Life after Baby :: Sleep

She fell asleep on her activity mat the other day. What a little doll baby!

 
Our lives have changed quite a bit since January 20th. I won't speak for Alex here so consider the following solely my opinion.

Before having Scarlett, I loved sleep. I didn't like to miss out on too much sleep. Sleeping in was what I looked forward to on the weekend. I would set my alarm for work with the precise amount of time I needed to get ready, no more, no less. I would snooze that same alarm because I wanted just a couple more minutes. Now, i'm up twice a night to nurse my little girl. Once around 2am and then again around 4 or 5am. My alarm goes off much earlier for work now and I sneak quietly out of bed so I don't wake her, so that I can get myself ready as much as possible before she wakes up and one of our parents arrive to watch her for the day (except Mondays). I make breakfast now where before I just took something small with me. I actually sit on the couch and check my email/facebook/blogs for a little bit, as long as she isn't awake. When she is awake, I nurse her and get her ready for the day. I need more time if she is awake but I don't mind one bit. It's time I get to spend with her then before I head off to work. Extra smiles for me before I leave since the morning is one of her best times of day.

We do go to sleep earlier though. The evenings fly by now when we start to get ready for bed around 8:30pm. Assuming that will get pushed back once she has a consistent bedtime routine and is sleeping in her own room. For now, it means we go to bed a little earlier and get some extra sleep. Sleep I need to make it through the night time feedings and not be tired during the day and sleep Alex needs to wake up at 5am for work. 8:30pm always comes too quickly and I imagine it will continue to do so as spring and summer approaches.

I cannot say I've been the stereotypical "exhausted" yet since Scarlett arrived. Maybe that first night in the hospital when I was up almost all night and the next day was tiring but we caught back up and exhaustion never hit. Maybe it's because I'm lazy? Maybe the mom's that get exhausted have a lot of other stuff going on where I had nothing else going on. The phrase "sleep when the baby sleeps" was taken advantage of from time to time. I think the key for me was the early bed time and the later wake time. Scarlett would often go back to sleep after her 7:30 or 8am feeding and sleep until 10 or 11.. I did the same. It helped. It also helped that Alex was there the first four weeks to take her out of the room so I could continue to sleep if I felt the need. Sure, she would end up having to eat an hour later but that hour of extra sleep was glorious and I think really made a difference.

I remember a quote that I heard a while back, "True love is not wanting to go to sleep, because reality is better than any dream" and that's how I feel. It's not that I don't want to go to sleep, but I don't mind not getting a lot of sleep. I'd much rather watch my baby girl sleep or hold her while she sleeps. Trying to soak up these bitty baby moments while they last since it won't be forever!