A birthday miracle

Both children in my house are asleep, and here I am blogging. Any other day earlier this week, I'd be passed out in a coma. Why do I have enough energy to lift my head? Because I got SIX hours of sleep last night!

Matt is normally a great help, even at night, but this time it wasn't him who helped. It was nothing short of a miracle.

For those who don't know, I gave birth to a screamer. Thomas is a sweet little baby- very alert when he's awake and not angry, strong enough to not only hold up his head, but already rolls, and he has beautiful eyes that are already looking to be a deep brown like his papa.

But when he's mad, the kid is mad. He can go for 12 hours at a time without taking so much as a breath. Every night, he does his scream for at least 4-5 hours, but for many of his 13 nights of life, he has gone the full 12. Usually he starts in the evening, and goes through morning. This has caused Anne Marie to wake up in the night screaming, and she ends up in our bed as well. And, Matt has had some late night shifts lately and it's impossible to get Anne Marie to bed with a screaming newborn. When Matt came home from work on Tuesday night, Anne Marie was collapsed on our bed, having finally fallen asleep at 11:45 p.m. I was downstairs in a chair holding screaming Thomas and crying my eyes out, blubbering something about how we had ruined Anne Marie's childhood by having kids 2 years apart.

But on to happier times. Yesterday was my birthday, and it was nice and quiet. Anne Marie, Thomas and I went to playgroup, then Matt and I dropped Anne Marie off at day care for a couple of hours to take a nap (it's her last Wednesday at day care until I'm off maternity leave, so I figured I would use it). We picked her up, drove to IF to look at cars, then went to my mom's. My mom and brother were taking us out to dinner for my birthday, but I was scared Thomas would blow. After all, it was his bewitching hour. But I nursed him until he was so full he could burst and hoped for the best.

The kid slept through dinner, then woke up long enough to be happy and cute for his grandma while I enjoyed cake and ice cream. We got Anne Marie in pajamas, got into the car and left. Both kids fell asleep in the car. We got home, I took the carseat with Thomas in it and put it in the bassinet. I didn't want to ruin the moment by moving or even unbuckling him. He slept for two more hours, until 1 a.m.! Then, he didn't wake up with a scream- he woke up with a polite little cry. He nursed while I read a couple chapters of the Kite Runner. I figured I'd be back to the book soon enough. But he slept another three hours! We had a 5 a.m. version of the 1 a.m. feeding. I woke up again at 7:45 a.m., but Anne Marie and Thomas were asleep. Poor Matt had to go to work at 5:30 a.m. - Home Depot is trying to kill him. I, however, had time to take a shower and eat birthday cake for breakfast before Anne Marie woke up at 8:15. Thomas slept until 9 a.m. I was so thrilled that Anne Marie got birthday cake for breakfast too. It was a morning to celebrate. :)

Here's hoping tonight is just as good. I apologize for the rambling post. I'm drunk on sleep!