What tech cant you live without?

Monday night's sleep graph - my kid is lucky he's so cute...

Another Post a Day 2011 topic asks “what tech can’t you live without?”

My most recent favourite piece of technology is an iPhone application gifted to me by a friend. It’s the Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock, an alarm clock that analyzes your sleep patterns and wakes you when you’re in the lightest sleep phase. It’s super smart, using the accelerometer in your iPhone to detect movement and determine which sleep phase you’re in. Most useful to me though isn’t the alarm function but the graph it keeps showing your sleep patterns. It either lets me know I’ve had more sleep than I thought I had – i.e. quit being such a whiny pain in the ass – or confirms that I have in fact had a terrible night. Either way when I check the graph in the morning I sound like I have Tourettes!

My only gripe with it is that it keeps a tally of how many hours sleep you got that night and an average – only it counts from when you turned it on to when you turned it off instead of calculating how much of that time you were actually asleep. Nothing like seeing “8 hours sleep” when you were up 4 times during those 8 hours for a half hour each time. Grrr!

Sleep deprivation is torture

It’s been 5 months since I last slept for more than 4 hours in a row. And those 4 hours were a gift, usually DestructaBoy wakes every 2 to 3 hours.

It wasn’t unexpected. The Diva didn’t sleep for longer than 40 minutes for a very long time (so this could be seen as an improvement). But it doesn’t really make it easier.

When I am sleep deprived the first thing to go is my sense of humour. I have a very short fuse and I don’t lose my temper, I don’t argue, so I end up simmering… radiating displeasure. My family mostly knows better than to mention it. Anyone who tells me how their child slept through at 6 weeks, 8 weeks, whatever, is asking for their own special voodoo doll (and I have many, many wakeful hours to poke pins in it).

Next to go are any decision-making capabilities which is a b*tch when you’re a project manager, I’ll tell you that much for free. Drupal or Joomla? PMBOK or Agile? Left or right? Beach or park? Apples or oranges? The smallest decision will be greeted with a blank look. I don’t have the mental capacity to choose between anything no matter how inconsequential. I imagine this can be quite frustrating for everyone around me. Not to mention that I walk around looking like a complete tool for a major part of the day.

I’m trapped in a sleep-food cycle. Only able to concentrate on these two most basic needs. Until I get a good night’s sleep I cant even begin to focus on anything else. I am plodding through each day just putting one foot in front of the other and clinging to the knowledge that one day he will sleep. One day I will sleep. It can’t go on like this forever, right?

Is he a good baby?

Why is it that when people meet a mom with a baby they usually ask two questions…

Is he a good baby?

Does he sleep through the night?

First off, is there any such thing as a bad baby? They’re all good babies, right? I’m never quite sure what they mean by this but I figure they’re just trying to make conversation so I smile and say that yes, he’s a wonderful baby. And then, is it related at all to the second question (that always follows). Is he only a good baby if he sleeps through the night?

When I say “yes, he’s wonderful” and then follow it with “no, he doesn’t sleep through the night” there’s sometimes this confused look as though the two are mutually exclusive.

Anyhoo… just something I find a bit odd.

I hate the sleeping through question! Sometimes I’m absolutely fine about him not sleeping through and other days I’m not. On the “not” days I’d happily put my head through the nearest plate glass window the minute someone asks me about it, or worse, tells me about their baby who slept through from 6 weeks.

Do you get any odd baby/parenting questions?