It's a Sideways, Downward Zig Zaggy Spiral

The Bean is in the midst of sleep training. We're not exactly sure who is training who right now though. We're trying to get her to the point where she can sleep through the night without needing a milk feed from her Momma. We've cut it down over the last week or so by one waking but that required the husband to sleep at the foot of the bed with his hand resting on her so she'd stay lying down and drift back to sleep. I tried that but because I'm the giver of milk it kind of backfired and the night turned into a round of pick up the baby, cuddle her to see if she'd go back to sleep and if not nursing until she stopped drinking and putting her back into her own bed only to replay the whole thing again a few hours, or an hour or half an hour later.

Looking back I think training the Peanut was so much easier. She was a sucker, and not in a "Ha ha sucker!" kind of way but in a put a suckey (soother) in her mouth and she would self soothe back to sleep kind of way. I originally didn't want a soother with the Peanut but she got one when I wasn't looking and it turned out that it wasn't a problem for us. She didn't use it all the time, when she needed it, it was a lifesaver and when it was time for her to give it up it was easy peasy. So we got one for the Bean and she refused to use it. She's not a sucker, unless it's with me then she's right on it. I've been diligent about breaking the latch when there is no actual eating from day one which leads to either a stretch and roll over to go to sleep or a frantic scramble to get back onto the milk train. If we had the soother to fall back on this whole sleep thing would be so much simpler. We'd just be replaying the Peanut's sleep training instead of feeling like first timers all over again.

Any suggestions out there? Did you have a soother refuser? how did you do the getting them to sleep through the night thing?

Book Two: Foreign Bodies

And on to Book number three. I can't tell you what it seems to be about because I haven't even taken a look past the cover art. I'm super tired today since the Bean has been keeping odd hours, going to bed on her own in her own bed and then waking up two to three time a night and fighting going back to sleep. Between the husband and I, we are both exhausted.  I don't recall sleep training the Peanut to be this tricky... but on to the reading:

Foreign Bodies was filled to the brim with foreign bodies of all make and manner. From the intrusion of estranged family members in one characters living room to the literal foreign bodies that inhabit post war Paris. If I was an English Lit Student, this would be a great book to write an essay on based on the Foreign body theme alone. It was a good read; I'm just not sure that it's going to inhabit my brain the way a really superb book would.

Are you reading along? what book have you started on? Let me know what you've read and if you want what you thought about it here or in another Orange Prize labelled post. 

• Island of Wings by Karin Altenberg 
• On the Floor by Aifric Campbell - On deck
• The Grief of Others by Leah Hager Cohen
• The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue 
• Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan - Finished
• The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright
• The Flying Man by Roopa Farooki Starting
• Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon 
• Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding 
• Gillespie and I by Jane Harris 
• The Translation of the Bones by Francesca Kay
• The Blue Book by A.L. Kennedy 
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
• Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick - Finished
• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
• There but for the by Ali Smith
• The Pink Hotel by Anna Stothard
• Tides of War by Stella Tillyard
• The Submission by Amy Waldman

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

It's been a little less than a year since the Peanut napped with the exception of that afternoon she had a fever and she passed out on me during a huggle.

Yesterday I was feeling a little droopy so I had a little lie down after lunch; having an almost 4 year old makes doing something like that a little easier than say having a one or two year old (of course with the one and two year old Peanut I napped with her) To my surprise she announced that she was sleepy too and snuggled up beside me. Of course the snuggle turned into a hop up to go potty and wash her hands, jump off and onto the bed and run around the house to jump on and then off the bed and somewhere in that little jumping in and out she managed to snuggle in long enough to pass out for a nice hour long nap.

Quiet moments like this are getting fewer and farther between with the Peanut as she gets older so I took full advantage and basked in her Peanutty sleepiness, wouldn't you?

it's all started out wrong

that's how it seems today anyway. Of course it's early and there's still time to turn it all around. It's spring break in our neck of the woods which means that the teens who live next door are partying (which means drunk and banging on the door while yelling in the backyard on the weekend) or in the back yard at 6AM dropping f-bombs as loud as they can in the backyard (that's right, this was how I was woken up today).

Either way, my sleep is interrupted. Today that meant all our sleep was shortened by at least an hour as the Peanut's attitude this morning is evidence that she was more than likely going to sleep a little later this morning than 6. Either that or she's turned over night into the whinge-miester.

Well, the whinging isn't really new today, it's been going on for a little over a week now. At the drop of a hat, or the first sign that the Peanut's will is being flouted we break into the nasal whine. This whine grates on my nerves and despite plenty of discussions about deep breaths and using words to express how we are feeling, the whine returns. on a related note I'm looking forward to some me time this weekend, just me, some paints and some glass.

So anyone else going through the whinge-fest? Gone through it? What are you doing/did you do to get past it?

burnt out, and minor ramblings

It's time to get more iron pills, get to bed earlier and eat breakfast. It's hard to believe that a week without the stress of running to this place or that trying to get in as many minutes with family as possible can be as tiring as on with all that running around. Yesterday I had to nap, it wasn't a case of feeling that a little snooze would be nice it was a hammer coming down and knocking me unconscious for 90 minutes for much needed sleep. Thankfully the husband had had his nap just before and was able to feed the Peanut hotdogs for afternoon snack and ensure she wasn't watching inappropriate television. I can feel confident in the hotdog snack having fed her homemade turkey soup chock full of carrots, celery and potatoes for lunch. It's been cold here, cold in the house despite layers of sweaters and fuzzy socks plush 'jamma bottoms and a threatened addition of the fuzzy thermal housecoat, so hot soup was a good call and oh so yummy. I'm so thankful that our christmas dinner care package included some of the bones to make soup. I could eat soup daily in the winter, soup and stews with home made biscuits or bread.

Today we take down the tree and I have high hopes that all talk about what the Peanut wants for christmas will go into storage with the decor. She's still asking for this or that for christmas which is sweet but also tiring. This means that we're going to be arranging the house again. There are big plans afoot for reorganizing, my studio area is going to be shared as the husbands music practice area leaving more room in our bedroom for the boxes of holiday decor that were a little moist from sitting in the garage for ten months. We'll be setting up the new printer/scanner I indulged in and I'll be getting started on some new projects that were just waiting for a printer to get started.

I hope that your New Years Eve celebrations were safe and fun and that you are starting out a new year and decade with plenty ramblings of your own, less burn out than I'm feeling and lots of plans for the next year. I promise more photos in the coming posts.

Just Another Day

So I've never really been a big New Years Eve party girl. My fondest memories of New Years Eve are back in the mid to late eighties and were spent at my Aunt & Uncle's house with my three cousins and my family. One year we played a murder mystery game and then charades, which was fun until the A-Team was the answer to and my one cousin couldn't get past the letter A in the answer. We laughed ourselves silly as he kept repeating over and over "The Ah, the ah, the ah, the ah, the ah,..." getting more frustrated with his brother, who was giving the hints with each ah. Bed time was soon decreed.

My first New Years after turning 18 was spent in a crowded bar, and I didn't even get a plastic thimble of champagne for the $50 ticket. My first New Years with my now husband was spent driving around with his not so great friends looking for a party. When new years rolled around we were stopped at a stop sign in Ponoka Alberta near the towns only bar. New Years Eve 1999 was spent watching TV to see if the millennium bug was going to dash us all into computer-less oblivion. One year we played Monopoly at my Brother in Law's house with his in-laws. Last year we sat in front of my Father-in-Laws red hot wood stove and watched movies and ate piles of junk. As the years go on my celebrations become quieter and quieter.

Last night, we counted down to zero and hollered "Happy New Year!" to Miranda at 7:30 and then I went to bed at 9pm. The Mother-in-Law (also known as my adoptive mom, I'm lucky enough to love her almost as much as my own mom) had left super early in the morning after a six day visit, and the husband was suffering from sleeping pill withdrawal insomnia. I fell quickly asleep and was then promptly woken up at the stroke of midnight, just in time to walk into the living room plant a big wet one on the insomniac, check to see who was shooting of firecrackers and make sure the toddler was still tucked in.

All in all not a bad way to close out the old year and start out a new one.