"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Saturday, April 06, 2013

F = Fatigue

Fatigue. 

Comes standard with a new baby. Morning. Afternoon. Night. You're tired. 

The nighttime feedings. The diapers. The organizing and restructuring of your newly changed life. Throw in the fact that one of you is recovering from having a baby (and in Amy's case, another C-Section), and everyone in the house is sleep deprived. 

Honestly, this was one of the things that worried me the most about a new baby. I had flashbacks and bad memories of the boys, particularly Braden, when they were infants. Oh my, he was a handful overnight. He didn't sleep through the night consistently until he was nearly 2!  I'm not kidding folks, you read that correctly!  I remembered how exhausted we were with them both. And that was when we were young twenty-somethings. I was dreading the sleepless nights being a young thirty-something. Ugh!

Yet again though, I needn't have worried. Stella proved to once again be the exact opposite of her brothers. Those NICU nurses trained her well in her short stay with them. She at like clockwork every 3 hours. Scheduled and planned lack of sleep is far better than randomly occurring lack of sleep. These 3-hour intervals quickly turned to 4 and before we knew it, after about 3 months, she was sleeping through the night.  Seriously. I'm not kidding. 

She's been a great sleeper ever since. Sure, there are the random nights when she tosses and turns for some reason, likely teething or an illness. But even then she's not up all night. So our sleep patterns were not too horribly affected for very long. Plus we were both home over the summer so our daily schedule was far easier and we had the time for rest and relaxation when needed. 

Having experienced it both ways, it's clear which was the easiest on us. However, in retrospect, there are benefits to going through the tough times first. Surely it may not seem like it at the time, but it will pass and eventually become a distant memory.  That and you can use it later to remind your children of all the hard times you went through with them!  :)

All is well, 6/26 down, in Drosche Land.

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