--and the moral of THAT is--
I really like Vancouver.
There are things I would change, of course, but over all, I really like it as a place to live. I like the resources that are available.
The problem is that finding the resources available can be hard, because there's so much to wade through and it's hard to know what applies to you. Especially because so many of the websites are poorly designed and/or maintained, with bureaucratese and broken links conspiring to keep you from discovering cool stuff.
I know that there's stuff out there, I'm just not sure where the stuff that best fits my needs and situation is.
This past week, dealing with Pip when she was sick, was really hard on me. A large part of that was because I just stayed at home all day with her. I didn't realize how much I depend on availing myself of the resources I already know about (library, mother's group, public health group, etc).
Also, it's amazing how much dramatically better I feel when The Pipster takes longer naps during the day. The Pipster took a one hour nap and a 45 minute nap today. I find that in naptime it takes at least 15 minutes for me to take off my "mama" hat. If she wakes up after only 20 or 30 minutes, it feels almost worse than no break. It doesn't even necessarily have to do with whether it was productive or indulgent.
So the question is how to make naps last longer. The crux seems to be that at or around the 20 to 30 minute mark, she will surface briefly and stir a bit and open her eyes, and if I'm there in the room, and simply touch her (or not even that sometimes), she goes right back to sleep and I get another 20 to 30 minutes. But if I'm not there, she generally wakes up all the way.
What I did today both times was to go off and spend 15 minutes or so doing stuff like getting a snack, bathroom, whatever, and then brought my laptop back into the bedroom and worked on stuff with the sound off. And sure enough there was a 30 second stirring that I soothed back down both times. After which, I guess I could have gone and done other stuff, but I didn't really have anything to do elsewhere in the apartment today. I'm actually caught up on laundry and the place isn't too untidy.
So is this a pattern I should embrace? I was worried that she wouldn't go down at bedtime because of having such uncharacteristically long naps, but she went down at 8:30, and even better, she hasn't needed to nurse or even fussed at all, and it's been nearly five hours. She did make one sleep noise but she didn't wake all the way up.
I'm thinking maybe I should embrace it, because I just felt GREAT. I even was happy to have her wake up once she did, and we had fun together.
Anyway I need to get to bed myself now.
There are things I would change, of course, but over all, I really like it as a place to live. I like the resources that are available.
The problem is that finding the resources available can be hard, because there's so much to wade through and it's hard to know what applies to you. Especially because so many of the websites are poorly designed and/or maintained, with bureaucratese and broken links conspiring to keep you from discovering cool stuff.
I know that there's stuff out there, I'm just not sure where the stuff that best fits my needs and situation is.
This past week, dealing with Pip when she was sick, was really hard on me. A large part of that was because I just stayed at home all day with her. I didn't realize how much I depend on availing myself of the resources I already know about (library, mother's group, public health group, etc).
Also, it's amazing how much dramatically better I feel when The Pipster takes longer naps during the day. The Pipster took a one hour nap and a 45 minute nap today. I find that in naptime it takes at least 15 minutes for me to take off my "mama" hat. If she wakes up after only 20 or 30 minutes, it feels almost worse than no break. It doesn't even necessarily have to do with whether it was productive or indulgent.
So the question is how to make naps last longer. The crux seems to be that at or around the 20 to 30 minute mark, she will surface briefly and stir a bit and open her eyes, and if I'm there in the room, and simply touch her (or not even that sometimes), she goes right back to sleep and I get another 20 to 30 minutes. But if I'm not there, she generally wakes up all the way.
What I did today both times was to go off and spend 15 minutes or so doing stuff like getting a snack, bathroom, whatever, and then brought my laptop back into the bedroom and worked on stuff with the sound off. And sure enough there was a 30 second stirring that I soothed back down both times. After which, I guess I could have gone and done other stuff, but I didn't really have anything to do elsewhere in the apartment today. I'm actually caught up on laundry and the place isn't too untidy.
So is this a pattern I should embrace? I was worried that she wouldn't go down at bedtime because of having such uncharacteristically long naps, but she went down at 8:30, and even better, she hasn't needed to nurse or even fussed at all, and it's been nearly five hours. She did make one sleep noise but she didn't wake all the way up.
I'm thinking maybe I should embrace it, because I just felt GREAT. I even was happy to have her wake up once she did, and we had fun together.
Anyway I need to get to bed myself now.