I don't recall nights like this with Willow, but maybe I can blame "dadnesia" (a blissful forgetfulness of the wee weeks of our oldest's life).
Cherish and I are splitting overnight feeding and diaper-changing duties with Lily. Cherish will get the "first shift," for example, which is the hours of 11 p.m. to 3 a.m., and I'll get the "second shift," which is from 3 to 7 a.m. These shifts provide each of us a good opportunity to sleep five or six hours straight. The idea is if Lily eats at 11 p.m., 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., I'll get to sleep from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., and Cherish will get to snooze from 2 to 8 or 9 a.m.
Lily hardly follows the plan, though.
This morning, my shift started promptly at 3:11 a.m. I made the bottle and fed Lily. I also changed her diaper. That's bad enough, getting barely four hours of straight sleep. But Lily didn't want to go back to sleep, so I soothed her and rocked her and held her for two hours, until about 5 a.m. The sun was rising. I was dog tired.
But the optimist in me thought, "OK, maybe she'll sleep for another few hours." (Lily has slept five hours straight without feeding a couple of times; and, yes, we're hoping she does much more of that).
But no.
Lily loudly stirred from her slumber at, ahem, 5:36 a.m. I don't know how much snoozing I got in, but it wasn't much more than 30 minutes.
I gave Lily a bottle and changed her diaper. This time, though, she went straight back to sleep, around 6:10 a.m., and I got another, oh, 50 minutes of snoozing in before she awoke again.
Now this is where I have it better than most other dads and moms with newborns. At some point thereabouts (I forget when), Cherish awoke, and she relieved me. I went to bed and slept until 10. I'm a stay-at-home dad, so I don't have to go to work like most dads. And Cherish, of course, if on maternity leave. So we're there, stepping in for each other, relieving the load, sharing the load, allowing the other one to take a nap or run an errand or go watch a movie.
With Willow, I had to go back to work after two weeks (and I was lucky to get that time, I realize), and that meant Cherish had to do all these nighttime adventures on her own. But don't sympathize too much for her; Willow slept from midnight to 7 a.m. almost every night when she was weeks old.
Or maybe my dadnesia has convinced me that that's the way it was.
Cherish and I are splitting overnight feeding and diaper-changing duties with Lily. Cherish will get the "first shift," for example, which is the hours of 11 p.m. to 3 a.m., and I'll get the "second shift," which is from 3 to 7 a.m. These shifts provide each of us a good opportunity to sleep five or six hours straight. The idea is if Lily eats at 11 p.m., 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., I'll get to sleep from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., and Cherish will get to snooze from 2 to 8 or 9 a.m.
Lily hardly follows the plan, though.
This morning, my shift started promptly at 3:11 a.m. I made the bottle and fed Lily. I also changed her diaper. That's bad enough, getting barely four hours of straight sleep. But Lily didn't want to go back to sleep, so I soothed her and rocked her and held her for two hours, until about 5 a.m. The sun was rising. I was dog tired.
But the optimist in me thought, "OK, maybe she'll sleep for another few hours." (Lily has slept five hours straight without feeding a couple of times; and, yes, we're hoping she does much more of that).
But no.
Lily loudly stirred from her slumber at, ahem, 5:36 a.m. I don't know how much snoozing I got in, but it wasn't much more than 30 minutes.
I gave Lily a bottle and changed her diaper. This time, though, she went straight back to sleep, around 6:10 a.m., and I got another, oh, 50 minutes of snoozing in before she awoke again.
Now this is where I have it better than most other dads and moms with newborns. At some point thereabouts (I forget when), Cherish awoke, and she relieved me. I went to bed and slept until 10. I'm a stay-at-home dad, so I don't have to go to work like most dads. And Cherish, of course, if on maternity leave. So we're there, stepping in for each other, relieving the load, sharing the load, allowing the other one to take a nap or run an errand or go watch a movie.
With Willow, I had to go back to work after two weeks (and I was lucky to get that time, I realize), and that meant Cherish had to do all these nighttime adventures on her own. But don't sympathize too much for her; Willow slept from midnight to 7 a.m. almost every night when she was weeks old.
Or maybe my dadnesia has convinced me that that's the way it was.
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