Monday, September 18, 2006

I like the nightlife, baby

It doesn't seem that long ago that 10pm was the time of day at which I was getting ready to go out. Singing in the shower, open beer next to the shampoo bottle...the weekend started on Thursday. These days, if I'm not in bed by 10pm I panic. Not to worry, I still have an active nightlife. Here's an example from last night:

9:40 - Sarah has finally passed out after 2 solid hours of screaming. Sometimes I wonder where her little soul must've been before she came to us, that she would scream herself to sleep at night...war zone? Excited about the quiet, we go ahead and get in bed.

10:15 - I can't sleep.

10:45 - Why am I still awake? I'm exhaust....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

11:26 - I am awakened by the house-shaking sound of Kate attempting to cough up a lung. I lay in bed a few minutes hoping Jeremiah is tortured by it, too, and will get up and give her some cough medicine.

11:31 - Either he is asleep or he is doing the same thing as me and I admit defeat, get up, and bring Kate some medicine. She is laying in bed, eyes wide open, watching me. I think she's awake but when I try to get her to sit up and take the cough syrup I realize she's not. Creepy.

11:53 - Somehow that took me nearly half an hour. I fall back to sleep, wondering if nighttime minutes are shorter than daytime minutes.

3:30 - Sarah wakes up screaming (flashbacks?) As I am changing her diaper I think "this is fine, I can feed her and get another hour of sleep before the 5:00 alarm"

3:45 - She's done with her bottle in record time - yessss!

3:55 - She's spit up her entire bottle on me, herself and the floor. I put her in a clean onsie, wipe myself off and lay her down. I climb back in bed

4:00 - Sarah starts crying again. I pick her up and it turns out that wasn't the entire bottle she spit up last time. New onsie. We bounce on the exercise ball together until she settles down, I put her back in bed

4:15 - Jeremiah is quietly snoring when Sarah begins to cry again. I briefly consider jarring him awake with a knee to the back. What? I didn't do it!

4:41 - I put the restless Sarah, who it turns out still had a little of that bottle in her, in her swing and turn it on. I sneak away thinking I can catch a 20 minute nap before the alarm goes off.

4:49 - No, there will be no napping. She's crying again. She has a serious case of stinkbutt. I change her diaper again.

5:00 - Sarah is not crying, just making noises like she's thinking about crying. I change into sweats while Jeremiah gets out of bed. I grab Lola's leash and she and I head out into the darkness for a walk. I use my face to clear away the spider webs that crept up across the sidewalks overnight (yuck). I wonder if that guy I see inside the U-Joint is still at the bar, or already at the bar.

Party on, dude.

2 comments:

The Plaid Sheep said...

Dreadful. I would have been weak and kneed him in the back. I say have a decaf mocha latte as a reward for selfless service.

Interestingly, my days are sort of similar except that those children are 60 and 36 years old and should really have learned how to function by now.

Keith said...

Parenthood defines selflessness and heroism.