Just Nicky

Scritchy March 7, 2007

The weather changes, humidity increases and that’s my cue to itch. Tonight it’s my legs - for a change. I could scratch the skin off my shins and they would still itch.

I’ve slathered them in cream and taken an antihistamine. Both have helped. The itch has dulled to the point where I could go to sleep … But then there’s the scritchy noise in the bed room.

It’s like the kind of noise a small rodent might make. That impression isn’t helped by the fact that Finn said something to me today about looking for a mouse in the wardrobe. I assumed it was just a little fantasy or story based on something he saw on the telly or in a book. The dogs are ignoring it, though, so I think it’s unlikely there is actually a mouse in our bedroom.

Because of my hearing, I can’t actually tell where the noise is coming from. It always seems to be somewhere over my right shoulder. I think it might be in the ceiling, somewhere near the heater duct. I have images of the ceiling falling in on me, complete with rodents.

I have 2 plans to deal with the issue. Plan A is that I will sit up until I think I’m too tired to be bothered by it and then go to bed. If that doesn’t work Plan B is to wake Mark in Leila’s room and ask him to tell me if he can hear it and what he thinks it might be. I really don’t want to go to Plan B, since Mark needs to sleep, but on the other hand I need to go to sleep at some stage too.

An update: I went with Plan A until 5am and managed to get about 3 hours sleep. I could sleep while I lay on my good ear, but as soon as I rolled over I could hear the noise and it would wake me. I also had a weird dream about a rabbit in the ceiling using a stick to dig a hole through the plaster. When I’d finally had enough I went and woke Mark and we swapped beds, but I still couldn’t sleep so I disturbed him for nothing. I think I’ll be having a big nanna nap today.

Too Tired to Think March 6, 2007

The Mavis is coming over today to help me with housework and stuff in preparation for Leila’s arrival. She asked me to write a list of stuff I wanted done so that we could get right into it when she arrived.

For the life of me, though, I can’t seem to focus my mind on it. There were things I wanted to get done - like getting the carpet steam cleaned - that I’ve let go of because there just isn’t the time to organise them now and I can’t think of anything else. To my mind the house isn’t too bad, although it’s probably not to The Mavis’ standards, so it’s difficult for me to fix on anything and say THAT needs doing.

Feeling so tired isn’t helping because even thinking of things to do feels like too much of an effort. The only thing I feel like doing is finishing off the sewing I’ve started on and I’m not sure that will satisfy The Mavis. I’d be just as happy to have her here for company.

Chilly March 5, 2007

It’s a bit of a shock to the system to find that it’s a little chilly here today. The sun has only just come out and it’s very breezy. I like it. I wish there’d been more of these sorts of days in recent months.

All the windows are open and the house is full of air, by which I mean that no matter where you are you can feel a breeze. I like it when I can do that - even if it does mean that I’ve put on a long-sleeved top for the first time in ages.

The weather forecast for this week is predicting only one day above 30 degrees. I like that forecast. It’ll be so much easier to have a relaxed week if I can move around without sweating like a pig.

On being tired March 1, 2007

He said he wasn’t tired… by Nicky P

I don’t doubt that the men in many women’s lives really don’t work as hard around the house as their partners. Or that those men have no real conception of the grinding tiredness that goes with caring for a child and a house day in, day out. And I don’t doubt that those women feel perfectly justified in making generalisations such as “Men don’t know what being really tired is all about.”

They should avoid voicing those thoughts in Mark’s hearing, though.

Mark has done the work of caring for a baby and running a house. He’s faced the neverending series of chores which are no sooner completed than they need to be done again. He’s done the sleepless nights. The only thing he hasn’t done is the pregnancy. And I wouldn’t wish that upon him.

True, the kind of tiredness I feel while pregnant is different to the tiredness I feel at other times. It’s that sense that, no matter how willing the spirit, the flesh just isn’t going to come to the party. The closest thing I can imagine to it is the way I felt after the surgery on my head - the weakness and the inability to do just that one last thing that I wanted to do - but even that’s not quite the same.

For all that, though, I don’t know that it’s any of any greater value than any other kind of tired. I’m not sure that you can say that I’m really any worse off at 37 weeks pregnant after a day at home with Finn than Mark is after a long day at work, followed by looking after Finn and doing household chores in the evening.

The problem with generalisations is that there’s always an exception.

We’re Pumping

Pump 2 by black hills barry

We tried out our grey water pump yesterday and it worked a treat. It can be a little temperamental when the water level gets low - it seems that the float switch has to be in just the right position or it will turn itself off - but for just under $100 (compared to the $300+ they ask for them in Bunnings) that’s a small annoyance to live with.

The great things about having the pump are that I can move the water from one bin to another myself and don’t have to wait for Mark to come home and do it for me and, even if I do leave it for Mark to do he’s not spending half his evenings lugging buckets of water around. It takes 5-10 minutes to empty a big wheelie bin so it’s a nice quick job now.

With all our bins we are now able to hold just over 1000 litres of water, which is about 8 or 9 washing machine loads. Although it would be rare for me to do that much washing in a day, it is a possibility with Leila coming so it’s good to know that I can do that without having to allow a lot of the water go down the drain for lack of ability to store it.

We can also use the 10m hose we bought for the pump to hand water if we wish, although it won’t reach everything in the garden. At some point we’ll buy a second hose to hook up so that we can reach the big tree and some of the other more remote things, but for now we’re pretty impressed with what we can do.