Hi, all! I wanted to know if anyone out there is familiar with
this problem, particularly those of you exposed to what I believe
is called the Santa Anna (?). I live in the northern desert of
Israel, and here in the Mideast we have a climatic phenomenon
which is called variously in Hebrew and in Arabic a sharav or a
khamsin. I like the Arabic term, which comes from the word
meaning 50. The khamsin is a very dessicating, hot wind bringing
lots of dust and sand, coming from the desert, supposedly spread
out over 50 days of the year. The worst are usually in the spring
and fall. One once caught us on the road between my brother's
kibbutz and our home in Beer Sheva: we had to dodge rolling
sagebrush the size of our car! Anyhow, I noticed that this change
in barometric pressure drives babies (and everyone else, as a
matter of fact) nutty. Unfortunately, new moms never seem to
blame the weather for the nutsiness, rather - you guessed it! -
their milk is off. Either a baby will sleep inordinately long
periods during a khamsin, or the opposite, not sleep at all but
cry or kvetch all day and night. All I can do is assure mom that
it's almost for sure the horrid weather, just comfort (or wake)
baby as best she can and try to make the day as normal as
possible. I also tell her to give my sympathies to the baby -
that I woke up with a headache, so knew in advance that a khamsin
was coming or here.....
AHA! That's why I'm in such a bad mood today.....! A real doozy
outside.
Do you West Coast people see anything like this from your Santa
Annas? Judy K., post-E... for the headache and rocky tum