Saturday, April 10, 2010

Little Miss

The little one and I have been having our issues with sleep lately. She's getting her i-teeth, all 4 at once, and some nights she's awake more than she's asleep, more "on" the breast than not if she has her way... Last weekend I decided at 1 AM that I couldn't take it anymore and she wasn't going to be nursing all night long anymore. So I explained my new idea to her, she seemed to understand and back down we lay. Uh huh. She played and fussed and crawled all over me and patted my cheeks and gave me a face anatomy lesson ("eye", "nose", "mouth", etc.) until 6. Not what I had in mind... She doesn't want water at night, like my other 2 did, and so what to do? Something had to change.
That constant struggle, along with mr. P having recently decided that he doesn't need daddy sleeping in his room (something about the snoring keeping him awake and too many bad smells!?!?!) anymore gave us an idea...
How about move the single bed daddy's been sleeping on into mummy's room, make Heidi her OWN BED, and move daddy back into mummy's bed (hallelujah! i think? um, the bad smells???)??
And so the frenzy began, Heidi being kept occupied elsewhere (in order to keep the secret) whilst mummy prepared the surprise...
Heidi was duly impressed. It helped that her brother and sister were cheering their heads off...
Keen to climb right in and have her nap -- excellent progress! She slept soundly and we had SUCH HIGH HOPES for night time!
And so of course we CELEBRATED big time.
Chocolate cake (recipe below -- best ever, truly!) ice-cream, raspberries, candles, songs (happy new bed to you for little miss and happy growing up to you for mr. P) and off to bed for a very sound, healing, deep sleep for allllllll. right? well.....


Alas... it was not a success. She didn't want to be in her own bed. That was fine. But she didn't want to be in my bed either. Not so fine. I spent most of the night sleeping on the crack between our mattresses with her on top of me, her little arms wrapped tightly around my neck! Sweet, I know! but seriously not so sweet around 4 AM with very little sleep in the last weeks... To be fair, she did sleep soundly a few hours until daddy came home from hockey and started snoring so loudly she sat bolt upright in bed and said "mammee? wazat?" And that was it. She was awake more than she was asleep the rest of the night.
So, now what? Patience, I suppose. Patience, albeit, is in much higher supply with a good nights' rest under one's belt!! Perhaps I'll check myself into the lodge at Predator and leave the night's worries to daddy... ? or ???
and yes, the recipe:
Deep, dark, moist, luscious non-dairy Chocolate Cake
1+3/4 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
1+1/2 tsp baking soda
1+1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Mix together
Add
2 eggs
1 cup milk (I use almond milk)
1/2 cup veg oil (I use grapeseed or olive oil)
2 tsp vanilla
Beat with mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes.
Stir (with spoon) in 1 cup of boiling water (don't forget this step -- it's still good without but not nearly as good! oh! and don't turn on the wrong burner when you have your food processor on the stovetop and melt that, will you? it doesn't smell nice and makes you awful mad!)
Pour into 2 greased 9" pans or one 13 x 9" pan. Bake at 350'F for 30 to 35 minutes for layers, 35 to 40 minutes for slab, or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.
Cool 10 minutes and then remove from pans.
Non-Dairy Creamy Frosting:
6 Tbsp softened coconut oil or Earth balance spread
2+2/3 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1/3 cup almond milk
1 tsp vanilla

4 comments:

Dragonflydownunder said...

cocoa has caffine in it...maybe not such a good idea at night time??? sure sounds good tho...

Mary-Sue said...

hmmm, yes, M, i hadn't thought of the caffeine in choc... altho i think my kids would be immune to that as choc is not in short supply. but yes, thanks, i appreciate that reminder!!

Tabitha said...

So I read this in 2 sections - a brief look-through of the first paragraph this morning - after which I spent the whole day dreaming of somehow getting my little miss L in her own bed (dreaming, because it is just not my reality right now in life). Then coming back this evening and seeing how it all worked out (or rather didn't) for you, and my heart ached for you and my sleep-shortened brain scrambled waves of empathy to your sleep-deprived brain.

I'm sure I went through something similar with T and S, and now of course neither nurse at all, so somehow i made it through (though i think getting pregnant had a lot to do with my tolerance for night nursing decreasing sharply both previous times and that's just not going to be happening this time around...)

All that being said, since the eye teeth are all fully up around here, the quality of sleep we're both getting is MUCH better and though there's room for much more (it's the post 4 am sleep i miss the most!), I can see progress and therefore hope and wanted to share that. :)

Loving you so, so much. So glad to read the blog again!!! And the pics are gorgeous. Thank you for sharing yourself!!

xoxoxo

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