How Can You Sleep At a Time Like This?

Did you know that the most a newborn can sleep straight through is five hours? If you have a newborn that sleeps a straight five hours at night, you have a newborn that "sleeps through the night."

Ash slept through the night starting the day she was born. I, however, did not know that was the best I could hope for and tried to get her to sleep eight hours. It did not work. Finally I read a few books on the subject and found out I was extremely lucky. It was that night Ash stopped sleeping five hours at a time and switched to sleeping seventy minutes at a time. She was two weeks old.

Now, two weeks later, I am so very tired. She wakes up and wants to be fed, but she won't nurse laying down, or even semi-reclined. I have to sit up, arrange pillows, turn on a light and then feed her. She will nurse anywhere from ten minutes to an hour before falling asleep. I then have to lay her down and then lay down myself. Sometimes she will stay asleep, sometimes she will wait until I am laying down before waking up and crying. That is her favorite trick.

The worst was Thursday night, when she wouldn't let me sleep at all. I was up all night and on Friday I had a fever. It was a horrible day full of trying to sleep but not being able to and feeling like I had the flu and being very frustrated. Finally she stayed asleep when I put her down. I laid down and slept for fifteen minutes before she woke up. Drek stepped in to save me. He took her out of the room to entertain her so I could sleep. Usually when he does this he'll have her for thirty minutes max before she is hungry Drek has to wake me up. This time, I woke up three hours later.

I was shocked when I looked at the clock. It turns out Drek had put her in the car and driven around listening to classical music. She fell asleep and was still asleep when I woke up. He is so amazing.

We went to bed early that night and I was able to snatch little bits of sleep. My fever broke my Saturday morning and I was generally feeling better, but not so much better that I was able to handle Sunday morning.

On Sunday we had a voice message from the ward clerk, asking me to come into church twenty minutes early.

Um...no. I will not come in early, or on time, or late for that matter. I have a three week old baby. Why would you think I would bring that baby to church, especially in a stake where Swine Flu has been reported? She wants to eat when she is awake, which, like I said, at least every seventy minutes. Usually its all day every day. If this is exhausting at home, where I don't have to wear a shirt, I can't imagine how much of a nightmare it would be when I have to wear nice clothes and stay covered up. Yeah...I'll see you in January if you are lucky.