Archive - Sep 4, 2008

I've been thinking a lot lately about sleep. I can't complain at all about a lack of sleep due to the new baby - Amy has been absolutely amazing in taking care of Grace pretty much exclusively, leaving me to 'sleep through the night'. Have I been sleeping through the night? Sadly no - not for a long time.

I've never, ever, had a problem falling asleep. It generally only takes me a few minutes to fall asleep after laying down. Add alcohol into the mix and that drops from a few minutes to a few seconds. :) However, just because I fall asleep easily doesn't mean that I necessarily stay asleep or that I will wake up feeling rested. I can't remember the last time I actually slept through the night. I typically get up at least once in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and generally speaking, when I get up in the morning, I normally feel quite beat instead of rested.

Things were actually worse just before Grace was born - I was getting up in the morning feeling absolutely exhausted for some reason. I attributed this mostly to the fact that my activity level had dropped off significantly (pretty much completely actually) - I wasn't running or cycling at all and was generally being quite lazy. I started to get back on track shortly after Grace was born, getting out for runs with Ellie, but then I got hit with seasonal allergies and that has essentially taken me out of commission. I went to the doctor (for an unrelated reason) and she pretty much confirmed what I was thinking - that I needed to get off my ass and start exercising regularily again.

And while I'm talking about sleeping, I have to mention my son Liam, who has always been a really good sleeper. Liam started sleeping through the night (from about 2130 until 0500 I think) when he was about 6 weeks old. As he got older, he would sleep for longer periods until he got to where he is now - sleeping 11 to 12 hours a night. I compare this to friends of Amy's who have kids that are the same age as Liam who still don't sleep through the night. Liam is a very active young boy - pretty much on the go the whole time he is awake - and I hope he stays that way for the rest of his life. Thinking along the same lines as above, I'm sure his activity level contributes to how well he sleeps. I can't explain why he started sleeping so well when he was just a baby though, since he wasn't very active at the time. I guess it's just one contributing factor - I'm sure there are many.

I'll tell you one thing, I'm very grateful that Liam sleeps the way he does...I don't think I could handle it any other way. Here's hoping that Grace will pick up on Liam's good habits. :)