This is a bleary-eyed post about sleep. The lack thereof, and the functioning of self in that state. If it meanders a lot, or makes no sense, then it’s just perfect. If it’s coherent, then the caffeine is doing its job quite well.
It seems that Charlize has gone through her first growth spurt already. Friday night was spent with her nursing every 90 minutes for about 30-60 minutes each time. This meant, literally, that Chantale and I slept about half an hour every 2 hours, from the time we attempted to go to bed (10pm) until we forced ourselves up (around 7am). How we managed to get through the day, I’m not sure. I did give her as much chance as possible to sleep in between family visits but it’s all just a blur. I do know that Kyle decided he wanted to go over to his grandparents so when they left, he went with them. Thus, after supper, while Charlize slept in my arms and Chantale unwound enough to nap, I watched Pirates of the Caribbean with James and Melyssa, deciding they were old enough to appreciate and enjoy it. They had a blast and so did I! I always seem to forget how much I enjoy that movie until after I’ve watched it again 🙂 They headed off to bed and I continued to watch special features for another 2 hours until about midnight when I woke Chantale. Charlize was finally awake and hungry again 🙂
Saturday night was much better than Friday, but the sleep came in bursts of about 2 hours per feeding. So, by Sunday 7am, I had slept about 6 interrupted hours. We dropped James and Melyssa off in the morning and headed over to Chantale’s parents for lunch and to pick up Kyle. Another blur of food and conversations, much of which left me scratching my head in confusion. There’s nothing like sleep deprivation and messed up sleeping patterns to really take bizarre discussions into the realm of the surreal. At one point as we were getting ready to leave, we informed everyone there that we had chosen Chantale’s sister Sylvie to be Charlize’s Godmother. We have basically kept our Best Man/ Maid of Honor roles from our Wedding into our Kids’ lives. Thus, Francisco and Sylvie will now also be Charlize’s Godparents. There’s a symmetry there that we all find very appealing. What would help round this out would be if the Pastor who performed all the ceremonies can also perform Charlize’s baptism. I’m still trying to get this organized. Anyhow, after the “reveal”, Chantale’s mother says “Well, can I be Honorary Grandmother, then?” With us (myself, Chantale, Sylvie) answering: “Uhm? Hello. You ARE her Grandmother/ Omi” (Omi being German for Grandmother). But, she insisted that she wanted a “special” title as well. By this point I was pretty sure that Flaming Sambuka I had downed when I was 12 had finally hit and it was that buzz that was making me so dizzy, so I left.
Monday turned out to be quite a rough day to go through – especially with Kyle fighting something that made him whiney and cranky all day long. Even a quick power-nap in the afternoon didn’t help. Still, we got to bed sometime after 11pm and Charlize only woke at 2:20am and was up for an hour. Thus, I got another 6 hours of sleep, but this time it was 2 naps of 3 hours 🙂
After checking in with Chantale when I got to work this morning, I ordered her to turn off all the phone ringers. I do NOT want her falling asleep only to forced awake again and again and again. And again. If there’s an emergency, I’ll call a neighbor to go check on her. Otherwise, she needs to sleep. And I’m positive there have already been phone calls made to the house by now (10am).