sleepless in omaha

Last night was my first sleepless night in a long time. Now don’t get me wrong, I have been awake with this baby for certain periods every night. But for the last two months or so, he’s spoiled me by eating and then falling back asleep. In 30 minutes, I’m back in bed. The days of the newborn incessant crying and not sleeping were over. Or so I thought.

Last night Brandon woke up at about 2:00a. He ate his bottle. And then he cried. And cried. And cried. And wailed. And wailed. We tried jiggling him, shushing him, sucking out his nose, feeding him more, changing his diaper again, putting on Baby Einstein lullabies. Nothing worked. Nothing even calmed him for more than five seconds. I asked Steve to go to Walgreen’s to buy some gas drops because daycare has our’s. He stayed, thinking Brandon would settle down eventually.

Eventually Brandon did cry himself to sleep. But then woke up a half hour later. And the crying and wailing was worse. Steve and I couldn’t hear each other talking over the noise Brandon was emitting. This time, Steve went to Walgreen’s for gas drops. But even that didn’t help. He continued to wail and cry until he cried himself to sleep again. We slept from 5:00-6:00a. And then it was time to get up and start our days.

I had a lot of nights like this when Brandon was still a newborn. But I didn’t have to work the next day, then. I could lay around in my shorts without makeup on and still be in my comfy bra. But this morning, I had to jump in the shower and do chores all while Brandon was wailing. Then I realized there was no way I could take him to daycare like this. Something was wrong. And I kept hoping he just needed to poop. The doctor didn’t open until 8:30a, so I called in late to work and waited.

And then, at 8:15a, he pooped. The second I finished wiping his little bottom, a huge grin spread across his face. He was finally better. I sang Nicki Minaj to him while I got dressed for work (she’s his favorite, or so I think). I dropped him off at daycare and told the girls to call me if he started back up. They didn’t call. He was fine.

Tonight, after Big Brother, I am going straight to bed. And if morning rolls around and I’m still in my bed, a grin will spread across my face like it did Brandon’s this morning. Working and parenting is hard work. There’s not enough of me to go around or enough time for everything that’s expected of me. If only cloning myself–like in Multiplicity–was an option.