Last night, I put Henry down for bed just after midnight. I looked at the clock and thought, “Ok, Henry. 2:15 would be great. 3:15, even better.” Given his one hour feeding needs all day long, I figured that a two or three hour stretch was pushing it, but I was hopeful. And I did wake up at 2:15, then 3:15. I peeked at the clock at 5:15. But Henry was still sleeping. I woke to a little sound from the pack ‘n play at 6:07am. Henry had slept–subsequently allowing me to sleep, for six straight hours.
In new mommy terms, this is bliss. I haven’t slept for six hours straight since before Henry was born. I set my feet on the ground and felt like a completely new person. I had no idea how sweet it could be…
From there, the morning was lovely. Henry fed and went back to sleep, giving me one more hour to rest and store up reserve for the day. Until mid-afternoon, we had a regular kind of day (although this was our first Sunday spent in the infant calming room at church :). And then we resumed our near-hourly feedings again.
At the moment, I am enjoying a short break away from the feeding marathon while dad entertains the little guy. He is WIDE awake, but quiet, taking things in and maintaining a welcome level of calm across the room. I have U2 Lullabies playing on the computer, and I honestly think it’s doing the trick. We’ll see what tonight holds, but I can only keep my fingers crossed that we’re headed in a new direction. If I know that six hours of sleep is coming at night, I can make it through a whole stack of feedings during the day, right?
We’ll spend a bit longer tonight living out the tail end of the weekend and trying to learn a little more about what Henry really needs. I’ve never loved someone so much, nor been so stretched, so quickly by getting to know someone in this intimate a way.
love to the bug, and sleep. hours and hours,
mm
*fave photo of the day, from J’s phone:
He is so long, and so precious!! The feedings get better, I promise! Ariana was an on-the-hour nurser too for quite a while…nurse for half an hour, nap for half an hour, then back to the breast! So precious, but oh, to have the time to sleep, or shower, or eat a hot meal!
Ha! I just looked at the picture again and realized that he does look quite long…such a little bean! It’s helpful to know that this is all normal and part of the process. In the middle of it, it’d be easy to feel like you’re the only one in the world, ya know? And you’re right, Anjey–it’s totally precious when I think about it. When will I ever have so much of his full attention as I do right now? 🙂