Moving Mountains
We’re on the happy side of the illness running through the house. Ian is pooping less. Tory is crying less. I’m crying less.
Not that everything is back to normal. Ian still poops a lot. Tory is still cranky. Abbie is still gassy. I haven’t tackled the mountains of chores piling up around the house, though I am starting to feel guilty about ignoring them again, so at least I know things are moving in the right direction.
Most of all, sleep schedules are still off-kilter. Neither boy has outgrown their NICU mentality of taking frequent naps. They’ll probably stop taking naps about the time I put Abbie in preschool, thus depriving me of that childfree time I’ve coveted these past 15 months, though I’m sure they’ll grow back into napping about the time they reach the age where they clean out the garage. For now, though, they both seem to like taking naps first soon after waking. They don’t want a long nap, just something quick after breakfast to help spoil their regular pre-lunch nap. Then, a brief post-lunch snooze will help them fight off their regular afternoon nap. Finally, a little shuteye right after supper can keep them bouncing off the walls until they starting butting against my bedtime.
Ordinarily I keep everyone on a tight schedule to prevent these catastrophic catnaps. I need the boys to take substantive naps so I can enjoy my glorious downtime when I only have to supervise a toddler. Tory has officially been a sick little man, though, and that gives him the right, and ability, to sleep as much as possible. As such, I’ve given up and let him have those post-meal naps. Not that I’ve always had much choice on whether he sleeps.
A few times this past week, I’ve walked out of the kitchen after cleaning up the meal, and found Tory lying on the floor. He’ll be cuddled the with the cow blanket he cleverly threw from his crib during naptime, sleeping on the floor in spite of his siblings rumbling, bumbling, and stumbling around, over, and occasionally on top of him.
Other times, he’s been so cranky, I’ve set him down in his crib out of desperation, and been pleasantly surprised to find him asleep after I emerge from the locked bathroom. Even when in good health, the boys can be cranky after I finish feeding them. I usually placate them by refilling their Tasteeo dish, but that doesn’t work when their stomachs are too upset to eat their first round Tasteeos. So I let the dirty dishes sit for a minute while I carry them, sing to them, and play with them. When he’s still crying after the 60 seconds are up, he goes into his crib. Sometimes I feel guilty about dumping him in his crib instead of dealing with his pain, but the silence as he snoozes helps me realize that I still have two consolable children to deal with.
This puts his schedule off-kilter a bit, but I’ve found that as long as I wake him in time to read to him before naptime, he naps well. The sanity-saver in this illness is everyone naps well. Everyone, including Abbie, has been taking glorious afternoon naps that push three hours in length. I’ve had to wake the kids before their supper turns cold. That’s a nice block of time to tackle a few of those chores that have accumulated recently, like reading blogs. Fortunately, it looks like everyone else’s kids are also sick, so there’s not much new to read.
Ian woke up early from his nap today, though. He slept closer to 45 minutes than three hours. That’s the downside of getting better. If only they could be sick just during naptime.
Not that everything is back to normal. Ian still poops a lot. Tory is still cranky. Abbie is still gassy. I haven’t tackled the mountains of chores piling up around the house, though I am starting to feel guilty about ignoring them again, so at least I know things are moving in the right direction.
Most of all, sleep schedules are still off-kilter. Neither boy has outgrown their NICU mentality of taking frequent naps. They’ll probably stop taking naps about the time I put Abbie in preschool, thus depriving me of that childfree time I’ve coveted these past 15 months, though I’m sure they’ll grow back into napping about the time they reach the age where they clean out the garage. For now, though, they both seem to like taking naps first soon after waking. They don’t want a long nap, just something quick after breakfast to help spoil their regular pre-lunch nap. Then, a brief post-lunch snooze will help them fight off their regular afternoon nap. Finally, a little shuteye right after supper can keep them bouncing off the walls until they starting butting against my bedtime.
Ordinarily I keep everyone on a tight schedule to prevent these catastrophic catnaps. I need the boys to take substantive naps so I can enjoy my glorious downtime when I only have to supervise a toddler. Tory has officially been a sick little man, though, and that gives him the right, and ability, to sleep as much as possible. As such, I’ve given up and let him have those post-meal naps. Not that I’ve always had much choice on whether he sleeps.
A few times this past week, I’ve walked out of the kitchen after cleaning up the meal, and found Tory lying on the floor. He’ll be cuddled the with the cow blanket he cleverly threw from his crib during naptime, sleeping on the floor in spite of his siblings rumbling, bumbling, and stumbling around, over, and occasionally on top of him.
Other times, he’s been so cranky, I’ve set him down in his crib out of desperation, and been pleasantly surprised to find him asleep after I emerge from the locked bathroom. Even when in good health, the boys can be cranky after I finish feeding them. I usually placate them by refilling their Tasteeo dish, but that doesn’t work when their stomachs are too upset to eat their first round Tasteeos. So I let the dirty dishes sit for a minute while I carry them, sing to them, and play with them. When he’s still crying after the 60 seconds are up, he goes into his crib. Sometimes I feel guilty about dumping him in his crib instead of dealing with his pain, but the silence as he snoozes helps me realize that I still have two consolable children to deal with.
This puts his schedule off-kilter a bit, but I’ve found that as long as I wake him in time to read to him before naptime, he naps well. The sanity-saver in this illness is everyone naps well. Everyone, including Abbie, has been taking glorious afternoon naps that push three hours in length. I’ve had to wake the kids before their supper turns cold. That’s a nice block of time to tackle a few of those chores that have accumulated recently, like reading blogs. Fortunately, it looks like everyone else’s kids are also sick, so there’s not much new to read.
Ian woke up early from his nap today, though. He slept closer to 45 minutes than three hours. That’s the downside of getting better. If only they could be sick just during naptime.
posted by Matt at
11:50 PM
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