Remember how I was lamenting the fact our child wouldn’t fall asleep at night? Well, we’ve certainly got that problem solved. The girl slept something like 12 of 15 hours between late evening last night and late morning today. It was brilliant. The downside is the kid refuses to go down from early afternoon through the evening now. She takes a few catnaps here and there, but for the most part, she’s awake endlessly.
There are two problems with that. First, she’s only five weeks old, so there’s only so much either she or we can do to keep her entertained during her awake time. Her bouncy seat and swing only interest her for about five minutes at a time. We can read to her, but other than indirect benefits, it doesn’t do much to soothe her. Second, as the time since her last good sleep increases, her mood darkens. We’re pretty much resigned to about a three-hour window of crying, fussing, and aborted attempts to put her down. She’ll fall asleep on one of us, we’ll wait until she’s been out 10-15 minutes, gently put her in her pack ‘n play, and within five minutes she’s awake and yelling. While it’s much better that she does this during the day and evening than overnight, it’s still quite frustrating since nothing calms her down.
Gail made an excellent point regarding the US women at the Olympics, and I was greatly remiss for not acknowledging their accomplishments. Despite my general dislike for softball, I think it’s a good Olympic sport. Perhaps it is just because we kick serious ass. Or maybe it’s the fact that we have the best players in the world, and we know we’ll see them play in the games, unlike either men’s basketball or baseball (for different reasons, obviously).
Another point I forgot to make was the large number of athletes from all countries sporting Livestrong bracelets during the games. I wondered, are all these people really interested in Lance Armstrong’s foundation, or did Nike just dump a few buckets at the Olympic Village for anyone to take? Regardless, I suppose it’s a good thing that people wore them no matter why they took them.