Monday, May 24, 2010

Hot and Bothered

In Maine, 89 degrees in May is abnormal. Had Mike and I had foresight, we would have put the AC's in on Saturday after the yard sale even if we did want to, but neither of us looked at the forecast. That left us scrambling tonight to try to do something about our house that was 86 degrees in doors.

I had known all day that I wanted Mike to put the AC in tonight. I rearranged the living room furniture so that the couch wouldn't block the AC we got from my parents. This is the same model as my parents have that cools their whole house, so I figured we would get about the same results. With the help of a fan and the two ceiling fans, the one AC in the living room should have cooled the living room and both bed rooms to a comfortable temperature. This would mean Mike installing one unit tonight that would allow everyone to sleep comfortably for tonight and tomorrow while also allowing Natalie and I to be comfortable in the living room all day tomorrow.

I forgot that Mike is cursed when it comes to this type of thing. Even the simplest home repair always goes wrong for him. Its not that he is incompetent. Its bad luck. A perfect example would be the break pad incident from a couple weeks ago. Also, I over estimated how easy putting an new AC in a new window is. I thought he could put in the living room one and also Natalie's in the two hours between when he got home and Natalie's bed time. Well, I was wrong and I feel like I should have listened to Mike and had him just put the AC in Natalie's room in. That would have taken maybe 20 minutes and she wouldn't be sleeping in an 86 degree room right now. He also would have gotten to spend more than 15 minutes with her today. But, at the same time, that would have still left Mike and I sleeping in a hot room tonight and Natalie and I would have been uncomfortable all day tomorrow. I'm not sure which is worse: Natalie being hot all day or all night.

So that Mike could keep working on the AC that wasn't going to fit in the window with the materials we currently had, I had to do bed time alone. Everything was perfect until I took Glow Worm to turn her back to light only. When I came back in, Natalie woke all the way up and saw me. That got her crying off and on for a little while after that. I was so worried she wasn't going to go back to sleep because she was too hot, but she's sleeping soundly now. I'm just worried that its too hot in her room. Mike gave up on the new AC and put our old AC in the living room (its a smaller model and not designed to cool more than one room). Its dropped the house temp 3 degrees in an hour even with Mike taking a shower, but I don't think her room at the other end of the house had been affected very much. I tired to ask on Y!A today about in door tempertures and babies, but no one answered. When I Googled it just now, it said 68 was ideal, but that is what we kept her room at in January with long sleeve pjs and a sleep sack. She was okay sleeping in 81 degrees at nap time, but I'm worried that nap was two hours long because she was too hot. Ahhh, I'm just so worried now. [A new Y!A question has yielded four people saying that she should be okay, just uncomfortable and that the ceiling fan is important].

The whole things just left me feeling awful. I wasted Mike's time and got him all angry and frustrated and I also made a choice that has Natalie sleeping in poor conditions. After a long hot afternoon and evening, its just left me drained. It was only a few hours in the house when it was uncomfortably warm, from when she got up from her nap around 3 to bed time at 7, but it was too much. Natalie only had on a diaper and light weight shorts (to keep her from removing her diaper), but she was hot. I offered her a cup of water many times, but she didn't drink much, mostly got it all over her front. Both she and I were sweaty and getting carpet fuzz, cat hair, and dust stuck all over us from sitting on the floor. She also had these two huge hard boogers up her nose all day that bothered her some; thank god, they finally came out at bath time. She wasn't as clingy today as yesterday, but when she was it was just hard to deal with because it was hot. She doesn't necessarily want to be held. Its that she wants to crawl on to my lap or use my legs to stand up. She can't really do either so she is just frustrated. I put her on her butt, she's unhappy; I leave her on her tummy, she's unhappy; I put her on my lap, she's unhappy; I stand her up even, and she doesn't really seem to want to walk. So frustrating for both of us on a normal day, but add the sticky heat and its just instant irritation.

I also feel bad for being irritated with Mike when he got home. I asked a lot of him, but didn't realize it at the time. I tired to do as much as I could to help him out, but I just couldn't do anything to help with the AC and he has the grill jimmy rigged so I couldn't cook dinner. To add to everything else, I've had some nausea the last two days, but its five more days before I can check to see if its anything. That is putting a little extra stress on me wondering if it is anything or not. And, of course, when you are thinking about that sort of thing, suddenly everything might be a sign or a symptom, or you start to wonder if you wondering is causing the symptoms.

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