Sleep...

Another one of those things that you don't realize how much you love until it's gone! Don't get me wrong, I've always known I like sleep, but when you have a newborn and are fighting fatigue all the time, you suddenly cherish the "long ago" days of a full night's sleep!

I think one of the biggest ways it affects me is in my lack of patience. Now, this is not a good thing with a newborn and a two and a half year old! Kyle seems to be constantly asking for things and wanting help with something or other. Normally, this would be fine, but if we've had an especially bad night, I get cranky about it. I found myself apologizing to him yesterday for getting frustrated with him - it really had nothing to do with him. There's nothing like apologizing and then getting a big hug and kiss though.

I know I have trouble at night with Nathan too if he falls asleep when he's nursing and appears to be "out" and then wakes up. I have actually now gotten into the habit of putting him to bed and then checking my e-mail or something for 10 minutes because I hate getting in bed thinking he's asleep only to have him wake up as I'm drifting off. Last night at one point we were up for an hour and a half because he kept falling asleep and then waking up when I went to put him to bed. I ended up coming into the living room and turning the lights on to try and keep him awake. Of course, that also meant I could watch last night's episode of "The Bachelor" that I had taped - haven't seen the ending yet to find out who's gone!

Of course, this time with Nathan, I also can't just go back to sleep in the morning when he does. Kyle is still getting up at about 6am when Daddy is off to work, so that means I'm up too! This morning he was up at 4:45am for some reason though and never did go back to sleep. I managed to sleep from 5-6am until George left, so I got a little extra sleep after being up twice last night with Nathan. Let's hope Kyle has a long nap today!

I sure notice a difference between the way Kyle and Nathan nap at this age. Before Kyle was born, everyone told me how much babies slept, but were they ever wrong when it came to Kyle! He napped during the day, but it was about 15-20 minutes at a time and if you got 30 minutes that was a "sleep" for him! Nathan is more "typical" I guess you could say in that he does actually sleep for stretches during the day. I use that time to do things with Kyle or get a few things done around the house.

Kyle certainly has slept well since though and I can't complain about that. He's also still napping when lots of the other kids his age that we know have stopped. I have read that kids his age really do still need a nap and am glad he's stuck to his because it still gives me a break in the daytime too. You'd think I might even be able to get a nap in there too on a day when I was really tired, but the boys seem to have this sixth sense and when one naps, the other is awake and vice versa! Oh well, I have to say that things are much better than the first couple of weeks when I was sore from the C-section and Nathan had his days and nights backwards! Everything seems to change at some point - usually just when you think you've got it figured out!

Colleen