Today I set the alarm for 5 am so I could be at the pool for 6am masters. I used to set the alarm for 5:25, but that was before I had to allow time to pump. I don’t know why but those 25 minutes are kind of a big deal. Then again, its kind of all the same thing when its still dark out. Today I got up and didn’t even consider pressing snooze because when you are getting up that early, you don’t set the alarm an extra 15 minutes early to allow for 2-3 good snoozes. The snooze button is awesome but nothing is that awesome at 4:45am.
Just as I was thanking the universe for the gift of Sweet Pea having slept the whole night through and admiring the result (major cleavage!) in the bathroom mirror, she woke up. This was so not the plan! I was supposed to be putting my oatmeal in the microwave and sitting down on the couch to eat and pump, not take care of a baby. I ended up pumping on one side and feeding her on the other side simultaneously. I thought for sure I would be done by 5:20 but at 5:30 I was still sitting on the couch with Sweet Pea attached to my left boob and the plastic thingie on my right boob. Sweet Pea was showing no sign of being close to finished with her breakfast. I was still in my pj’s and had not had my oatmeal. I needed to leave no later than 5:45. Lovely.
I handed her to Dan and gave him the bottle that I had just pumped (about 4 oz!) and moved fast to get out the door on time. Masters was hard, but the hour goes by fast when you are being told what to do, set by set. Coach Dave also gave me some pointers to work on. He said my head needs to be lower and my pull needs to be more effective.
In other news, since I unearthed and assembled the bouncy seat for Sweet Pea, life around here has gotten easier. For $30 it’s the cheapest babysitter on earth. Watching her sit in that seat, I would think she had dropped acid if I didn’t know any better. In her bouncy seat, she sits and coos (sometimes happily, sometimes angrily) at a monkey and a koala, both made of plastic, that hang about 6 inches from her face. With her gaze fixed on the animals, she is instantly mesmerized.
When I worked at a community mental health facility, there was guy who used to stand in the corner and basically mutter to himself non-stop and intermittently nod and shake his head. Once in a while when I would walk by, he would look up, give a small smile, and inject the phrase “Miss America, hi how ya doin'” into his incoherent stream of word salad, but otherwise he was in his own little world. I am reminded of him when I see Sweet Pea engaging with her bouncy seat animals, except she doesn’t even acknowledge me when she’s in the zone.
Bouncy seat notwithstanding, by Friday night I was a zombie. Getting up at 5am will do that to you. I am lucky that Sweet Pea typically wakes up only once per night, and on Friday that one wake up happened to be at 5am, but still. By 10pm or so, it felt like we had tried everything we knew but Sweet Pea had no intention of giving us a rest. Finally Dan gave her a bottle of about 3oz of breastmilk and she went right to sleep. We’ve never given her a bottle when I was available to nurse, and I never thought I would do that, under any circumstance, especially without pumping to make up for the missed feeding, but as I’ve learned, it’s wise never to say never.