Here's what I've learned over the course of the past 5 1/2 weeks:
1. Sleeping. Emsley sleeps pretty great. She fights her naps during the day, which means that she crashes out pretty hard at night. Over the past two weeks or so, she has evolved from two-a-nights to one feeding during the night. Ever more occasionally, she sleeps between 10pm-4:30am. My alarm typically goes off a little after 5am, so I get up with her, and feed her for the early-morning feeding times.
Here's what I have noticed about my sleeping habits, though. I don't need much sleep - if I get around six hours of sleep a night, I'm generally pretty good (until I do that for 2-3 months, and then I get sick). But I have noticed that I have been in the habit of getting those six hours all at once.
The day Kami went into labor, we had been up since 4:30am. Kami because she couldn't sleep, me because Brown Dog woke me up because he was chewing his own rear end so loud, it disturbed my slumber. Her water broke later that afternoon, and we were up all night, and then most of the following day. At 10pm I was sitting on what felt like a liferaft (uncomfortable, and waterproof), had been up for 39.5 out of about 40 hours, and recall thinking, "This is odd. The room seems to be turning 90 degrees to the right." And I woke up three hours later, face-down on the liferaft, covered in drool - hence the "waterproof" note, it had pooled up just under my nose.
Anyhow, getting two three-hour naps puts the hurt on my day...
Which leads to the second thing I've learned...
2. It's not about me. I'm an only child, and Kami has spent the last 9+ years conditioning Only Child Syndrome (symptoms include feet-stamping and extreme pouting) out of me. But something has come over me, where I'm typically more than happy to just do things for Kami and Emsley. Whether that's laundry, dishes, cleaning bottles, or sterilizing pacifiers - it's all pretty awesome, because I get to be a dad and help Kami out. And it's almost a badge of honor to look like I'm one meeting away from falling out of my chair and falling asleep on the floor (I have learned to work through lunch, and then go somewhere cool and quiet to take a 20-minute nap). If someone at work asks, "Hey, are you okay? You just ripped that guy's throat out...quite literally, unfortunately." You can say, "Ah. Baby duty. I've been up since 3:45." And all is well. Having a child is a solid excuse for poor social behaviour.
3. Coming home from work to your wife and kid is pretty much the best thing ever.
4. I can't swaddle to save my life. But that's okay, because Emsley hates being swaddled. When she was first in the hospital, the nurses would swaddle her (because at one point I cried out at 2am, "Jeebus! It's like trying to put pants on an octopus!" They came in pretty quick after that. Kami may have dinged the button while I fought back tears.) and within five minutes Emsley would throw her feet up like a V-Up Roll-Up from P90X. I know that's from P90X because I've done the first week like eight times. Emsley, being, 9lbs 7ozs was obviously a little cramped. So she slept cross-legged. Having slept cross-legged for so long, she did not like to have her legs swaddled up. Even in her sleep sack - perhaps the greatest sleeping invention ever, seriously, I'd pay $67.95 for an adult sleep sack - she sleeps cross-legged.
5. Emsley is the perfect combination of Kami and myself. She's just so beautiful, just like her mommy. Funny thing is, Emsley sleeps with her arms above her head - like so ---->At night, I like to read for about 30-45 minutes before going to bed. So the other night, I went to bed after Kami did, and I leaned over to give Kami a kiss. And lo and behold, Kami's arms were in the exact same position.
6. This is going to be totally awesome. And I'm going to write about it more.
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