Contemplating Sleep

Sleep is overrated.

I mean, think about it. How many of us function on much less of it than we should?

Remember being able to live with four hours of "Zs" a night back in college? Okay, me neither, but I have it on good authority that there were people who could. And they still appeared coherent the next day, too.

Me? Without enough sleep, I feel like I'm living in a fog. And drinking extra coffee or tea is no help at all. Somehow I get an instant "down" from too much caffeine.

Having a newborn in the house has caused a definite sleep deficit for me, and it's not because he's up at all hours of the night. I've been blessed from the start in that he's only waking once during the night. But that "once" usually comes after only being asleep for a few hours...and then getting to sleep for only a few more hours before I need to be up for the day. So a 6- or 7-hour stretch of sleep eludes me at the moment.

Still, I'm not complaining (well, not much anyway *wink*) since I know that this, too, will come to an end...all too soon. Afterall, my other two kids -- aged 10 and 7 -- are sleeping quite happily through the night and have been for many, many years now. Ethan won't possibly need a middle-of-the-night feeding when he goes off to college... Well, he might, but he won't be crying out to me for that XL pizza. There are cellphones and computers for that.

You see, after watching the other two kids grow so quickly -- in a "blink of an eye" really, literally, actually -- I know that this guy will follow suit.

Time goes by incredibly fast when you have kids.

With the first one, there's a sense of dread, as you think you might never get back to "normal." But the subsequent ones remind you that you are already back to normal -- a new normal that will once again include sleep at some point in the not-to-distant future.

So I will enjoy it now...while it lasts.

It won't be much longer that my little guy will be gazing into my bleary eyes in the middle of the night, gently clinging to my pinkie and happily sucking down his bottle. Before long, he won't need me anymore. He'll be enjoying his nighttime dreams and moving on to new thoughts and loves.

And it's at that moment that his wing buds will appear...