March 13, 2008

The problem of sleep

I remember the part about waking up every 3-4 hours in the middle of the night to feed a newborn. I was prepared for that. The part I hadn't factored in was how much less sleep you get with two kids.

Nathan goes to sleep in his own room, but still wakes up most nights and comes into our room. Nathan has a hard time telling the difference between baby cries and just normal noises, so every time Adam stirs, Nathan wants to check on him. If Adam then wakes up to be fed, Nathan can easily stay awake for the entire time because it's so interesting to him.

On top of that, Adam needs his heart medication every eight hours, which means that we're waking up at 6 in the morning to give him a dose.

With all that, it's fairly typical now to be woken up four times in the night -- two night feedings, one time for Nathan to come into the room, and one time to give Adam medicine.

So we are all sleepy. Except Adam, I suppose -- he's the only one of us getting lots of sleep.

Posted by Mike at March 13, 2008 11:11 AM