The Good, The Bad and The Tired

When we bought Nathan home for the first time, it was one of the longest nights of my life. He was congested and had trouble nursing. So he was hungry and tired and inconsolable. I had to call my mother to come, at 5:30am, to come rescue us. I'm so tired, I remember saying. He won't stop crying! She came. We gave the poor kid a bottle. We all slept for a few hours and a tiny bit of sanity was restored. Getting past that night was huge. We learned a lot of lessons all at once and I knew right away that every night after that would be better. How could it be worse? (I was also dealing with the pain of a c-section on top of a new baby. Ugh!)

Right now, I'm wondering what will be our worst night this time around? We know so much more than we did the first time so we haven't wasted time on worrying about the small things that usually trip up a first time parent. (Like, should I give him a bottle if he's hungry or will that cause 'nipple confusion' like all the books say?!) We knew what the sleeplessness would be like. We knew there would be crying and messes and a little bit of madness. But it's so different when there is already a kid in the house. And that kid is sick.

I don't know how much sleep I did or didn't get last night. I just know I saw just about every hour on the clock. (Except 10p. I slept well from about 9:45 to 11:30. And that is pretty much the longest period of sleep I got at once.) Leo and I were both up. If it wasn't one kid who was waking up hungry, it was the other one hacking up a lung. Nathan has a cough that won't quit and has been accompanied by a very annoying whine and on and off fever. It was constant. All night long. At one point, all four of us were up and I had to force the positive out of the situation - at least I had some company at the wee hours of the morning. By 7am we were all in bed and got another block of sleep. But still, this day is going to be a long one and again I wonder, will this be the worst of it? The answer of course is yes and no. This may be the worst of it this time, this week, this cold we are fighting. But man, it could be so much worse. And may be at some point. But overall, we are healthy and happy and well taken care of. Even though these long nights really suck, we are once again learning lots with every mishap we have to deal with. And like I said, at least I have company along the way.