Facebook is all abuzz with messages about the time change and getting extra sleep tonight. The people making these posts clearly don't have very young children.
I was talking with a couple last week about having children, and how the single biggest change, apart from being responsible for keeping a small human alive, is that your sleep gets really screwed up, and it takes years before that goes back to normal. In fact, I don't even know when it gets normal. I recall being kindergarten age and coming downstairs on my own and watching Saturday morning cartoons, but I'm not sure when that started.
The first few months are the worst, of course, because your kid is on a three or four hour cycle of eating. Growing is hard. Eventually they start sleeping through the night, but they go to bed before 7 and end up sleeping until 6 or 7. In the toddler stage, they still get up early. For us, even though Simon has a bed he can get out of, he still wants us to come get him.
I have to admit that I have it easier. Since I have to work and can't take a midday nap with meetings and such, Diana typically gets up with Simon and I get up generally by 8:30 (perk of working from home). It doesn't help that I'm hard-wired to stay up late. We each take a weekend day to sleep in as late as we want, and that can end up being as late as 10 or 11, if there's nothing on our calendar.
It will be nice when Simon can get up on his own and occupy his own time. I just have no idea when that is. And the thing is, once I'm up, it's not like I mind spending time with him. I actually really enjoy it.
This weekend is made more complicated by the fact that Diana is sick, and we have the time change. We kept Simon up past 9, but that's no guarantee that he'll sleep in. Hard to say. The kid managed to get over jetlag the same day when we were last in Seattle.
No comments yet.