Hot and somewhat crabby

[pegkerr]

I tried to do a work out with weights when I got home, but my computer DVD drive kept sticking and getting off track, and I had to keep starting the damn thing over and over, and it was so hot and muggy (and it felt like the ozone level was high) that I gave up, panting and covered with sweat, after about a half hour. Geez, what a wuss.

The shower restored me somewhat, but perhaps the margarita was a mistake. I wasn't good for much for the rest of the evening.

But it sure tasted wonderful.

I wish I could get the girls to go to sleep at a reasonable hour, but they've been staying awake for hours past their bed time every night, I think because their room is so hot (and driving me mad because they keep coming into my office to tell me "I can't sleep." Like what am I supposed to do about this? Wave my magic wand and somehow make them drop into REM??) And then they're grouchy as bears when we go in to wake them in the morning, and they make me late to work every single day because they won't get up and get going in the morning.

It's driving me bats.

Comments

[sincelastjuly.livejournal.com]

Maybe get a fan for their room? I used to have the same problem in the summer, but I get a fan and turn off oscillation and put it at the end of my bed, and I have no problem.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Wait -- isn't there a mommy magic wand for these things? Oh dear. Now I don't know what I'll do. I thought sure I was going to get issued one of those at my first obstetrician visit whenever that ends up being.

[jbru.livejournal.com]

I remember well the long days of summer on the farm in Mylan, Minnesota. I was in second grade, I think. We were sent to bed at something like 8:00 but it was light until 9:30. And the hot, muggy days were the worst as you'd just lay there, sweating, tossing and getting crabbier and crabbier because you weren't asleep. I sympathize with both you and your girls.

Perhaps cool showers right before bedtime?

[aome.livejournal.com]

I've heard that if you put a bowl of ice in front of a fan, it helps circulate cool air much better. Perhaps try that?

I don't know what the configuration of your house is like, but could another possibility be to let them sleep on the floor of a downstairs room, if their bedrooms are normally upstairs? That would make it cooler, too.

Can Rob be made to be late to work sometimes instead, or is he out of the house by the time the girls get up?

[samhudson.livejournal.com]

My grandparents used this trick on my aunt: in the morning, if they won't get up, drop a sopping-wet cold hand-towel on their faces or chest (make sure it doesn't get into their mouth/nose). It wakes them up very quickly, and then you can inform them that you'll do that every day until they're going to sleep at a decent enough hour that they'll be ready to get up and go in the mornings. It worked like a charm on my aunt, although it is a bit cruel.

[naomikritzer]

I think that would be awfully mean, given that the problem here is not that they're endlessly procrastinating bedtime because it's more fun to drive the adults nuts than to go to sleep, but that they can't sleep due to the heat.

I had insomnia pretty regularly as a child. Even when it wasn't too hot to sleep. Being tired is bad enough when you're not being treated as if it's something you're doing on purpose.

As for the problem at hand, if a/c is not an option, make sure they each have a fan they can point directly at themselves while trying to sleep. In addition to the suggested ideas (cool showers, a bowl of ice in front of the fan), another trick I've heard is to store their bed pillows in the freezer during the day (inside a plastic bag, to keep them clean). I had a/c by the time I saw this idea, but I like it. I often found myself repeatedly flipping my pillow before I had a/c, trying miserably to find a cool spot.

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

Have no idea whether this will work, but when we were little and it was too hot to sleep, Dad would set up the pup tent in the back yard, and we were allowed to sleep in it under the condition that we absolutely positively lay still with our eyes shut until we went to sleep. No talking after x time.

The tent was cooler than the house, but we also lived in a pretty suburban/rural neighborhood.

I think we were between seven and 12 when we did this--in the teen years it didn't matter so much.

[wilfulcait.livejournal.com]

When K had this problem at our last house (DC weather, no air conditioning), we would put her to bed in a wet t-shirt (not dripping, but wet.) She would fall asleep on a towel to keep her mattress dry.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

A really cool bath right before bed time helps somewhat here in sweltering SoCal

[kate_nepveu]

Is a ceiling fan an option? Works so much better than the other kind.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

There's this modern miracle invention called the "air conditioner" that might also be useful for this situation.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Well, they do have a window air conditioner in their room, and we do run it. It's just not working very well, and the budget's just a bit constrained this month.

Some of the other suggestions are good and we'll try some of them.