Midnight Feedings

The Bear is going through a growth spurt. The kid is taking off like a weed, and I'm trying my darnedest to keep up with him. He woke us four times last night to nurse. I don't know if it's humanly possible for a baby to tap its mother completely dry, but this kid is well on his way to doing just that.

DH gets up with me, the blessed man. He's really a superfantastic partner to me. He went on paternity leave for two weeks after Bear was born, and when he returned to work I promised him that I would handle the feedings on my own. I wanted him to get a good night's sleep once he was working again, and I figured I could take some sleep depravity since I was the one on maternity leave. (Love those afternoon naps with the babe!)

DH decided several weeks ago that he was going back to joining me in the nursery for every overnight feeding. (What a guy, huh?) So every time we hear Bear on the baby monitor, I leap out of bed as though sleepwalk-running from a towering inferno. DH is right behind me, mumbling and stumbling while he puts on his robe and grabs his watch. (We don't have a clock in Bear's room...why, oh why, do we not have a clock in there?) DH times the feeding and generally helps keep me awake while the Bear has his midnight meal. I usually end up falling asleep at some point during this bit. The ocytocin usually gets the better of both me and Bear, and we both end up cat napping during this little meeting. DH keeps us both focused, gets us back to bed without hurting ourselves, and does the 5 S's with Bear to get him back to sleep.

Were it not for my hubby being a highly evolved male, getting up with me to feed the baby, I'm sure I would have done any and all of the following things by now:
- put the baby back to sleep in the bathtub
- stubbed my toe so badly on the stumble back to bed that it would be a stump of its former self
- put a white turban on the Bear's head instead of diapering his fanny
and/or
- generally gone mentally insane from the sleep deprivation

DH keeps me humming along for these midnight feeds. Granted, he often falls asleep on his own watch, but that does not diminish the power of his protection over me and Bear. He makes the whole thing work, and for that I am eternally grateful. :)