Finally Friday

I’ve been tired and cranky and off kilter today.

Sophie, who has been sleeping through the night except during her bouts of teething, has been waking regularly between 2:30 and 3:30 for the past week. It could be the stomach upset and the raw bottom, it could be the four upper teeth which have all erupted in the last week. In any case, because of the raw bottom, I haven’t been letting her cry very long before I go in to check her diaper.

Last night just as I was going to go take my shower and settle myself for bed, Sophie woke up screaming. So I had to postpone my bedtime for almost an hour while I resettled her. Had she awoken after I’d showered, I could have dozed while nursing her, but not before. Ugh. And then she woke again at about 3:30.

So this morning was one of those mornings. The sun came up far too early. Both girls were cranky from their two night time wakings. Bella spilled her orange juice. Then I splashed my orange juice all over the kitchen when I attempted to shake the jug before ascertaining that the top was fully closed. And so on and so forth. I snapped, I whined, I complained. Bella put her hands over her ears and cried. I counted down the hours of the morning until nap time.

I forgot my grocery list when we went shopping and had to improvise. Not so easy with a tired brain. And my sister came along, which should have made things easier. Except that every time either one of us was out of line of sight of the other Bella had a meltdown. So we couldn’t exactly divide and conquer. It actually took much longer than usual because my sister has very strict dietary requirements (such as she can’t eat yeast or tomatoes, which seem to be in everything) so she had to stop and peruse many labels.

But finally nap time came. First Sophie went down. Then Bella. Then Sophie woke up. I had a snack and then fled to my bed where I closed my eyes and dozed along with my drowsy nursling. Twenty minutes of bliss. Then I lay there watching her sleep, a little smile playing on her lips as she dreamed.

Dinner was a near disaster. I chose to make one of my favorite simple dinners: tilapia with Veracruz sauce. The sauce is simplicity itself and the fish is just broiled with a little oil, salt and pepper. But when I opened the oven to pull out my perfectly done fish—perhaps it was the fact that it’s a new oven only used two times and there is no build up to slow the slide of the pan on the rack, but in any case the pan slid out too fast and dumped my fish onto the oven door. One fillet landed on the floor, one landed on the oven door, one fell down between the door and the side of the oven and wedged there while the fourth fillet disintegrated and flew everywhere. The fish tasted great, if it was a little cold by the time we’d cleaned up enough to sit down for dinner.

I am so glad today is over. Tomorrow will be a much saner day, I hope. At least Dom will be here to help out.