24 hours with a 9 month old
LB was 9 months old on Sunday. A symbolic milestone, since he's now been born for as long as he was gestating (well, give or take a bit, since you're not actually pregnant for the first 2 weeks of any pregnancy, and he was born at 41 weeks). There's a pleasing symmetry to this moment, with his birth as the central point. Or a fulcrum if we imagine his existence as a lever. And then the rest of his life stretching out ahead of him, extending one arm of the lever and thereby increasing his power to move things. Including, crucially, himself, as he gets the hang of crawling (I'm not sure I aspire to him moving the world though)
4.28am (?) Can't now remember exactly when he was born, and can't be bothered to look it up. But 4.30am ish. We are both asleep.
5.45am He wakes for the day. This is at least 45 minutes later than has been the case for the last fortnight, so I choose to take this as a good omen. Now he has been in the world as long as he was existing but not born, he will get the hang of sleep. Just in time for me to go back to work in September. Oh yes. I try to feed him, but he's not bothered. D heroically gets up with him. I cough and can't get back to sleep, but eventually do about 6.45. LB apparently has his first nap of the day from 7.45-8.30, but I hear nothing.
8.45am Wake up, get dressed. Pack D off to bed again, have breakfast with kids. PB sings 'If you're happy and you know it, snap your bum' and admonishes me to 'eat up your gravel'.
9.30-9.45 Leave children playing reasonably harmoniously in sitting room while I do laundry.
9.45-10.30 LB extremely grizzly and very snotty - his breathing is all chesty and he keeps coughing, poor mite. Give him small dose of paracetamol. Helps a bit, but then he starts yawning, so whip him off for second nap a bit early. He has first proper bf of the day and then sleeps til noon.
10.30 -11.15 In sitting room with PB. He's mostly doing jigsaws, but not straightforwardly. He has three the same size that fit in the same box. He likes to do these in layers, all at the same time. It makes my head hurt to have to think in three dimensions (I don't like jigsaws anyway), but he usually does them like this at the moment. Then he goes on to some of the easier jigsaws where the joining bumps and holes are all the same size. He exploits this by deliberately doing them wrong. Since the jigsaws in question are motor vehicles, he ends up with some very entertaining diggers, tractors and cement mixers.
11.15 - 12.45 With PB (D gets up and wrangles LB when he wakes at noon). Clearing one corner of the garden in preparation for the Bloody Builder who is due next week (now postponed to mid August, annoyingly, but I didn't know that on Sunday). Part of the job is bailing all the rainwater and shovelling all the old disgusting sand out of PB's broken sandpit. This is a fantastic job to do with a todder since it is basically playing with sand and water. I'm really pleased to be the one doing manual labour with PB, since it so often ends up being D who does this sort of job. Much better gender modelling. I also hack out a shrub, do some jungle-taming, and cut back the ivy-hedge which is making the side passage impassable.
12.45- 1pm Prepare lunch (toasted cheese, no candle-ends).
1 - 1.45. All eating lunch
1.45-2pm Getting ready to go out, so D can sleep.
2 - 3pm The places you can go with a toddler and a crotchety baby on a rainy Sunday are really very limited. We end up going to the supermarket which, astonishingly, works really well. The children love being sat next to each other in the trolley, and I don't try and get much stuff, so can stop as soon as they start getting fractious.
3 - 3.45. Drive to next village for superior swings and slides, but decide they are too wet to go on. Drive to look at the reindeer instead (not actually reindeer, just ordinary deer of some kind, but that's what PB insists on calling them). Then drive pointlessly around country lanes for a bit, just to stay out of the house a bit longer, and to keep LB asleep (he naps for about 20 mins). Not such a success, since although PB loves driving in the car, I realise it's all the other vehicles he can see that he loves, whereas the pretty country lanes with views of trees and fields I am choosing hold very little of interest to him.
3.45 - 4.45 Arrive home, playing in sitting room. PB draws 'friendly monsters hiding in the dark' on his etch-a-sketch thing. LB gets stuck under sideboard and bureau-bookcase (he's not as good at crawling on our wooden floors as on carpet). PB also wants to play a game where I kiss some toy animals against their wishes, and is deeply unimpressed by my protective behaviours shtick about 'you shouldn't kiss people if they don't want to be kissed. Nobody can kiss you if you don't want to be kissed'. He responds 'we're just pretending Mummy'. I laugh but maintain my line by saying I don't want to play this game, and distract him onto something else. LB has little bits of bf, but nothing much. He's trying to daywean himself, but I want him to nightwean. I suspect he'll win.
4.45-5.45 Cook tea while wrangling kids in kitchen. D appears. Am pleased to invent tasty use for marrow (frizzle up with plenty of olive oil and garlic, add equal quantity of basil, puree, then add to frittata mixture). LB and PB eat cow biscuits (malted milk) while they wait.
5.45- 6 Flit constantly between sitting room and kitchen as wrangle kids while finishing off preparing tea. Luckily I have not put too many potatoes in the saucepan today, so they need minimal attention.
6 - 6.30 All eating tea.
6.30 - 6.45 Read to PB while D baths LB
6.45 - 7 Put LB to bed. He has a big bf, despite having eaten lots of tea.
7 - 7.30. Offered the choice, PB decides he wants me to put him to bed. Just as we are getting to the last stages he kisses me and says 'it's lovely for you to put me to bed'. I've no idea whether he means 'it's lovely for you' or 'I like it' or even 'it's lovely all round', but I agree and say 'I love putting you to bed'. I do.
7.30 - 7.45 Clear up tea, listening to preferable Americana on Radio 4. Decide I'm too tired to wash up.
7.45 - 8 Put away toys in sitting room
8 - 8.45 Finish book All Passions Spent. Enjoyed it a lot, but the ending was not so good. This was also my feeling about The Edwardians. Wonder whether I can be bothered to read more Vita Sackville West to see if this is always the case.
8.45 - 9.30. Faff on internet
9.30 - 10 Finally manage to finish watching Season 4 finale of Buffy, which I have somehow, unaccountably, never seen before. Fantastic. Send quick email. Start going to bed.
10 - 10.15 Dreamfeed LB, in the hope it will buy me 4 hours. It doesn't
12.45 LB wakes, feed him although he's not hungry
3.30am LB wakes, feed him
4.whatever am. We are both asleep.
Sleep still pretty rubbish - thought it was getting better, but hot weather, followed by illness, followed by being away from home means it's been bad again for at least a month. Ah well. This too shall pass.
I realise I've stopped doing 'embodied pleasures of babycare' posts. This is because he feels like a person to me now, so I don't need to snatch at those crumbs. It's lovely. I am very happy, when I'm not excessively tired or ill.
4.28am (?) Can't now remember exactly when he was born, and can't be bothered to look it up. But 4.30am ish. We are both asleep.
5.45am He wakes for the day. This is at least 45 minutes later than has been the case for the last fortnight, so I choose to take this as a good omen. Now he has been in the world as long as he was existing but not born, he will get the hang of sleep. Just in time for me to go back to work in September. Oh yes. I try to feed him, but he's not bothered. D heroically gets up with him. I cough and can't get back to sleep, but eventually do about 6.45. LB apparently has his first nap of the day from 7.45-8.30, but I hear nothing.
8.45am Wake up, get dressed. Pack D off to bed again, have breakfast with kids. PB sings 'If you're happy and you know it, snap your bum' and admonishes me to 'eat up your gravel'.
9.30-9.45 Leave children playing reasonably harmoniously in sitting room while I do laundry.
9.45-10.30 LB extremely grizzly and very snotty - his breathing is all chesty and he keeps coughing, poor mite. Give him small dose of paracetamol. Helps a bit, but then he starts yawning, so whip him off for second nap a bit early. He has first proper bf of the day and then sleeps til noon.
10.30 -11.15 In sitting room with PB. He's mostly doing jigsaws, but not straightforwardly. He has three the same size that fit in the same box. He likes to do these in layers, all at the same time. It makes my head hurt to have to think in three dimensions (I don't like jigsaws anyway), but he usually does them like this at the moment. Then he goes on to some of the easier jigsaws where the joining bumps and holes are all the same size. He exploits this by deliberately doing them wrong. Since the jigsaws in question are motor vehicles, he ends up with some very entertaining diggers, tractors and cement mixers.
11.15 - 12.45 With PB (D gets up and wrangles LB when he wakes at noon). Clearing one corner of the garden in preparation for the Bloody Builder who is due next week (now postponed to mid August, annoyingly, but I didn't know that on Sunday). Part of the job is bailing all the rainwater and shovelling all the old disgusting sand out of PB's broken sandpit. This is a fantastic job to do with a todder since it is basically playing with sand and water. I'm really pleased to be the one doing manual labour with PB, since it so often ends up being D who does this sort of job. Much better gender modelling. I also hack out a shrub, do some jungle-taming, and cut back the ivy-hedge which is making the side passage impassable.
12.45- 1pm Prepare lunch (toasted cheese, no candle-ends).
1 - 1.45. All eating lunch
1.45-2pm Getting ready to go out, so D can sleep.
2 - 3pm The places you can go with a toddler and a crotchety baby on a rainy Sunday are really very limited. We end up going to the supermarket which, astonishingly, works really well. The children love being sat next to each other in the trolley, and I don't try and get much stuff, so can stop as soon as they start getting fractious.
3 - 3.45. Drive to next village for superior swings and slides, but decide they are too wet to go on. Drive to look at the reindeer instead (not actually reindeer, just ordinary deer of some kind, but that's what PB insists on calling them). Then drive pointlessly around country lanes for a bit, just to stay out of the house a bit longer, and to keep LB asleep (he naps for about 20 mins). Not such a success, since although PB loves driving in the car, I realise it's all the other vehicles he can see that he loves, whereas the pretty country lanes with views of trees and fields I am choosing hold very little of interest to him.
3.45 - 4.45 Arrive home, playing in sitting room. PB draws 'friendly monsters hiding in the dark' on his etch-a-sketch thing. LB gets stuck under sideboard and bureau-bookcase (he's not as good at crawling on our wooden floors as on carpet). PB also wants to play a game where I kiss some toy animals against their wishes, and is deeply unimpressed by my protective behaviours shtick about 'you shouldn't kiss people if they don't want to be kissed. Nobody can kiss you if you don't want to be kissed'. He responds 'we're just pretending Mummy'. I laugh but maintain my line by saying I don't want to play this game, and distract him onto something else. LB has little bits of bf, but nothing much. He's trying to daywean himself, but I want him to nightwean. I suspect he'll win.
4.45-5.45 Cook tea while wrangling kids in kitchen. D appears. Am pleased to invent tasty use for marrow (frizzle up with plenty of olive oil and garlic, add equal quantity of basil, puree, then add to frittata mixture). LB and PB eat cow biscuits (malted milk) while they wait.
5.45- 6 Flit constantly between sitting room and kitchen as wrangle kids while finishing off preparing tea. Luckily I have not put too many potatoes in the saucepan today, so they need minimal attention.
6 - 6.30 All eating tea.
6.30 - 6.45 Read to PB while D baths LB
6.45 - 7 Put LB to bed. He has a big bf, despite having eaten lots of tea.
7 - 7.30. Offered the choice, PB decides he wants me to put him to bed. Just as we are getting to the last stages he kisses me and says 'it's lovely for you to put me to bed'. I've no idea whether he means 'it's lovely for you' or 'I like it' or even 'it's lovely all round', but I agree and say 'I love putting you to bed'. I do.
7.30 - 7.45 Clear up tea, listening to preferable Americana on Radio 4. Decide I'm too tired to wash up.
7.45 - 8 Put away toys in sitting room
8 - 8.45 Finish book All Passions Spent. Enjoyed it a lot, but the ending was not so good. This was also my feeling about The Edwardians. Wonder whether I can be bothered to read more Vita Sackville West to see if this is always the case.
8.45 - 9.30. Faff on internet
9.30 - 10 Finally manage to finish watching Season 4 finale of Buffy, which I have somehow, unaccountably, never seen before. Fantastic. Send quick email. Start going to bed.
10 - 10.15 Dreamfeed LB, in the hope it will buy me 4 hours. It doesn't
12.45 LB wakes, feed him although he's not hungry
3.30am LB wakes, feed him
4.whatever am. We are both asleep.
Sleep still pretty rubbish - thought it was getting better, but hot weather, followed by illness, followed by being away from home means it's been bad again for at least a month. Ah well. This too shall pass.
I realise I've stopped doing 'embodied pleasures of babycare' posts. This is because he feels like a person to me now, so I don't need to snatch at those crumbs. It's lovely. I am very happy, when I'm not excessively tired or ill.