Too Much Work; Too Little Sleep

Has it really been since Tuesday that I blogged? I can only blame two things: 過労 and Celeste is having some rough nights. Actually, she is acting like two different little girls: During the day, she is so happy, smiling at everything, giggling, having lots of fun (and even going down for a half-hour nap every now and then with out too much fuss); at night, however, she is wailing and waking every two hours (or worse), and she seems totally inconsolable. (Evelin describes it as: "Sunny disposition v. Screaming hellion.")

We're sure it's a wonder week developmental leap and maybe a physical growth spurt, too, but whatever it is, there have been some rough nights this week.

Adding to it all is it's that time of year at work — and it will probably stay rough until the post trade show issues are out of here in May. Some people think I'm joking when I say that I don't have time to think about some new projects or anything until June ... but I'm not.

But enough complaining ...

Tuesday ended up a decent afternoon. Celeste and I had some fun and she actually went down at 6:30 p.m. and only woke up twice overnight for feedings. We figured that aiming for a 6:00 p.m. bathtime and then in bed soon there after might help, so I ended up missing Celeste Wednesday evening. She was already in bed by the time I got home at 6:45 p.m. However, when she started fussing at 8:00-something, we decided that it'd be less distracting if Evelin went to take care of her (both because she likes Evelin more than me at night and because it might be stimulating for her to see me since I'd been away all day).

That night she was up a lot, eating, crying, eating, crying. When Evelin brought her to our bed around midnight, Celeste did get all excited to see me, stroking my beard and twisting my nose, which made sleep a little difficult for all of us. I left for work around 3:00 a.m., and the rest of the night, she was still waking up on and off.

On my way to work there were a few snowflakes that became what qualifies in D.C. as a relatively major snow event (the Federal government and a lot of employers, including Evelin's, dismissed workers around 3:00 p.m.). I cut out a half-hour earlier than I normally would, just to make sure I'd be home in time for Evelin to get to work (if only for 90 minutes or so).

Celeste and I had some quiet play — she really seemed to enjoy looking out the windows at the snow — until Evelin got home, and then we both spent time alternating between working and playing with her.

That night, Celeste had an hour-long crying jag. She was inconsolable; nothing seemed to work. When she finally did get back to sleep, she would wake up again in an hour or two, often demanding to be fed. It was pretty ugly.

Friday was a little calmer. The nighttime crying lasted only about 20 minutes before she finally fell asleep in my arms. Overnight she still woke three times, <touchwood>but it seemed a little easier</touchwood>. She actually slept a bit later than we expected this morning, so hopefully she's transitioning out of the really bad bits.

Evelin thinks Celeste seems to have the worst of it during the first few and last few days of a wonder weeks period; if that's true we could still be in for some sullen times and difficult nights for a few more weeks (this leap is a fairly long one) before we have another few days/nights of meltdowns followed by a sunny period.

In the meantime, Celeste is really enjoying playing with a big heart-shaped balloon that her grandmother bought her while I was in California. She tugs on the string to make it dance and, if it's lowered down to her level, she will grab the balloon and try to bite it. She'd even managed a couple of times to pass the string from one hand to the next to pull the balloon down a little bit.

The other funny thing is that Celeste seems to have forgotten how to roll over. She was doing it so well for about a week, but now she gets her arms into the wrong position, and it frustrates her terribly. She also has found her knees and worked down as far as her shins, but still no sign of finding her feet.

Tomorrow, we have some friends who have a baby the same age as Celeste coming over for brunch. We're planning to make two galettes: one butternut squash and garlic, the other tomato and rosemary. Hopefully Celeste will be in a cheery enough mood ...