24 hours at 8 months old
12.05am LB has been waking, crying out, then settling himself for about half an hour. At this point he cries more sustainedly and I go in to him and try to settle him without feeding him, since it's only 2 hours since he last fed. He isn't having any. This doesn't bode well for planned attempt in 3 weeks time at partial nightweaning in the hope of reducing his night waking.
3.15am LB wakes, I fall asleep feeding him. Wake up at 4am with hip pain from being leaned over to feed him - another reason co-sleeping doesn't really work for me. Put him back in his room and go back to sleep.
4.30am PB cries out but settles himself.
5.20am PB cries out again. D gets up and stays up. I sleep very brokenly, due to children crying intermitently, until
8am Get up, feed LB, who is not really hungry. Yet more grist to the theory that it's not hunger that wakes him at night. Entertain PB, who is being difficult, while D gets LB down for a nap. Feel pretty awful.
8.15 - 9.00 Sleep well. Feel better - what a difference 45 minutes of good sleep makes. Get up.
9 - 10am Get dressed. Realise I have stonking headache, take two paracetamol. Dispatch D off to bed. Have breakfast, initially just with LB, who eats pieces of my toast and butter, while PB plays with his cars in the sitting room. After a bit, PB comes to join us and demands bread and honey, his current favourite, since Winnie the Pooh is so keen on honey. Quote bits of the 'I do like a little bit of butter with my bread' poem, one of my favourites, and PB clearly recognise it. Fill and set off dishwasher
10-11 Realise headache is still bad, take an ibuprofen. Go into the sitting room with both of them, trying (and mostly succeeding) to keep them quiet enough not to wake D. Even manage to make a few admin phonecalls and email the Bloody Builder.
11 - 11.30. D wakes up. I help get everyone ready to go out, so I can do some work.
11.30 - 12.30 Work. Finally start to make progress on lucrative but stressy lit review. Am blown away by wonders of modern technology as I use nifty new one-stop-search function in university library, from my home computer, which searches multiple databases for you and often allows you to click through to the article. Remember the first ever lit review I did in 1991 when I looked things up in books of bibliographies in the library and then had to order them inter-library.
12.30 - 1 Eat lunch, reading The Baby in the Mirror. Put a load of nappies on to wash.
1 - 2.30pm More lit reviewing, I'm working well and it's very satisfying. I do enjoy lit reviewing, I just always forget that there's a horrible bit at the beginning when you're flailing around failing to find stuff you know exists.
2.30 - 2.45 Hang out nappies, put another load of laundry on. Make a cup of tea and notice the way my afternoon cup of tea has got earlier and earlier since 1991. In 1991, the snack bar attached to the library where I worked most days shut at 4pm, so I and my friends used to meet at 10 to 4 for tea. These days it's often about 2.30, although that's mainly on the current sleep regime. Text D and discover they are having a great time. Receive a cheering email from friend. Computer crashes (don't think the two are connected).
2.45 - 3.20 Carry on lit reviewing but making less good progress. Computer crashes again and I get a bit distracted by emails and LJ. Also realise I may be hitting saturation point for this search strategy, which is actually a good sign.
3.20 - 4pm The others return, get the children ready to go to one of PB's friend's birthday party. leaving D to sleep.
4 - 6pm At birthday party. LB has a great time playing with balloons, PB seems to enjoy himself, although, in his usual solitary style, refuses to join in any of the organised activities. Realise why you do party bags - it's to make the buggers go away. Works a treat with PB who can't wait to get home to see what's in his bag.
6 - 6.30 Do children's tea
6.30 - 6.45 Read to PB while D baths LB
6.45 - 7 Feed LB while D baths PB
7 - 7.30pm Cook adults' supper.
7.30 - 8.45 Eat fine risotto, drink lovely white Burgandy, and talk to D. Start off talking about mundane things to do with the children, as ever, but mange to move on to the nature of academe, trends in IT, what constitutes a Golden Age and whether farmers whinge even more than academics.
8.45 - 9.15 Lurch drunkenly to the shop while D clears up supper. Buy things I planned to buy and some things I didn't, on drunken impulse (but they're mainly things like alfalfa sprouts, although crisps did also feature).
9.15 Get home. LB starts crying. D tries to settle him, but fails. I feed him, feeling further depressed at his sleep ever improving.
9.30 Go to bed and get to sleep about 10.
12 midnight, wake up for no good reason at all, annoyingly.
His sleep is generally improving, although there are still a couple of nights a week when he's back to waking every couple of hours, or trying to start the day before 5. He's being harder work in the daytime at the moment - quite grizzly for no apparent reason, and much harder to entertain. I'm finding this psychologically hard as I realise I've been feeling almost entitled to him being utterly delightful and very easy in the daytime, as some sort of cosmic compensation for him being such a bad sleeper. But of course, there's no such entitlement.
3.15am LB wakes, I fall asleep feeding him. Wake up at 4am with hip pain from being leaned over to feed him - another reason co-sleeping doesn't really work for me. Put him back in his room and go back to sleep.
4.30am PB cries out but settles himself.
5.20am PB cries out again. D gets up and stays up. I sleep very brokenly, due to children crying intermitently, until
8am Get up, feed LB, who is not really hungry. Yet more grist to the theory that it's not hunger that wakes him at night. Entertain PB, who is being difficult, while D gets LB down for a nap. Feel pretty awful.
8.15 - 9.00 Sleep well. Feel better - what a difference 45 minutes of good sleep makes. Get up.
9 - 10am Get dressed. Realise I have stonking headache, take two paracetamol. Dispatch D off to bed. Have breakfast, initially just with LB, who eats pieces of my toast and butter, while PB plays with his cars in the sitting room. After a bit, PB comes to join us and demands bread and honey, his current favourite, since Winnie the Pooh is so keen on honey. Quote bits of the 'I do like a little bit of butter with my bread' poem, one of my favourites, and PB clearly recognise it. Fill and set off dishwasher
10-11 Realise headache is still bad, take an ibuprofen. Go into the sitting room with both of them, trying (and mostly succeeding) to keep them quiet enough not to wake D. Even manage to make a few admin phonecalls and email the Bloody Builder.
11 - 11.30. D wakes up. I help get everyone ready to go out, so I can do some work.
11.30 - 12.30 Work. Finally start to make progress on lucrative but stressy lit review. Am blown away by wonders of modern technology as I use nifty new one-stop-search function in university library, from my home computer, which searches multiple databases for you and often allows you to click through to the article. Remember the first ever lit review I did in 1991 when I looked things up in books of bibliographies in the library and then had to order them inter-library.
12.30 - 1 Eat lunch, reading The Baby in the Mirror. Put a load of nappies on to wash.
1 - 2.30pm More lit reviewing, I'm working well and it's very satisfying. I do enjoy lit reviewing, I just always forget that there's a horrible bit at the beginning when you're flailing around failing to find stuff you know exists.
2.30 - 2.45 Hang out nappies, put another load of laundry on. Make a cup of tea and notice the way my afternoon cup of tea has got earlier and earlier since 1991. In 1991, the snack bar attached to the library where I worked most days shut at 4pm, so I and my friends used to meet at 10 to 4 for tea. These days it's often about 2.30, although that's mainly on the current sleep regime. Text D and discover they are having a great time. Receive a cheering email from friend. Computer crashes (don't think the two are connected).
2.45 - 3.20 Carry on lit reviewing but making less good progress. Computer crashes again and I get a bit distracted by emails and LJ. Also realise I may be hitting saturation point for this search strategy, which is actually a good sign.
3.20 - 4pm The others return, get the children ready to go to one of PB's friend's birthday party. leaving D to sleep.
4 - 6pm At birthday party. LB has a great time playing with balloons, PB seems to enjoy himself, although, in his usual solitary style, refuses to join in any of the organised activities. Realise why you do party bags - it's to make the buggers go away. Works a treat with PB who can't wait to get home to see what's in his bag.
6 - 6.30 Do children's tea
6.30 - 6.45 Read to PB while D baths LB
6.45 - 7 Feed LB while D baths PB
7 - 7.30pm Cook adults' supper.
7.30 - 8.45 Eat fine risotto, drink lovely white Burgandy, and talk to D. Start off talking about mundane things to do with the children, as ever, but mange to move on to the nature of academe, trends in IT, what constitutes a Golden Age and whether farmers whinge even more than academics.
8.45 - 9.15 Lurch drunkenly to the shop while D clears up supper. Buy things I planned to buy and some things I didn't, on drunken impulse (but they're mainly things like alfalfa sprouts, although crisps did also feature).
9.15 Get home. LB starts crying. D tries to settle him, but fails. I feed him, feeling further depressed at his sleep ever improving.
9.30 Go to bed and get to sleep about 10.
12 midnight, wake up for no good reason at all, annoyingly.
His sleep is generally improving, although there are still a couple of nights a week when he's back to waking every couple of hours, or trying to start the day before 5. He's being harder work in the daytime at the moment - quite grizzly for no apparent reason, and much harder to entertain. I'm finding this psychologically hard as I realise I've been feeling almost entitled to him being utterly delightful and very easy in the daytime, as some sort of cosmic compensation for him being such a bad sleeper. But of course, there's no such entitlement.