We Made It

Andrew’s semester officially concluded today at 11:30 when he arrived home for lunch.  The last few weeks have been brutal with a never ending list of deadlines topped off with a baby that won’t sleep in decent stretches.  Last night Andrew worked on his last paper until 3am and woke up by 8 to finish it by 10am, and bless his heart took care of Nathan during the night so I could sleep for more than two hours (a first in about two weeks!) while he was awake anyway.

I’ve been amazed at how well things have gone and how the mood in our home has been maintained despite these stresses.  Andrew gets a lot of credit for setting the tone in our home, and I’m getting better and following suite after living with him for almost five years. I’ve discovered some blessings to sleep deprivation on this round:

We laugh a lot. We are little bit sillier. There are lots of jokes, and many of them probably aren’t that funny, but we giggle anyway.

I listen better. My brain is too tired to formulate thoughts and interrupt, so I just take in what the other person is saying and then figure out what to say.

Andrew and I have had a lot more time together thanks to our middle of the night wakings with Nathan. It is like lots of dates all night long. Side note: two nights ago I heard Andrew breathing weird and was concerned until I realized that is what he sounded like when he is sleeping.  I haven’t heard sleeping Andrew in a long time!

I am productive. I don’t like the days to pass slowly so I fill them up.  Emily and I have been deep cleaning together and having a great time. I have a bunch of little projects getting finished up and excited to start more.  They key here is that thinking isn’t required, or that the planning has been done ahead of time when I did have a more rested brain.

I slow down and enjoy. Sometimes my head is spinning and I just can’t take another step or think another thought, so I sit on the floor longer than usual and just enjoy being with my kids. I enjoy the simpleness of just watching them and having little interactions.

Yesterday was a miracle that we made it to the end of the day standing. Really it was. But here we were at bedtime, all happy and enjoying life together.  Andrew patiently sat next to us with complete glazed zombie eyes while I pushed back bedtime to take pictures of these incredible kids.  I’m just so grateful they are in our home.

My mom made this incredible patchwork quilt for Nathan. I love everything about it. He scooted himself all the way off it – backwards crawling here we are!

Emily is wearing Nathan’s shirt. She was helping me switch out his clothes to the next size and tried some of his shirts on. She likes petting Nathan’s head.  Lately she calls Nathan “Bud”, “Buddy”, and “Babe”.

And this is the moment when they saw dad.