Tuesday, September 22, 2009

A Tired Mommy Morning

For the first time in a long time I was too tired. Since having the baby, I am often (constantly?) tired, but I usually work through it. This morning I could not.

Perhaps it's because after a long stretch of sleeping through the night fairly consistently the critter has woken up for 5 nights in a row. His best nights in this series involve being completely awake at 4 a.m. On Saturday he was up at 1 and stayed up until 2:30.

Last night was a 4 a.m. night. Not bad, but I think the cumulative effects of this series of nights got to me. I was actually fine at 4. I fed him and rocked him for over an hour. Then I washed the bottles that we had left the night before. (This was the wrong choice since it woke up the hubby. Sorry, babe.) Then I went back to bed. Fine.

It was when the critter woke up a little before 7 that got to me. Usually, I get up and am tired, but once I see my smiling boy I am somehow able to get to active mothering. This morning that didn't work. For the first time since month one or two, I just couldn't find the strength to do it. I changed his diaper, put him in his pack n play, and lay down on the couch.

I couldn't sleep while he was playing, but knowing that he was contained and safe let me rest my eyes and my mind at least a bit.

He played for almost an hour before getting fussy. Investigation showed that cause was a very poopy diaper, which I took care of. Then I put him back in his box for a little while, but he was ready to be out. Luckily, an hour of moderate neglect gave me the boost I needed to become my usual mommy self. I let him wriggle long enough to prepare myself some coffee and breakfast. Then, I let him go free range under my supervision and participation.

A nap was a long time coming. After feeding him, I put him down to rest, but another poopy diaper disrupted any hope at sleep. After taking care of that, there was a little more playing, a little more eating, and a little more fussing before he finally fell asleep. I should probably take this opportunity to return to the newborn advice to "sleep when my baby sleeps," but I'm awake now. I can do exciting things like blog and brush my teeth.

Okay, so I only struggled for an hour, but it was a long hour. It's a good thing that today is my day off. Of course, if it weren't my day off I would have tagged my husband in the middle of the night, which might have prevented some of my exhaustion. All I know is that I'm hoping that the critter learns to sleep through the night again. And soon.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

A Passive Aggressive View of Web Publishing

I turned of the RSS feed that sent my blog posts directly to Facebook. (Or at least I think I did. We'll see if they randomly show up.)

I found myself not wanting to post things because of I didn't want them posted on Facebook. Sure, this is a public blog. Anyone on Facebook could read it. But there is a big difference between putting something out there where people can choose to go and read it and having that same content post to a "wall" that it essentially sent out to people with the implicit message of "Hey! Read this!" When I want to talk about personal things, like the continued status of my breastfeeding challenges, I feared that many of my Facebook connections would have an "Ew! Too much information!" reaction; whereas, those who choose to find me hear follow at their own peril. If this is too much information, it is information that you chose to find. And it is your choice whether you want to return to read again or not.

If there is something I deem appropriate for my entire social networking circle, I can choose to repost, but the experiment with an automatic feed has proven too public for me. I prefer to hide in plain sight like the wallflower I once was.