Scared of the dark
One of the things I worried the most about before having the tiny human was the night time. How would I cope with the lack of sleep. Would night feedings be hard? Would it be lonely? Would I sit up and cry in the dark because it was hard and lonely?
The answer to most of the above questions was ultimately yes, but not all the time.
I am not a night person. All throughout college, I went to bed early enough that everyone kind of made fun of me. 11? That was pushing it. 10? That's decent. 9? Now you are speaking my language. Because of my lack of night-owl-ness, I have never been overly fond of the dark. Nights do not feel friendly, they feel threatening and are not a place I want to hang out.
Enter the tiny human.
She was, most definitely, a night person when she came out. All tiny humans are. Well, they are pretty much round the clock people more so than night people, but they do love to party in the wee hours. Particularly when they are having some trouble gaining weight and you must wake them to eat constantly. So I found myself becoming very acquainted with the night hours. It was like the opposite of vampirism- I was awake, but I wasn't the one eating.
The first week, the husband woke up some with me, to help with diapers, helping me move around with my incision, or general moral support. But we both knew that wouldn't be sustainable when he went back to work. Our new system was for me to go to bed at 9, and for him to stay up with the tot until 11, at which point he would wake me up and go to bed while I fed her and put her back down. And then I was on my own until morning.
It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Don't get me wrong, waking up every 2 hours is by no means fun, but I only cried hysterically once in the middle of the night. So. That was promising.
There were a couple of key pieces to my nighttime coping strategy:
- Firstly, I started reading. I have a library card and can download Ebooks onto my phone, so I have a never-ending supply of entertainment. I read a ton of different books during the first few months, and a couple were so good that I would stay up even after the baby was asleep to finish the chapter. I've always been a bookworm, so reading worked well to help me stay awake.
- We keep our dimmable lights at 10% so I can see enough to change diapers without changing the lighting at all.
- I kept a huge glass of ice water by my nursing chair to keep hydrated. One of the nice, stainless steel ones that keep things cold for hours and hours
- I busted out the good snacks. I had a snack for every time I planned to wake up. Mini oreos, dipped granola bars, little bags of trail mix... anything that I could look forward to eating
- I kept a toasty blanket, burp cloths, pacifier etc on a cart next to the chair to limit the up and down (particularly early on while moving was less than super fun).
The actual night time routine and how it has changed since she was born is a whole different post, but for now you can know that I am no longer afraid of night feedings. But I am still kind of afraid of the dark. And recently bought myself an adorable cat nightlight. Because I'm a grown up.
The answer to most of the above questions was ultimately yes, but not all the time.
I am not a night person. All throughout college, I went to bed early enough that everyone kind of made fun of me. 11? That was pushing it. 10? That's decent. 9? Now you are speaking my language. Because of my lack of night-owl-ness, I have never been overly fond of the dark. Nights do not feel friendly, they feel threatening and are not a place I want to hang out.
Enter the tiny human.
She was, most definitely, a night person when she came out. All tiny humans are. Well, they are pretty much round the clock people more so than night people, but they do love to party in the wee hours. Particularly when they are having some trouble gaining weight and you must wake them to eat constantly. So I found myself becoming very acquainted with the night hours. It was like the opposite of vampirism- I was awake, but I wasn't the one eating.
The first week, the husband woke up some with me, to help with diapers, helping me move around with my incision, or general moral support. But we both knew that wouldn't be sustainable when he went back to work. Our new system was for me to go to bed at 9, and for him to stay up with the tot until 11, at which point he would wake me up and go to bed while I fed her and put her back down. And then I was on my own until morning.
It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Don't get me wrong, waking up every 2 hours is by no means fun, but I only cried hysterically once in the middle of the night. So. That was promising.
There were a couple of key pieces to my nighttime coping strategy:
- Firstly, I started reading. I have a library card and can download Ebooks onto my phone, so I have a never-ending supply of entertainment. I read a ton of different books during the first few months, and a couple were so good that I would stay up even after the baby was asleep to finish the chapter. I've always been a bookworm, so reading worked well to help me stay awake.- We keep our dimmable lights at 10% so I can see enough to change diapers without changing the lighting at all.
- I kept a huge glass of ice water by my nursing chair to keep hydrated. One of the nice, stainless steel ones that keep things cold for hours and hours
- I busted out the good snacks. I had a snack for every time I planned to wake up. Mini oreos, dipped granola bars, little bags of trail mix... anything that I could look forward to eating
- I kept a toasty blanket, burp cloths, pacifier etc on a cart next to the chair to limit the up and down (particularly early on while moving was less than super fun).
The actual night time routine and how it has changed since she was born is a whole different post, but for now you can know that I am no longer afraid of night feedings. But I am still kind of afraid of the dark. And recently bought myself an adorable cat nightlight. Because I'm a grown up.
