On Leave

So, I'm on paternity leave for the entire month of February. And one of the responsibilities that comes with said leave is keeping the family blog up-to-date, of course. So here I am - guest starring for 1-month on what has become Vone's blog over the past year...

But truth be told, it's been more like a vacation week so far, not really full on paternity leave yet. Vone found out late last Friday that she won't be returning to work for another week ("administrative mess... desicion makers away or sick or busy with something... yadda yadda yadda... take a week off with pay and we'll call you next week...") At this point we're taking them for their word and planning for Vone to go back to work on Monday, and just trying to not get too concerned about anything else...

It's been great having a week together as a family. And while it would be nice to be somewhere sunny and warm, we've been having fun at home, even if we haven't been doing too much. We did go to the zoo early this week, and played outside in the snow. But Vone and I have also been taking advantage of the week to get a bunch of errands done. So I've been working on getting our new computer set-up and running, while she's been wrapping up a few last crafty-type projects. Tomorrow the car goes in for a brake job, and we're both heading to the doctor for check-up's. Wow, what an exciting week!

We also haven't been quite as energetic during the days as might have hoped, after a couple nights of crappy sleep thanks to our little 10-month old insomniac...

Isla has never been a great sleeper, waking up at least once a night and often more. But for the past week she's been even worse than normal. And it's progressed beyond the crying, fussy, middle of the night wake-up's that simply require ignoring, or perhaps a bit of a back-rub to get her to go back to sleep. Now we're into the fully-awake, wants-to-go-downstairs-to-play wake-up's. Monday morning Vone got up with her at 5:00am, because Isla had decided she was ready to begin the day. Last night, Isla and I sat in the basement playing with the Sesame Street peek-a-boo until nearly 2:00am. We've try feeding her before bed, we've tried something Vone calls the "dream feed", and we've even tried feeding her in the middle of the night. We've even tried ignoring her - Sunday night we drifted in and out of sleep as we listened to Isla cry for over 2-hours. We don't think it's teething - she's not upset any other times, and doesn't have any other symptoms - plus she's already got a full mouth of teeth.

We're running out of idea, and hoping this is just a phase that will pass like everything else. And I'm thinking I want to look into that "dream feed" a little more - sounds like something I might be into..