Thoughts

Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong.
George Carlin

Another Thursday which means another work week begins. Although this is going to be a shorter workweek as I am taking off Saturday, it is still time away from my daughter. Lately, things have been going along fairly slowly, or at least it seems that way to me. The overall excitement of becoming new parents is slowly starting to fade, our daughter is slowly becoming more a part of our daily routine. Actually, she is redefining our daily routine and in my wife's case she is becoming the daily routine.
Something that most child care books and most other parents won't tell you is how having a baby affects the couple with the new baby. My wife and I are beginning to experience how being parents is going to change our lives. Slowly, we are adapting and changing to fill these new roles. It is hard for me to put my finger on each and every change, most of them are subtle, but I can still feel that the changes are happening.
Perhaps there is a built in "honeymoon" period for new parents. The baby lets you get used to just being parents before everything begins to change. I wish I could state exactly what is different but I can't. My wife is now a mom and I am now a dad. However, it's much more complicated then that. Sometimes I wonder if my wife is ever going to get to sleep again, the real sleep that we both used to get where nothing would wake us up except a fire alarm. Now when I lean over to kiss her goodbye in the morning, the slight touch on her cheek wakes her up. Not only is she awake but she is able to have a conversation. When my wife and I were dating she rarely wanted to talk in the morning and never before her first cigarette and cup of coffee.
Her lack of sleep puts me in an uncomfortable position. After week one, I have been able to resume my normal sleeping patterns. The baby very rarely disturbs me while I am asleep, sometimes first thing in the morning but never at 3am. This is a good thing for me but a bad thing for my wife and on some levels she resents me for that. My wife would never say it, she would never act like it either, but it's just a normal reaction. "Every damn night I get up with the baby while he just sleeps right through it" is most likely a normal though in my wife's head.
I hope the baby starts sleeping through the night soon. It scares me to think what other thoughts I am going to be able to give my wife in the not too distant future.