Mister Sandman, bring me a dream?

Whoever coined the saying "Sleeping like a baby" clearly did not have any children of his/her own.  Out of all the people I know with children, only one of them never ever had problems with her child waking up in the middle of the night.


My insomnia is stress-related - and since I'm anywhere between minutes and days away from giving birth at the moment, stress levels are soaring.  I don't know what Creature's sleeping patterns will be like - and my greatest concern is my own insomnia to be honest, not his/her inability to sleep a whole night.  My problem is that when insomnia gets truly chronic, I'd be doing something one minute, and the next I would start nodding off.  I just crash. Inevitably, I worry that this will happen whilst Creature is awake and something might happen which I would end up sleeping through due to sheer exhaustion.  These thoughts don't help me combat the insomnia.

I really, really hope that I will manage to find a solution.  Most people get an hour or so of shut-eye whenever they get someone to babysit for them.Since I only crash when my body decides to, I truly doubt it will be an option for me.  Even when exhausted, I don't manage to sleep on command.


Once Creature is here, I'll know how difficult his/her sleeping pattern will be to cope with. This article gives some hints and tips on how to help your child sleep throughout the night.  I don't know how efficient these suggestions are - but I guess they must work for at least 1 person on the face of the planet.

If you have any suggestions on how to get a child to sleep, feel free to comment!

[The only sure way I know of is a bop on the head. But I'm thinking it really is not an option. What say you?]

Once bitten, Twice shy

I've always been a dog person.  I grew up with dogs and to me, a house without a dog is just that - a house, not a home.  Unfortunately, rental properties rarely allow pets, so at the moment, my canine family members reside at my parents' house - and my sister's resides at my grandma's.

about 2 years ago or so - Whiskey & Cara  [courtesy of my sis]

I am aware that introducing a new family member can be an awkward situation - especially when it comes to babies and dogs.  I've been asking around to see how different people coped with the intros.  I've been given more or less the same kind of advice by both pet-owners as well as people who work with animals.

I don't know if their advice will work - as in my case I have three dogs to introduce Creature to.  I am not really concerned about Whiskey and Cara - they are very outgoing dogs.  Whiskey is extremely friendly and energetic, but very obedient as well.  He is used to not jumping up to greet me nowadays whenever I see him, so   I don't think it will be an issue walking in my parents' house with Creature.  

Although people may say it is a bad idea to ever trust an animal - I do trust Whiskey.

Cara, on the other hand, is more shy in her approach but she is still very friendly.  Being a small dog means I'm not overly concerned by her jumping up to greet me as with her forelegs outstretched she barely reaches my knee anyway.  I find her trustworthy as well.

Whiskey & Cara

The one dog I am a bit concerned about is my sister's dog.  I never trusted him - for some reason he has a very odd character.  He can quite easily snap at you for no apparent reason at all - quite a moody dog.  When I voiced my concern to my sisters, they both said we would need to keep an eye out to ensure things run smoothly.  I am not sure how to proceed though.  I myself have been snapped at by this dog - and all I did was try to pet him.  I happened to be sitting at the table when this happened - he clearly was wanting food, not to be petted.  Other family members have been snapped at but thankfully no one has been actually injured.  I'm just worried that the injured person will end up being Creature - you can't really tell a baby/toddler not to be all fussy around a certain animal and expect them to obey.

It is a bit of a dead end as I don't know how to go on about this issue.  I'm guessing my best bet would be to keep Creature as far away from this grumpy dog as much as I can - this though would mean that whenever my female siblings, or my mum, would be babysitting Creature, it would need to be done either in my own home, or at my parents' house.  This is quite unrealistic since my Grandma needs to be looked after as well.  It is why I'm stumped.

Enough rambling, anyway.  What I've been advised to do is to get someone to take home a piece of clothing, or a burp cloth for example, which has been used by Creature and give it to said dogs to sniff at.  This would help them familiarise themselves with Creature's scent before taking him/her home.  I'll be giving that a try and see how it goes.

In the meanwhile, here is a site I found with some guidelines of how to prepare well in advance for similar circumstances.  I've only mentioned the one solution of sorts as that is the only one applicable to myself since I don't live 24/7 with the aforementioned Dog-people.

Patience is running thin, I'm afraid!

I'm currently in my 34th week, and I can't wait for it to all be over and done with.  Whose genial idea was it to make human pregnancy 40 friggin weeks anyway?  It is waaaaay too long.

I miss sleeping on my belly - in fact that is one of the first things I plan on doing the moment Creature pops out.  I also miss being able to do daily activities without running out of breath after 5 minutes.  Oh, and eating a meal without having to stop half-way through to get up in order to stretch and try to lessen the back pains.   Or bending down to pick up something without getting dizzy.  And I'm so over mint-flavoured stuff! Whoever decided that the Gaviscon chewable tables should be mint flavoured out to be locked up in a mint-coloured room, surrounded by mint-scented stuff, forced to eat minty stuff and drink mint tea, and brush his/her teeth with mint-flavoured toothpaste.  That way, s/he'll know what its like having to rely on them chewable tablets to try and limit the heartburn.


I know I will then probably complain about the stinky nappies, the constant crying, and a variety of other stuff.  Honestly though... I just miss my body, and am really looking forward to having my internal organs shift back to their place and being able to move about, and sleep, comfortably.  As far away from minty stuff as possible.

Unless we're talking about THE Mint.  Then by all means, THAT Mint is always welcome!