Happy Almost Two Year Anniversary to Us

Katie and I celebrated our two year wedding anniversary a little early this year. On Friday, while Opa Pieter and Grandma Jo were still in town, we left Penelope and went out to a new restaurant, called June, to celebrate. It was a really nice place and a really good dinner. For the first time ever, I ordered the rabbit leg, which turned out to be even more adventurous than I thought. In addition to the leg, I received a mini rack of ribs (very cute), the liver, and the kidney. I bravely tried both the liver and the kidney, and they weren't too bad, but definitely weird. Also, when I made the dinner reservation, they asked if it was a special occasion, so at the end of the meal we got two glasses of complementary port. It was a nice way to finish our celebration, although it made Katie extra sleepy.

Pieter and Jo seemed to have a good time alone with Penelope. She gave them a little bit of fussiness, but was overall very well behaved. As usual, she was very happy to get her bottle. Now all of the grandparents have had alone time with Penelope.

So, since Penelope has taken up most of our time these days, Katie and I agreed that we wouldn't exchange anniversary presents this year. But, I wasn't fully satisfied with that, so I decided to give Katie a present that I didn't have to go out to buy. At dinner, I told her that I would give her two nights of sleep (two Saturdays back to back). For those two nights, I would be in charge of all of the evening feedings, so that Katie could try to get as much sleep as possible. I decided to sleep with Penelope down in the guest room, so that I would be close to my milk supply and Katie wouldn't get interrupted with the feedings. Last night was the first night.

Neither one of us was sure whether this would work. Would I actually wake up? Would Katie be too stressed by the arrangement to sleep? We both thought there was a very good chance I would sleep right through the hunger cries and Katie would wake up first, even from the second floor. Katie even made me set an alarm as a backup. Well, the end result was that the night was a success! Katie fed Penelope at about 9:30pm, and by 10pm Penelope was asleep and we were all in bed (I couldn't fall asleep right away).

Somehow, I managed to wake up at 1am (before Penelope), and I took the bottle out of the fridge in anticipation. By 1:45, Penelope was waking up, so I heated the bottle up and we started the first feeding. Overall, it was uneventful. Penelope would reject the bottle once it started getting cold, so I had to keep heating it up again (a little annoying). We had two diaper changes, and Katie got up to pump briefly. By 2:45am, Penelope was full, clean, and swaddled. Although she was still awake, I tried putting her down to sleep, and she fell asleep without problems. (That is her new trick, falling asleep on her own, but she doesn't always like to do it.) I, on the other hand, was now way too awake to fall asleep. I lay in bed for at least 45 minutes, then finally passed out. This awake time was definitely the worst part of the evening.

At 5:45am (a shocking 4 hours since the start of her last meal and 3 hours since falling asleep), Penelope began to make her wake up noises and succeeded in waking me up, too. This time, she was way ahead of me, and was starting to cry before I could get her bottle warm. Some bouncing held off the big screams, but she was ready to go once that bottle was ready. After about 1.5 ounces, she fell asleep, so I changed her diaper to wake her up and continued the feeding. By about 6:30, she was done and falling asleep again, so I swaddled her up and this time we both fell asleep pretty quickly.

Katie woke up during the second feeding, but went right back to bed. She got up for good at 8am, having slept for over 9 hours with only a short break. Mission accomplished! A well-rested Katie! (But a sleepy Jason.) I also have even more respect for what Katie has been doing every night for 6 weeks. I can't imagine what it was like when Penelope needed to eat every 3 hours instead of going 4-6 between feedings. Also, I'm super proud of Penelope. She seems to have figured out that nighttime is for sleeping, and other than the time when she was eating, she was really good about going right to sleep and staying asleep. I had visions of having to bounce her for hours on end during the night, but she was great. I guess she gets that from Katie, one of the world's best sleepers back in the day. Hopefully, next Saturday night will go just as smoothly.