Well, the purely "falling asleep" part of it appears to have gone well - when placed into their cribs, the boys may complain for a few minutes, but mostly they fall asleep. With or without a pacifier, right away on after talking to themselves - they mostly make no fuss. Does this translate into better nights for parents? Not necessarily. Zev still wakes up at 3-4am and demands boob. Or at least some food. If not - he makes it to 5:30, wakes up, and then stays in his bed, awake, not necessarily crying - but talking loud enough to wake up his brother. At which point the whole sleeping thing is over for whoever is on duty.
Speaking of food. Recently the boys were offered a few samples of "solid" food - as much as pulverized fruit can be called solid. Whatever. Interestingly, Ben loved it, while Zev was lukewarm to it - this one knows exactly what he wants. A good thing, too, since, as I was told, Ben would scream in rage any time a bit of this new delicious thing was wasted on his brother who did not appreciate it...
In recent weeks my time with the boys have been limited - what with the full time job and teaching preparation on weekends. Alla takes the brunt of the care, while my duty is the 11pm feeding. During the weekends I also help out at night and then prepare for my lecture, more or less bleary-eyed and coffee-soaked. As you can imagine, it does tremendous favors to my analytical abilities and disposition. I have been "lucky" - recently I got to draw some of the more interesting nights. The time change, for example, has taken the boys well over a week to adjust to. During that time we were treated to several pre-6am wake up yells. Last weekend, between the shortened sleep, the lecture prep, and coffee withdrawal, I got as far as to pack a bag for a weekend somewhere else. Anywhere else. Only the realization that there was no one else to cover the night with Alla kept me at home. Barely.
Just last night I had the distinct pleasure of having Zev scream into my ear for twenty minutes non-stop. He was not in pain, poopy, sleepy, or hungry (I *was* trying to feed him). Just felt like it. He won, in a way - Alla woke up and comforted Zev in his favorite way, which allowed us to switch him to a bottle and finish feeding him. Only for Alla to wake up again in a few hours, and for me have another several minutes of pure blazing white fury. It took all of my self control not make a hole in a wall. Where is my punching bag now, when I need it most? How ironic. Tonight I fed Ben with Alla's mom. Alla herself was well asleep by the time I got home. Zev was in a good mood this time and ate in Rita's arms like a little angel. The screaming banshee of the night before was gone...but not for long - the role was taken up by Ben. As I was saying to myself "son of a bitch, two for two?!", Ben (who usually eats 5-6 ounces with minimum fuss) proceeded to scream any time a bottle went anywhere near him. If I held him up so he could look at the lights - Ben was OK. If I offered food - the sirens came on. Before Ben switched to a monotone yelling, he actually tried to communicate via various sounds in his crying. Rita thought he was complaining to dad. Sounded like telling off in 'baby' to me... After about ten minutes of this I said some words in Russian I am mot proud of and plunked Ben into bed. He took a pacifier and quieted down immediately. Alla, freshly woken up, then told me that he had some cereal earlier and was probably just not hungry...
What can I say - Alla could have left a note, I should have woken her up anyway to pump - the whole communication thing still eludes us most of the time. I honestly don't know how Alla does this. I get a small portion, and between the rage and the reduced IQ the next day I hardly function - or do so through abundant coffee only to withdraw over the weekend with nausea, migraine, and extra-charming personality. Alla, on the other hand, covers almost all night wake-ups, and then goes to work. In the evenings, amazingly, she has enough in her to have kind words for her husband.
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