Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Speaking of Deer

No, I still have not finished all the trimming and packaging of the venison.  All in good time.

In the meantime, let's talk about animal skins, shall we?

As you all know by now, we live in a cold house.  It's actually not as cold as it used to be; I mean, it's been like three years since my pillow has frozen to the wall.  Progress!  But it's still cold.  And hard to heat even when we attempt such a thing.

This is not such a problem for the adult members of the household, all of whom are quite hardy and capable of putting on another sweater or adding an extra blanket to the bed.  But it's a problem with kids.  And especially a problem with babies.

Charlie's room is cold.  It just is.  Where he sleeps is actually the room in which my pillow froze to the wall.  There are two exterior walls in that room; it's on the north side of the house; and it has two doors, which means drafts.  Luckily, it's small, so it can sort of be heated with a space heater.

Sort of.

I realized during the most recent hellish period of no sleep that one reason Charlie was awake so much was because the poor kid was cold.  It wasn't really cold in there, but for a small baby who can't cuddle under a down comforter?  Too cold.  Even in a long-sleeved shirt, two pairs of fleece pajamas (yes, two), a fleece sleepsack, and a hat.

When Cubby was a baby and was cold in his bed, we put him on a sheepskin.  But Charlie sleeps on his stomach*, and the sheepskin is too fluffy and soft for him to be face down on it.  Then A. remembered the hide from the deer he got last year that he had tanned.  He never had any real plan as to what he would do with it, but it's almost exactly the size of the crib mattress.  And it has shorter hair on it than the wool.

So he put it under the flannel sheet in Charlie's crib.  And Charlie slept.

Okay, so not all night or anything.  But he slept two hours, then four hours (four! whee!), then two more two-hour periods.  It's not exactly as restful as it could be, but after two nights of being up every hour?  I WILL TAKE IT.

So the lesson here is that if you live in an old, cold house, revert to the ways of our ancestors and surround those babies with skins.  It's kind of barbaric, but damn it all if it doesn't work.

* And has since he was six weeks old.  I am well aware that this is a definite no-no in the medical community, but if my options are a kid who won't sleep longer than half an hour on his back or a stomach sleeper?  He's on his stomach.

8 comments:

  1. Glad you found something to help Charlie sleep better.

    My secomd son would not sleep except on his stomach. I even bought one of those things with two wedges on it that is supposed to help them sleep on their sides. Our pediatrician told me if he will only sleep on his stomach to let him. He said he has to sleep and the risk is not much greater especially if you keep all soft things out of the crib (which it sounds like you are doing).

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  2. I'm glad the hide is helping! Cold kids are no fun. I wonder if you could put some sort of old fashioned hot water bottle in there for him to snuggle with? I wouldn't worry much about stomach sleeping. Kids will sleep how they want and you just can't fight it!

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  3. Can you not cover the sheep fleece with a blanket or some other non-fluffy item?

    Glad the hide helped though! I *hate* being cold and have been known to get up in the middle of the night in search of more warm things so I totally get it!

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  4. You need buffalo robes in that house. Happy Thanksgiving!

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  5. Whitetail deer hide is great, but if you ever get a chance to procure a reindeer/caribou hide, do so, because it would be even warmer.


    "The Thermal Insulation of Caribou Pelts - Irene Moote - Abstract

    The thermal insulation of samples of three caribou pelts, six other pelts, and one pile fabric was measured in still air and in winds up to about 26 mph. In still air the values, including ambient air layer, ranged from 2.0 clos for the pile fabric to 5.4 clos for the winter caribou. In a 25-mph wind the insulation afforded by most of the samples dropped to about 50% of the still-air value; notable exceptions were winter caribou, which dropped to only 58%, and winter deer, which dropped as low as 38%.
    -- Textile Research Journal"
















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  6. Guess clothes just aren't be made warm enough for y'all because most people have enough heat for the layers to work. May be you could make a sleep sack out of sheered sheep skin (say that 10 times, fast). I couldn't, but now that Adam has those big needles - who would have thunk!

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  7. We always kept a wool blanket under our crib sheet for the same reason. It made a huge difference, even in a pretty warm house.

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  8. That is an excellent EXCELLENT use of a tanned deer hide.

    I can't sleep or do anything meaningful when I'm cold and since my skin can't take direct contact with wool, I tend to wear long sleeves and put the wool blanket or sweater over that.

    Then...zzzzzzzzzzzzz

    YAY FOR FOUR STRAIGHT HOURS OF SLEEP.

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