Well, this was bound to happen. The newborn life is crazy to begin with, what with the waking up every two hours to feed. But Asher was pretty chill, so once he got his formula, he'd nod back off; or even if he didn't, he'd just sit there and be cool. So as long as Amy and I coordinated our schedules, we could pretty much guarantee ourselves five or six consecutive hours of sleep each at night. Plus, I learned to time Asher's early morning feedings so that I could sneak out in between for a workout. In other words, an acceptably low level of disruption to our daily routines.Ah, but a couple of nights ago. Asher decided to wake up at 10pm after being asleep for 2 1/2 hours. This is pretty normal. Diaper change, feed, burp, swaddle, cuddle, put back to bed: Amy knew what to do, and knew she could get a couple more hours to either sleep, do chores, or relax.
Alas, three plus hours later, much of it filled with cries and whines, and none of it involving any sleep by Asher, I clocked in and Amy went to bed utterly frazzled, defeated, and spent. It was time for my shift anyway, plus I figured that since he hadn't slept in three hours he would go down pretty easy and pretty hard. I patted myself on the back for relieving my poor wife in her time of distress and took to getting Asher back to sleep, figuring I could probably get myself back to sleep myself soon after.
It took me five hours. During that time, I tried just about everything, which Asher responded to with various volumes of wailing and snickering. At one point, I think I fell asleep on the floor next to his crib. Sometime between 4 and 5 in the morning, a vein started to pulsate on my temple. Reality and dream state blurred together. The newspaper arrived on my front porch. The sun came up. And then, finally, mercifully, Asher fell asleep.
He proceeded to reel off three consecutive three-hour naps, broken up by the swiftest of feedings. But by then, him being up from 10pm to 6am just slayed Amy and me. The rest of the day was a fog, and even after a good night's sleep the next day I'm still in physical pain. There's a reason why babies are really cute, right? We are weary but still with grins on our faces.
