Wednesday, March 24, 2010

My Endless Love...

Wednesday Mar 24, 2010

My Endless Love...

And love, oh love, I'll be a fool for you, I'm sure
You know I don't mind, you know I don't mind
Cause you, you mean the world to me
Oh, I know, I know I found in you my endless love
-Lionel Richie, "Endless Love"

The cheesiest song I could come up with to proclaim my endless love to ... not my husband. Not my children. (All of whom already know that they have my endless love.) Nope, I'm declaring my endless love to MY PEDIATRICIAN. Yes, Dr. N., I love you. Want to know why? You, my friend, have given me the greatest gift that a new mom can get...

Six consecutive hours of sleep.

Yes, last night I got 6 hours of sleep. In a row. Luke is a wonderful baby - during the day. He sleeps like a champ, often 4+ hours at a time - during the day. The nights have been quite a different story. He'll get one nice long sleep of at least 3 hours, and then wake up every hour. (You know life has changed when I consider 3 hours a "long sleep!") He wakes up EVERY. SINGLE. HOUR. From then until the sun rises, at which point, he's happy to go back to sleep. Auggghhh!

When I went over to my friend L's house on Friday, the first words out of her mouth when I walked in the door were "Wow, Jen, you look really tired." Last week, I had started referring to my own child as "the parasite" because he was, quite literally, sucking the life out of me. Oh, man - that's so cruel! Poor kid. I feel bad having said that about my poor hungry infant, but sleep deprivation makes you crazy. And I am most certainly headed straight for Crazyville.

So, Dr. N suggested that after the long sleep, we give him a bottle. Because milk flows faster and easier from a bottle, he is more likely to get a full belly before he falls back asleep. And with a full belly, he's more likely to have another long sleep. Give him a bottle? It's not like I'm having trouble pumping out an extra bottle. But it seems silly to give him one when I'm right there with milk from the tap.

In my sleep-deprived state, I was in no position to argue with someone in authority. And you know what? It worked! (Thanks in large part to my wonderful husband.) I fed him at 8:30 and was asleep by 9. Derek had to stay up late anyway to get some work done, so he took the 11:30 feeding and gave him a belly-filling bottle and put him to bed. I was so tired I didn't even notice when Derek put him back in the co-sleeper and I slept like a log until 3:30 a.m. when Luke woke up again. (Notice I slept "like a log" not "like a baby." Whoever came up with that particular comparison never spent much time with babies.) But yes, I got 6 consecutive hours of sleep! Derek then got to sleep from midnight until 6 a.m., which means that BOTH of us got sleep! Miracle of miracles!

So, if I wasn't already in love with my wonderful pediatrician, I am now. That man is brilliant.

Posted at 09:37PM Mar 24, 2010 by Jen Foster in General | Comments[5]
Comments:

Yeah! Sleep! I'm so happy for you! I hope the plan continues to work. :)

Posted by Amy G. on March 25, 2010 at 11:36 PM EDT #

Hey, I'm probably slow, but I just noticed that you changed your Blog header -- Love that CheezeDoodle got his name in there, too! ...oh, no! Now I have to do another math problem. Whew! I peeked -- it's an easy-ish one.

Posted by Amy G. on March 25, 2010 at 11:39 PM EDT #

Yay for sleep and happy healthy babies! So very very glad that you are getting a little more, and even more excited that we seem to be well enough that we can come visit next week! If you ever need a nap on a weekend-- call me, I'm happy to watch the boys for a bit so you can get some shut eye... how well I remember those days...

Posted by Erin on March 26, 2010 at 09:32 AM EDT #

I remember those days of 3 hours of sleep at night on a good night (when my in-laws came over they would stay late which meant an hour and a half of sleep on the 3 nights a week they came over). Don't forget to count your blessings for that healthy baby (although I know it is hard when you are running on no sleep)!!

Posted by Bethany Watkins on March 26, 2010 at 02:21 PM EDT #

Sleep is good...lots of sleep is great! Glad you have reached the superlative state!

Can't wait to meet Bebe Luke!
Loves,
Susie
Dang math again...

Posted by Susie Hoffman on March 28, 2010 at 12:24 AM EDT #

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