Overload / by Christina Rosalie

The inlaws, they left. Thank god. I love them. I do. I love their unswerving support and enthusiasm for everything we do. But sometimes I get overwhelmed. This visit was one of those times. Did I ever mention we have a 2 bedroom apartment? It has five rooms total, not including the bathroom or pantry. Yeah, that small. And five people in a five room shelter is just too much co2, I think. When they left, Bean fell apart. I mean, started wailing with exhaustion. His nap schedule was WAY OFF. All the way off. Like, he didn't get any naps today (except for maybe a 20 minute stint once or twice), and yesterday his nap times were short and scattered as well. A Bean with no naps is a very sad, very distraught little bean. He breaks my heart when he's like that--sort of pathetic and inconsolable and huge-eyed.

After crying a lot I finally managed to rock him to sleep. And he slept and then nursed and then slept and then nursed and finally woke up, with a little wan smile on his face. DH put him in the Bjorn, as he does every morning when they do guy things--like make espresso and take out the trash--and we went for a walk downtown. By the time we got back Bean seemed more like his usual happy self. And when we put him down on a blanket on the floor with his rattle he was THRILLED to play there all by himself. Without anyone singing songs at him, or banging his toys, or cooing at him, or telling him to look or roll over, or picking him up.

And after about a half hour of delighted squirming--during which he had an extended babble conversation with our cat and we cleaned all of the crap that had gotten spread about our apartment (books everywhere, and magazines, and clothes, and newspapers, and dishes. Holy cow people, how on earth did it get to be like this??) he took a major poop. YAY. We love poop. This is poop number 2. In two days. A record of sorts, seeing as he's been on this whole anti-pooping stint of late.

And tonight, after we had him all cleaned up, he looked so sweet and fragile in his new stripped pjs... and after nursing and rocking he ZONKED OUT, his little arms thrown up above his head like a conductor.