Sleep deprivation

Sleep deprivation is something all mums experience at some point. They do say that it can be used as a form of torture. As a shift worker, I've always felt fairly well prepared for any sleep deprivation - but I am also well aware of the mind altering effects of 'overtiredness'. Every week when I drive home from night duty I have to find a space of mind where I don't over or under focus on driving. If I focus too much, I feel more tired. If I focus too little, I can loosen my grip on the steering wheel.


So why do I put Mr 2 through similar pain? You see both my boys have got to an age where any sort of sleep during the day greatly affects their ability to go to sleep in the evening. Mr 2 began to experience this lately. At first I worked at reducing the length of his sleep - waking him after an hour... but that hour still added 2-3hrs on to his bedtime. So now I try distracting him through his tired time to keep him awake. If he has been awake all day he falls asleep within minutes of laying down with us at bedtime.


This plan is foiled by any trip in the car for any more than 15 minutes or, by Mr 2 sneaking away quietly while I am distracted and falling asleep almost anywhere...


It's a work in progress :)

Sleeping across the threshold!

But it's a button

Next week is preparation week, and the following is our first week of our new routine. At the moment I am so tired from a busy week of work that I can't imagine having time to sit and be with the boys.


But it doesn't have to be hard.  Last week we were having a challenging day - both boys were a little tired and we were doing that horrible thing where the more I wished they'd play with something the less likely it became.


So I pulled out two containers filled them with rice and some loose buttons and gave one to each boy to rummage through. Mr 3 separated all the buttons and then spent another 20 minutes pouring rice into different containers. Mr 2 ate some rice, found some buttons and then just enjoyed mashing the mix around in his fingers.


Simple and easy and it allowed me time to take a breath, have a cup of tea and watch and enjoy the boys.

Overlap

Well the boys are no longer in care, and we've had our first week at home.


It feels like we've all taken a big deep breath of fresh air and we are all starting to relax. The difficult thing is that I haven't finished work yet, so there has beeen a bit of overlap where we are just sort of juggling our work around them being home. Because of that I've noticed that Mr 3 is really missing the stimulation of kindy. I look forward to being able to create time and space at home for him to engage and learn the way he was at Montessori.


We are moving in the right direction, wheels locked like the Tonka truck...

Two little meat heads

I always worry about how I am going to get my boys to eat what I cook.


I choose my words carefully when describing what we are having - the idea being that it has too be truthful (so they don't reject it based on it being a lie) but also sound yummy.


So tonight when Mr 3 asked what was for dinner I could have said "sausages, rice and carrots" but "yummy meat heads with sticky rice" apparently is much more appealing.


It went down in a flash!

Last week of care

Today is Monday. The boys have 3 more days of care (including today - as they've just left).


I am off to bed post night duty. I am tired and achey but I just want to get to bed, so I can get sleep over and done with and go to pick them up.


Mr 3 always requests that I pick him up first. He likes to see where Mr 2 has been all day. It is lovely when I'm able to collect them in that order because it gives Mr 3 some time to re-attach and connect before picking up his brother - he then meets him with a warm embrace.


Generally they request a trip to one of the local parks after care, they need to shake it all off... and it does help me get into the 'swing' of things too - excuse the pun!


Here they are watching the ducks and turtles at one of our local parks;

Now off to Zzzz.....

Siblings

I am the same as any parent who gets tired of their own voice by the end of a day with the kids.


It can be tiring to be constantly trying to find the balance between intervening and not, what to say, how to say it kindly, trying to stay calm when the boys are squealing at each other.


A fantastic book that has lots of helpful tools to helping your kids get along is Faber and Mazlish's 'Siblings Without Rivalry', they say;

"The family is where we learn our relationship skills. The way we teach our children to relate, even in the heat of a battle can be a permanent gift to them."

Childcare Countdown

6 more days of care.

My little hobby

Some people collect stamps or coins for a hobby.


Not really sure if you can call collecting nappies a hobby?


But I do love modern cloth nappies, and I have a real soft spot for the ones created individually by WAHMs. They are incredible creations, embroidered or appliqued with beautiful pictures on soft minky.


They are as simple as snapping or stuffing, lining with something to make them easy to clean, washing, drying and re-snapping. I enjoy the whole process!

This is where my little 'pretty' collection has gotten too... we have regular ones too for daycare. Although they won't be used as much soon!

Rain watching

Protective brother: "don't go down the wet stairs"...

Thursdayitis

So tired after a day of work...


Thursday is typically the hardest day of the week for our family. It is the day that we both work and both kids are in care... it starts Wednesday night with us preparing for the following day and then it looks something like:

5.45 - My alarm
6.30 - I leave for work
7.00 - I start work/boys up
8.00 - Mr 2 dropped off
8.30 - Mr 3 dropped off (always emotional)
9.00 - Hubby starts works
3.30 - I finish
4.00 - Mr 2 picked up
4.30 - Mr 3 picked up
5.00 - We get home, all tired and emotionally drained from the day
5.45 - Hubby gets home
6.00 - Struggling through dinner
6.30 - Struggling through bathtime
7.00 - Struggling through storytime
7.30 - Boys out (hopefully)
8.00 - Tired and headachy - start prep to repeat it all tomorrow...


Only 22 more days...

Popcorn Party

I've been dreaming all day about all the wonderful things we will be able to achieve once I am a SAHM (stay at home mum).


Big plans for the backyard.


Big plans for our play room/learning space.


And more popcorn parties on the front verandah...

Head sit

This may look troubling to some, certainly I'd not like to have my head sat on.


But instead of jumping in and ordering Mr 2 off Mr 3's head pronto! I try to live by a 'less intervention' approach. As Alfie Kohn says,

"Children learn to make good decisions by making decisions, not by following directions."

And as it turns out, Mr 3 quite enjoyed having his head sat on, and then kindly said 'I've had enough', and Mr 2 hopped off.

All in a days play.

It's not all tea and dandelions

I have always been secretly jealous of those mums who are at home with their kids fulltime.


I always thought they must be the most relaxed women in the world, sitting in their clean houses with their daily schedules on the fridge enjoying a cup of tea while their kids play happily.


Maybe that is a little wishful...

Flowers picked by my boys while I sat down for a cup of tea ;)

Where to start?

Have to start somewhere.

Been procrastinating about starting a blog.   Now is such a dynamic time in my life and I want to make a little record of it.

So here is a little blog about my journey from working mum to home-mum.  I love the many hats I wear… wife, nurse & midwife but my all-time favourite hat is my ‘mum’ hat.  And so I’m quitting my proverbial day job and working out what it means to be homemaker, housekeeper, domestic goddess, child guide…  Ho-hum Home-mum.

27 sleeps xx