Dumb Days

Yesterday was one of those dumb days that just compounds exponentially as it goes on. It began before 4am. Or was that the previous day ending? It's difficult to tell when you're barely conscious.

Wawa has been regularly napping late in the day, running her nap through bedtime to the morning, waking (only partially) for milk and a quick nappy change when it's deemed necessary. This is quite nice, as it makes for a less demanding evening and allows me to experience the novelty of feeling productive on occasion.

The drawback is that sometimes she stirs at around stupid o'clock, ravenously hungry, particularly if she slept through or wasn't interested in dinner the night before. Then she feeds and feeds and feeds; then drifts off; then stirs and feeds some more, which is not conducive to restful sleep on my part. This will pass soon enough and I don't generally view it as a problem.

Yesterday, however, she fed and fed and fed; then demanded "more" from the other breast; then fed and fed and fed; then demanded "more" from the other breast. I drowsily offered her the first breast again. She rejected it in outrage, chanting, "More! More! More!" I offered her the second breast again. "More! More! More!"

For reasons that on occasions like this are difficult to fathom, Ni sleeps in her bed beside Wawa and me. At this stage of the morning, she remembers (with some confusion, I imagine) hearing me declare in exasperation, "There IS no third breast! There is NO third breast!"

After some quiet negotiation, Wawa picked one of the reject breasts and started to drift off again. At this point, the bestirred Ni decided she was cold and began an elaborate blanket arranging ritual that involved much fluffing and waving of extra blankets. Wawa rolled over to see what the excitement was all about. As Ni settled, I coaxed Wawa back and she began to drift away once more.

Then Ni decided  she was still cold and began to rifle noisily through drawers looking for long pants that met her stringent pant requirements. As Wawa became restless once more, I implored Ni with a series of annoyed grunts to be quiet and get back into bed. She did and in the ensuing silence, Wawa settled once more. Then Ni decided that she was actually cold enough to risk annoyed maternal grunting and got up once more to find those long pants. I convinced Wawa to snuggle in again as Ni finally returned to bed appropriately panted. We all began to doze peacefully once more.

Then the phone rang. At 4.30 in the morning. I got up quickly to answer it since my mother has been unwell and I thought she might need me. A woman gabbled in my sleep-deprived ear in a language I didn't recognise. Fairly sure it wasn't my mother, I sighed, mumbled something about a wrong number and hung up. Back in bed, I was still hopeful that I could calm a wriggly toddler through the magic of breast milk.

Then Ni decided that she needed the toilet. In a minute, she yo-yoed back into bed and drifted immediately off to sleep, while I gradually settled Wawa yet again.

It was then that Doot came into the house to get ready for work. (He has his own bungalow bedroom in the yard)."DOOT!" squealed Wawa excitedly and off she went to greet her beloved Doot and the day.

So I plodded through my day feeling more than a little off kilter and ultimately quite glum. And somewhere in my delirium, I decided that it would be a good idea to increase my blog production from a post every now and again to a post a day. (Thank you for your encouragement on yesterday's post. It's nice to think a few of you might be dropping by occasionally.) By the end of the day, I was feeling like a husk with no words left to cobble together and seemingly no hope of ever writing another coherent paragraph. (Some might say that that has come to pass.) But I awoke this morning better rested with a few sentences bumping about in my head, so I scratched some of them down and here we are. So far; so good.

This sublimely, mundanely ridiculous life - I really wouldn't trade it.

Thank you for reading.