2006 December » LizaWasHere

Sleep, Sweet Sleep

Dec 312006

Here’s the report from Day 3 of Operation Sleep, Dammit!

Noah didn’t nap much after his 9:30 – 11:30 am nap yesterday, maybe 40 minutes of “sleating” around 4:30 pm. But for some reason, he was still chipper and going strong at 8 pm. After he jumped up and started climbing Mount Mama twice, I stopped the bedtime ritual and we went back downstairs until he showed signs of being sleepy. At 9:25 pm.

Half an hour later, he was out cold in his own bed. Noah woke up twice, again, but cried for only 2-3 minutes each time, and slept through until 7:20 am.

It IS still hard to listen to him cry and not go in to try to soothe him. Very hard! But I’d say it’s worth it. I look forward to not being able to regale my colleagues with horror stories of last night’s “sleep” any more. And to needing less coffee myself!

Ok, I’m a Convert

The Real Live Boy 4 Responses »

Dec 302006

Last night was night 2 on the “cry it out” test run.

Noah woke up twice, he cried for 5-6 minutes the first time, and about 2 the second. Except for those, he was asleep from 8:15 pm to 6:45 am.

And then he napped from 9:30 am – 11:30 am.

Somebody Bring Me Some Water

Current Affairs 3 Responses »

Dec 302006

Since Noah was born, I have consumed, on average, roughly 120-150 ounces of liquid every day. Of that, 75-90% is water (coffee, herbal tea, or very watery juice), and of that, I drink about two-thirds at home.

Unfortunately, we don’t have any. Neither do 50,000 of our neighbors.

On Thursday, a massive water main 5 miles from our house broke. Thursday was a rough morning, and we didn’t manage to get going in time to hear NPR, so we fed Noah water, drank water, made coffee, washed our dishes, and generally behaved normally.

This morning, we read in the newspaper that our community is supposed to boil all tap water for 3 minutes before using it to drink or bathe. It’s full of icky bacteria.

Um. Ok, one, that sucks. I’m from Milwaukee, so I take these water safety warnings Very Seriously. Can you say cryptosporidium?

But two, why weren’t we alerted??? The water main broke at 4:30 am on Thursday, and by pure luck, we found out we were in the affected community around 7:30 am on Friday. After our coffee. (Yeah, great.)

We still haven’t gotten any kind of official notice! Hello? Local government? You HAVE TO TELL PEOPLE if you expect them not to USE THEIR WATER.

And although this may be shocking for the local government to learn, some people do not subscribe to the local paper or watch the local tv news every day. I swear, I’m not making that up. The only way to make sure they hear about these kinds of things is when the government tells them. Specifically. Personally, somehow.

I like the idea of a flyer, but the reverse-911 system they claim to be using would work too. If it worked.

The online version of the newspaper informs us that we may be stinky and dehydrated until Sunday! Local TV news informs us that animal lovers have bought all the water at the local grocery stores for the shelter in the community.

Right now I have about 3 gallons of water cooling on the stove, maybe a little more. Tomorrow Noah and I will go on an adventure to a grocery store out of our neighborhood to buy some bottled water.

But this sucks. And I really hope that no one gets sick, especially that no one gets sick because they weren’t notified about the problem.

Honestly? I Thought It Would be Worse

The Real Live Boy 5 Responses »

Dec 292006

We let Noah “cry it out” last night when he woke up.

It was horrible in the moment, but it only lasted about 15 minutes, the first time.

Five or so minutes after he stopped crying, Jill went to check on him, only to discover as the door moved an inch, that Noah was not sleeping. He was sitting up and watching the door. The second it moved, he cried again.

That actually convinced me that we were doing the right thing. He was crying because he wanted to hang out with us, not because he was hurt or needed something.

Another five or so minutes of crying, and then he fell asleep for real.

That happened again around 4 am. But when he fell asleep, he slept until 6:40 am.

It was horribly, horribly hard to listen to him cry and not pick him up, and we almost cracked a couple of times. But he does need to learn to soothe himself, and his mommies were starting to lose it from lack of sleep.

Wish us luck again tonight.

More Christmas

Personal 2 Responses »

Dec 282006

I can’t believe I forgot this!

Jill and I got an early Christmas present from my parents: theater tickets! We were supposed to get a Date Night on Friday night, in Milwaukee, with grandparental babysitting.

Having a feverish, vomiting barnacle prevented me from going. So Jill and my mom went to the play, which they enjoyed. But it was no Date Night.

(And the cutest little vomiting barnacle ever did, in fact, prove that we made the right choice by being wakeful and sick throughout the evening. He and his grandparents would have been miserable if Date Night had remained on the agenda.)

I am happy to report that Noah ate solids with gusto last night and all day today, and has not thrown up. He is, however, both coughing himself and clearly fake-coughing whenever I cough.

And Noah woke up at 3:30 am ready to face the day. By 4:30, there was no containing him. Bless her, Jill got up and played with him until 6:30 am, so I could recover some from his having also been up at 11:45 pm and 1:37 am.

Who’s ready for sleep training?

Ah, Christmas

Personal 2 Responses »

Dec 272006

Can you tell that had a wonderful trip to Milwaukee, in spite of some trying circumstances?

We flew out Thursday morning. I was sure we were on an 8:30 am flight, but I was wrong. We were on the 10:10. Ooops. Somewhere between the airport and the airplane, Noah caught something, and by the time we got to Grandma’s, he was getting feverish.

Thursday was low-key, just hanging out at the house. We hoped to see Dr. Madelaine and her family, but it didn’t quite work out.

That night, Noah was miserable. Fevers, coughing, clinging, whining, and vomiting. Poor little guy.

We called Dr. Madelaine’s charming husband Erik first thing Friday morning to find out how to go about seeing her professionally on zero notice. Lucky for us, that was possible. She wouldn’t even take our insurance.

At that point, Noah was back in his normal, happy-go-lucky mode. He wouldn’t even cough for her! Diagnosis: Looks ok, but might be too early to tell. Recommendation: If Friday night is as bad as Thursday night was, here are some antibiotics. A five day course that will even kill pneumonia, if it turns out to be that. (Foreshadowing?)

Friday night was as bad as Thursday night. We offered to back out on “Babypalooza” brunch Saturday morning, but Patrick & Kirsten felt that as long as we kept Noah away from the newborn, it would be fine.

I am SO glad we went to Babypalooza. We saw lots of friends whom we love and adore. But taking the ergo was a very good idea, since Noah was, in fact, even clingier than at Grandma’s. Unfortunately, as soon as we had him strapped into it, he vomited all over himself and me. We had clean shirts for both of us, but had to borrow Olivia’s lavender butterfly pants for Noah. Thanks, Olivia!

We also visited Aunt Susie on Saturday afternoon. Noah loved all the toys at her house, and had fun watching Kaden and Marika running around. (Well, Kaden running and Marika coloring.)

Noah remained sick and miserable off and on all day and all night. At dinner he ate 6 cheerios and 1 pea, then promptly vomited them back up.

Christmas Eve day was all about getting ready for dinner. Noah met Aunt Anna & Uncle Jason’s dog Clio, who is about 1/3 his size, but much feistier. When Noah was feeling sick and miserable, Clio stood guard. Noah was not allowed to keep testing his newly developing puking skills with exotic solid foods. He did keep trying them on infant tylenol.

Thank god, Noah went to sleep before the guests started arriving.

Christmas Eve Dinner was it’s usual wonderful, overstimulating, chaotic, delicious fun. There were 34 people at 4 tables around the house (35 if we were to count Noah, who was upstairs sleeping): 11 children, 5 first-time guests, 7 Jews (a 15-year low due to sad reasons (deaths in the family) and happy ones (married/adult kids not coming home for winter break anymore)), 20 members of my extended family.

And Christmas Day? Santa was good to us, especially Noah. He still wasn’t feeling his best, although it was day 3 of his antibiotics. We kept to the nursing-only feeding rule (plus water from his sippy cup when he wanted it) and he finally didn’t vomit for the entire day.

BTW, it wasn’t that Noah really lost his appetite. Did I mention that I lost 5 lbs between Thursday and Tuesday? That was a hungry boy with an upset stomach.

I already blogged about the plane trip back. All I have to add to that is we were happy to get back home. (And yes, Jill seems to be getting sick. The jury is still out on me; Noah is still coughing, but otherwise seems better.)