To Sleep: Perchance to Dream

Yeah, I know Hamlet was pondering suicide when he uttered those words, so it's really quite morbid and not at all what I'm getting at with this post, but cut me some slack; it ain't easy coming up with titles for these.

Anyhoo, sleep has become a major part of our lives. [No, that's not the proper phrasing. Let me try again.]

The amount and quality of our sleep has become... [I'll just stop right there. That's not going to work either, no matter how it ends.]

Our sleeping sucks right now. [That's the stuff!]

When I say "our sleeping" I mean Jean's and mine. One of us can sleep anywhere, anytime he chooses.

Compared to many new parents, we're actually doing pretty well when it comes to sleep. I get about six hours a night, and Jean gets anywhere from 5-8 hours of sleep out of every 24. I've always been a bit of an insomniac, so I haven't been affected by it too terribly. But Jean's always been a 9 hours a night kind of gal, and, as if that wasn't enough, she's been getting her sleep in 1-3 hour increments now. Not fun.

Our usual day starts around 6 or 7 a.m. with Adam eating, or, as it has come to be known, Adam's Honkapalooza and Sucktime Jamboree. While that's going on, I walk Sliver. When we get back and Adam's done, I send Jean to bed for as long as she can sleep or as long as Adam's not hungry - usually 1-2 hours. Then she gets up and feeds him and gets some breakfast while I go to the gym and work out.

I return and we wait until he's fed again before we all go out to run errands. When we get back in the mid-afternoon, Jean feeds Adam, and I walk Sliver. When those tasks are complete, I send Jean to bed again, usually for another 1-2 hours. Then it's dinner for Adam while I prepare dinner for us. He complains as soon as Jean sits down to dinner. Every. Time.

Kind of like this:

Then it's bathtime, which he loves, and the dog's evening walk, which she loves.

Adam gets fed again, and I take him while Jean heads back to bed until it's time for Honkapalooza, After Dark. Once again, she typically gets about 1-2 hours. Last night, though, he fell asleep on my chest and Jean was able to get about 3 straight hours. Sure, that was probably pretty sweet for her, but the important thing was that I got to watch "Letters from Iwo Jima" on AMC and the Seaside to San Luis Obispo stage of the Tour of California (in absolutely brutal conditions - 7 hours in the cold and rain - that's why they get paid, I guess) in blissful quiet.

Then I go to bed around 11-midnightish, and he's in Jean's hands for the rest of the night (Jean's much more useful for feeding than I am, so she pulls the overnight duty - might as well let me sleep if I'm of little use - though I must confess, we've never tried me in that role). Sometimes, "in Jean's hands for the rest of the night" is too literal a description. Most nights, he feeds, gets burped, and then just sleeps until he's hungry again, usually around 2-3 a.m. and 6-7 a.m. But there are some nights... Last night, for instance, he just couldn't get out the last mystery gas bubble, and he fussed for most of the night, with sleep stretches of about 20 minutes the norm. Better Jean than me, I say.

And we repeat that the next day.

It's not terrible, but it could be better. Still, I'm ambivalent about it. One of these days, we're going to start using the bottle, and I'll lose my excuse for not taking him overnight. When that day comes, I'll probably look back on this as the golden age of sleep.

But Hamlet's still off his rocker.