In preparing to be parents, I knew to expect very little, if any sleep. In the first two days in the hospital this was painfully true, but as previously stated, I blame the hospital staff and my medical needs for that more than her. She was also cluster feeding on the second and third days of life, which meant that she wanted to eat every hour or so, so I had to try to keep up with that while learning how to breastfeed at all. But after we got home, I found that it wasn't so bad.
Let me clarify: she does get up every 2 or 3 hours to feed, but since we are only in bed for 8 hours, if I feed her right before sleep, we are only waking up twice a night. She also only eats for about 20-30 minutes, so I can go back to sleep relatively quickly after eating, and I am not losing too much sleep. I was shocked on the first morning we were home to find that I didn't feel exhausted. After three weeks with her, there are really only two days when I did feel absolutely trashed, but it's because she was fussy throughout the night for one reason or the other (I'm certainly never eating spicy red beans and rice ever again!). I don't know what it is about the human brain that adjusts to the wacky new schedule, but so far I have been able to function without a nap more days than not as well. I hope this feeling lasts!
Not to jinx it (although this almost certainly will), Willa is a pretty good sleeper too. She is usually able to get to sleep on her own in her bed, although she prefers to be hugged and cuddled. She can also stay asleep for a couple of hours in her crib for naps during the day, during which I can be fairly productive. Just today I was able to accomplish all three goals I set for myself during this nap time (iron three shirts, work on getting ink stains out of a dress, wash bed linens Willa barfed on), to the point that I was able to address all 30 baby announcements, stuff envelopes, and write this blog post as bonus accomplishments today. It felt great toget so much done!
Right now we are starting another growth spurt, which means a resurgence of cluster feeding. She has been able to sleep for four hours at a stretch exactly twice, and I'm hoping to revisit this once this growth spurt is over. For now I'm thankful to still be on maternity leave so that I can sleep in in the mornings and put off housework until the afternoons. I'm also eternally grateful to have had my dad here for a week and my mom here for the past two. Friday will be my first time flying solo during the day, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can get through it alright. I'm sure we will, I'll just have to relax my drive to do housework and run errands, since I won't have a spare pair of hands to take her for me. I now definitely understand why the Obamas had Michelle's mom move into the White House with them. Extra help FTW!
No comments:
Post a Comment