July 29, 2007 at 12:08 pm (BS, baby stuff, breastfeeding, mono, sleep)
I haven’t updated in a while, we had a really difficult week. Right now my temperature is 100 and I feel horrible, I can’t believe this (expletive) mono is still hanging on. A friend who had it said that whenever she didn’t get enough sleep or was under too much stress, it would flare up, I guess that’s what is happening to me. Now that I think back I probably got mono right when I got strep throat which was right at the beginning of May. Now we are nearing the beginning of August and I am still sick. I am so depressed from all of this and from not enough sleep. I just can’t continue on this way.
My son has been pretty difficult this week too, especially the past few days. I think that the more awful I feel, the more difficult he is, probably because I’m not paying him as much attention, but honestly, I just don’t have the energy. We did do something fun this week, the Midland library hosted “Touch a Truck” which was pretty cool, they had a bunch of city vehicles available for kids to check out, touch, climb on, etc. and Will got to sit inside a fire truck! He was a little overwhelmed by it all at first, he didn’t want to get near anything. I think he is used to seeing trucks on TV or from the car and isn’t used to being able to get really close up, and they must have seemed overwhelmingly huge to him! I got to go inside a fire truck too which was cool, I helped him inside it and went in with him with Sophie on my chest in the Ergo. She wound up falling asleep in it 20 minutes before we left and of course was awake as soon as she got in the car seat. And, as usual, that was her nap for the morning.
Last night I was kind of a wreck because I was so tired and just fried from both the kids, so my dear husband got Will to bed, then took Sophie and sent me to bed. He thought he would try her in another room, there is a bassinet part to the pack and play so we set that up. Things actually went pretty well. Shortly after 11 pm he put her down in it and she slept til about 2:45 am, woke to nurse, then he put her back in it around 3 and she woke up for the day just before 8 am. We have not had a 5 hour stretch of sleep EVER, since before she was born! Then I couldn’t get her back to sleep so she went to the other room with Daddy while I went back to sleep. I woke up feeling so awful and achy, like the sleep did no good at all… then just now when I took my temperature I found out why.
I sure wish I’d had mono as a kid, I would have been able to get rid of it faster. This sucks.
2 Comments
July 23, 2007 at 8:35 am (Finland, Finnish language, kids)
The couple of words he knows now, he says them really well! My mom told me a few new words on the phone last night (she grew up with basically bilingual parents) and has a good conversational Finn book she is going to send me in the mail. I grew up in an area with a lot of Finnish immigrants and of course listened to my grandparents speaking it so I know how to pronounce it, I can read it. But I have no idea about grammar, and I cannot spell anything to save my life! I will be looking at a book or something and see a word, and when I sound it out, I think, “Oh! So that’s how you spell it!” LOL
So far, he can say Kiitos! Ei Kiitos! And nukkumaan (sleep, sorry if this is terribly misspelled). The first two were thanks and no thanks. I need to figure out how to put an umlaut above letters on the computer because I don’t know how and there are a few in Finn.
Anyway it’s fun. I’m revisiting a part of my childhood that I haven’t thought about in years. I took it for granted, it was just part of life, and now it is dying out with the old folks, unfortunately. It’s funny, because young people from Finland will go to that part of the UP and listen to the Finnish that is spoken there, and wonder what century these people are living in! Because basically the Finn spoken there is from the early 1900’s.
2 Comments
July 21, 2007 at 12:16 pm (baby stuff, sleep)
My daughter Sophie is 5 months old and does not sleep. I am not a fan of sleep books for babies that are full of weird schedules and other things but reluctantly, I pulled out Pantley’s “No Cry Sleep Solution” last night after sitting in my chair sobbing because Sophie still wasn’t asleep for the night at 11:30 pm. I think she is chronically sleep deprived. She refuses to nap longer than about 1/2 hour at a time (I don’t think that even counts) and she is asleep for the night (not including waking to nurse about 3 times in 6-7 hours) around 11-12 at night. She thinks she is up for the day around 6 (why???) although with a bit of struggling I can get her back to sleep (sort of) til about 8:30 am. How is it that a 5 month old baby needs less sleep than her parents? I would get up at 6 if I could go to bed at 10!!!
So after reading a bit in the book (which does explain a lot about infant sleep patterns) I have decided she is chronically sleep deprived. Today I helped her resettle before she woke up all the way about 45 min into her first nap, and she is still sleeping, almost 2 hours later. This is good. I will take anything over 1 hour. Later she will get another nap and I will do the same thing. Then she is going to bed EARLY. I don’t care what I am doing or what needs to be done, it will be stopped to put her to bed. Then I will have to keep running in there to make sure she settles and doesn’t wake up all the way when she thinks she is just taking another cat nap.
Well Little Miss Sunshine is up now, so it’s off to my usual routine.
2 Comments
July 17, 2007 at 12:28 pm (BS)
1 Comment
July 16, 2007 at 4:53 pm (Da UP, Uncategorized)
One of the things I love the most about home is Lake Superior. It is so beautiful, can be so dangerous… its moods regulate and dictate the weather and the climate. When the weather gets crazy, the lake is crazy too, one thing I miss so much is being able to drive 15 minutes to go watch the lake when there is a high wind warning! It was very windy one day (gusts near 50 mph) and we drove out to the lake to get some pictures. I haven’t posted any pictures here yet but I’m going to attempt it.
The night after the big wind, we went to a beach outside of Hancock. It was still windy right on the beach and we got more great pictures. I decided I had to take a bit of the beach home with me so I picked up a handful of rocks that are so common on Lake Superior beaches, and got an old Pepsi bottle from the truck to collect some water. I got both feet wet trying to get my water but fortunately the water wasn’t that cold. Of course, that’s all relative, because even during a very hot summer, I doubt the lake temperature goes above 60 degrees. The coldest lake temp from my scuba diving days was about 35 degrees and guess what folks… THAT is COLD!!! Even with hot water in the wetsuit, WHOO!!! Is that cold. So around 50 is really quite warm to me.
Oh I do miss the big lake, terribly. I don’t miss the 5 day snow storms that tally up many feet of snow, but I do miss the lake. Off to try to get some pictures up now.
Lake Superior during a high wind warning
Lake Superior the next day, that’s me looking for agates. (I didn’t find any!)
1 Comment
July 15, 2007 at 12:17 pm (class reunion)
Although there are always many things we do when we go to the UP, this was the highlight of the trip this summer.
As I was getting ready to head to the DT (Downtowner – it’s a bar in Houghton), I was feeling a little bit nervous. Many folks I hadn’t seen literally since we graduated and others I hadn’t seen since 2-3 years after that. I just didn’t know what to expect! Teenagers tend to form cliques but I was so hoping that we’d all outgrown that!
Much to my relief, we did! It was really a lot of fun seeing everyone, hearing about everyone’s lives and families, seeing pictures of kids, talking with everyone about their hard times and good times as well. I spent more time talking to classmates that I didn’t know well in high school because we either weren’t in the same classes or we just had different groups of friends, than I did talking with the friends I’d kept in touch with all along! I think after 20 years, life slaps you around a bit and nobody cares if you were friends back then or not. I was just happy to see everyone, and hear about everyone!
On Saturday afternoon we boarded the Keweenaw Star (it’s a boat that takes people for dinner cruises up Portage Lake and into Lake Superior and back) for a trip up Portage Lake to the north end of Portage Canal, into Lake Superior. It was a warm day so when we got to the big lake the breeze felt SO good! Clane and I decided the cruise would be more fun than dinner, so we got some child care for the cruise. We went back to my mom’s for dinner, and after I got the baby to bed, I went back down to the Ramada Inn bar in Hancock to socialize some more. I was not very good at taking pictures but I do have a few that I hope to get sent out sometime soon.
I was a little bummed that I had to leave the nighttime activities behind so early but taking care of a baby and having to nurse every 2-3 hours does have its benefits… no hangover! 
1 Comment
July 14, 2007 at 10:11 pm (Da UP, Finland, class reunion, family, home, kids, mono, pregnancy, sickness, travel)
I had such a wonderful time in the UP! I think I’ve finally turned a corner with the Mono, I am starting to feel like I have some more energy and I’m not so lethargic. The first week up there was pretty much shot, because it seems like all I did was nap with Sophie, and it didn’t feel like it was helping but it must have helped. I think I should still ease back into my normal activity (sheesh, I don’t even remember what that is now because I’ve spent the past year being pregnant, recovering from birth, then recovering from strep throat and mono!) instead of jumping in head first. I don’t want a relapse!
I will post more over the coming days about the trip when I can, I am happy to be back in my own house although I am terribly homesick. I really am so sad to leave the UP, it is my home. You can take the girl out of the UP but you can’t take the UP out of the girl. I even taught my son a couple of Finnish words and he pronounces them flawlessly. I think I need to try to learn more myself because he could easily learn words in several languages at his age.
The class reunion was great!! And I’ve created a group at Yahoo groups for us to stay in touch.
More later!
3 Comments
