My colleague, who has a baby the same age as Henry (in fact, we delivered in the same hospital and are still wondering how we didn't run into each other in the hallway), thought this search result was hilarious, and I do, too. After all, a good night sleep is all I've been dreaming of this entire past year.
I've been reading Gluten-Free Girl every free minute I get this week. The chapter I'm working on now for my food memoir book is about food blogging, so instead of reading memoirs in hardback, I'm trolling through blog posts, reading about and looking at delicious food.
Revisiting these posts, I realized just the other day, couldn't have come at a better time in my life. It's funny how certain books find you at certain moments of your life. The Novel. The Bell Jar. Animal Husbandry. These books found me when I needed them. Shauna, the site's author, has a definite passion for life, having nearly lost hers in a car accident and living, painfully, with celiac for a long time. She truly experiences an epiphany upon hearing her diagnosis and promises to live life fully and to truly appreciate it all. Her site is not just yummy; it's uplifting.
I'd like to think that I've been one to carry Shauna's zest for life. It doesn't take much to make me happy. Things like sunshine, cold milk in a mug, purple hydrangeas. But, this past year, I lost some of that. But, I'm getting it back.
And, I know that part of getting it back rests with getting, well, rest. Baby Beeton, as anyone who knows me knows, has not been a great sleeper. He's restless. He's not too hard to get to sleep, but he has had a devil of a time staying asleep. And, since we sit with him before naps and at night until he dozes off, that means a lot of work for us (I know, I know, don't lecture me... drowsy but awake... next one, I promise). It's been a tough year. As someone who was used to getting about ten hours of sleep a night (and not waking up before 8:30 pm), it's even tougher.
But, the past few weeks have been infinitesimally better. Naps are regulating themselves and night sleep has followed. Baby Beeton still wakes up quite a bit, but he'll sleep now from 8:30 pm until 6:30 am or 7 am with relatively little work for us to do during that time. It's made a big difference in the way I see the world, and it's made me realize that nothing lasts forever... even though sometimes it seems like it might. Knowing that one day he'll sleep soundly and consistently has helped me to make peace with the fact that that time isn't quite yet now. But it will be. One day.
So, today, while he napped, I took a break from reading. I took a bath. I had a cold coffee. I watched some bad reality television. I remembered all the little reasons why life is good. Good night sleeps, I'm sure, aren't far away.
Keep sweeping, Martha
