Psychotomy

Pi is quietly sleeping on the floor, and DK is watching Wall-E for the second time this morning already.

Kiir hasn’t been getting good sleep, all broken up and fragmented, with Pi sleeping against her back. Pi seems to be working on crawling around, so she wanders around in the bed some at night, making it harder to sleep :o So kiir asked me to stay home from work today so she could get some rest and not kill anyone.

DK woke up at 6 and went over to snuggle with her, and about 6:45 they came downstairs because he just wasnt’ sleep ready :/ He’s exhausted, he just won’t go to sleep yet. Figure I’ll make him lunch about 10, maybe a little before, and see if he’ll go down for his nap then. Hopefully he’ll wake up from nap less cranky, too.

Posted in: DK, general, PI by attriel /
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So, today:

• Up at 7, took K out, started some more cleaning and laundry
• DK and Pi up at 8:45, put Pi on my back while I did dishes
• Gymboree for DK at 10, Pi and Kiir came with us
• Home, made lunch for everyone, and ate
• Pi and DK fell asleep on the way to the pick-your-own farm
• Berry Picking with DK, Kiir and Pi from ~1 to 2.
• Home, baths
• 4pm pictures for Pi’s 3mo, tried to get a couple with DK (failure!). Took DK on the carosel and got ice cream during pictures, walked around the mall some, got him fries, and pictures were ready to pick up now.
• Home, started rice for dinner, took K on a walk
• Getting ready to start on the rest of dinner, then eat …
• Then probably taking DK to the playground to run off some more energy
• THEN probably walks with Pi and K
• Pass out around 11

Day of rest my arse.

Posted in: DK, general, PI by attriel /
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Wow, I just keep not getting a chance to post updates. A couple times over the weekend I got ~30 minutes and totally blanked. I keep having ideas of things I want to blog on, but never remember them by the time I get to a computer. Thinking about digging up a cheap recorder so I can note-to-self while I’m out with Pi.

That said, she’s growing well, happy, smiley. We actually took her into the pool first time on Friday, since they have a 3mo limit. She seemed to enjoy it. I’d dipped her feet before and she liked that. I sat in the shallow area with her in my lap while Kiir and DK went out deeper to swim around. “Swim around” meaning that he rode piggyback on mommy as she walked around the pool.

This evening we went out to the big playground a few miles away and he spent an hour and a half running around on the structures and going up the stairs and the rockpile and the ladders and coming down the slides. He also enjoyed chasing after the five year old on her razor up on the structure … frankly, she seemed like a bad idea to me, but her mom wandered off to read in one of the nearby buildings. *eyeroll*

We actually only left because he had to go potty. And I didn’t want to go into the public restroom there for him, b/c (a) it’s already complicated with him, and (b) it was FOUL in there last time I was there … But he was leading me towards the car, but not quite TO the car, so it took me a while to figure out what he wanted. In the meantime we shared a pack of poptars he found in the car and a juicebox. I thought he was thirsty :o

Posted in: DK, PI by attriel /
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Saturday was DK’s birthday party, he had fun.

Then early Sunday, Kiir, DK, and PI all left for atlanta. So there’s only me and K-line at home now. which is great, I can do various things that are hard when dealing with everyone. Hit the gym yesterday, ran the first oven through clean cycle, watched some TV and worked my way through about 8 boxes of stuff trying to sort and classify it. 3 boxes into the attic, two boxes trashed, and three still left to process. not bad.

The other major feature of this week is that, with no one else here, I can catch up on my sleep. In fact, my MIL and my wife were both very clear on two subjects:

1. I’m expected to clean this week
2. I am not to complain about being tired because she’s taking BOTH kids and so I can sleep all I want and dammit I better

Which is annoying. Because it’s not like I was planning on an 8-day bender or anything. I ALWAYS clean when she’s gone, and I ALWAYS try to catch up my sleep so I can handle DK (and now PI) more when she gets back tired.

Of course, the problem is that I’m so used to having someone else in the house (kiir since 99) and I’m used to sleeping in DK’s bed with him for hte last 6-9 months (and before that, he was in the bed with me and kiir) … I have trouble sleeping when it’s just me.

Don’t get me wrong, I catch up my sleep in the first two or htree nights when I’m trashed from exhaustion, but after that … I ended up watching TV and cleaning until 3am one time because that was when I was finally tired enough to contemplate laying in bed.

Well, apparently, it’s getting worse. I was exhausted yesterday. Falling asleep at my desk today, frankly. But I ended up going to bed at nearly midnight, which is when I USUALLY go to bed with DK already, so no bonus sleep. And even then I spent 45 minutes tossing in bed before I finally drifted out :/

At least I’m getting some cleaning done?

Posted in: DK, house, PI by attriel /
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so, i took dk up for his nap after lunch. he played in his room, but not interested in napping. i give up just as kiir’s bringing pi up and going to lay down to take a nap.

so I tkae DK downstairs, figure we’ll play xbox. frankly, he’ll probably fall asleep on my lap, but if not, no nap means early bedtime, so that’s fine too.

10 maybe 20 minutes in, kiir calls me to come get PI. Obviously I can’t hold pi while dk sits on my lap, so i save and quit the game so I can put something on for him to watch when we get back down.

excpet he decides to stay up and snuggle up to mommy. half an hour later, they’re both asleep (fairly sure K is keeping a corner of the bed warm too) and I’m sitting slouched in the dining room chair so pi can snuggle up and sleep on my shoulder …

meaning I’m the ONLY person still awake, and I can’t do anything but type on the computer or risk waking everyone else up. oi!!!

Posted in: DK, general, k-line, PI by attriel /
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So, yesterday DK skipped his nap. Meaning, usually, that he’ll fall asleep around 7 or 8. Sometimes I actually have to try to keep him awake that late. Before 7 means up by 9 and wide awake until 1 :o

Well, technically, apparently he curled up with Mommy while PI was snuggled up, and took a nap for about half an hour. At 9 in the morning.

And apparently that partially counted. Because he was still up at 9. I took him upstairs once I decided he was obviously tired. He lay down, chanted nonononononono while curled up on the comforter … and passed out :o Tired.

Then he woke up about 10:30 (?) screaming and could only be soothed down by mommy. Then PI was screaming and we gave her a bath, hoping the warm water would help her stuffed up sinuses.

I went to bed about midnight afte doing a few other things (diaper laundry) and chatting with Kiir. Then about 2, more nightmares, more mommy. We swapped beds and I went to sleep in the bed with PI while Kiir went to sleep with DK.

Then about 3:30 or 4, PI started getting hungry, but I let Kiir get some more sleep and dozed with PI suckling my finger. Kiir came back over about 4:30, 5ish I took PI and went to lay down with DK. The PI got fussy and stuffy and screamy.

So I got up to take her back to Kiir, and DK almost woke up. So I just took PI downstairs and we hung out for a few hours until I left for work about 7:15 …

DK skipped his nap again today. He’s already in bed. I’m hoping to skip the nightmares part :(

Posted in: DK, house, PI by attriel /
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So, Kiir had our second child, a girl, on Saturday. With DK, there were 6 or more people around during labor and delivery. Which was good, b/c she went into an emergency C and they had to put her completely under which meant they threw me out and didn’t have time to explain or anything.

But this timeit was just the two of us. The two doula-trainees we had last time, we never got around to looking up doula’s, plus they cost a lot if you don’t get the trainees. Her mom was still in atlanta, because we were slightly less pre-scheduled this time. And my parents were at the house keeping an eye on DK for us.

And it turns out? That was a BAD plan. It was OK from 7:30 when we got there until about 1ish? That would be when the epidural was wearing off/just not working right, so every contraction she was in pain …

I appear to have a character flaw. I dislike seeing my wife in pain. She eventually made me call my mom and ask her to come stay with me. Because she couldn’t deal with the contractions AND being my support. Because I’m supposed to be supporting her, an’ all, not the other way around.

Of course, by the time my mom got there, they’d redone the epidural and the pain was mostly cleared up, but it was still good to have someone there with me. Especially since then Sarah got to have the baby, too.

(then I missed my saturday pill, and was breaking down all over on Sunday oi; I may need to talk to doc about updating my scrip to something stronger or something)

Posted in: DK, PI by attriel /
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So, today whilst DK took his nap upstairs, we went out and put in the baby’s carseat so the car is ready.

Before that I took the car out and vacuumed it out (wow there were a lot of crumbs) and we ended up having to move DK’s seat over behind the driver b/c they just don’t quite fit in next to each other :/ So the backseat is taken, now. Middle seat is virtually useless oh well

Yesterday we picked up some more of hte living room, but we still haven’t worked the basement enough for me to move the rocking chair downstairs so we can set up the baby swing, but that may end up needing to happen without being ready for that switch. Because I doubt we’re getting to the basement significantly in the next week, and Kiir’s running up to her due date pretty fast now …

DK seems to be better and we went for swimming today. He was willing to stand in the shallow area, but didn’t really seem to want to DO anything. Think he’s still a little clingy and a little water-shy after being sick. No, I don’t really know why being sick made him water shy, but since then he’s screamed every time we try to put him in the bath (and will shake his head repeating no no no if you ask if he wants a bath ; he’s quite vehement on the topic). After the pool I tortured him by holding him down while I washed and rinsed his hair. While I was dressing though, he wandered back into the shower and was playing in it some, so at least he’s warming back up to the whole thing …

Posted in: DK, PI by attriel /
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Interesting point for anyone using cloth diapers –

You seriously need to clean the dryer vent regularly. As in, take the hose off entirely and dredge it out.

I did that last night, because our diapers take two cycles. ~60-90 minutes ‘auto’ on low heat and 60 on medium (avoiding high to keep them from shrinking too badly or anything, and the automatic damp detect usually calls up short. For sheets and clothes, it’s OK. A little damp on sweaters. But cloth diapers, being generally designed to absorb things … so two cycles.

But between India and Thanksgiving, I started noticing that the first cycle was taking 2 and edging towards 3. So since Kiir and DK were coming back a day later than me, I decided to vacuum the hose, which I’ve done occasionally. Except when I pulled it off the end of the dryer I saw a bunch of fuzz, so I reached in to see how bad and it was pretty solid. And then I realized the vacuum was only getting a little bit. So I started reaching in by hand.

It turns out that dryer fuzz gets caught up in the folding on the hose. So I kept folding and pulling, eventually pulled it off the other end so I could get it from both ends …

In the end, I had nearly a cubic foot of dryer fuzz. OMFG.

So, pull the accordian vent off and dredge it by hand, folks. Collapse it down, then use your fingertips to drag the bottom edge, collecting the fuzz as you expand and collapse the hose by your fingers (basically using your fingers push it unfolded and let it fold back up behind you again ; you need to fold it because it’s a long hose usually)

This has been a public service announcement.

Posted in: PI by attriel /
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Last night, after our trip, I was exhausted. So Kiir went up to bed ~10ish (maybe 10:30?).

DK followed her about 30 minutes later. And by that, I mean he went over to the gate when I was going to the kitchen for something, and then started climbing the stairs :o So, I tossed a pair of pants on him and took him up. I came back down to do a few things (yesterday’s post, for instance) and wait for the dryer to cycle, take K out etc.

K actually was having none of that. I think that’s b/c it was raining. But thats OK, about 11:15ish, DK is up and happy and crawling all around on the bed. So I went up, rescued Kiir and brought DK back downstairs. We sat down and started playing Lost Odyssey some more. It’s actually basically a nighttime routine that I play some video game while he sits on my lap and eventually passes out. Then I wait for Kiir to come down and get him, b/c there’s no chance in hell that I can move him upstairs without waking him. Lets start with how I open the gate (needs a committed hand, he takes two), and end with I’ve been sitting cross legged with a baby laying across my lap for an hour so my feet are so numb that i can’t put weight on them :o

Luckily, I’d thought ahead when he started to fall asleep and shifted so my legs weren’t under him. Even more lucky, he was willing to stand for it. Because Kiir was asleep, so not coming to get him :o Got him upstairs about 12:15 and settled, then K and I came to pack up and shutdown, and switch the laundry since it was ready now obviously.

Get up, kiir’s got a Gatorade in her hand next to his bottle of water, and they’re both asleep. I change, lay down and holy crap! her bottle tipped and it turns out there was no lid. I don’t know for sure how much got poured on the bed, but it looked like a fair amount. I hopped up and started griping as I got a towel to put on the bed, she tells me that she wants me to sleep upstairs, she likes me in the bed. I politely (shut up) informed her that I wasn’t sleeping in an inch of gatorade, took my blanket and went to sleep on the sofa. After putting another towel down to make sure DK didn’t roll over into a pool of gatorade …

Surprisingly, having 5 or 6 oz of poured down your back at 12:30 in the morning, not that conducive to sleeping.

Posted in: general, PI by attriel /
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