Anyone who knows anything about babies (and even those who don’t know much, say, myself) has heard of the witching hour.

For those who haven’t, it’s a stretch of time from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. (or is it 10 p.m.?) during which baby is extra cranky, colicky, fussy and snarly. There are squawks, there is kicking and there is general discomfort-in-one’s-skin. This coincides perfectly with the end of the day, just as mum and dad are ready to kick back and unwind with a glass of wine. How painful is that? (Click here for a more professional primer on Witching Hour)

Traditional witching hour never made it into our home, but August not to be outdone by other babies and imaginative as always invented his own witching hour — one that revs up in the morning. Ugh!

Here’s how it works: Between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. when mummy and daddy are passed out in their bed, August’s eyelids suddenly flip open and his status switch tunes into AWAKE AWAKE AWAKE! This information he transmits to his parents by way of shrieks which crackle through the monitor (now parked outside the parents’ bedroom in the hallway) causing the light display to fire up and cast blue shadows on the walls. Then mummy drags into August’s bedroom where he waits for her AWAKE but EXHAUSTED which any parent will tell you is the very worst combination.

Then the soothing, go-back-to-sleep routine begins and the eyelids flutter back to their closed position. But no sooner has that happened when the legs sling up: AWAKE AWAKE AWAKE!

After extreme coaxing, sleep eventually takes over by which time ol’ mummy herself is way, way, way too wide awake to close her eyes. One might even refer to her as AWAKE but EXHAUSTED. Sound familiar?

Yay! August’s own personal witching hour! Go Aug for the creativity on this one. I’ll have to remind you of it when you’re a lazy 15-year-old sleeping in until 11 a.m. Or, make that noon.

Tags: Napping, Sleeping

Today, I’m writing about sleep deprivation.

YIKES.

It sneaks up behind you and nudges you. It starts you swaying, slowly at first. Without attention, it swells into a tidal wave. It brings you to the ground. Oh boy, without sleep, life is not worth living.

Today, sleep (or lack thereof) and Francesca butted heads.

It’s not that I’d had a particularly bad night. Nor had I had an especially grueling day. It wasn’t any one moment that I could put my finger on; but six weeks of sleeping with one eye open takes its toll. And today, the toll needed to be paid.

August was hungry. If he could talk, he would have told me he was starving. “I’m having a growth spurt, mummy.”

And he was squealing.

We tried everything: more food, new positions, songs. Meanwhile, I was keeling over, swaying on my own two feet, wondering whether you could just hire a babysitter to come over and watch the baby so you could take a blessed nap.

And then I realized, that maybe August was tired too. Which he was. He’d been telling me that all along, but I’d misinterpreted the signs.

And we both slept: he in his little bed and I in my big bed.

And I’m alive again.

Whew, it was a close call.

Back to Baby Augie.

Tags: Napping, Schedule, Sleeping

Today, I took a nap that lasted just four minutes.

Four minutes, people.

Then August resumed his wailing.

Thanks, Aug.

Tags: Mother, Napping