Q. What does an dyslexic, agnostic, insomniac do?
A. Lies awake at night wondering if there really is a dog.
Heh. I felt the need for an icebreaker – you know, it’s been so long and all, we probably need to get to know one another all over again. That’s been one of my favourite (clean) jokes ever since I learned what all those big words meant!
For those who have asked after my wellbeing, rest assured, I’m fine, just tired, and for the last while, not inclined to blog. There are only so many times I can write “Niamh still not sleeping, Mel still a complete zombie, oh woe is me”, and only so many times you want to read about it! But hey… just for good measure, here’s one more 🙂 …
It has got to the point where I am only hearing two things from friends/family/complete strangers about babies and sleeping – either their babies slept through from about the 6-8 week mark (that used to be me), or, they didn’t sleep through until about two. No inbetween – why is there no damn inbetween!!! Where are all the babies who sleep through from about six months? (Which, incidentally, Niamh turned, just a short week ago.) The cumulative effect of six months of this on my psyche is not great 😥 I’m completely unsurprised by studies showing links between infant sleep issues and post-partum depression. And I feel completely ashamed of the smugness I once felt as a new mother of a baby who slept. How lucky I was!
To give Niamh some credit… there was a week, not so long ago, that she had only one wake a night (around 3-4 am) per night on five out of seven nights. That was awesome! True to form though, she backtracked. She does that.
Aside from the sleep issues, things have been super busy. November on the calendar was even more cram-packed than December, which is unusual. The weekend away I spoke of in my last post was bliss. The sheer silence of being away in the country with no electronic buzz (not even a television) is wonderful.
We were away again the following weekend (it was a much noisier, much more chaotic weekend), and then the weekend after that there was a state election to go vote in, a family 21st birthday party to attend, and a lovely Sunday brunch with friends for me. Then… oh jeez, I can’t even remember, everything seems so long ago. There have been a couple of trips to the zoo – once was for the FOTZ (Friends Of The Zoo) Christmas party, which was lots of fun; and a trip to the Werribee open-range zoo. There’ve been some great days to swim, and others to stay inside away from the blazing sun. And yet another (November 15) which was so ridiculously cold it snowed in some areas of the state – in November – in Australia! Most unfortunately for us, that day was also Finn’s pre-school excursion day. We rugged up and went to spend some time on the farm, but by heck we were cold!
(Sadly, those same areas which received snow not a month ago, are currently ablaze in a scary start to the bushfire season.)
Gosh, this got kind of rambly, didn’t it? Anyway, the point was, I just wanted to let you know I’m here, and even, despite all of the above, managing to do a few stitchy things and crafty things, even some dyeing (though my Pay-it-forward-ees will probably have to wait until after Christmas to receive their goodies.) I’ve actually enjoyed my unplanned, unannounced hiatus from blogging, but hopefully I’ll be back a bit sooner next time, and possibly even with some pics.
Oh, oh, oh, and btw… here are those all important ‘milestone’-y things – Niamh popped out a couple of teeth on November 16, and she is also… wait for it… crawling 😮 A full month before Finn did!
(Maybe that’s why she doesn’t sleep… too busy being active.)
