We Are Sleepy

Well, here we are...almost four weeks into our parenthood journey with sweet Max. Talk about a crash course! When I was about seven months pregnant, I met with someone at my job who is a pediatrician, and he asked me how everything was going. I told him we were in the midst of our Birth and Parenting classes, and he laughed, saying not to worry...this baby of ours would teach us everything we would need to know. And very, very quickly. How right he was!!! There are so many aspects to being new parents that we have learned about over the last month that I plan to post about, but I'll start with the most obvious and frequently discussed of them all...sleep.

Sleep? What is that again? It's a dear old friend who is becoming a more distant memory each passing day. Although, I'm happy to report that we have made some progress here over the last few days after some trial and (a lot) of error. Sleep deprivation is something you hear about constantly from new parents, and it's no lie. But there are some smaller details rolled in that have been a surprise to both of us. The biggest one is that the lack of sleep we get isn't just from Max needing the usual feedings and diaper changes every 2-3 hours throughout the night. It's also due to the noises he makes when he IS actually sleeping. You'd be shocked at the decibel power of a tiny 7 pounder. He grunts. He sighs. He does this low, creepy Bevis and Butthead laugh: "Heh, heh. Heh, heh, heh!!" He sometimes squeals. He growls. He gobbles like a turkey. It sounds like the Como Zoo in our bedroom.   

So, what to do? Well, you can cry. Just kidding! Sort of. As far as the frequency of the feedings and diaper changes, that's a waiting game for the first few weeks. We learned that when babies are born, their stomachs are the size of a cherry. So, they can only eat so much and stay satisfied for so long. Luckily, as they grow, so do their stomachs...and hopefully, the length of time between feedings. This week, Max has started lasting as much as 4 1/2 to 5 hours between feedings about once per day. As for the barnyard noises, the solution that worked best for us was moving him out of the bassinet in our bedroom and into his own crib in his nursery. Max's pediatrician suggested this when he was 2 weeks old, but I hesitated to act on it.

I was worried I wouldn't hear him if he needed something in the middle of the night. I also sometimes do that crazy new-mom thing where I hold my finger under his nose to make sure he is still breathing. After a string of virtually sleepless nights, I began to think the doctor was onto something. The barnyard noises really faked us out for the first couple of weeks. We didn't realize that these sounds were normal for Max while he sleeps, and by jumping out of bed and picking him up at every oink or meow, we were actually waking him up and throwing off his schedule. So, we tried letting him sleep in his own crib this weekend, and it worked wonders. He is now free to make all the noises he wants while he sleeps...thus allowing us to sleep and not needlessly awakening him either. If he really needs something, he cries and the mommy/daddy radar kicks in right away. I also gave up my crazy new-mom breathing checks. Holding my finger under Max's nose can't be helping his airflow. 

Despite this progress, we still spend quite a bit of time awake each night. It's been a great opportunity to relive my childhood, teenage and college years by watching endless re-runs of Friends and Full House on Nick at Night. I remind myself all the time not to ever wish these days away. When Max gets older, I will long for the times when my sweet boy woke up in the middle of the night just to snuggle with me.   

I'll wrap up this entry with some of the pictures from Max's newborn photo shoot, done by our friends Kari and Brian. These were taken two weeks ago, and he already looks so different. Tired or not, everybody likes looking at pictures of cute babies.