Late night = 9:30 PM.

I remember a time when my nights would be just getting started around this time.  However, 9:30 PM is now late night for me,  given that H. and I retreated to bed by 8:00 PM last night.  H. has had a tough time with sleep since getting over an ear infection about a week ago.  Sleep has not come easily for H, ever, really.  Actually, I should re-phrase.  He slept pretty well as a newborn.  And he did OK in the months that followed, waking only once or twice a night.  By six months, something changed completely.  H started waking up frequently (we’re talking every 30-60 minutes all night), and he would be inconsolable each time he’d wake.  In the nearly 16 months that H has been with us, we’ve gotten fewer than 10 uninterrupted nights of sleep.  I blame teething in large part.  But really, who knows.  Anyone who has a baby who routinely sleeps through the night thinks that they can impart some wisdom that the sleepless parents have somehow stumbled over in the darkness—an implication that I resent.  My only way to deal with this has been to try to take a positive attitude (e.g. it won’t last forever), and to try to experiment—to try different ways of sleeping, different rituals before bed.  Some things work for a time before their magic fades.  And then we’re back to “nighttime Holden,” who is a completely different child from daytime Holden.  He seems like he’s in agony, but only at night.  It’s frustrating and exhausting, and with weeks like this one where I had to be in the lab every day including Saturday and Sunday, I feel like it’s hard to get a reprieve.

All of this said, I look at the amount of stuff I’m handling at work, and I’m excited and impressed all at the same time!  I have several experiments going on at any one time, some of which are looking promising.  I’m preparing a class to teach in the spring (i’ve picked a textbook, and i’m in the process of picking supplementary articles).  I’m writing a grant which is due at the beginning of December, which is actually my single biggest stressor right now since my pay will be contingent on having it awarded.

On top of this, we are also juggling little house projects.  We installed a new microwave this weekend; within an hour of completing this project (which took way longer than it should have, due to a certain someone who insisted on climbing up the step ladder while I was using it), the garage door decided to completely crap out.  It’s not an automatic garage door, which in my mind is a plus, because now it means we can call for someone to come out and repair it, AND install the hardware to convert it to an automatic garage door.  Score.  And—-the best part of this past week—-we got the pilot light lit on our propane stove.  Our family room is now nice and toasty.  Love it.

So, things are coming along.  Perhaps slower than we would expect—and perhaps we must enjoy them in a sleep-deprived haze.  But that’s OK.  I insist upon enjoying my life.