Friday, May 22, 2009

To sleep: perchance to dream

Ay, there's the rub.

Tony and I have decided that all our problems stem from lack of sleep. Charles just doesn't sleep. Not like those so-called "normal" babies. His naps are mostly no longer than 30 minutes, and he has decided to drop his morning and evening nap (that means, in case you're keeping track, that he sleeps once, around noon, for half an hour, each day). He doesn't go to bed until 10 pm every night... he stirs a few times between 10 and midnight, often just needing his binky popped back in to return to slumber. Sometime between 2:30 and 4 am, he wakes for a diaper change and feeding. Then, because he won't easily go back to bed (read: he screams when I put him in his crib, and all I want to do is go back to sleep, since I likely only got to sleep around 11 pm or midnight), he comes into our bed. That's a typical night, like last night. The night before, he screamed about being put to bed at 10, and so he spent the whole night in our bed.

I won't lie, I am exhausted. I pump every time Charles eats, just to have enough milk for daycare. This means that he will eat on one breast while I pump the other. I am DOUBLING my milk output, enough to make any girl tired. And, Charles is teething again, I'm pretty sure. The ladies at daycare noticed it first... "He puts everything in his mouth and chews!" Not so fun for them, since they wash every toy that a baby has mouthed. That's a lot of toys. Then, he started doing the drool factory thing. And finally, the inconsolable crying, as though he is in a lot of pain. My poor little man. Maybe we'll get top teeth this time?

On the bright side of life, this weekend will mark the first since January that Tony will have off! Poor guy, he has been working long hours - I rarely see him before 7:30 pm. Charles has seemingly decided that I don't exist if I walk out of the room (or pull the shower curtain) and wails if we are not together. I am pretty well beat by the time I see my husband every night.

Tony singing and playing for Charles

Another good thing is that Goodwinds is really building and growing. We have so much work. I am on go, go, go mode the entire time that Charles is in daycare.

It is so beautiful outside these days that I have replaced my daily body lotion with sunscreen. Now, if only I could get the men in my life to use sunscreen (I don't want to name any names, but their initials are Tony and Leland). No one seems to understand that by taking an extra 60 seconds to apply SPF 15, you cut your skin cancer risk and reduce the probability of being covered in wrinkles when you're old. I think that's a pretty fair trade, eh? Isn't it ironic how, when we're young, we go tanning in the name of vanity and then, when we're older, we wear sunscreen in the name of vanity? At least, that's my story. Better late than never with the sunscreen, though.

Yogurt Beard!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend, everyone!

4 comments:

Carole said...

Let me preface this by saying that I am only telling you this because I love you:

Charles is manipulating you! Sleep Easy Solution! Do it! You won't be sorry!

K Schimmy said...

Or if that doesn't work, the 90 Minute Baby Sleep Program. It saved our butts. It really taught us to watch the clock and make those circadian rhythms work FOR us instead of against us!

Also... does that t-shirt say, "Let there be rock?" That is fabulous.

Amanda,, Travis, and Izabel Rainha Felton said...

I would put Izabel in her crib and let her cry. IF she cried for more then 10-20 mintutes I would go in and check on her. She usualy cry her self out and fall asleep. I also found if I fed soemthing nothing big but somethng 1 hour before bed she slept better. She just like something on her stomach.

Keleigh said...

Dear Tony & Leland,

Our good buddy Mike lost his wife, in her 30s, to skin cancer, after beating it once.

Wear the danged sunscreen, boys. It comes in powder, lotion or spray. It's not as much of a pain as you'd think. Honest.

Signed,

The fair-skinned girl with dogs that sunburn (if they can wear it, surely you can...)