I would have made this an official Thursday Thirteen, but I couldn't be bothered working out all the blogroll & reciprocal commenting requirements... I just want to start making a list of positives each week!
1. it is now three days since I last breastfed Wombat. He is officially weaned. He listened to me telling him about babies (& puppies & kittens & calves & foals) drinking mummymilk, and looked at the pictures I showed him, and the pictures of older animals drinking from bowls etc, and he listened while I told him he was my big boy now & would only drink bottle milk from now on, until he was able to drink from a cup like Mummy & Daddy... he loved looking at the photo album that contains weekly photos of him from birth onwards (there are lots of gaps which I must print photos to fill in for him)... I thought he hadn't understood, but when I took him for his first non-feeding nap, he didn't even try to nurse... he didn't sleep either, but I was impressed at his understanding. When I pretended to be asleep to see if he's join me, he tugged his special blankey over & tucked me in (big grin!!!) I think he thought it was just for that nap though, because he got quite upset when there was no feed offered at the afternoon nap. I repeated my explanation of how much I loved my big boy and he wasn't a baby any more, and he stopped crying straight away! It hasn't been smooth sailing by any means, but I think we're over the worst, and it was nowhere near as traumatic as I'd feared.
2. it is raining
3. When I was feeling very sick on Tuesday, Yeti sent me to the doctor (and stayed home looking after a Wombat screaming with separation anxiety while I spent two hours reading Ulysses in the doctor's waiting room - my doc is never on time). Doc gave me fluid tablets - basically they help dry up the milk by pulling any excess stores of water to the kidneys for excretion. It may not sound very delicate, but it's an awful lot more comfortable than engorged boobs (and I want to be able to remember it for next time/advising friends)! It also reduces the chance of infection, which I was worried about - the last thing I need is another bout of mastitis (the way he explained it, imagine a dish of powdered formula and a dish of made-up formula - bacteria is going to grow in the wet stuff, but not in the dry.)
4. Wombat is napping! So he's only having one nap a day, and he's more teary than usual (which is also due to the teeth) but he went to sleep without feeding - only took singing Away in a Manger, Good King Wenceslas, and Morningtown Ride as lullabies! (He really likes Christmas Carols ;P)
5. Wombat is sleeping through the night. He wakes up crying in the mornings while I'm studying, but goes back to sleep before I go in to him.
6. the electricity bill arrived - at $925 it is more than I hoped, but less than I feared - and at least now I know the damage and can pay it & concentrate on saving for the accommodation we'll need for the onsite school.
7. Wombat had a perfect potty day yesterday - dry nappies & full potties all day! (Today has not been so good - but then, I was out teaching this morning & that always mucks up his routine, plus being cooped up inside doesn't help).
8. did I mention it's raining? (we are still technically in drought - though there has been flooding all up the coast in the last week... anyway, washing nappies on tank water means we need all the rain we can get)
9. Wombat discovered that - in the absence of a sandpit - he likes digging in the dirt. I was able to redirect him away from the tree root he was trying to dig out near the chook pen, and convince him to play in my garden - while I weeded! Doesn't sound like much, but the last time I had a chance to weed was before I fell pregnant, so a LONG time ago (while pregnant I was paranoid about coming into contact with cat poop). I had resigned myself to losing my garden completely beneath the jungle of weeds & grass... now I am resurrecting it a little at a time
10. my boxes from officeworks arrived - 20 lovely big archive boxes to play with... now I only have to find time to fill them with all the uni notes stored under the house, and the sewing stuff in the caravan... and find somewhere to stack them... hopefully I can get more organized before we are ready to move house (which may happen in a year or so) - I was going to separate Wombat's toys into daily boxes & rotate them like my sister does, but I realised Wombat doesn't really have enough toys to do that - and he knows all his toys and goes searching through for the one he wants - it is amazing the connections he makes now. He sees a horse in a book and collects together all his toy horses... sees a rooster and points towards our chook pen (from inside, which shows he has a great sense of direction!)...
11. I bought a new book on eBay about making cloth books for children... it looks great & I can't wait to start
12. after paying the electricity bill, & saving for accommodation, I won't have enough left over to buy new 'professional looking' clothes... but I am doing reasonably at making exercise a habit - have done at least 30 minutes every day, so far this week - and even managed the full 40 minutes on two days (that's 10 minutes each hour between 3am & 7am)... if I keep it up, I just might manage to fit into some of the clothes I had to put into storage! Especially since my appetite has decreased now I am not eating for Wombat as well! (His appetite has increased correspondingly - he is now eating almost as much as me each day - if I dropped back to what I was eating before I got pregnant, we'd be eating the same! lol... I'll have to have a highly paid job by the time he's a teenager - he'll eat us out of house & home!!!)
13. it's still raining and Wombat's still asleep (that's two hours!!! can't last much longer)! Tomorrow I will finish Trust & Office Accounting - finally - I have hardly had any time to work this week. But I am holding at only a week behind, which is great!
Showing posts with label too little time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label too little time. Show all posts
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Monday, February 05, 2007
A Routine, not a Schedule
Phew... this post is not really relevant any more since he is FINALLY sleeping soundly... but I thought I'd record some thoughts for posterity, rather than just blogging them in my head!
Baby Wombat, mummy's job is to be positive and cheerful and energetic all morning, no matter how little sleep she's had. She promises to feed you yummy food, to play, teach and entertain you, all singing, all dancing and all loving, and then to wind down into quieter activities which help you to relax, to give you lovely warm baths and read books until you are yawning and rubbing your eyes. Then she will lie down with you and cuddle, play soothing music and feed you as much mummy milk as you want until your heavy little eyelids close and you drift off into a sweet slumber.
In return, little Wombat, your job is to snooze. It doesn't have to be for long. It is better if you can stay asleep for more than 15 minutes, but so long as you get some sleep mummy will be happy to start the whole routine over again. But you must go to sleep! It is in our contract - in the rulebook AND the appendix. Otherwise mummy will start to get desperate and feel you are not keeping your side of the bargain, especially if you go along with all the preparations, close your eyes, start to snore and then immediately bounce up again as if mummy had been feeding you pure caffeine!
(I AM GOING TO STRANGLE WHOEVER IS RIDING A LOUD MOTORBIKE UP AND DOWN THE ROAD IF THEY WAKE HIM!!!!!!)
Consciously, I knew it was the pain from his teeth making him bounce around the bed like a pingpong ball every time he started to relax, but emotionally, I couldn't help shedding a few tears at the unfairness of it all. I don't want to have to medicate him every time he gets tired!
Yeti came and rescued me, taking Wombat outside to sit quietly in the rocking chair while I had a shower. He was perfectly content to cuddle up to Daddy, as he really was very tired, but as soon as he saw me it was bounce-city again. I gave him some Bonjella, took him back to his bed and stayed with him while he wore himself out playing, blowing bubbles on my tummy, nibbling on my knee and giving me big drooly toothy kisses.
Refreshed by my shower, I was able to be more philosophical, keep my breathing deep and even and daydream while I waited for him to wind down. After nearly an hour he eventually crawled near me, flopped down and agreed to another little feed. His eyes closed almost immediately, as he was totally exhausted, but even then his body refused to relax... it took 15 minutes of me murmuring "There, there... just relax... it's ok... shhhhhhhhh" over and over again before his feet stopped kicking and his arms stopped flailing and he finally fell deeply asleep.
He's now been asleep for nearly an hour and I have had the chance to catch up on a few of the jobs that I can't do when he's with me... we're running about 2 hours late on a normal day, but at least he got some rest... there have been days when I have had to give up on naptime altogether, which really upsets us both... all I can do is try to impose a consistent order of events, so he can predict what will happen next. The timing is up to him, and I have discovered that the only predictable thing about it is that it will be unpredictable. There was a period last week where each nap lasted for nearly 2 hours, and he was asleep almost as soon as he started to suckle! Really, these difficult days are in the minority... nine times out of ten the routine works just fine.
I'd better go do some more work now and take advantage of my momentary freedom before he wakes up ready for his lunch.
Baby Wombat, you confuse, frustrate and enchant me with your sweetness. I guess I must do the same to you. Sleep well, little love, and I'll be all smiles and kisses when you wake, no matter how little I manage to get done in the meantime. You are, and will ALWAYS be more important than anything else that might occupy my time. Sometimes I forget that, but my heart quickly reminds me.
It's in the contract - and the rule book - AND the appendix.
Baby Wombat, mummy's job is to be positive and cheerful and energetic all morning, no matter how little sleep she's had. She promises to feed you yummy food, to play, teach and entertain you, all singing, all dancing and all loving, and then to wind down into quieter activities which help you to relax, to give you lovely warm baths and read books until you are yawning and rubbing your eyes. Then she will lie down with you and cuddle, play soothing music and feed you as much mummy milk as you want until your heavy little eyelids close and you drift off into a sweet slumber.
In return, little Wombat, your job is to snooze. It doesn't have to be for long. It is better if you can stay asleep for more than 15 minutes, but so long as you get some sleep mummy will be happy to start the whole routine over again. But you must go to sleep! It is in our contract - in the rulebook AND the appendix. Otherwise mummy will start to get desperate and feel you are not keeping your side of the bargain, especially if you go along with all the preparations, close your eyes, start to snore and then immediately bounce up again as if mummy had been feeding you pure caffeine!
(I AM GOING TO STRANGLE WHOEVER IS RIDING A LOUD MOTORBIKE UP AND DOWN THE ROAD IF THEY WAKE HIM!!!!!!)
Consciously, I knew it was the pain from his teeth making him bounce around the bed like a pingpong ball every time he started to relax, but emotionally, I couldn't help shedding a few tears at the unfairness of it all. I don't want to have to medicate him every time he gets tired!
Yeti came and rescued me, taking Wombat outside to sit quietly in the rocking chair while I had a shower. He was perfectly content to cuddle up to Daddy, as he really was very tired, but as soon as he saw me it was bounce-city again. I gave him some Bonjella, took him back to his bed and stayed with him while he wore himself out playing, blowing bubbles on my tummy, nibbling on my knee and giving me big drooly toothy kisses.
Refreshed by my shower, I was able to be more philosophical, keep my breathing deep and even and daydream while I waited for him to wind down. After nearly an hour he eventually crawled near me, flopped down and agreed to another little feed. His eyes closed almost immediately, as he was totally exhausted, but even then his body refused to relax... it took 15 minutes of me murmuring "There, there... just relax... it's ok... shhhhhhhhh" over and over again before his feet stopped kicking and his arms stopped flailing and he finally fell deeply asleep.
He's now been asleep for nearly an hour and I have had the chance to catch up on a few of the jobs that I can't do when he's with me... we're running about 2 hours late on a normal day, but at least he got some rest... there have been days when I have had to give up on naptime altogether, which really upsets us both... all I can do is try to impose a consistent order of events, so he can predict what will happen next. The timing is up to him, and I have discovered that the only predictable thing about it is that it will be unpredictable. There was a period last week where each nap lasted for nearly 2 hours, and he was asleep almost as soon as he started to suckle! Really, these difficult days are in the minority... nine times out of ten the routine works just fine.
I'd better go do some more work now and take advantage of my momentary freedom before he wakes up ready for his lunch.
Baby Wombat, you confuse, frustrate and enchant me with your sweetness. I guess I must do the same to you. Sleep well, little love, and I'll be all smiles and kisses when you wake, no matter how little I manage to get done in the meantime. You are, and will ALWAYS be more important than anything else that might occupy my time. Sometimes I forget that, but my heart quickly reminds me.
It's in the contract - and the rule book - AND the appendix.
Y time
I have so many things I want to write, so many half-formed thoughts and half-finished projects... but Wombat is teething and only taking two half hour naps a day, which just gives me time to shower and turn the computer on before I'm back to being mum-mum-mum... and then when I finally get here at night, after tidying up and getting everything ready for tomorrow, I have ten minutes to check my email before Yeti comes complaining that he never gets to talk to me and I should come spend some time with him... males! And the baby whisperer calls it 'You' time! huh! Good thing I love 'em.
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