Before Jonah was
born, Sunday and I decided we didn’t want him sleeping anywhere near our
bed. Now there are those folks who have
the crib in the same room where they sleep, and I’m not saying they’re
crazy. They are sleepy. Having a baby in the same room where you’re
trying to sleep is not a great way to sleep.
Obviously, her C-section
complications threw that plan to the wind for a few weeks. Sunday couldn’t bend over and pull him out of
the crib. As soon as we both thought
Sunday could handle getting Jonah out of his crib, though, we threw him in
there to sleep at night.
A few lessons:
Lesson one: You don’t lose as much sleep as
everyone talks about. Hey, I’m in grad school.
I don’t sleep anyway. Really,
this is the big secret of having children:
there are those who want to have the worst story in the room. You don’t have to live a private hell to have
kids.
Lesson two: Just
because you don’t lose as much sleep as everyone talks about, that doesn’t mean
that you have to punish yourself by figuring out ways to keep yourself up. Jonah doesn’t have to go to school or work
tomorrow, so figuring out a way to keep him quietwhile we sleep isn’t a bad
idea.
Lesson three: Baby
monitors are terrible. We hated
them. One ten minute period at about
eleven at night, we tried it out, and I thought I was going to have to throw
something or somebody out of the room.
That thing is so sensitive, it picks up every breath, coo, belch and
brainwave that goes on in the room. Plus, our apartment is so small, it wasn’t
like we couldn’t hear everything he did anyway.
It was cartoony how both Sunday and I were lying on our backs, staring
at the ceiling, listening to Jonah snore.
(Yes, Jonah snores)
Aside from the
lessons, Sunday and I have tried to be fair about who gets up and who
sleeps. Using an alternate,
I-kick-her-to-get-up and then a She-kicks-me-to-get-up, we transitioned from
feeding him in the middle of the night during this time period to him sleeping
through the night. I started bragging
that I could only hear him if it was my turn to get up with him, but as soon as
I said that to anyone, my ability to hear him in the midst of my
unconsciousness left me. I realized
that, in the middle of the night I am not a father or a husband: I am a-sleep.
Regardless, Jonah
began sleeping through the night during his second month, with hallelujahs
echoing throughout the bluegrass.