Sleep

"My parents were not the type of people who went to bed at a regular hour. Sleep overtook them, but neither the time nor the idea of a mattress seemed very important. My father favored a chair in the basement, but my mother was apt to lie down anywhere, waking with carpet burns on her face or the pattern of the sofa embossed into the soft flesh of her upper arms. It was sort of embarrassing. She might sleep for eight hours a day, but they were never consecutive hours and they involved no separate outfit. For Christmas we would give her nightgowns, hoping she might take the hint. "They're for bedtime," we'd say, and she'd look at us strangely as if, like the moment of one's death, the occasion of sleep was too incalculable to involve any real preparation. The upside to being raised by what were essentially a pair of house cats was that we never had any enforced bedtime..." - intro to Full House by David Sedaris, from the book Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

A pair of house cats. That's what Jon and I were before we had Dex.

Like any good developer, Jon can function for extended hours without sleep. But, after that project has shipped or after that list of bugs, fixed, celebrations usually involved alcohol and consequently, a long sleep, whether in bed or his recliner in the basement. I think he told me once that he slept for 12 hours straight. Now that's sleeping in!

I have a slightly different relationship with sleep. Not too many extremes like Jon, but I had my own quirks. I am, or was, by nature a night person. I got a whole lot of things done at night -- thinking, writing, whatever. As a rule, I never scheduled anything between 2 and 3 pm because that is absolutely the lowest point of my energy level. During university, I scheduled no classes then and when I started work, I avoided meetings during that time, primarily to save myself the embarrassment of nodding off and drooling in front of my colleagues. If I needed to be awake, caffeine was my best friend indeed.

But -- unlike David Sedaris' mom -- when I did sleep, I absolutely loved my bed! Great sheets (cotton in the spring/summer, flannel in the fall/winter) and an open window for a nice cool breeze whatever the season, were all I needed for a beautiful sleep. At least six hours a night and I was a happy, functioning person the next day.

That was then. This is now. If I count my pregnancy days, I don't think I've slept well for over two years. At first because of the discomfort of the bulging belly, and later...well, scroll past previous blog entries for other reasons.

Last night, I had four glorious, unbroken hours of sleep! The baby monitor was on but I slept through every fart, rustle, whimper and gurgle that Dex made during the night. I felt slightly guilty about it (what if anything happened to Dex during the night!!), but I guess my body really needed the rest. I never, ever thought I would find four hours of sleep as a luxury.