(Why am I naming days?)
9/18/14, Day 14,016 (Mercena Day 34): Anniversary at The Witching Hour
For our third anniversary, Heather and I knew there was only one place we wanted to go: The Witching Hour.
This trendy FoHi restaurant comes to you, cooking whatever you have frozen in your fridge that requires the least amount of effort. Then, in truly theatrical dining style, the server pitches a rolling fussy meltdown that ensures the food is not only lukewarm, in spite of multiple reheating attempts, but that you never have the chance to sit down and eat it together. The attention to detail is stunning: just as you gaze into the eyes of your beloved and murmur an exhausted “Happy Anniversary,” the server wakes from her brief, illusory slumber to wail at a pitch both excruciating and somehow cat-like. What better way to celebrate three years of love together than eating a big steaming plate of the consequences of that love?
Yeah, so actually The Witching Hour is the name given the time from 5pm to 11pm when babies of a certain age have extended periods of fit-pitching, and our baby was pitching some real heat last night. But, it all worked out well, as she then had her best night of sleep ever. So did Heather, as I took my first shift at night with the bottle, which allowed her over five hours of mostly uninterrupted sleep in the early morning…which was probably the best anniversary gift I could’ve given her.
We also had a great visit from Sean Williams, and we traded many baby stories. While I have trouble with prescriptive advice, I love hearing about other parents’ experiences. I’ve learned so much just by tracking the narrative of each baby’s journey, and it’s one of the reasons why I’m doing so much baby blogging here, in the hopes it might be of use or comfort to someone else going through it.
One of the biggest challenges we’ve had is accepting that she needs to be put down for naps earlier than we think. Part of it is we want to play with her while she’s awake, and part of it is that she isn’t very good at falling asleep without the aid of being totally milk-drunk or exhausted. But, when we follow the Two Yawn Rule–by the second yawn, she’s on her way to the bassinet–she’s much less fussy, both during that time period and cumulatively throughout the day.
What’s crazy is how hard is for her to fall asleep for those naps: the pacifier helps, singing to her helps, but even with all of that, she still manages to nearly fall asleep and then pop back awake for sometimes as long as an hour before she finally nods off. We’ve been experimenting with bringing back the swaddle with success for very fussy periods, and maybe we’ll want to use it more broadly, though she’s been very resistant to it in the past.
Technique never stands still: it only advances or retreats…
Writing: 146 out of 184 days (Untitled New Play)
Spanish: 131 out of 184 days
Music: 51 out of 90 days
What small things did I do yesterday to help build the Honeycomb?
(And what does it mean to “Help build the honeycomb?”)
- Ate and cooked local, organic, vegetarian food, and used cloth diapers for Mercena;
- Signed the petition for a 100% clean energy future as part of the People’s Climate March;
- Asked Cablevision to rehire Jerome Thompson.
Corinna Schulenburg 