Early AM

So, this is nothing new for me to be posting at this hour, right?

But I'm not posting b/c I've been laying awake thinking, stressing, or otherwise unable to sleep... I'm awake 'cause I have a newborn and he needed to eat and I fed him some boob and changed his diaper. (Well, actually, I changed 3 diapers in 30 minutes- I think exposing his sweet ass to air and then covering it again with a fresh diaper causes him baby diarrhea. Either that, or he has a the instincts of a wicked jokester...)

This is the 3rd consecutive night of the 3 hour sleep cycle.
For 3 weeks, the nights looked/ felt something like this:

Feed at 8pm... baby sleeps 8:30 to 9:45...
Baby spends time grunting, groaning whining, rooting...
Start feeding between 9:45 and 10 pm... baby sleeps 10:25 to 11:45
Baby spends time grunting, groaning whining, rooting...
Feed at midnight... and basically 2 ish, 4 ish, 6 ish
Moms spend time grunting, groaning whining, and generally being fussy...

The problem of course being that he basically slept 2 hours at a time b/c he fell asleep during or immediately after the food and care offered to him, but Kt and I were only getting 50-90 minutes of sleep at a time b/c we had other things preventing this type of instant gratification... Like, hand washing after diaper changes; general hygiene such as cleaning up excessive amounts of breast milk that had inadvertently spewed out of the NNIU (Nipple Not In Use) or sponging off the sweat that soaked my clothes and bedding during the brief naps- what kind of hormones cause this type of sweating in a sleep cycle that is barely an hour long?!? And then of course the 10 to 20 minutes of wasted sleep time used to track/ observe/ obsess over Newborn JB noises or lack of noises...

Mommy 1: (tap, tap, tap) Babe, is all that grunting normal?
Mommy 2: Huh? (shaking self out of sleep) I don't know...
Mommy 2: Now why is he so quiet??? Is he breathing?
Mommy 1: I'll check. (sticking hand in front of infant's face causing a startled grunt out of infant)
Mommy 2: (hearing startled grunt) Oh, good.
Mommy 1: But that grunting... Is it normal? Is he in pain? Do we have to unclog his nostrils?
Mommy 2: (half awake, half asleep) Don't know...

But for three nights now... he is sleeping three to THREE AND ONE-HALF hours at a time!!! He is accomplishing this at least 2 times during the middle of the night... which gives us three or more hours at a clip! TWO OR THREE TIMES A NIGHT!!! Plus, we are getting smarter and are finally able to coordinate solo night-time care... taking turns getting up instead of both of us getting up to care for him together.

Anyway, I'm going back to sleep right now. But it is so easy to function with a tiny bit more sleep. I'm gonna make a leap and say that doubling your amount of sleep does not always make you more effective. For instance, if as an adult, you are getting 7 or 8 hours a night, I don't think increasing that amount to 14 or 16 hours will make you a higher functioning being. (It might actually make you pee or poop yourself- which we all can agree is not an indicator of high functioning.) BUT, increasing the sleep you are getting from one or 1.5 hours to 2 or 3 hours...

WOW.

My temperament is much more balanced: changing a diaper 3 times in 30 minutes becomes an adorable pleasantry... looking over at a sleeping wife is very endearing again- and not something that makes me want to commit homicide. I'm ready to start doing physics in my spare time...