Sheepdog and Wolf
Hannah woke promptly at 2 a.m. as I took over from Janette. It reminded me of the Warner Bros. cartoon with the sheepdog and the wolf, both clocking in together, initiating the daily routine of wolf-tries-to-steal-sheep and sheepdog-tries-to-stop-him.
"Hi, Hannah."
"Da."
We both clocked in. I checked Hannah and her bed; both were wet, wet, wet. Taking care of Hannah at night is probably familar to anyone who has raised a child. We're still in the everything's wet phase of early childhood development. Add an all-night, continuous feed and mouth breathing, and you've got wet, wet, wet.
I took Hannah out of bed while I changed sheets, shirt, and diaper. I gave her a breathing treatment (she has gotten whatever virus Gabriel was sharing). I turned on a soothing video and then returned her to bed. Wide-awake, she watched the video while I disengaged to give her some time to sleep.
She popped up into a sitting position in bed and gnawed on a bed rail.
"Hannah, lie down, please."
She smiled at me. Compliance was unlikely. She had gotten my attention.
I helped her back into a sleeping position, and I ran to the kitchen to refresh my coffee.
She popped back up into a sitting position.
"Hannah, lie down."
Now video time was over. The radio was on instead: one of her many cues that it was time to go back to sleep. I gave her back her pacifier and we rinse-wash-repeated this routine for a few more cycles.
Now Hannah's eyes are shut, but she's tossing and turning, still trying to avoid sleep as her body begins to agree with me. In our sheepdog/wolf world, we are just about ready to clock out for a few hours' nap. I'm just not sure which part each of us are playing: who is the sheepdog and who is the wolf?
-- Dad
