Blurry Morning
It's 2 am. The alarm bleats me awake. I moonwalk down the hall, waiting for my head to catch up with the concept that yes, we're awake now.
Janette meets me in the hallway. I manage my typical crack-of-dawn nursing shift mumble, "How'd everything go? What's the plan?" Translation: when did both kids go to sleep (envelop algerbra for how easy/hard will the night shift be - will they just sleep through it, I hope?)?
Janette knows this. "Gabriel went to sleep about 11; Hannah, 12."
I've got both eyes mostly open now. Janette is bouncy with energy. I'm thinking one too many cans of Coke, but apparently this is the just-finishing-up-an-art-project bounce. I've now made it to the office - adjacent to Hannah and Gabriel's room. I sit down. Sitting feels good. Maybe my eyes can rest.
Janette follows me, dumping the medicine and toiletry status report. Lots of words are coming out of her mouth. Lots and lots.
"So, do I need to give her anything or is she set?" I ask, in summary.
"She's set until morning, and then I can..." Janette says. Wow, lots more words, I think. She's got lots of energy for 2am.
As Janette goes off to finish her project, I begin to blog as my wake up activity. Now, I think, Janette has headed off to bed (to be woken in a brief four hours). I am sipping apple juice and debating when to start the coffee flowing.
Thankfully, Hannah and Gabriel are still peacefully asleep.
-- Dad
Comments
Do you each take 4 hour sleep shifts every night?
Posted by: Terry at Counting Sheep | December 14, 2007 04:42 PM
Hi Terry,
Thanks for your question.
Generally, we get 90%+ of our nights covered by Hannah's fantastic agency, Children's Nursing Services (CNS). Much better than the prior service we worked with (worse case: less than 10% nights covered/month).
We do cover 3-5 nights per month, but they tend to cluster around holidays and staff vacations, so we've got 2 this weekend (last night and Saturday).
Janette and I try to be equitable. I do better on less sleep, so I get about five hours of sleep, then take care of Hannah from 2am -6:30am weekdays (longer on weekends). Then I go to work outside the home.
Janette covers until 2am and gets 4+ hours of bed sleep, then tries to nap during the day if possible.
As Hannah's health improves, we are looking down the road at less nursing next year (and none when she gets her trach out). A good problem to have, but we'll need to do some extra planning.
Posted by: Rob at Kintropy | December 14, 2007 05:37 PM