Miscellany

Nothing is new that's really worth a post on its own, but a number of things on the collective mind of the Uberimma household:

1. Barak is still not sleeping. We don't know what's up with that. He's perfectly happy during the day and even naps fine. But at night... oh boy. He doesn't want to go to sleep, and will not go to sleep unless Abba or Imma are in the room. He wakes up multiple times a night, and will not go back to sleep unless Abba and Imma are in the room and stay there. Step a foot across the threshold and it's instant panic. With the exception of last Wednesday night, this has been going on since we got back from Israel, what, almost two months ago? If it's before my own bedtime, I go in to him, and usually end up sitting in the rocker in the dark for as long as an hour; sometimes I let him cry, but only if I'm totally exhausted and asleep myself. I did this once last week when he woke up at 4 am for the nth time and I just couldn't deal--I put on a soothing CD in his room, shut the door, shut our door, and turned on the humidifier. He was still screaming at 7 am. So, needless to say, I'm reluctant to do that again. Sometimes MHH goes and sleeps on his floor--not something I can do in my current enlarged state. I don't know why he's suddenly become afraid to sleep alone (that does seem to be what it is)--two weeks of sleeping in the same room with the two of us turns into this? It doesn't really make sense. This afternoon I went to Target and bought a small clamp lamp, which I attached next to the rocker--tonight, when I left the room and he started to scream, I just went back in there and knitted until he fell asleep (an hour later).

2. The pluggie (pacifier) is officially history. Barak had a cold when we went to visit my SIL, and had such a runny nose he couldn't suck and breathe at the same time. When he went to bed, I didn't give it to him and he didn't seem to object. Hmm, I thought. The first night we were home, he fell asleep in the car on the way back from the airport, so didn't get it then. The real test, of course, was putting him to bed according to usual practice at home, when he had always gotten his pluggie in the past. He cried and wanted it, but not in any major way; the second night he only mildly asked, and now he seems to have forgotten all about it. Big boy.

3. After almost five months of feeling almost normally energetic, the energy has vanished. I'm almost thirty weeks, and just... so... tired. I've been conking out at 8 a lot and there have been some major naps, enabled by MHH, who is a very forbearing person to have around when you are feeling tired and cranky. I got my glucose tolerance test results back last week and no gestational diabetes (hooray!) but I do seem to be a little anemic--maybe that explains it. Or maybe it's just not having had a solid night's sleep in two months. Yeah, that could be it too...

4. Major organizing has been going on around here. I bought a bunch of Rubbermaid bins and MHH dragged all the bags and boxes containing outgrown baby clothes up from the basement. He also brought up the two plastic chests of drawers we used for Barak's things when he was a newborn (and we were in our old, much smaller, apartment). The plastic drawers have been cleaned and stocked with newborn necessities, the clothes have been sorted by size and folded, really trashed items have been discarded, and neatly labeled boxes with 3-6 month, 6-12 month, and 18 month clothes have been returned to the storage space. For some strange reason we seem to have almost nothing in the way of 3-6 month clothes and very little newborn clothing, while we've got an entire Rubbermaid bin stuffed full of 6-12 month stuff. I know I donated a bunch of baby things after Katrina, but I thought I had more than that left. Hmm. The 6-12 month bin does really have two sizes--6-9 month and 12 month--but still.

5. Still getting used to the short hair. I tried wearing my sheitel for the first time in, um, a year last Shabbos, for a kiddush for a friend's new daughter. It fit much better, but since MHH doesn't like my wearing it, it's unlikely to be having a repeat appearance on my head anytime soon. And yes, wearing a sheitel is, according to many people (including, if it needs mentioning, MHH), a questionable practice. There's more to it than this, but the basic objection is to the practice of "covering" your hair (a halachic requirement of married women, subject to various interpretations) by wearing someone else's, probably much nicer, hair on top of it. It is, I guess, a loophole that has turned into a common practice, to the point where in many communities (not, happily, including mine) wearing a sheitel is a sign of being frum, and covering your hair with a hat or a headscarf (unless you are Sephardi) marks you as "modern." I did buy a sheitel when I got married, knowing I would need it for job interviews (which I did) and possibly work (which, happily, I did not). I'm glad MHH does not want me to wear it regularly, because I find it really itchy and annoying. My halachic objection is not as strong as his, but since a) it's uncomfortable, and b) there's no point in "dressing up" in a way he finds unattractive, it tends to stay on its little Styrofoam head on my armoire.

6. There is NO number six (sorry, couldn't resist...)

7. Still socking away. The Jaywalkers, which are for a knitting buddy about to visit from Australia, are almost done--I'm decreasing for the toe now. Next up is a pair in a milder shade of multi-colored Regia Nomotta, in a new toe-up pattern I found online. After that, we'll see. I want to do one more in Regia, so I'll have enough leftovers to make a pair of gloves with all different colored fingers. And I want to make an Odessa hat out of some hot pink Koigu for Niece #3, who still has not gotten a hat. I should probably do that before it gets warm...

And with that, it's back to socking for me.