Sometimes I wonder how I deserve this… Yannick is 21 months old now and still not able to sleep through. This in itself is not as bad as it sounds, as I can get by on about 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night as long as he doesn't wake me more than 2 to 3 times and if those incidents only last minutes. Yep, that's right, that's more than most people could handle without feeling completely sleep deprived.

It's getting bad when he has one of those nights where he wakes up and can't go back to sleep because he has what seems to be a blocked or stuffy nose. Then it can easily take one or one and a half hours before we are both back to sleep and it's me who's completely grumpy the next day. This happens on about 50% of all healthy nights.

It's getting really bad, when Yannick has a proper cold. Well, guess what, we've had a set of at least three consecutive colds ever since we went to Germany and came back. No break. Waking up about every two hours…!

And it's getting to panic level when we are also having a tummy bug going around. Imagine me trying to sleep, exhausted already, waking up feeling sick, noticing that Yannick is also waking up, trying to look after him so he goes back to sleep, and at the same time trying to fight the sick feeling. Not possible. After that waking up at least every hour because one of us has to be sick or just feels bad. Not to mention having to change bedsheets after the first incident, still feeling sick.

The last scenario is what we had on Friday morning and Yannick was still sick once a night to Monday. All of this just after the three colds. I was absolutely shattered and just wanted to sleep for three years or so. I'm still tired but last night was back to normal (see description at top).

Regarding the stuffy nose problem we actually went to see an ENT specialist today (after about 1.5 months waiting time). I didn't expect much and I was absolutely right not to. The doctor said that our little boy is just fine and that the problem is nothing that won't go away as he grows. Apparently his adenoids are a bit bigger than normal but as children grow their airways get wider and then this won't be a problem anymore. Gah!!!

First of all: Happy New Year!

After two weeks in Germany I feel completely out of synch with home. First of all we are still on the wrong time - but somehow the wrong direction. Germany is an hour ahead of us so in theory 8am over there is 7am over here. However, instead of waking up at 7, we are up at 8:30 or 9 even.This is very strange. On top of that, late getting up means late naps. Today was not too bad, but yesterday, Yannick decided he was tired by 3pm and no earlier.

The first evening back, New Year's eve, we spent at a friend's house. This was a first with Yannick and felt odd too. By half past 11 I felt so tired I just had to go home.

Then our phone didn't work until yesterday afternoon as some stupid person dug a hole in front of our row of houses and cut the phone cable. This meant no internet. I felt very cut off after a week or so without internet at all.

I am also missing all the people we used to have around us for two weeks: Oma Gertrud, Elke, Edgar, Felix, and Oma Karin. Even though one evening in our own home on our own for once was very nice, it feels lonely through the day.

Finally, after two years of shift work Frank started to work normally again. There will be no more 12-hour day or night shifts and he'll work just like everybody else from Monday to Friday. This is also strange as he was home by 5pm yesterday which we are not used to at all. Mind you, I liked it!

Hopefully by next week things will start to feel normal again.