Day and Night

Day and night are being intermingled around here these days. And I have to say, I am not a fan.

It seems to be for a couple of reasons, neither of which we can do anything about. Well, except shake our fists at the powers-that-be in futile anger. And you know how helpful THAT can be.

The first problem is with the season. Can’t do much about that, but I will tell you, it’s playing havoc with my carefully scheduled days. This time of year makes for short days, and that means we have a limited number of hours in which we can play outside. The first of the morning is pretty cold, so we try to let the day warm up a bit before we go anywhere. That Baby has lunch at noon, and gets up from her nap around 2:30 or 3:00, so anytime there is out. And then by 4 pm the sun is already on its way down and the day is cooling off. So basically, we have between 10 am and noon, and between 3 pm and 4 to get outside and do anything.

It’s been a challenge. The dampness and the wind means that keeping Stinkerbelle warm can be a task some days. It is still too warm for a snowsuit, and That Baby has an aversion to mittens, mostly because if she is wearing them, she cannot pull herself bolt upright in her stroller and stare and shout at people as we walk by. We can usually get a walk in if the morning is clear, or run our errands, or whatever. And maybe if the afternoon is sunny and the wind is down, we go out and walk up and down the sidewalk.

But otherwise, the dark and the endless gray days and being stuck indoors is making for a crabby baby with energy to spare, so her usual night time routines have been challenging. Nobody wants to go to bed if they are not tired. I don’t blame her.

The other issue that is turning our days inside out is, we THINK, that Stinkerbelle is fixing to get some molars. She’s waking up crying in the middle of the night — well, not crying exactly. The crying jags we can tolerate. Quite often, it’s more like a small wolf has taken up residence in her room. (Aaaaa-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHH! Aaaaa-WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHH! It’s enough to make me mental. Every time I hear Little Howlin’ Wolf, I want to smack myself in the head with a big stick and wake up when she is in university.)

The problem with the damn teeth is that there is no SIGN that this is actually the PROBLEM. So it might not even BE teeth. Maybe she’s a werewolf. You don’t know.

Anyway, she’s up howling at the moon at, say, 2:30 am. Which, coincidentally, happened last night. BDH gets night duty, and he tries to get her back to sleep. She is not buying it. (Not unless she’s in someone’s arms, anyway, when she will sleep THE SLEEP OF THE DEAD. Otherwise? She’s on high alert to begin shrieking the SECOND you make a move to put her in her crib.) Eventually he has to put her down and just WALK AWAY, man. And the howling starts again. So then it’s my turn because he has to work a full day and nobody can do that in his salary range on no sleep.

So I take over at, say, 4:00 or so. I rock her. She’s out, sleeping LIKE A LOG in about 3 milliseconds. But move her, and you have a hankering for misery, I tell you. So I alternately rock her and doze and snort myself awake until maybe 5:45, and then I finally manage to get her into her crib.

Where she stays, asleep and quiet, until just before 7. And then she wakes up fresh as a daisy, like she’s had the BEST! SLEEP! EVER! Whereas her father and I are awake only by virtue of the toothpicks holding our eyes open. And so, while her father tries valiantly to keep his face off the keyboard lest he drool into it at work, I spend my morning staggering around the south end of town pushing a stroller (merely to prop me up, let’s be honest), while she sits upright with her cold hands and stares and shouts at people we pass. (See mittens: not wanting to wear, above.)

So it’s getting to be one of those situations where we don’t know if it’s night or day anymore. And as we brace for yet another night of no sleep, followed by a day of gray, sleep-deprived haze, while the baby cries it out in her crib after having slept for only an hour (!)… It’s looking like a very LONG winter.