Sleep Log

It's 2:06 a.m. Night #1 of the something's-gotta-change-palooza at the Webster household.

For 7 and a half months I've survived on less than a full night's sleep. Most nights, I nurse Jameson to sleep around 8 p.m., fall asleep on the couch watching "The Daily Show" or "Colbert," wake up when the baby cries around midnight and feed him again, "fall asleep" with him in the daybed in his room -- but not a deep sleep because he's nursing off and on, making little piggy noises, and alternating between snuggling and kicking me, wake up at some point next to a sleeping baby and move him to his crib, go to bed in my own room -- but Frank's already asleep and snoring so it takes a while for me to fall asleep, wake up to Jameson crying around 4 a.m., return to his room to rock or nurse him, fall asleep in the rocking chair or daybed again, wake up around 6:30 and return him to his crib, go back to my room for my final thirty minutes of sleep before Sophie wakes up and needs breakfast. It's crazy, I know. I sleep in three different places most nights. I don't think I've hit REM cycle in ages. A glance in the mirror tells me I am NOT getting my beauty rest. But in a weird way, it's been working for us. I don't want him to wake up Sophie or Frank and it's just easy to nurse him down to sleep than to let him cry. It also assuages my guilt of not being with him all day -- I tell myself that he's a little night crawler that needs to feed all night. But the truth is...it's time. He's old enough, fat enough, happy enough.

So here's the report for tonight: he went to bed at 8 p.m. I nursed him again around midnight. He woke up at 1:33 crying and I let him fuss until about 1:55 before going in to pat him and give him a pacifier. That really ticked him off, so I left and came in to the computer room. At 2:06, when I started writing, he was still fussing. Now it's 2:20 and he's quiet. Back to bed for me.

Postscript: When Jameson was born, Melanie (our good friend and Sophie's "nini" nanny for two years) visited us in the hospital. While she held Jameson for the first time, she told us that she was pregnant. And now, these many months later, Baby Carter has finally arrived! So I pass the up-all-night torch to you, my friend. Welcome to the world, Carter. And welcome to the night life, Mel.