Who Needs Sleep When You Got Love?

Noah update: last time Noah went to the doctor (3 weeks ago) he weighed13 lbs 6 oz, which put him in the 90th percentile for weight and the 150th percentile for cuteness. Most of the day he is extremely smiley, giggly, and is happy as long as someone is playing with him or carrying him around on their shoulder. He grabs objects pretty well now (another blogpost to come) and enjoys sitting up and just checking out his surroundings. Danielle started back at work this past Thursday, and will be working 3 days a week, in which I take care of the little guy. We are trying to postpone putting him in daycare and are still doing some tweeking to our schedules to work it out. She did awesome, by the way, being away from him. Missed Noah plenty, but excited to get out of the house and back swimming with her sea friends. Noah is also sleeping on average 10-11 hours straight at night without waking up.

That last part is just another blessing that Noah has instilled upon our lives. He may not sleep through the night forever, but for now, mom and dad are very thankful he is. Since he sleeps all night, he is normally awake most of the day with a few short naps. This has its up and downs as far as advantages go. For instance, this past Sunday  I woke up at 6:30am to take care of Noah while Danielle went to work. Knowing that I had to work nightshift that night at the hospital, I had planned on just taking my normal afternoon nap to prepare when Noah took his afternoon nap. Well...Noah had other plans. That little guy did not sleep for more than 10 minutes at a time all day, which meant neither did dad. So on ZERO sleep, I went to work that night.

The next morning when I got off at 7am, I picked up Noah from a friend's house and headed home. I had just enough time to take a shower before he woke up and was bright eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to be entertained.  So I thought, "No problem, I don't have to work tonight, I'll just sleep here and there when he does." Once again I'm starting to realize that a 13 week old baby controls my life, not me. Being well rested from his 11-hour sleep the night before, Noah has no plans on napping at all. The only time I could get him to sleep was if I was carrying him over my shoulder and constantly walking around the house listening to Jack Johnson (whom the blog title is stolen from).

In case you were wondering, in my opinion, no one should be allowed to take care of another human being on 36 hours without any sleep.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love taking care of the mancub. Even on no sleep, I still enjoy every time he smiles. I mean how can I be upset with my son, who is so happy to be with me that he doesn't want to waste a single moment by napping? Sure, at times I feel like taking care of a 13 week old healthy baby is more stressful than taking care of 3 critically ill patients. But hey, I guess that just comes with the job of fatherhood. So first week of daddy in charge, Noah-1 Matt- 0. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve to try. I think parenthood is one of the hardest yet most rewarding, and joyful challenges a person can ever go through in life.