“I love being parents with you,” I whispered as I snuggled up next to Daniel in bed and laid my head on his right shoulder. Daniel laughed. With his left hand he was rocking the cradle beside our bed in a desperate attempt to get our son to go back to sleep. It was 5:30 on Thursday morning, and we had spent the last half hour changing a messy diaper and then being peed on twice. Of course, Charlie also managed to get himself in the face, as well as give our bed sheets a nice shower, all while screaming his head off. (To answer your question, no, we have not learned our lesson about changing diapers on our bed.) And this was after he had already woken up at 1:15 and 4:00, refusing to go back to sleep until I nursed him, so I was exhausted. It was a flashback to the early mornings of those first few weeks back in June and July.

Perhaps we should learn our lesson about keeping Charlie out past his bedtime, which we did because the quick Kohl’s trip we made wasn’t exactly as quick as we thought it would be. Charlie fell asleep in the car on the way home, only to wake up not feeling tired anymore. So although I finally got him to bed at 8:00, an hour past his normal bedtime, he stayed awake talking to the ceiling fan and playing with his fingers for another 45 minutes. I guess that was what ruined his night’s sleep… and his mother’s. If only I could have been ready for bed at 9:00 myself, then I might have gotten four straight hours that night.

Speaking of Charlie’s bedtime, until a few weeks ago it had never crossed my mind that babies might not care about daylight savings’ time. Charlie had been ready for bed by 7:00 every night, so when we “fell back” last Sunday, he was ready for bed by 6:00. Over the course of this week I have been pushing him towards 7:00, which he has actually adjusted to very well. He can stay awake until 7:00 again now, but I still haven’t managed to convince him to sleep until 7:00. He’s wide awake and ready to go by 6:00.

Anyways, the point of this entry is that my husband is wonderful. That morning he switched sides of the bed with me so that he could rock Charlie’s cradle and I could go back to sleep. This didn’t end up working out and we ultimately caved and brought Charlie into bed with us for a blessed extra half hour of shut-eye, but he tried. We make a good team. After such a rough night, it’s just a little hard to remember while I whimper/whine, “Honey, can you please take care of him? I’m so tired,” that there’s no “I” in “team”. Oh well. Like I said, my husband is wonderful. And I love him.