Dexter has been sleeping at night, for the most part, in 3 hour stretches. That has made life pretty easy with at least 6 hours of sleep generally between midnight and 9 am. Then there was last night - it was by far the most challenging night so far. I didn't take a nap in the evening as I usually do because a) I wasn't tired b) Mr. Cobra was coming home from work and I hadn't seen him all day AND c) I was foaming at the mouth for a new dish our doula was cooking for dinner. I had 2 stretches of 3 hours of sleep, so if I went to bed at 10 pm, I'd be fine. The next thing I know, it's 10 pm and Dexter is wide awake.
When he is awake, it is totally mesmerizing. He is in total awe of the world around him, so I cherish every moment that I can stare into his giant baby blues and get a funny grin. He likes to look around and last night he was intensely watching me take off my hat. I like to grab his little hands and feet and wiggle them around. He likes it too. Time slips away and then it's midnight. Our doula heads off to bed as I start rocking Dexter to sleep.
Usually these awake states only last a couple hours. He has gone 3 hours before, but it was during the day, so it was fun. This was at night and I was starting to get very tired. I had meant to go to sleep at 10 pm, but I couldn't resist the awake time with him. I figured that he would go to sleep after I nursed him an he'd get milk drunk. Yeah right…
He didn't go to sleep, I turned down the lights to give him less to look at and rocked him. Time passed… 1am… 2am… he still wouldn't go to sleep. I nursed him again and again, but it still didn't work. I laid him down and he proceeded to scream and wake up Mr. Cobra and our neighbors upstairs. We burped him, swaddled him, rocked him, but nothing other than sucking on our pinkies soothed him. We tried giving him a pacifier, but he just spits it out because he prefers our fingers. Squee was whining and sometimes barking. It was the classic "life with a newborn" scenario.
After a couple of hours, Mr. Cobra needed sleep, so he went to sleep on the couch. I totally was a mess. The first real meltdown I've had. I was so tired I couldn't focus and kept falling asleep with him propped up with my legs. Dexter was in his totally calm awake mode and even gave me his longest laugh yet, but I couldn't enjoy it because I so desperately tired. Every time I laid him down, he'd scream bloody murder. Finally, I tried nursing him again. After 40 minutes at the breastaurant he was finally drowsy. The lights went off at 3:36 am.
