Thursday, December 28, 2006

Blessed Sleep

One of the most ludicrously misused phrases is "Give it the old college try," which in my experience means to procrastinate, pull an all-nighter to finish an assignment, collapse around 4:30am. oversleep and miss the class, and eventually drop that class and lie to my parents about needing a different level of french in order to graduate on time.

Another misused phrase is "Sleep like a baby" - a phrase most certainly coined by a man who never, ever, actually had an infant in his home. Last night, my 3 week old daughter "slept like a baby" - she nursed from 12:14-12:36am, woke at 2:30am but went back to sleep in my arms until 4:03am, when she woke in earnest, pissed off, and nursed from 4:06-4:25am. Back to sleep, swaddled tightly to avoid the amazing startle reflex, until waking with an amazingly loud fizzle in the old diaper around 5:40am, when she was treated to a clean diaper and more swaddling. Back to sleep and up again at 6:49am, ready to nurse.

This was our best night yet.

Perhaps the true miracle of motherhood is that I'm able to talk to her in soothing tones, lightly stroking her soft cheeks, even while I feel sick with exhaustion and wonder how I will make it on a few hours of crap sleep yet again.