Bad sleep, old (new!) fabric, and similar
Apr. 14th, 2008 06:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
same_skyI fell into bed as soon as Babyo was asleep last night, so I didn't have time to write anything about our weekend. It was the parental visit weekend--it's every three weeks these days, but we spend the night. It took us for freaking ever (much as always) to get everything packed up and ready to go. Why is it that we need so much STUFF to spend one night away from home with a baby? Have we really become THOSE people? Alas, yes we have. I typed up a list this morning so maybe it will be less stressful in the future, though I think that I will probably forget about it and it will become woefully outdated within two months anyway, but it was a nice idea.
Anyway! It was alright, but Evelyn pulled a nasty sleeping thing on Saturday night. She woke up at about two, and I brought her into bed with us to feed her because that worked last time we spent the night and she woke up. Then she fell back asleep right away. Saturday, not so much. She dozed until she was done eating, popped off, turned around and found DADDY! Daddy! He was in bed with us right there! Daddy is fun! I will talk to Daddy now! And the FAN! (We brought a fan into the room cause it was warm, and she became fascinated with it just before bedtime.) Normally at this time, we could have just taken her to the living room, but the living room was full of sleeping girls (my niece and cousin also spent the night). I struggled with her for an hour and a half, finally getting her to sleep... but she woke up as soon as her head hit the mattress. So, I passed her over to her father. I felt bad about it but I was completely destroyed with the tiredness that night, and although he was sleepy too, I kind of felt that since he had slept until 10:45 that morning whereas I had gotten up at 8:00, and he napped all evening at my parents, that it would be acceptable to hand over baby duty. I haven't asked him to get up with her (other than the typical thing where he goes and gets her, changes her and brings her to me thing that we normally do) since July so I think that surely it was okay. ;) It was after five before she was back asleep, the little brat. Mom suggested that perhaps she was just well aware that she was at Granny's house, and fun things happen at Granny's, so she shouldn't have to be asleep. Maybe so, but either way it was a little bit of awfulness. It's hard to wrangle a baby for three hours in the middle of the night at someone else's house with people sleeping everywhere. The contents of her diaper in the morning, by the way, clearly indicated one major source of her wakefulness, though. BLEGH.
And now, a sidenote that fabric junkies may appreciate! My mom and aunts spent two days last week cleaning out the back bedroom at my grandfather's house, at his request. It's the room my cousins and I used to play in, but in recent years, my grandfather has just been piling junk in. He likes junk. They filled a plastic tub full of fabric that belonged to my grandmother, and my mom told me that one particular cousin and I could (as far as she was concerned) have whatever we wanted from it. Said cousin wasn't there yesterday, so I got first dibs on everything. :) Most of it was not suitable for any project that I can actually imagine myself undertaking, or just out of fashion in a bad way and not in a vintage way, but I did come home with a bag full of stuff. I think that I'll turn a couple of things into diapers purely for fun and sentimental purposes. There's also a stretchy, drapey fabric that I intend to make myself a skirt out of--never have made a skirt before but I figure how hard can it be? There was one large mint-green piece that I wavered over before deciding that I would never actually do anything with--the only reason I even wanted it at all was because there was a matching zipper and spool of thread inside the folded material, and it just made me melty because it was so clear that my Granny had had a PLAN for that fabric. I wonder what it was? A skirt? A dressy suit? A dress? I don't know. There was also a box full of pieces for Barbie clothes, including one dress that was just about done, but for the closures and some hems. I had a hard time putting that one down, too. I miss her--she's been gone for... I don't know. Fifteen years? I want to say it was 1991, so more than that. Her name was Evalee and I named my baby after her. :) I was a pre-teen or so when she died, and it has always bothered me that I didn't get the chance to know her as anything other than a child. Anyway, some of the fabric was in pretty bad condition (sun-faded, mouse-chewed) and it was all dirty, so once it's washed, I'll be able to dig into it a little more to see what I got.
I have been busy all day today, though mostly it's boring stuff that no one cares about. I am often productive on Mondays... somehow it's easier when the week is fresh and new. E is napping, which is almost a surprise to me because I fought with her too long and hard over her afternoon nap, but she finally was out like a light. My mom said this weekend that she didn't think she had ever seen another baby that was as hard to get to sleep as Evelyn is. It's so weird because she sleeps really well in general. Kids always have exceptions, like Saturday night, or phases where she wakes up in the middle of the night, but she is not a fan of actually falling asleep. AT ALL. It makes me feel mean, especially when I am talking to someone and I mention that you know, I spent an hour trying to get her to sleep, and then I can see in their eyes that they are thinking... geez, you nasty woman, don't you think maybe she isn't sleepy? she doesn't NEED two naps a day? But, she does. Most days, she really does need both naps. She will be fussing and rubbing at her eyes, but she just can't fall asleep and she is a terror when she's tired, so we argue about it even though I feel mean. SHE is the one who should feel mean, because she fights me and does things like KICK ME IN THE SIDE OF THE HEAD, which is what she did today. I was sure my glasses, or my nose, would be broken but thankfully, neither of those things happened. She literally almost put M's eye out last week. It was accident, but she slammed her fingers forward into his eyeball while he was carrying her and she was squirming. It was a little scary, actually, and I really won "wife of the year" award when my immediate concern was that it was a good thing his eye was okay because she would feel terrible about it later on if she had blinded her father. Umm.. yeah. For the record, the BEST PART about M's continued sighted status is that he still has, you know, an EYE, NOT that my daughter will feel good about herself in future years. Yes.
Anyway! It was alright, but Evelyn pulled a nasty sleeping thing on Saturday night. She woke up at about two, and I brought her into bed with us to feed her because that worked last time we spent the night and she woke up. Then she fell back asleep right away. Saturday, not so much. She dozed until she was done eating, popped off, turned around and found DADDY! Daddy! He was in bed with us right there! Daddy is fun! I will talk to Daddy now! And the FAN! (We brought a fan into the room cause it was warm, and she became fascinated with it just before bedtime.) Normally at this time, we could have just taken her to the living room, but the living room was full of sleeping girls (my niece and cousin also spent the night). I struggled with her for an hour and a half, finally getting her to sleep... but she woke up as soon as her head hit the mattress. So, I passed her over to her father. I felt bad about it but I was completely destroyed with the tiredness that night, and although he was sleepy too, I kind of felt that since he had slept until 10:45 that morning whereas I had gotten up at 8:00, and he napped all evening at my parents, that it would be acceptable to hand over baby duty. I haven't asked him to get up with her (other than the typical thing where he goes and gets her, changes her and brings her to me thing that we normally do) since July so I think that surely it was okay. ;) It was after five before she was back asleep, the little brat. Mom suggested that perhaps she was just well aware that she was at Granny's house, and fun things happen at Granny's, so she shouldn't have to be asleep. Maybe so, but either way it was a little bit of awfulness. It's hard to wrangle a baby for three hours in the middle of the night at someone else's house with people sleeping everywhere. The contents of her diaper in the morning, by the way, clearly indicated one major source of her wakefulness, though. BLEGH.
And now, a sidenote that fabric junkies may appreciate! My mom and aunts spent two days last week cleaning out the back bedroom at my grandfather's house, at his request. It's the room my cousins and I used to play in, but in recent years, my grandfather has just been piling junk in. He likes junk. They filled a plastic tub full of fabric that belonged to my grandmother, and my mom told me that one particular cousin and I could (as far as she was concerned) have whatever we wanted from it. Said cousin wasn't there yesterday, so I got first dibs on everything. :) Most of it was not suitable for any project that I can actually imagine myself undertaking, or just out of fashion in a bad way and not in a vintage way, but I did come home with a bag full of stuff. I think that I'll turn a couple of things into diapers purely for fun and sentimental purposes. There's also a stretchy, drapey fabric that I intend to make myself a skirt out of--never have made a skirt before but I figure how hard can it be? There was one large mint-green piece that I wavered over before deciding that I would never actually do anything with--the only reason I even wanted it at all was because there was a matching zipper and spool of thread inside the folded material, and it just made me melty because it was so clear that my Granny had had a PLAN for that fabric. I wonder what it was? A skirt? A dressy suit? A dress? I don't know. There was also a box full of pieces for Barbie clothes, including one dress that was just about done, but for the closures and some hems. I had a hard time putting that one down, too. I miss her--she's been gone for... I don't know. Fifteen years? I want to say it was 1991, so more than that. Her name was Evalee and I named my baby after her. :) I was a pre-teen or so when she died, and it has always bothered me that I didn't get the chance to know her as anything other than a child. Anyway, some of the fabric was in pretty bad condition (sun-faded, mouse-chewed) and it was all dirty, so once it's washed, I'll be able to dig into it a little more to see what I got.
I have been busy all day today, though mostly it's boring stuff that no one cares about. I am often productive on Mondays... somehow it's easier when the week is fresh and new. E is napping, which is almost a surprise to me because I fought with her too long and hard over her afternoon nap, but she finally was out like a light. My mom said this weekend that she didn't think she had ever seen another baby that was as hard to get to sleep as Evelyn is. It's so weird because she sleeps really well in general. Kids always have exceptions, like Saturday night, or phases where she wakes up in the middle of the night, but she is not a fan of actually falling asleep. AT ALL. It makes me feel mean, especially when I am talking to someone and I mention that you know, I spent an hour trying to get her to sleep, and then I can see in their eyes that they are thinking... geez, you nasty woman, don't you think maybe she isn't sleepy? she doesn't NEED two naps a day? But, she does. Most days, she really does need both naps. She will be fussing and rubbing at her eyes, but she just can't fall asleep and she is a terror when she's tired, so we argue about it even though I feel mean. SHE is the one who should feel mean, because she fights me and does things like KICK ME IN THE SIDE OF THE HEAD, which is what she did today. I was sure my glasses, or my nose, would be broken but thankfully, neither of those things happened. She literally almost put M's eye out last week. It was accident, but she slammed her fingers forward into his eyeball while he was carrying her and she was squirming. It was a little scary, actually, and I really won "wife of the year" award when my immediate concern was that it was a good thing his eye was okay because she would feel terrible about it later on if she had blinded her father. Umm.. yeah. For the record, the BEST PART about M's continued sighted status is that he still has, you know, an EYE, NOT that my daughter will feel good about herself in future years. Yes.
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-14 10:29 pm (UTC)And I am so amused by you and your husband... not least because of the number of times you recount an anecdote and my immediate thought it that I can totally see that interaction happening between my husband and myself. Hehe.
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Date: 2008-04-15 01:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-15 01:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-15 01:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-15 04:42 pm (UTC)So, nap time involves me giving him a feed, a soother, putting him down in his crib and leaving/closing the door. He usually shrieks for about 2 minutes, then devolves to shrieking every 2 or 3 minutes or so, alternated with babbling to himself, then eventually the noises stop. Occasionally, he'll shriek for longer than I'm comfortable with and I go back up, feed him, soother him, and put him back down. But when there's the distance between the shrieks, I hold on to the fact that he's tired and moving towards sleep, so I do chores or whatever while listening to the baby monitor.
Night time is similar... feed, toothbrushing, soother, bedtime story, then down in his crib with one of his little plushies to play with and the lights-n-sound mobile playing. Similar routine as above... although if he needs another feed to settle him at night, it's water because I don't want to have to go through the trauma of trying to brush his teeth twice.
The cry-it-out method was hard at the start - he really didn't want to and I found myself having to deal with screaming jags that were 5 minutes long. At five I'd go in, cuddle him for a minute, then put him back down again. The first time we did this, I think it took 20 minutes before he settled down to whimpers. But from that first night onwards, it's been much easier... and while it can be frustrating as hell to get him to sleep, I no longer want to throttle him on a regular basis, and am not losing an hour or more one-on-one time while trying to get him to sleep. :-D
no subject
Date: 2008-04-15 10:27 pm (UTC)Would you have guessed five years ago that you'd be interested in lengthy conversations about sleeping patterns of small children? Hehehe. :)