there's more than meets the eye

Dr Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

Robert Louis Stevenson’s masterpiece, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, presents the duality of human beings (we are angel, we are devil). I loved it when I read it in the 7^th grade, but didn’t fully realize the extent of its truth until having a baby.

Clay is going through what the doctor referred to (in more scientific terms) as the “4-month sleep regression,” a time in which a baby’s memory and mind are undergoing large changes and therefore he ceases to sleep. During the day (the time at which, conveniently, everyone else sees him) Clay appears to be the happiest baby on the block – cheerful, smiley, always laughing. But at night, behind closed nursery doors, he transforms into his altar ego – a far more dangerous, cranky, and terrifying being; one Mr. Hyde might even run from.

-Scott 

Note from Eleanor: I can’t believe you liked that book. 

sleep is overrated

Wishful thinking 

The great, late Warren Zevon sang, “I'll sleep when I'm dead,” a line I'm assuming was inspired by being a first time parent.

It's estimated parents lose roughly 350 hours of sleep within the first 24 months of a newborn's life, which literally makes me sleepy. The one thing people kept telling me when they found out we were expecting was, “Enjoy your sleep now.” I hated hearing it, despite discovering later they were right.

But some nights are better than others. And I look at it as bonding time. I’m away from the house most of the day, and so that moment around four o’clock in the morning when I’m rocking him to sleep is one of the few one-on-one times we have. “It don’t matter if I get a little tired, I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”  

Note From Eleanor: I have no idea where this is coming from. I’m the one that gets up with the baby.

*Picture of Clay taken by Kandee Lancaster Photography in Omaha, Nebraska.