So Miss Anabelle had her homecoming yesterday, and now her and I are relaxing and watching the Bears game. Christy and my mom left about an hour ago to do some grocery shopping, which doesn't sound like much but is actually two landmarks. It's the first time I've been alone with Anabelle and the first time Christy has left her (not counting the times when the nurses took her to the nursery at the hospital). Not that she requires a whole lot of effort at the moment. It appears that at the moment she's got day-night confusion, so she pretty much does non-stop sleeping during the day and then the last 2 nights she has been wide awake from about 10 P.M. to 5 A.M. Last night Christy and I took 1.5-2 hour shifts keeping her occupied during that time so that the other one could get some sleep. Hopefully this is something that we can remedy pretty quickly; I'm back in the office tomorrow so it's gonna fall more on Christy to keep her quiet at night and I'll have a pretty exhausted wife on my hands if she decides that's the schedule she wants to keep long-term. And you'd think that it would be an easy problem to correct. Just wake her up more during the day. Well, let me tell you, as hard as it is to get her to fall asleep in the middle of the night, that's how hard it is to get her to wake up during the day. We've tried moving her arms and legs, changing her diaper, and even undressing her and blowing on her to give her a little bit of a chill (which sounds mean but is what they recommend) but she can pretty much sleep through anything when she's determined.
So it's back to the office and an attempt at some level of normalcy tomorrow. Hopefully I can get a decent night's sleep tonight and get some work done tomorrow. Although I expect people at work to be very understanding over the next couple of weeks, I really don't want to fall too far behind in my work. As time goes by I'm likely to just get more and more sleep deprived (at least for the next 6 months) so I've got to do my best to stay on top of things while I'm still functioning at something close to 100%.
As I type this now the Bears just fell behind 14-7 in the 3rd quarter. Anabelle is still sleeping straight through it but now daddy's crying. And like her at 3 in the morning, he's inconsolable.
8 comments:
No paternity leave?
Not really. I can take up to 6 weeks off but it's unpaid, so that's not really an option. I of course have saved up vacation days but I'm thinking that it's better to take just a day or two off every week for the first month or so instead of taking it all off at once. This week I am going into the office Mon and Wed, working from home on Tues, and then taking Thurs and Fri off, so it still should be a pretty easy week (provided that I am able to sleep at night). Then my "regular" schedule for the next 4-5 weeks or so will be to work M-W-F, work from home on Tues, and then take Thursdays off.
Christy must be sleep deprived because I thought it would be years before she left you alone with Anabelle. I guess I don't know Christy at all ...
Boy, talk about getting ripped apart on your own blog. Marena's taken shots at my genes and my parenting in a span of about 36 hours.
Actually, Christy and Darcy were already talking about a girl's weekend away possibly as soon as December so it might only be 10 weeks or so till I have her to myself for an entire weekend. I don't know what the big deal is; a few shots of whisky calms most babies down pretty quickly. And oddly enough it also works if you give it to the dad instead of the baby. . .
I think it's great! Better to start dividing her up now than months down the road when there's all sorts of routines and stuff to know. You're both on the same learning curve this way.
But anyway, John, in the end you shouldn't worry about what any of us say. You said it well when you blogged about your decision to induce if the baby didn't come: "Undoubtedly you have an opinion, and we're sure your opinion is valid, but we don't want to hear it."
Sleep tight, dear John...and not at your desk!!
Yah John and Christy! Just saw on Facebook (from Tim Bodony) that you guys had a baby. Love her name! Don't worry, you will sleep again in about 2 years. Tell Becky that the first couple of weeks are nutso and she will like everything a lot more after that. Isn't funny how babies are all fuzzy?
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