Archive for August 2007
Baby sleep lessons 101 and the devil has blonde hair.
At least, that is what he looked like at 4am this morning when he was in my bed trying to evict my eyeballs from their sockets. Blonde hair, blue eyes, a blue and white striped Bonds suit and the most devilish of grins, dimples included.
Why, oh why won’t my babies sleep through the night? When I took them home from the NICU the nurses commented on how lucky we were to have NICU trained babies. ‘They’re in a good routine’, they said, ‘they’ll just wake and feed, wake and feed’, another commented.
Look, don’t get me wrong, that is great when you bring them home, newborn from the hospital.When you are happy to baby gaze and you want to feed them every three hours, when you are floating on the pink fluffy clouds of euphoria. The trouble is, they can’t seem to break that routine and they are ALMOST two!!!! Two! Those pink, fluffy clouds are looking awfully grey and stormy, right about now.
For goodness sake, I am so sleep deprived! I can’t think straight anymore. Give me a break!(Please)
Here are some hints for Ivy and Noah (and any other babies out there who refuse to sleep through the night);
Do NOT come into my bed unless you want to snuggle down and sleep. If you want to seek and destroy, then do it in your own room. Mummies and Daddies need to sleep, otherwise they get cranky in the day. You, know, that time when you want them at their best, so they can dote upon you?
If you wake up very early in the morning, it will not put you in good stead to demand a ‘bockle’ (bottle) and then hit me in the face when it is not forth coming. No amount of hitting will get me or your father up in the freezing cold to get you a drink.
If you wake up in the middle of the night, do not get out of bed and wake up your brother or sister as well. We will be alot friendlier if there is only one baby to put back to sleep. Two wailing babies is just asking for trouble.
If you have to wake up can you please do it half an hour BEFORE we go to bed, not half an hour AFTER? If you haven’t guessed by now, when parents go to bed, they are exhausted and are asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. Half an hour in is serious REM time and you are interrupting the most restful part of the night.
Finally, if you do happen to wake several times during the night (and expect us to get out of bed to resettle you), when Mummy says it’s time for a day sleep, know that she means it. Know that you running around in overtired hyperactivity mode makes Mummy more tired. Mummy saying time for sleep is not an invitation for you to start up a conversation of babble with your sibling. It is not the time to do a poo in your clean nappy and it is not the time to chant some baby mantra at the top of your lungs. Sleep means sleep (and time out for your worn out caregiver…often a first opportunity to shower and have some nutrition for the day so that she has the energy to bend to your every whim).
P.S. Another little hint; even just one night of full sleep will do wonders for the Mummy and the Daddy. Take that into consideration when you go to bed tonight.
Simpsonised
With every good intention of getting the washing under control on the first full day of being at home in over a week I knuckled down and did this:
I found this site http://www.simpsonsmovie.com/ (in between loads, of course) and turned my mug into a Simpsons character.
What do you think? Pretty lifelike, hey?
More blog links…
More blogs that I’ve discovered that are a really good read…
http://twinkies.bastetweb.com/ a blog about life with twins.
http://www.aweekinthelifeofaredhead.com/
http://www.notesfromthetrenches.com/
http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/
http://nelsongaggle.blogspot.com/
funny motherhood inspired blogs.
A friend of mine (thanks Mel) just sent me this link http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130144061675&ru=http%25. OMG! It is seriously the funniest thing I have ever read but sounds scarily like when we all go shopping! You have to look at this one. It belongs to this blogger http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com:80/
20 days to go, the chocolate junkies and TGIO.
20 days to go until we leave for (not so sunny) Queensland. It would be flooding, wouldn’t it? In our choice of destination. UGH. At least there are 20 days for it all to dry up and it WILL dry up or there is going to be trouble! Now I’ve said that, I’m not exactly sure how much trouble I (squishy, jelly bellied, 30 something woman) can inflict on an entire state but it sounded good, threatening, scary, don’t you think? No? Oh well. Maybe I’ll just take it out on David, afterall, Queensland was his choice and the floodgates haven’t opened in Fiji, now, have they?
Seriously, we are looking forward to it. 20 days is not long to have to wait. We just have to get organised and that is going to be the hard part, I think.
Yesterday we went to AJ’s semi final match against Singleton. It was a close game and after full time, it was 1 goal to each side. So we went into overtime. Again, no one got a goal (although it was SO close on many occasions and had all the parents on tenderhooks on the side of the field). Finally we went to penalty kicks and, although AJ’s team, The Bellbird Bombers, played a mighty game, they lost to Singleton. The boys were devastated but we were all proud of them. They worked so well as a team and played like champions! I know I couldn’t run around kicking a ball for almost two hours without needing some kind of medical assistance afterwards. AJ rallied well and is now looking towards the next season when he has been promised a place as a midfield player, instead of a sweeper (which he found incredibly unfulfilling).
Before the game, we stopped to get some supplies and I picked up a Cadbury’s Dad bag for Dave as an early Father’s Day present. As we climbed back into the car, Noah, who had noticed the purple bag started running through his food mantra. "Gubem, narnar, hartee," and then we heard
"clock – o -lart"!
Clockolart! He had identified the purple Cadbury’s symbol as chocolate!!
As we approached the field both our chocolate junkies were complaining bitterly because the sweet had not been forthcoming. David bribed them into the stroller with the promise of some choc buttons and with that the fun began. I’ve never seen chocolate disappear so fast. By the time I called it to an end, Ivy and Noah had consumed a whole roll of the buttons! When I said enough, they cried and whinged and begged for more! The only way to stop it was to redirect them to the playground, with the big girls. Oh dear. We had such good intentions when we started parenting eleven long years ago.
Today is Sunday, a day of rest. It’s a TGIO day. Thank God It’s Over. I’m talking about Star Struck. Tuesday and Wednesday rehersals, all day Thursday, Thursday night (it was a fantastic show – I highly recommend it for next year), home at 1am, then back on the bus at 8am for a matinee and a night performance, home again at close to one then back again for a Saturday night show. To 
say that Imogen and Madeline are exhausted is an understatement. They had a ball in the performances, of course, but the mornings were reduced to a series of bickering (amongst themselves) and tears from being so tired and overwhelmed. As much as they enjoyed themselves, I think they are glad for it to be finished with for this year too. This morning they have dragged themselves out of bed and are quietly slothing around the house…well, not now, now they are cleaning out the bus with the other kids, in preparation for our trip but they were very slow to get started today. For early risers, like Immy and Maddy (think 5:30 am since they were toddlers) a 9:30 wake up is a BIG sleep in. 
I think it will take a while for them to get back into the swing of things but what an experience for two 11 year olds who live in the boonies! Lily is going to try out next year so we might have three little performers in the house. Until next year, Star Struck!