Sahara
The building our apartment is in is about 70 years old. As such, we have such luxurious amenities as indoor plumbing and walls that generally stay standing.
It’s actually a pretty solid building, and over the past few years, it’s gotten a new roof, tuck-pointing, and new windows. The one thing it doesn’t have is central air/heat. We have window air conditioners (which are fine) and radiators for heat (which are toasty).
While radiators make our lives livable (don’t even get me started on our place before here, which was freezing all winter long), the way that the heat is set up in the building, it kicks on and off at scheduled points during the day and night. So at certain times, the place is really, really warm. Other times it’s on the not-so-warm side. (It’s never cold, per se. Just not warm.)
During the day, this isn’t so terrible. But at around 9 at night and then again at around 4 in the morning, when the heat comes on, you can really feel it. Kristen and I can adjust (moving a leg out from under the covers), but Henry (who is in his sleep sack) can’t do as well.
So, he gets warm. Combined with the dryness (also from the radiator, as I mentioned earlier), Henry gets a little dehydrated and thirsty. In the past couple of weeks, he’s woken up in the middle of the night a couple of times, and after being unsure why he was awake and unhappy, I offered him some water.
Each time, he’d gulp down half a sippy-cupful of water and happily go back to bed. After this, we learned better and we now put a sippy cup in the crib with him at bed at night, and things seem much better.
That is, until last night when, at 3 in the morning, he woke up very unhappy. I went to his room to find it a little warm and his water cup’s top somehow closed. (It’s this contraption where you can open and close the top so that you can make sure there isn’t too much leaking.) I flipped the top open, Henry grabbed for it, and drank it down. After a minute or so, he started to lunge back toward the crib, so I placed him in there.
Henry grabbed for his bunny, rolled over, and put his butt in the air (signaling it’s time to go back to sleep). I reached down to get the sippy cup he was still holding, but when I started to pull it away, he held on even tighter and snuggled up with it. How… cute?
This weekend, we’re getting him a humidifier.
November 6th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Aww, poor boy! I suggest a humidifer with a washable filter. I have one that is not washable and it stresses me out because I don’t know when it’s adequately clean and when it’s belching bacteria into the air so I end up replacing them all of the time. Tres cher, mes amis.