I can’t seem to convince Noah that I would be a much better mother if I just got more sleep. It’s honestly the only complaint I have about him – he still has problems sleeping through the night. I could continue making excuses for him – he’s cold, he’s teething, he’s over-tired, or he’s got to keep on walking – but whatever it is, the fact remains I’m tired. This morning he woke up at 4 am and for an hour and a half I tried to get him back to sleep. It sucks to be completely exhausted, feel like “AH… finally he went back to sleep, I’ll just lay him down now” and have him pop back up like a Jack-in-the-box. In those moments I feel completely shattered. At 5:30 am I gave up and left the bed so Mark could get some uninterrupted rest. Noah and I went to the office where he tore around the room like a man on fire while I sat on the floor with glazed eyes and a sagging head, trying to fold laundry. We both went down for a 2 hour nap at 9, and I’m feeling a bit better. Of course any time I share one of his naps is a time I could have been getting something done. That is if I wasn’t a sleepy zombie mother.
The house is so chilly already. Our house is not very heat efficient and we’re anxious to rectify that rather than piss away all our money on the gas bill. The problem is we haven’t a clue where to start. Am I really supposed to be sealing off the windows with quilts and plastic? Should we be living in a cave for the next five months? That seems a bit extreme. I think a small improvement both for heat efficiency and décor would be to put curtains on every window, but would you believe we’ve lived in this house five years and only two windows are covered – and covered with sheer panels. Brilliant – right? I can never quite get myself to spend the time and money needed to find and hang the right drapery, so we have none but the cheapy shades that were on the windows when we bought this place.
Saturday we went to Mark’s Dad’s place for dinner to celebrate his birthday. It was a nice afternoon but we didn’t get a damn thing done with the house all day. This morning I can honestly say that the house looks worse than it did last week. I can only explain this by saying that it gets darkest before the dawn and sometimes you have to pull things completely apart before you can put them back together again. Any other cliché you want me to throw in there to explain why there are now boxes, brooms and a hamper full of shoes sitting in the upstairs unvacuumed hallway? Despite the new mess, we did clean out the closet in the kitchen, the kitchen cabinets, and the middle bedroom as well as moving my nuisance shoe shelving, doing the laundry and cleaning up our bedroom. So some things got accomplished though we also created a lot of other work for ourselves that has yet to get done.
Yesterday while we were moving things around and turning mess into chaos Noah mostly toddled around carrying things. I’ve heard tales of Dermot and Bella carrying things but this was a tad different. Noah is obviously concerned with storage and volume – and therefore has taken to carrying around bags. In the bedroom he was walking around in circles with a paper handled shopping bag from Ten Thousand Villages, in the middle room he was carrying an ornamented fabric gift bag that closely resembles a purse, and in the kitchen he changed it up by carrying a sand pail with a teddy bear in it. It was so funny watching him walk around with such purpose with a bag clutched in his hands – like he was on his way to the market. It cracked me up all day long. He’s also started doing a lot of pretend eating. Not only does he pick up anything remotely cup-like and pretend to drink out of it, he also has taken to picking up anything bowl-like and start to stir and scoop imaginary spoonfuls of “soup” into his mouth. All the while making little “Mmm” noises and offering to share. It’s just about the cutest thing ever. I get so excited when he starts new schtick and we can play new games and encourage new learning. That’s what makes the lack of sleep totally worth it. Because nothing will perk you up at 5:30 am like a spoonful of imaginary soup.
12 comments:
I was just pondering curtains for Bill's house too. The Boscov's ad this week had some supposed energy saving curtains. They looked like normal curtains, but apparently they insulate the windows a bit.
They say that a great way to save energy is to put a water heater blanket on, well, your water heater. Also, maybe you could start my caulking all the windows with a caulk gun in case there are any cracks.
We do the oil heat thang at Bill's, and it's going to be an expensive winter. I see a lot of insulating in my future...and some time under the covers for much of the winter when I am hanging out up there!
I am so sorry that your sleep is still messed up. I am always tired too, but Dermot got a lot better at sleep eventually. I hate to admit this since I lean toward attachment parenting, but I made Dermot cry it out at 9 months. He was getting to a point where he wanted to nurse every 2 hours again, and I just couldn't do it. I just stopped getting up for him. It was awful, but by night 4 he slept through the night. Now he sleeps from 8:00 to 6:30 usually.
It seems to me that Noah is pretending to eat and carry bags pretty early. Looks like he has a great imagination. Dermot likes to grab purse-like things and then say bye-bye. Then he goes to the garage door like he's going to leave. It's really cute.
bella has started getting to the point of waking up every 2 hours again to nurse too. it's killing me. I'm not a CIO fan either but maybe it's what I have to do. I guess it would be easier if she didn't sleep in our bed. hm.
I need to see pictures of noah carrying bags around!!!!!
It's nice to know that other babies also regress in sleep habits as they approach a year old, and it's not just our shoddy discipline or chilly bedroom. We may be approaching the point when we have to let Noah go through the pain of learning to settle himself back to sleep. He'll probably be fine, but it might destroy us.
I have to admit that it was easier to make Dermot CIO because he wasn't in our room. We moved him out around 3 months, I think. We had the monitor on pretty loudly even though he's only across the hall. Ethan and I ended up just sitting through the tears together trying to keep each strong. I don't know what would have happened if he had still been with us.
So much to comment on.
1. I haven't tried it, but I keep seeing this plastic stuff at the home improvement stores that you put on your windows, then hit with the blow dryer (like shrink wrap) that is supposed to be THE BOMB for window insulating. I can actually feel a breeze in my room sometimes during the winter--so I need to try it.
2. I completely know what you meen by sometimes having to let things get dirty to clean other things. If I truly want to dust, clean closets, whatever, I have to live with the fact that the kitchen will stay filthy and that the front room will be trashed.
3. Sleep! Oh how I miss sleep--and Sophie's 3 for christs sake!
4. Imaginary soup sounds darling and delicious.
I hope you get some uninterrupted sleep soon. All the better for eating imaginary soup!
It sounds to me like you got alot more done than you think. I usually just set a goal of one room at a time until it's all done. That may take a day or a week.
Well, one thing you can look forward to. When Noah is a teenager, he'll sleep until noon every weekend. But, he'll also be a pissy bugger when you wake him up early for school. Good luck.
My cousin in Maryland did the clear shrink wrap thing on her windows once that Missuz J mentioned. It is supposed to be really good and I know it was easy because i watched them install it.
Noah sounds like a lot of fun, except for the not sleeping part, but the bag thing is great.
I don't know what it is about 9 months. That is when all 2 of mine started getting up again during the night (not every 2 hours but at least 2 times a night). It is also when they started crying when I left them in the church nursery or with Daddy or Grandparents - they always did fine if they were leaving me but if I left them they cried. I always thought it was a new found sense of loneliness or seperation anxiety. Hope it passes soon for you.
Ummm all 3 of mine not all 2....sorry
Checked out Boscovs. Thanks for the tip! We are planning on getting some thermal curtains (Penneys is having a sale too) and using that plastic stuff.
Crying it out will probably come one day in the not too distant future, but as of yet I don't have the heart for it.
He is nursing alot more during the night too. Mark and I have been guessing it is caused by a growth spurt, but who knows.
We are planning on
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