For the Record

So Jack is 8 months old, and actually rather close to 9. He has been waking at short and regular intervals at night since about 5 1/2 months. In the last month or two, he's settled into a pattern: nurse to sleep at 8pm, wake up between 9-10pm, again when I head to bed (around 11), again when Jonner heads to bed (around 12), and then nurses on and off continually through the night, and ramping up around 5:30 when he seems to be unable to sleep if his mouth is not stuck on my nipple until about 7:30. It. is. exhausting.

So 5 days ago, we've started the sleep experiment. The tricky thing about sleep experiments is that not only is it not guaranteed to work, 1) it will mostly likely cause even more extreme lack of sleep, 2) it will most likely make for a lot more work and frustration in the short term, 3) the above two reasons makes it extremely difficult to stick with it for more than one bad night.

The reason I'm determined is that I think that Jack is old enough that he can really truly make it until midnight without nursing (therefore the goal is humane and not "sleep training" per se), I am starting to be so tired that I'm not being a particularly great mom during the day, and I have a partner that supports me.

Hence, I start Jack off in the crib, go to sleep on the couch downstairs, and Jonner sleeps in the basement. Before midnight, all wakings are handled by dad. Afterwards, I'm back on duty. If I can stay awake long enough, I come back down to the couch after he falls asleep.

So last night was the first breakthrough. He woke up at 10:30 as usual, but then went to sleep by himself after crying lightly only about 3 minutes. He was up again at 1:30, and again at 2:30, but then slept till 5:30 and nursed in bed till about 7:30. Still, it's progress.

I don't know if I'll really update this thread, but I just needed proof for later in case I ever forget how hard it was.

The Amazing Learning Machine

Yeah, that's my daughter's brain. I know children's brains are like sponges, but it still doesn't make it any less flabbergasting how Ruby remembers so much of what she learns.

We have a couple of books from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology that have recordings of bird songs of a couple hundred species of birds in the US. Jonathon got them for Christmas because he's a bird enthusiast, but we've all been enjoying them on and off. Sometimes at mealtimes, we play bird songs and try to guess them. So granted, she's surrounded by bird nerds. But (getting on my brag box) Ruby can correctly guess probably about 40 different species by their song. And as far as identifying by sight, she can identify a whole lot more. (I'll venture a guess of about 90 species)

While I'm combing my brain, saying "um...", she's already repeated the answer a couple times. I'm sure the fact that I'm so impressed just eggs her on. But really, how crazy is it that my three year old can solidly identify the songs of a kildeer, a sora, a yellow-breasted chat, and a common yellowthroat in 10 seconds flat?

What!

I swear, this babe is cutting teeth. At two weeks. What!

Cloth pads

With the baby so close to being born, my thoughts naturally turned to the unsavory prospect of wearing horrible disposable pads, along with the ice filled diapers. The ice filled diapers aren't a big deal-- they actually feel good, and you only wear them for the first few days. The pads, however, are a curse that lasts much longer.

I discovered the diva cup a couple years ago and it's changed my life. However, it is no good to me in my post-partum situation.

Enter: cloth pads! I bought one (ONE!) at the coop for something ridiculous like $10 or $15. So my doula mercifully sent me a bunch of links to different patterns and ideas. After looking at those, I went to the fabric store and spent $13 on cotton batting, cotton flannel, some nylon, and some snaps. I've made 3 large post-partum pads with 8 inserts, and 4 regular liners with something like 10 inserts. They're adorable, soft, eco-friendly, and cost a fraction of what you would pay for pads from "Party in your Pants".

Ruby loves the colorful inserts so much, she's been calling them her "lollipops" or her "snacks". Which I find mildly disturbing.

Story

When I was a little girl, I used to know camping, but I don't know it anymore. We swam all day when it was summer. When it was time to go back home, we went back to our houses and goed back into the yard and found cute little raccoons inside our nest (later she said "nets") and they were inside our house and we hugged them and hugged them and there was something to eat on the table and there was something to eat all day long. And play so much that we were tired and went to sleep... and played again and then it was morning and then we thought it was a good job to go to space and then we flew to the moon again. All again. And then we slide out the window and down the tree.

Negotiation

Ruby has been negotiating with me a lot lately. Which is fantastic except that she's 2 years old, and wants to negotiate everything. Half of her "deal making" is reasonable. The other half is either completely ridiculous or undoable.

She'll get dressed but only after reading 2 books, and dancing to a specific song.
She'll listen to me and be good, but not upstairs, just downstairs.
She'll take another bite, but only after balancing the food on top of her glass.
She'll go pee, but first she has to grab her blanket, a book, a figurine, and her necklaces.
She'll go to school and be good, but she's going to whine and scream first.
She won't put the toy to her mouth, but she'll just touch it to her chin.

These "negotiations" are obviously delaying tactics, testing, and bossiness all rolled into one. And speaking of bossiness. Wow. "I'm not a princess, I'm a princUSS. And actually I'm not a princuss, I'm just a fairy. Now you say, 'You're my little fairy.'" I fear for her little brother.

My fantasy these days is that I'll ask her to do something, and she'll just say, "yes, mom" and do it. From what I hear, that's not going to happen for a long time.

Contemplative

After a nap, Ruby was sitting next to me on the couch quietly with her blanket.

Me: Did you sleep well?
R: No.
Me: Did you sleep badly?
R: Yeah.
Me: Why?
R: Because, that's just the way people feel sometimes.

Pause.

Me: I'm sorry. Do you still feel bad?
R: Yeah. That's all people do sometimes. Feel bad.

She looked pretty morose until the mention of chocolate cupcake, and then she jumped off the couch yelling, "Yeah!".

Whew

Two craft fairs done, and now I don't have to knit for that anymore. I have some berets, some men's fingerless mitts, some headbands/earwarmers, and a couple kid bonnets left. Anybody in the market for handmade winter accessories?

The most important thing I learned was that people love knitted donuts. It puzzles people, but everyone finds them irresistible. Who knew?