This and that

[juliet]

How is it nearly November?

For the first time in a couple of years I'm probably going to do Nanowrimo again. I spent a couple of weeks getting way ahead on work commitments, as I was expecting to spend October/November/December working on a big project. Big project will hopefully still materialise but hasn't yet, which in turn means that my work time is pretty empty, so I may as well do *something* with it.

I have also been doing a surprising amount of socialising, including a trip to Oxford to meet up with various folk, a couple of dinners with various friends I haven't seen in ages, drinks ditto, a visit to my sister, and yesterday, a very splendid party. Arranging social things is still a lot harder than it was pre-Leon (...obviously...) but in comparison to, say, a year or so ago it is much easier. Which is lovely.

I still miss climbing. I manage to go once or at most twice a month; it's still lots of fun but that's just not anything like the amount I should be doing to get any better. Maybe I should apply my "tiny changes" theory to this, but that warrants its own post.

I am slightly, superstitiously, scared to say this publicly, but Leon, over the last week or so, has been regularly sleeping 5-6 hours at a stretch after going to bed. This is the first time since he was born that he's done anything like that consistently. I don't think I'm entirely feeling the benefit of it yet, possibly because I can't bring myself to believe it / count on it yet. But this may yet mean that "being less exhausted" becomes a marginally more reasonable aim.

(He made up his first story the other day, too, albeit a pretty basic one*; and has suddenly got the hang of piggy-back rides; and grown about 2" overnight. Children are terrifying.)

* "Once upon a time there was a little Leon, with his mama, in the sling. Then they were very tired. So they went all the way home." He was, at the time, on my back in the sling and we were on the way home.

Comments

[menthe-reglisse.livejournal.com]

Is he still? Oh I do hope so. Both altruistically for you and also because I want to believe that sometimes kids do start sleeping through without their parents intervening in less-than-pleasant ways!

I love the story! That's great. It's so lovely when you get a little window into their worlds like that.

[juliet]

Well, we had a couple of rough nights at the start of this week (I think a combination of the clock change, and another brain upgrade). Last night I only remember waking once (around 1am), then not again til 7am (!!)(!!!!!). I don't count wakings that I don't remember ;) Then this morning he could Do More Grammar (can't quite put my finger on what, but definitely new sentence constructions). So... cautious optimism remains.

He is nearly 2 3/4 now so it's taken a fair old while if it is finally really improving!

[menthe-reglisse.livejournal.com]

Ooh, definitely grounds for cautious optimism. If he does start sleeping longer, my top tip would be 'don't expect yourself to suddenly have loads of energy and vim'. IME, it can take a long time to get over such long-term lack of sleep. Athough the great benefit of only one child is that you only have to survive it once - it was knocking-on 5 years for the adults by the time both ours were sleeping through. Will keep my fingers crossed for you.

[juliet]

Yeah, I feel like I should BOUNCE BACK immediately but that is unreasonable / unrealistic :) (Also it's still erratic; ill this weekend = several very poor nights. Though it's never been as bad as I think things were for you in that he's v rarely *stayed* awake on waking up, at least as long as there was milk readily available. Just woken a lot.)

Today I am still tired :D