Middle of the Night Rendezvous

"She rises also while it is still night and gives food to her household and portions to her maidens."  Proverbs 31:15

People love to ask me that notorious question that you feel obligated to ask all parents, "so how much sleep are you getting with the new baby?"  Surprisingly, I'm getting 6-8 hours of sleep.  On a typical night, I only have to get up once to feed the baby.  And sometimes that once is at 6 or 7 am--daytime for a lot of people.  Unfortunately, pre-baby I had grown accustom to sleeping 8-10 hours each night and getting up at 8 in the morning.  So for me, getting up for an hour during the night has completely messed up my "normal" routine and makes me feel like a zombie.  

I'm not really worked up about the sleep issue these days, because I know it's probably temporary.  My oldest started pulling all-nighters at 5 weeks; my 2nd child at 10 weeks; and Baby G has had a few good nights already by 7 weeks.  I'm confident that it won't be long until our middle of the night meetings are a thing of the past.

I must be honest though, I am not a night owl.  I like to sleep at night.  My body and brain just don't function as well between the hours of 1 and 5 AM.  So these days, when I hear crying at 3 or 4 AM, I get fussy myself.  And I get angry at my husband who is peacefully sleeping next to me, completely unaware that crying is coming through our monitor.  It's not that he doesn't help at night or isn't willing to help, but that he literally doesn't wake up to the sound of baby cries.  (I guess that's why our 4 year old screams "Daddy" at the top of his lungs on the rare occasions when he needs something at night.)

Anyway, when I get cranky at night, I find that it's a great time to meditate on Scripture.  (Doing this also helps me fall back asleep peacefully post feeding time.)  Lately, the words of Proverbs 31:15 keep coming to mind. "She rises also while it is still night to give food to her household..."  I doubt this was written to say that the excellent wife rises to feed a crying baby.  In fact, the Bible study I did a few years ago stated that there was a much deeper meaning to this verse.  But as someone who is getting up to feed a crying baby, it is nice to to know that the excellent wife in Proverbs did literally get up when it was dark outside and everyone else was asleep in order to provide food for her family.  At 4 AM, I feel like I have a soul sister! 

 

Until Baby G decides she can wait for the sun to rise before demanding food, I guess I'll be getting up for a few more middle of the night rendezvous.  And I'll keep reminding myself that this is what excellent mommies do!