Friday, July 9, 2010

Sleepingless Beauty


Every night, approximately every three hours, Tricky starts to stir and ask in polite gurgles for some food - this lovely window of opportunity lasts about ten minutes until his manners fly out the window and he decides he has waited long enough, thank you. I try to take advantage of this inbuilt warning system but in my tiredness I sometimes fall back to sleep (often after taking the doona off, so it's a cold ten minutes) so instead of being slowly woken by gorgeous coos I am ripped from my slumber by a blood curdling scream (I might be slightly exaggerating).

At this point Hubby wakes up. He doesn't hear the little whimpers and I'm not sure yet if that is a blessing or a curse – perhaps a blessing for him and a curse for me? We'd decided that now he is back at work I will do the night time nappy changes so that he can get some sleep (I'm already awake for the feeding session, why not change a nappy too, right?). But for Hubby, it's not as simple as just going back to sleep... I keep the bedroom light on when I'm feeding and, I'm slightly embarrassed to say, check my email and Facebook on my phone, then read a book. Hey, it can get boring! If I don't do this then it's likely I'll fall asleep while feeding and I have visions of Tricky rolling off the bed and breaking his collar bone like his uncle did at about the same age. Am I overreacting? Probably. Will I turn the light off and get over it? Probably not.

So Hubby is trying to sleep through crying, the light being on, me getting up and down plus the afore mentioned munching of snacks, then has to get up, get ready, ride his bike to the train station in the freezing cold and go to work. I don't know how he manages to stay awake and be productive. I can't imagine having to go to work and be “on” after so little sleep. Oh and I nearly forgot, when he gets home he makes dinner while I have a soak in the bath – yes, I realise I'm a lucky gal!

The division of labour in a household can be a sore spot for many couples, but add to that a breastfeeding infant and it can get, well, tricky. Part of me thinks “If I have to be awake to feed him so often then you should do everything else” while another part realises that this just isn't possible and the poor guy will burn out very quickly if he has to do it all. But at the moment, while he's happy to do it, I'm more than happy to lay back (in the bath) and lap it up.

How did you manage to divide the tasks with your partner when you had a newborn? If you're single, how the hell did you manage to do it alone?

1 comment:

  1. Divide? Umm well i was told he workd,the bread winner, so being a home mum was my 'job' he can stil come home and sit, chill out afta a hard days work, while i bath kids, hang out washing/fold washing, get school bags ready, cook dinner, clean up after dinner...then mayb sit down at bout 8pm...so techniclly my 'job' is a 16hr job..allowing 8hrs sleep, if i am lucky. I guess some couples like it differently, its what suits u both. I would love mre 'help' without having to ask- but afta almost 7yrs together...its not gona happen.. And i guess i have accepted that he has always had day to day things done 4 him, so its inbuilt, i married him faults/bad habits and all!

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