Saturday, February 8, 2014

Adventures in Sleep Rewiring and Babysitters

On Monday night I had a Whole Night Alone to myself.  In a hotel, at that.  I had an early meeting in Ventura, and it would have been silly to have left at 5am to beat traffic to get there in time.  So after choir rehearsal on Monday night, I headed west to Woodland Hills, and thus cut my drive time by something like 75% (because there was no traffic).

So here's how I expected it to go:
11pm - arrive at hotel and check in
11:15pm - fall asleep
8:15pm - wake up
9am - leave for meeting

Here's how it went
11pm - arrive at hotel and check in
11:15pm - try to go to sleep
11:30 - watch an episode of Downton Abbey on my laptop
12:30 - go to sleep
2am - wake up
4am - wake up
6:30 - wake up
6:45 - give up on getting sleep
7am - go down and get coffee
7:15 - sit in a bubblebath watching more Downton on laptop drinking coffee
9:15 - leave for meeting

This was not what I expected, and left me very frustrated.  Then I realized that I should never have expectations of resting again for at least five years.  I will be much less disappointed if I just never expect to feel rested.  I suppose I am just wired to wake up all the time now.

That said, a friend did recommend using sleeping pills when I get a night off, and I shall be taking my Ativan with me on my next work trip, that's for sure.  And that trip will probably be in March.  Not like I'm counting down already or anything...

In other Baby News, we left Hannah with a sitter for the first time yesterday.  We found her through an ad she put up in the post office, but she had also sent me a note on care.com, so it was meant to be.  She's just a little younger than us, has two kids, and Hannah loves her, and lights up and smiles whenever she comes in.  Last night we went out to dinner, and were going to go bowling, but we realized after dinner that we were just too tired, so we went home and took a nap.  Not the most romantic way to enjoy a first date using a sitter, but it was needed.

Today she came over again, and we used the time to clean up around the house and yard, and just do some random stuff that we wouldn't have had time to do otherwise.  I heard Hannah fussing and fighting sleep at one point, and was going to go out and try to soothe her until I realized that this is what I was paying the sitter for.  I heard her reading stories, playing peek a boo, and singing songs until Hannah finally fell asleep, and which point the sitter left, her work done.  It was so nice to just continue putting laundry away and not have to worry about trying to get Hannah to go down for a nap.  I think we're going to use her about 10-15 hours a week now - one or two nights during the week to give us a break, and then some time on the weekends.  It's a luxury, but one that is worth every penny to our mental states.

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