Recovering

Last week sleep deprivation hit pretty hard, as I'm sure is evident by the total lack of blogging. Kate's sleeping for about 2 - 2 1/2 hour stretches. The whole eating process takes about 45 minutes to an hour. So, that leaves very small chunks of time to close my eyes. Daytime and nighttime began to blur, my computer threatened to blow up from too much bad TV (it's amazing how much bad TV there is to watch -- thanks Hulu!). I have now watched all the episodes of "Lipstick Jungle" and "Sanctuary" to date (If you've never heard of these shows, that is very telling as to the quality), and have started watching "ER" and "Grey's Anatomy" again. The fact that I am putting up with whiny Meredith just goes to show how desperate I am for entertainment at 4am.

So yeah, last week was a little rough. But, after a few minor break-downs, we're settling into a rhythm. Thanks to Daddy P, I am now getting a little more sleep at night. At first we tried out the whole daddy-bring-the-baby-to-the-breast idea. For me, this cut out the burping/diaper changing/occasional clothes changing/putting down of the baby leaving me at a mere 20-25 minutes of feeding (down from about an hour, or in the case of a gassy tummy even longer). Which meant I was getting a 3 hour block of precious sleep at least once a night. Of course, the side problem was that both baby and I tended to fall asleep during this process since we were both lying down, so Daddy P had to keep us both awake to make this process efficient.

Although this was working decently, I was still crashing. Last week, our pediatrician said he thought now would be a good time to introduce a bottle, so we jumped on that idea. Daddy P has been taking the feeding that happens around the time he gets home from work (11pm), and I wake up just enough to pump. Then I've been taking the remainder of the night so he can sleep. This works absolutely terrifically when I can get her nursed, changed, and down and myself in bed to get sleep before 11pm (a surprisingly difficult task... last week we didn't go to sleep before midnight). I've managed this two nights so far, and have loved the bigger chunk of sleep. Even though I have to wake up enough to pump, this is small potatoes in the big scheme. Unfortunately, this plan is taking it's toll on Daddy P, so we're going to have to save this trick only for the nights he works late and maybe once over the weekend.

I promise as I now feel myself becoming coherent enough to carry on a conversation I will start making good on returning phone calls and emails... Thanks for the patience!



Thanks to Daddy P's sis for coming out and babysitting last weekend so we could have our first date since the baby! We sat by the lake, enjoyed a burger, and caught up on each others' life! Lovely!