Sleep

When we found out we were having Nate, I knew that I would be saying goodbye to sleep.  Everyone told me that you exist on no sleep for years, and once you have the first one sleeping, you're welcoming number two into the world.  The sleep deprivation started during the third trimester.  It turns out you really can't sleep through a near constant need to pee.  On top of that I had really bad carpel tunnel and we have a tall bed, so getting in and out of bed required a fair amount of wakefulness.  Yet everyone kept telling me, "you can not sleep now, or not sleep with a newborn".  They said this like not sleeping with newborn was going to be awful.  I believed them.

And then Nate came.  In the hospital the nurses were constantly telling us to sleep, and then constantly coming in to draw blood, check vitals or blood sugar.  Nate was put on a feeding schedule to help reduce his bilirubin levels.  Every three hours around the clock we'd wake the baby, put him on the breast for a few minutes, hand him to dad for a bottle while I pumped.  Every. Three. Hours.  

Luckily that only lasted three weeks and since then I've been blessed with a sleeper!  Unless he's really tired, Nate doesn't fight sleep (thank god!).  He regularly sleeps 8 hours a night and takes 4-6 hour long naps a day.  That means when he's awake he's the happiest baby.  When he wakes up in the morning, he smiles the biggest smile.  As I peal the blankets of the swaddle back he starts cooing and babbling nonsense, it's the greatest sound to wake up to.

So - to everyone who told me that the sandman had dropped my house from his route.  Suck it!  I'm getting better sleep now then when I was pregnant.  Go Nate!