough, it was a glum and rainy day in Santa Monica, but a crisp and sunny day in Dublin. You're not gonna hear that very often, let me tell you.

MetaBaby slept for about an hour and a half on the flight, which isn't great. But we alternated entertaining him, so he didn't get too unsettled at any point. We, however, slept zero minutes. Zero. When we landed in Dublin, it was about 2AM at home. We got to my MIL's home exhausted. We let him run around a bit, fed him, and gave him a 2 hour nap. But we were all tired later in the day, so we all settled in for a nap...his second, our first. As hard as it was to get up after 2 hours, we did so as to recover from jet lag sooner than later. We probably shouldn't have let him sleep for that long. Oops!

That night, we all went to sleep. Wee MetaBaby woke up at 3AM hungry and confused. Once he woke (screaming, obviously), we were all awake, so off we went to the kitchen to hang out and be groovy...and to snack, of course. He didn't go back to sleep. No one did.

It was late when we finally got to sleep that morning, and we woke up at 1PM. We only gave him one nap that day and put him down at 10PM. Despite our concerns, he went to sleep after his bedtime routine. Unfortunately, he woke up at midnight, and was up for the night...again. We went to the kitchen, ate, hung out, tried (and failed) several times to put him to sleep, and conceded to the pint-sized insomniac. Eventually, MetaDaddy stayed up with him allowing me a couple of hours of sleep. He later went in with him waited until MetaBaby fell sleep on him. We all woke up at 10 AM and swore that no naps were to be had that day. I think we gave him a one hour nap and put him down at 9PM, after his bedtime routine.

Eventually, he settled into a routine. For two nights, he's slept through the night, and everyone's much happier as a result. We're feeling much better.

On the bright side, tomorrow's Christmas day. Family, food, gifting, and stories...I love the stories. Cross your fingers for us that he doesn't wake up tonight :-D

Merry Christmas to all!!!

Sleeping Babes

My sister-in-law has two kids, both of whom are great sleepers. She joked that her first was sleeping through the night by the time she was two weeks old. Her second, a little boy, took a bit longer, but not by much relatively speaking. When we visited back in February, we noticed that he would nod off while having his bottle. She would have to wake him to get him to finish the bottle, which only served to annoy him. He and his sister would then sleep through the night, regardless of ambient noise or light. It was marvelous to watch!


© Photographer: Brebca | Agency: Dreamstime.com

MetaBaby is nothing like his cousins. For the first 6 weeks, we were lucky if we got him to sleep before 6AM. We would both stay up trying anything and everything to get him to go to sleep. If he fell asleep, it was usually on top of one of us. 

Out of desperation, we tried co-sleeping and found that it worked really well for us. If he woke up in the course of the night, I could nurse him back to sleep without getting up.  This was a definite benefit given that I was still tender from my c-section, and I was dealing with a pretty bad case of mastitis.

After a few months of peace, the co-sleeping stopped working.  I realized that I was nursing him every time he woke up, but I started to suspect he didn't need it.  Additionally, he started moving and kicking more in his sleep, which was becoming annoying.  We moved him to his crib, but kept him in our room.  Though he woke occasionally, I didn't nurse him every time, so he was able to put himself back to sleep.  It was a good balance at the time.

But everything wears thin at some point, right?  The occasional wake-ups started taking a toll on our sleep, so we moved him to his room.  We (or was it me) resisted moving him  because we (I) thought we'd (I'd) miss his little baby breaths...but it turns out that what we really missed was sleep.  He still wakes up once a night, but sometimes...he doesn't!  Oh, those nights are good.

Unbalanced Kitchen

Note to self:

The next time you drop something small, but heavy in the kitchen while MetaBaby's sleeping, don't overreact. That is, don't hurl yourself towards the floor to catch said object before it hits; it will hit anyway. More important, don't do this while wearing tight jeans just out of the dryer. The combination of the two will result in an unsightly bump in the middle of your forehead.

Heed this warning, self, or invest in more hats.

Naps, Interrupted

Posts have been a bit light this week, but that's only because we have company. MetaBaby's having a blast with all of the attention :-D

That said, I still have time to be weird. In an attempt to limit the number of times delivery people buzz our door while MetaBaby is sleeping, I lamintated a note stating "PLEASE DON'T BUZZ - BABY SLEEPING" and I post it on our buzzer while he naps. I wouldn't mind the occasional buzz, but if our neighbors aren't home, delivery people always resort to buzzing me, and I'm very protective of his naps.

We'll see how this goes!

Counting Down for MetaDaddy

This week has been a struggle. MetaDaddy's out of town on business, so it's just the kid and me. Sigh.

Here's what's happened:

• We've been getting over a cold, which mostly entails labored breathing, some sneezing, and snot everywhere. I know, lovely visual.
  
  
• We decided to change MetaBaby's sleep schedule last week by dropping one nap. It's going pretty well, as long as he gets that one good nap. Unfortunately, he doesn't always work with me on that one.
  
  
• We got a safety gate that divided the living room in half to block him off from certain areas, while allowing him some freedom. We didn't want a permanent gate, though, so we secured a non-mounted gate which doesn't have a door. It's just low enough for me to climb over. However, getting over it several times a day has proved to be quite a workout. I've been waking up sore as though I went to the gym. I know, I know...no pain, no gain. Well, I wasn't looking for gain, so along with everything else, all I am is sore and achy.
  
  
• Yesterday (Thursday), MetaBaby got sick. It started in the afternoon after lunch. He didn't have a very long nap. He was cranky when he woke up. He seemed exhausted, and had a slight fever. I cuddled and nursed him for a bit. Then I got his dinner ready, which he didn't seem interested in. This was a red flag; he has never refused a meal. I gave him a few bites of his fruit dessert to entice him, and he seemed equally disinterested. He then drank some water and proceeded to throw up everything he'd eaten. I gave him his bath, nursed him (which I never do before he sleeps), and put him to bed. He fell asleep right away, but it was a light sleep. I checked on him a couple of times and his fever was almost gone, to my relief. However, at 11 it was back. So I woke him, gave him some Tylenol, and nursed him again. He fell asleep and woke up at 7:30, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. He seems fine today; back to being a bundle of energy. I don't know if it was teething, the banana at lunch, or some secretly consumed bug, but I'm glad it's over.
  
  
• Feeling better about his health, we were going to go to the farmers' market today. Everything was ready, but I couldn't find my wallet. I know I had it in my hand last night and unless I thew it away with the garbage, it had to be somewhere. I thought I'd put it in my purse, but it wasn't there. I looked everywhere -- purse, diaper bag, between cushions, in magazines, in pockets & the hamper, in the washing machine & dryer. Eventually, I gave up and we went with some other money I had. I figured I was getting antsy and I wouldn't find it until I calmed down. We got back and MetaBaby was exhausted, so I put him down for his nap. I proceeded to think and look...think and look...think and look. It occurred to me that if I lose things now, how bad are things going to be when MetaBaby starts taking and playing with or hiding my keys, wallet, etc. Then, on a whim, I decided to check his toys. Guess where my wallet was!!! Grr. At least I found it, and I know the little klepto has it in him.

Counting down the hours for MetaDaddy's return.

The Lovey Boat

When our son was about 2 weeks old, he managed to get his thumb in his mouth, though it didn't look very comfortable since all of his fingers were plastered on the rest of his face (picture an octopus attacking). Impressive as it was, he lost it as quickly as he found it. Several weeks later (over a month, IIRC), he slowly began to realize he had control over the hands that seemed to keep attacking him. He found the thumb, and it's been a constant source of comfort ever since. When he's tired, the thumb goes into the mouth, and he'll gaze around until he falls asleep.

A Baby Center e-mail today said the following:

"Chances are good that your baby's grown attached to a certain blanket or toy. Transitional objects may help your baby weather potentially stressful experiences — such as a doctor's visit or a trip — more easily. You may want to buy a duplicate of her lovey (or cut the original in half, if it's something like a blanket), in case you need to replace a lost one or take it away to clean it."

So here's my question:
If his thumb is the only external source of comfort besides dada and mama, is his thumb his lovey or is he lovey-less?

Subjective parenting

Today I ran into my neighbor...figuratively, that is. We exchanged pleasantries. Apparently, she just got a dog. A puppy, in fact. She must be having a hard time because she said she now knows just how I feel because she hasn't slept in days.

OK...I wonder how the breastfeeding's going :-P