Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Sleeping is Underrated
It looks like the due date for Evangeline (nee C2) has been moved up. Apparently, Evangeline is growing like Luke did. Since The Wife just about exploded delivering Luke (who weighed 9 pounds 8 ounces), they want to avoid killing her this time around. So they’re talking about inducing a week early, on March 1.
I was so unprepared when Luke was born. I really had no idea what to expect besides plenty of sleepless nights. Nobody told me that the sleepless nights would continue for 2 years. Luke is just the worst sleeper in the world. He frequently wakes up in the middle of the night screaming. And when he does, the only thing that consoles him is either (a) sleeping with him in his car bed or (b) having him sleep with us in our bed. Neither solution is ideal because Luke is a bit of a bed hog. It’s hard to believe that about someone who’s all of 2.5 feet and 28 pounds.
The problem is that he moves around a lot. And he likes to make sure that you’re there in bed with him without opening his eyes. So, you’ll doze off for a second and then get punched in the face by a tiny fist. Just Luke checking to make sure you didn’t desert him. Or it’s just Luke getting even for not letting him eat that shiny quarter two days ago. Man, that kid has an incredible memory. Which I’m sure most non-parents would think is cool. But really, it’s not. He remembers where you put the cookies the day before. He remembers how to get onto the kitchen counter. Hell, he even remembers that you told him NOT to get on the counters. (He just doesn’t CARE.)
Anyway, in one way, I’m a lot more prepared for Evangeline. I’m used to not getting sleep. Of course, knowing children the way I do, I expect Luke and Evangeline to be on completely different sleep schedules. Moreover, I expect Evangeline to start crying at 2:00 a.m. and wake up Luke. That way, while The Wife is feeding Evangeline, I can try to convince Luke that we should be sleeping instead of watching Dora.
(By the way, many big “thanks” go out to Luke’s cousins, who taught him how to slide down the stairs on his belly REALLY fast. Now when Luke doesn’t want to sleep anymore, he heads to the stairs and BAM, he’s down them. In less than a second, you realize that you’re not going back to sleep any time soon.)
In every other way, though, I’m not prepared at all for Evangeline. I’ve forgotten how to deal with babies. I think they’re pretty easy. You just kind of throw them in a corner and they don’t move. That worked great with Luke. You just put him on his play mat and he was fine for hours. The same COULD work for Evangeline. But it won’t because now we have Luke to contend with. He’ll probably be great with her. But he might also decide that she needs to play with his choo choos. Or that the play mat is HIS. We’ve gone from a static environment when Luke was a baby to a rather dynamic one. I don’t know if this is good or not.
What I’m really hoping for, though, is that the baby will tire Luke out. Maybe being woken up a lot in the middle of the night will make him more willing to go to bed. Maybe playing with Evangeline (even while she’s a relatively inanimate object) will tire him out more. Maybe Luke will just go through a growth spurt and sleep 15 hours a day. But more likely, I’ll just have to get used to not getting any sleep.
I was so unprepared when Luke was born. I really had no idea what to expect besides plenty of sleepless nights. Nobody told me that the sleepless nights would continue for 2 years. Luke is just the worst sleeper in the world. He frequently wakes up in the middle of the night screaming. And when he does, the only thing that consoles him is either (a) sleeping with him in his car bed or (b) having him sleep with us in our bed. Neither solution is ideal because Luke is a bit of a bed hog. It’s hard to believe that about someone who’s all of 2.5 feet and 28 pounds.
The problem is that he moves around a lot. And he likes to make sure that you’re there in bed with him without opening his eyes. So, you’ll doze off for a second and then get punched in the face by a tiny fist. Just Luke checking to make sure you didn’t desert him. Or it’s just Luke getting even for not letting him eat that shiny quarter two days ago. Man, that kid has an incredible memory. Which I’m sure most non-parents would think is cool. But really, it’s not. He remembers where you put the cookies the day before. He remembers how to get onto the kitchen counter. Hell, he even remembers that you told him NOT to get on the counters. (He just doesn’t CARE.)
Anyway, in one way, I’m a lot more prepared for Evangeline. I’m used to not getting sleep. Of course, knowing children the way I do, I expect Luke and Evangeline to be on completely different sleep schedules. Moreover, I expect Evangeline to start crying at 2:00 a.m. and wake up Luke. That way, while The Wife is feeding Evangeline, I can try to convince Luke that we should be sleeping instead of watching Dora.
(By the way, many big “thanks” go out to Luke’s cousins, who taught him how to slide down the stairs on his belly REALLY fast. Now when Luke doesn’t want to sleep anymore, he heads to the stairs and BAM, he’s down them. In less than a second, you realize that you’re not going back to sleep any time soon.)
In every other way, though, I’m not prepared at all for Evangeline. I’ve forgotten how to deal with babies. I think they’re pretty easy. You just kind of throw them in a corner and they don’t move. That worked great with Luke. You just put him on his play mat and he was fine for hours. The same COULD work for Evangeline. But it won’t because now we have Luke to contend with. He’ll probably be great with her. But he might also decide that she needs to play with his choo choos. Or that the play mat is HIS. We’ve gone from a static environment when Luke was a baby to a rather dynamic one. I don’t know if this is good or not.
What I’m really hoping for, though, is that the baby will tire Luke out. Maybe being woken up a lot in the middle of the night will make him more willing to go to bed. Maybe playing with Evangeline (even while she’s a relatively inanimate object) will tire him out more. Maybe Luke will just go through a growth spurt and sleep 15 hours a day. But more likely, I’ll just have to get used to not getting any sleep.
