Here was our evening last night:
Em hadn't taken a nap, so she went down easy-peasy. I played video games, then Justin played video games, and I spent the rest of the evening chatting with my sister online. In addition, I was drinking this Starbucks liqueor stuff. (This turned out to be a crucial misstep.)
Around 12, I tried to go to sleep but I couldn't. So I read. Still couldn't sleep. Dang coffee drink.
Around 2, Justin came to bed. But he couldn't sleep either. So he got back up to play more video games.
Around 3, (I'm still up, so is Justin), Em wakes up. She's been having nightmares lately. Last night, apparently, they were about bugs.
I think I fell asleep around 5. I have no idea when the other two did.
Again, not enough coffee in the world.
Showing posts with label sleep. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sleep. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Saturday, September 13, 2008
My Favorite Time of Day
There is one time of day that I love more than any other: when my daughter falls asleep.
Now, that kinda sounds bad.
This is not my favorite time of day because the house is finally quiet (though she is two...I don't think anyone would really fault my husband and I for wanting some quiet.) No, I love this time of day because I can get a good look at her.
I sneak into Emy's room an hour or so after she goes to bed, right before I'm ready to head to my own slumber. I carefully give her a little pat and kiss, rearrange her blankets, and make sure she has both her teddy bears (my husband's and my childhood bears, by the way.)
Then, I bask in the glory that is being a mom of such a cool kid. At night is when I cannot believe I'm so lucky to be a mom. I just look at her and am stunned. She's beautiful and peaceful and I know she feels loved.
There are many times of the day I love and some I could do without (bath time and brushing the teeth are becoming FUN.) I love cuddling with my daughter during Saturday cartoons, cleaning up the kitchen with her (she helps), and of course, there's reading time.
But then there are those moments, late in the evening, when I can just slow down and appreciate her for the beautiful, intelligent little girl she is turning into.
Now, that kinda sounds bad.
This is not my favorite time of day because the house is finally quiet (though she is two...I don't think anyone would really fault my husband and I for wanting some quiet.) No, I love this time of day because I can get a good look at her.
I sneak into Emy's room an hour or so after she goes to bed, right before I'm ready to head to my own slumber. I carefully give her a little pat and kiss, rearrange her blankets, and make sure she has both her teddy bears (my husband's and my childhood bears, by the way.)
Then, I bask in the glory that is being a mom of such a cool kid. At night is when I cannot believe I'm so lucky to be a mom. I just look at her and am stunned. She's beautiful and peaceful and I know she feels loved.
There are many times of the day I love and some I could do without (bath time and brushing the teeth are becoming FUN.) I love cuddling with my daughter during Saturday cartoons, cleaning up the kitchen with her (she helps), and of course, there's reading time.
But then there are those moments, late in the evening, when I can just slow down and appreciate her for the beautiful, intelligent little girl she is turning into.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Just the Two of Us
The past couple of weeks I have re-discovered a lovely thing: sleeping with my husband. Before you click to another blog, I don't mean this in a sexy-time way.
Allow me to explain.
When our daughter was born two years ago, she was just a bit premature, which meant that Kaiser was super psycho about us feeding her every two hours. I was also trying to breast feed, which now that I look back at, my daughter was just not ready for. She didn't get it. She wouldn't even take to the bottle: we had to use a syringe. The upshot was that by the time I finished feeding her, I had about 40 minutes to "sleep" before I was up again. It was rough. Out of our exhaustion, we would let Em sleep with us.
Well, the family bed thing continued as she got older. My husband and I started teaching again when she was 3 months old, and we were unmotivated (lazy you might say) to change anything in the sleeping the department. Em's room was clear across the apartment, and it was just easier to keep her in bed with us. And to be honest, it was nice waking up with her on the weekends.
When we moved to Elk Grove, our new apartment was more conveniently laid out, so we would put Em down in her crib. She'd wake up around 1 or so, and we'd bring her to bed with us. Also (and there's gonna be plenty of parents groaning out there when they read this), we rocked her to sleep every night. Again, we didn't want to change this craziness because it was working.
Then, it stopped working.
Out of frustration, Justin just started putting Em in her crib. She was NOT happy, but then a miracle happened: SHE FEEL ASLEEP. I know to many of you this is a duh moment, but for Justin and I it is a miracle. A beautiful thing.
So now we live in our new house. Em has a cute little room of her own. At 1:30, she goes down for her nap and at 8:30, she goes to bed. No rocking. Very little crying (not every night is perfect.) And now my husband have more free time than we ever imagined.
And we have our bed back. It's kind of strange, actually. Justin rolled over last night and put his arm around me. I couldn't remember the last time he did that. We always had a baby in between us.
My husband and I have talked about having another child, but he's always been wary of it. I think because he was the one mainly responsible for getting Em to bed, and it was exhausting. Now, he seems more relaxed: we can teach our child how to sleep independently. He actually mentioned having another kid (not in the near future, but still, he's open to the idea, which is big for him.)
I'm in no rush. I'm enjoying our new sleeping arrangements, and I see no need to mess with them.
Update: I think it is wise to remind people, new parents and even those more experience, that you are setting yourself up if you brag about something your kid can do. Em was up ALL last night. Wouldn't go to sleep. Kept us up singing. Fun. Of course, she's still sleeping and I'm awake.
Allow me to explain.
When our daughter was born two years ago, she was just a bit premature, which meant that Kaiser was super psycho about us feeding her every two hours. I was also trying to breast feed, which now that I look back at, my daughter was just not ready for. She didn't get it. She wouldn't even take to the bottle: we had to use a syringe. The upshot was that by the time I finished feeding her, I had about 40 minutes to "sleep" before I was up again. It was rough. Out of our exhaustion, we would let Em sleep with us.
Well, the family bed thing continued as she got older. My husband and I started teaching again when she was 3 months old, and we were unmotivated (lazy you might say) to change anything in the sleeping the department. Em's room was clear across the apartment, and it was just easier to keep her in bed with us. And to be honest, it was nice waking up with her on the weekends.
When we moved to Elk Grove, our new apartment was more conveniently laid out, so we would put Em down in her crib. She'd wake up around 1 or so, and we'd bring her to bed with us. Also (and there's gonna be plenty of parents groaning out there when they read this), we rocked her to sleep every night. Again, we didn't want to change this craziness because it was working.
Then, it stopped working.
Out of frustration, Justin just started putting Em in her crib. She was NOT happy, but then a miracle happened: SHE FEEL ASLEEP. I know to many of you this is a duh moment, but for Justin and I it is a miracle. A beautiful thing.
So now we live in our new house. Em has a cute little room of her own. At 1:30, she goes down for her nap and at 8:30, she goes to bed. No rocking. Very little crying (not every night is perfect.) And now my husband have more free time than we ever imagined.
And we have our bed back. It's kind of strange, actually. Justin rolled over last night and put his arm around me. I couldn't remember the last time he did that. We always had a baby in between us.
My husband and I have talked about having another child, but he's always been wary of it. I think because he was the one mainly responsible for getting Em to bed, and it was exhausting. Now, he seems more relaxed: we can teach our child how to sleep independently. He actually mentioned having another kid (not in the near future, but still, he's open to the idea, which is big for him.)
I'm in no rush. I'm enjoying our new sleeping arrangements, and I see no need to mess with them.
Update: I think it is wise to remind people, new parents and even those more experience, that you are setting yourself up if you brag about something your kid can do. Em was up ALL last night. Wouldn't go to sleep. Kept us up singing. Fun. Of course, she's still sleeping and I'm awake.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Ms H, the Zombie
Today I was the perfect example for my students for why one should think long and hard about having children. Parenthood should not be entered into lightly. One should ask themselves "How much do I like to sleep?" If the answer is anything more than "only a little", run screaming from being a parent.
I'm only kidding. Mostly.
I love my child. She's sweet. She's unique. She gives my life meaning. Blah, blah, blah. She will not sleep and I have anger towards her about this.
Saturday night, she fell asleep nicely at 8:30. My husband and I watched TWO movies (well, he did; I went to sleep after Juno.) He came to bed around midnight. She woke up at 1 and would not sleep until 5. We rocked, we cajoled, we patted her back until no end (by we, I mean my husband...he's much more patient.)
Unfortunately, I slept in on Sunday until 10. So did Em. So Em skipped her nap, which made our day run so smoothly. My favorite part was when she cried as she ate her pizza for dinner. She was so happy to have pizza, yet too tired to enjoy it.
Sunday night went fine. And then there was Monday.
Again, she fell asleep quietly. Woke up at 11:30 and we couldn't get her back down. It was my turn, so I patted her back, changed her diaper, gave her gas medicine, rocked her. Nope. At three, I was still up. My husband took over and she did not fall asleep until 6.
Neither of us could take off time from work, so we dropped her off at daycare with a fare-thee-well to our daycare lady and shuffled our way to work (so safe for us to be driving by the way.)
I slogged through the morning classes okay. We're reading To Kill a Mockingbird and we were at one of my favorite parts. But this afternoon was ROUGH. My air conditioning didn't work (worked fine at 8...nice), so there we all were. Trying to read in a balmy, smelly class room. I almost put myself to sleep.
The little angel better sleep tonight, or so help me...Oh, who am I'm kidding? I'm too tired to do anything other than cry.
I'm only kidding. Mostly.
I love my child. She's sweet. She's unique. She gives my life meaning. Blah, blah, blah. She will not sleep and I have anger towards her about this.
Saturday night, she fell asleep nicely at 8:30. My husband and I watched TWO movies (well, he did; I went to sleep after Juno.) He came to bed around midnight. She woke up at 1 and would not sleep until 5. We rocked, we cajoled, we patted her back until no end (by we, I mean my husband...he's much more patient.)
Unfortunately, I slept in on Sunday until 10. So did Em. So Em skipped her nap, which made our day run so smoothly. My favorite part was when she cried as she ate her pizza for dinner. She was so happy to have pizza, yet too tired to enjoy it.
Sunday night went fine. And then there was Monday.
Again, she fell asleep quietly. Woke up at 11:30 and we couldn't get her back down. It was my turn, so I patted her back, changed her diaper, gave her gas medicine, rocked her. Nope. At three, I was still up. My husband took over and she did not fall asleep until 6.
Neither of us could take off time from work, so we dropped her off at daycare with a fare-thee-well to our daycare lady and shuffled our way to work (so safe for us to be driving by the way.)
I slogged through the morning classes okay. We're reading To Kill a Mockingbird and we were at one of my favorite parts. But this afternoon was ROUGH. My air conditioning didn't work (worked fine at 8...nice), so there we all were. Trying to read in a balmy, smelly class room. I almost put myself to sleep.
The little angel better sleep tonight, or so help me...Oh, who am I'm kidding? I'm too tired to do anything other than cry.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
What's up with 6:57?!?
I have a lovely child. She is so lovely, in fact, that she sleeps in on the weekends. (I know some people feel anger towards me on this point, which is totally justified.)
Most weekends, I roll out of bed at 8ish, make coffee, check my email. By nine o'clock, I wake up Em. I don't want her to sleep in too late cause it'll put her off her nap. Normally, I feel rested and relaxed.
Well, today I woke up at 6:57. I actually stayed in bed for awhile to try to get back to sleep to no avail. I don't feel well-rested; I feel bleary eyed. But I can't go back to sleep.
This is just another occasion of my being really off this week. On Thursday, I fell asleep at 8:30, couldn't even stay up for Supernatural. Yesterday, I felt real off. A kid made popcorn in my room and I wanted to hurl. I love popcorn.
I'm not pregnant, but this all could be related to a certain fun visitor I'm getting next week. Note that I'm supposed to get it NEXT WEEK! Around the 15th. Yet, now, a week earlier, my internal clock is off, my feet are swollen, I cry at all lame mother's day commercials, and my moods are erratic (some might call them bride-of-satan inspired.) So lame.
Well, I am going to attempt to wake up. I'm gonna go get a cup of coffee from Starbucks (we're out at home...argh) and read a book. Hopefully, I feel normal soon. Whatever that is.
Most weekends, I roll out of bed at 8ish, make coffee, check my email. By nine o'clock, I wake up Em. I don't want her to sleep in too late cause it'll put her off her nap. Normally, I feel rested and relaxed.
Well, today I woke up at 6:57. I actually stayed in bed for awhile to try to get back to sleep to no avail. I don't feel well-rested; I feel bleary eyed. But I can't go back to sleep.
This is just another occasion of my being really off this week. On Thursday, I fell asleep at 8:30, couldn't even stay up for Supernatural. Yesterday, I felt real off. A kid made popcorn in my room and I wanted to hurl. I love popcorn.
I'm not pregnant, but this all could be related to a certain fun visitor I'm getting next week. Note that I'm supposed to get it NEXT WEEK! Around the 15th. Yet, now, a week earlier, my internal clock is off, my feet are swollen, I cry at all lame mother's day commercials, and my moods are erratic (some might call them bride-of-satan inspired.) So lame.
Well, I am going to attempt to wake up. I'm gonna go get a cup of coffee from Starbucks (we're out at home...argh) and read a book. Hopefully, I feel normal soon. Whatever that is.
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