January 29, 2006

A night in the life

Last night:

8:00 PM – Meredith and Nathan take a bath.
8:10 PM – I get Nathan out of the bath, since he is All Done.
8:20 PM – I finish getting Nathan’s diaper and pajamas on. Yes, this took ten minutes.
9:00 PM – Meredith volunteers to put him to bed, so starts rocking him to sleep.
10:00 PM – Meredith calls to me to ask if I could please take a turn trying to get him to go to sleep, since she’s been trying for an hour. I take Nathan back to our bed, cover him with the blanket, and lie down next to him.
10:06 PM – Nathan falls asleep. I think to myself, “this was easy.”
10:07 PM – Nathan wakes back up.
10:14 PM – Nathan falls asleep again
10:14:30 PM – Nathan wakes up
10:15 PM – I give Nathan a bottle of water. He drinks most of it.
10:19 PM – Nathan expresses his frustration by trying to claw a hole in my throat
10:24 PM – Nathan falls asleep
10:26 PM – I get up to go get the baby monitor transmitter from the other room.
10:26:01 PM – Nathan wakes up as soon as I am three feet away from the bed. I go to get the baby monitor anyway, thinking that maybe God or the fates will reward me for my optimism
10:27 PM – I return. God is amused by my optimism; Nathan is still awake.
10:29 PM – I refill Nathan’s bottle and give him more water. Nathan may be on a hunger strike, but he makes up for it in volume of water – at night. This probably explains that diaper problem.
10:33 PM – I wonder if my voice will wear out from trying to sing Nathan to sleep. I am not the trained singer in the family.
10:35 PM – Nathan expresses his frustration by kicking me repeatedly with his damned shoes.
10:37 PM – I get up to tell Meredith that I’m just going to go to bed and give up on getting back up.
10:38 PM – I brush my teeth. Nathan hears and is fascinated. He is wide awake.
10:45 PM – I notice that Nathan has kicked off his right shoe; I take it off and fix it.
11:05 PM – As Nathan thrashes around, I consider getting a drink of whiskey. Can’t decide whether I should give it to Nathan or me. The indecision paralyzes me, so I don’t get up.
11:13 PM – I notice that Nathan has kicked off his right shoe. Again. I say to hell with it and take the whole set off.
11:14 PM – Nathan falls sound asleep. Damned shoes.
11:17 PM – Meredith comes to bed. “Hey, everyone’s asleep.”

Not that every moment isn’t bliss.

Posted by Mike at January 29, 2006 06:55 PM