My twins are teething. The only thing worse than one miserable, cranky baby is two.
I don’t know if it’s the teeth or a phase or what, but nap time has changed. For a solid month there, I could plan on the boys going down 3 hours after they woke up, usually around 10 am, for 2 hours. That meant from 10 am – 12 pm, I had writing time. I also could plan on them taking another 45 minute to an hour long nap at 3 pm or so. Those three hours of sleeping babies were my sanctuary. I would write for an hour, then clean, fold laundry, and in all other ways try to make my house presentable.
Those three hours have disappeared. Vanished. Poof. Now I have two babies that refuse to go to sleep, that are crying to be held, and that basically are overtaking every second of my time. It’s been a challenge to find time to eat let alone write the past few days. To top it all off, I have a pounding headache that is going on a week now thanks to my teeny sinuses and this awesome Utah allergy season.
I have managed to still get my writing done each day, but the quality of it isn’t like I want it to be. Now, for example, the babies are finally down for a nap. I’ve already got my 2k done for the day and I really should be doing some research for my women’s fiction novel that’s coming up next. But I can’t think. I can’t focus. I can’t write and I definitely can’t research. All I want to do is veg. What I really want to do is sleep, but I have this overwhelming fear that the second I lie down for a nap they will wake up. And so here I am.
I keep reminding myself there is a time and a season, and it’s okay to have days like this. I have tried to cuddle and hold and comfort the boys and not worry about everything else that I should be getting done. Spending time with them is what’s important.
But it’s really hard for a type-A person like myself to be okay with going yet another day without finding time to pull out the vacuum.
H cut his first tooth a few days ago without any fuss at all. Tooth #2 is causing him discomfort though, and J has been absolutely miserable cutting tooth #1. His gums are swollen and he gnaws on everything (except what I want him to gnaw on, like his teether or a wet rag). I hope they get feeling better soon for all of our sake’s. Two screaming babies and one mommy can drive a person insane.
I hope it’s just a phase, and once they are feeling better they go back to their regularly scheduled naps. I realize they won’t sleep 3 hours a day for forever, but at this point in time, nap time is really more for mommy.
