Trainwreck

Somehow I am never able to get things back on track when they start going wrong. (Obviously – why else would I still be paying for Liam’s late Friday bedtime four days later?) In this case I think it’s less a matter of not taking corrective action until there’s too much negative momentum, and more a case of bad luck and living with a monster disguised as a baby.

So yesterday afternoon we did skip our playgroup, which normally runs from 2-3:30 which generally coincides with Liam’s afternoon nap. Miraculously, he fell asleep - on his own - at 1:58. Yes, I checked the clock because I was just that happy. However, it seems that even Mother Nature is against me – most of southern Ontario had a massive storm yesterday afternoon and I think a thundercloud parked itself right on my street. One big clap of thunder and Liam was up again 15 minutes later, and didn’t go back to sleep. I could almost have cried at that point because I was really starting to feel like the waking dead and had been trying to nap with him – I was blissfully able to sleep through the thunder, but not the cries of a wailing baby. So, up we got. The thunder continued to boom for at least another hour. Liam was OK for a while but then turned into a major crab (big surprise there). After every trick in my book was exhausted and he still wasn’t happy, I figured I would get him in the tub. A bath, a feeding and he fell asleep and I had him down for the night, ahead of schedule, right before 6 p.m. Or so I thought.

Sure enough, as I was out the door on my way to yoga at 6:45, he woke up. Chad was home by then and took over but Liam was still wailing when I came back home just after 8. Chad was sure that there was something wrong with him because he wasn’t crying his cranky cry, he was crying his someone-is-poking-me-with-a-big-stick cry. Not that we could find anything wrong with him. Again, it may just be the start of teething (yegads if this is what we have to look forward to on a regular basis!) He didn’t go to bed til 9:30.

This may be the part of the story where my fortunes turn – he was only up once overnight to eat. Once! And then wasn’t up for the day til 7 a.m. 7 a.m.! So maybe four days is enough penance and we are now back on track. He fell asleep easily for his first nap of the day at 8:45 today and is still sleeping now. Oh, joy.

If you've made it this far, congratulations, and thanks for all the sleepy vibes. I leave you with a nasty photo of one of the battle scars of motherhood: my Liam hickeys. (No, I was not going to show you any post-delivery crotch shots, is that what you were thinking??) Man, those gums have some suction.