Springtime and Sleepless Nights

Well, it's been a lovely but challenging week or so since my last post.

Did somebody say challenge?

If you live in Michigan, I'm sure you couldn't help but notice the drop-dead-gorgeous weather.  Suddenly, out of the depths of March came a string of amazing days of sunshine, record high temperatures, and pure bliss. Finn and I went for walks seven days in a row.  Finn experimented, for the first-but not last-time, with eating rocks, grass, and sticks, much to Mama's chagrin.  He had his first picnic (a great success ending in baby food EVERYWHERE) and his first experience with a swing set. It's gone back to more normal sort of spring, but I certainly needed those sunny days, because nights at the Twomey house had taken a bit of a turn for the worse.

Finn suffered from the combination of his first cold and something known as "nighttime separation anxiety."  Not only was Mama suddenly a handkerchief, she was also the only thing keeping him from screaming his lungs out with angst in the middle of the night.  He would wake up in the small hours of the morning very, very upset.  Changing his diaper, nursing him, and rocking him to sleep were all well and good until Mama tried to put him down.  At which point, he acted like his crib was a bed of fiery nails.  Finn only wanted to be rocked in the rocking chair and held by his Mama (or on a few occasions when Mama couldn't take anymore, his Daddy).  Even coming into Mama's bed did no good.  When Finn was left to his own devices of self-soothing for even a few minutes, he worked himself up into such a fit that he made himself sick.  Needless to say, I was a bit worried at the state of events, though a bit less so when I found out that this is apparently normal at his age.

trouble baby

Though I can't say that we are quite over this distressing stage, I can say I've already learned something from it. Children don't come with Instruction Manuals for good reason.  For one, if we knew right away all the crazy things that could go wrong, we might drive ourselves crazy with dreaded anticipation.  There's no reason we should have to fear every challenge we are going to face beforehand, especially when they are not necessarily universal.  When do face each challenge, we have a much better resource than a book- other parents.  Talking with family and friends helps share the load of baby's troubles and our worries- a natural support group.  While I myself have often resorted to the internet, it's really nowhere near as relieving and reassuring as talking to other people I know who have gone through a similar situation.  Parenting can be the most challenging job most of us will ever have, but just because there isn't a tell-all employee handbook doesn't mean that God gives us the responsibility without the resources to handle it.  I am blessed to have so many friends and family members willing to help or at least listen to my woes.
At 3 a.m, however, when all those friends and relatives have gone to sleep and I am at the end of my rope without sleep, I am still not without resources.  As a priest reminded me lately, I have only to dwell constantly in the presence of Christ and His Blessed Mother through prayer.  They will not leave us alone with our burdens, parental or otherwise.  This is hard for me to remember lying in bed listening for those sad sounds, but when I do, I know that somehow we can make it through this and on to the next challenge of growing up.

Into EVERYTHING

now with real crawling action!

p.s. Also on the lovely but challenging front, Finn is a crawling, moving, climbing whirlwind these days.  He gets into everything, from pressing all the buttons on the humidifier to finding every cord and electronic device in or out of sight.  He suddenly has a burning desire to open all of the trunks and to sing in French (or maybe the Singing in French book is just the easiest to grab, we will never know until he can speak). Every single elevated surface is a climbing block to help him stand up or get to something. All this discovery is awesome, if sometimes terrifying, to watch.  Never has he been so easily entertained as when he is exploring ( or chasing a wooden ball around our wooden kitchen floor), but never has he been so hard to leave to himself because he is constantly falling over, bumping his head, and generally seeking out death-defying acts.

Today is: The Feast of St. John of Capistrano
Finn is: 8 months and 2 weeks old
Mama is Reading: Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson.