The sleep plan we've had in place for about a week has been successful...when we've been able to hew to it. The snag is that we're not independently wealthy or retired or without other social/parental obligations. So non-Asher aspects of our lives conspire to throw us off. Monday I was out late for work. Wednesday I was out late for work and had to work more when I got home. Friday I had to work more after Jada and Aaron went to bed. Saturday we were out late for Jada's choir concert. If you're counting, that's four nights out of seven that we were thrown off our schedule. The sleep plan works because I get to sleep by 8pm, which means that when I'm back on between 2am and 4am I've gotten 6-8 hours of sleep and can stay up for the rest of the morning taking care of Asher and tending to the things I like to do in the morning (pray/Bible/exercise/work).
Alas, when I don't get to sleep until 10p-12a, now we're talking 3-4 hours of sleep, which means I get sucked into Asher's feeding vortex, meaning that I feed him and then desperately try to get some more sleep before he wakes again. I'm usually successful, eventually, but obviously 6-8 hours of continuous sleep is better than 5-6 hours of sleep chopped into 2-4 pieces. Not to mention losing that blissful early morning time to get a jump on the day, and replacing it with fitful and small segments of sleep.
Some parents of past or present newborns may scoff at my whining. I confess: I am a wimp when it comes to sleep deprivation and a grump when I am subjected to it. Soon enough, in the grand scheme of things, Asher will begin to sleep longer and our lives will go from vortex crazy to normal crazy.
