Night Owl vs. Morning Man

This morning Eisley decided that getting up for a 7am screaming was in order. We think perhaps another tooth is breaking through? Justin was up and out of bed before I even comprehended what was happening and whether or not I was still dreaming.

This morning reminded me {for perhaps the 537th time} how lucky I am to have married a morning person.

We've established a system, rooted in the days when I was getting up at 1am & 4am to pump breastmilk, of Justin being the nighttime caregiver. In the early days, as an exclusive pumper, I tried to hold up to 2 red-eye breastpump sessions and getting up with Eisley, feeling like that was my job as mom. Unfortunately, that only made for an incredibly stressed and sleep-deprived Heather, which made everyone's life more unpleasant thanks to my grumpiness. So to help {as well as to tame the monster I become under such times of exhaustion} Justin turned into the "Midnight Mr. Mom".

As spoiled as I feel sleeping through any midnight fussing {which is rare now anyway thankfully} I am also SO thankful that Justin can handle this. He's a God-send in these moments. Whereas, if our roles were switched in that moment, I'm afraid to admit that I would be completley resentful. Why does *he* get to sleep?! Why is this happening to me?! I need more sleep! ... and probably in tears, too. Oh yes. I cry very easily when I'm overly tired. Just like my daughter.

As the mom, I feel like I just should be the one getting up with her in the early morning, but I'm like my own mother: a hard sleeper and incredibly difficult to wake up. When I do wake up, I'm usually not in a pleasant mood, and also very disoriented. It takes a lot of time to wake up when you're this sort of person. Justin has learned over the years {which by the way, we've now officially hit 9 years together!} to wake me gently. On Sunday, he woke me up for early church by stroking my cheek. Aww :-)

I usually spend the first 10 minutes of each day trying to disentangle my dreams from reality. {i.e. this morning was "Yes, you *did* watch a funny Lord of the Rings spoof right before bed last night on YouTube. No, you *did not* build an escalator in your parent's living room."} Such is the life of a deep sleeper/non-morning person.

Additionally, it never ceases to amazing me how Justin can bound out of bed at 6am and go cheerfully entertain our daughter. He goes from 0 - 60 in two seconds. Nice. I'm actually jealous. He's expressed similar amazement to me about my night owl nature, because on any given night I can easily stay up until 2am before getting tired. But that special talent is unavailing when you have an infant. {It mostly just comes in handy for your college years.}

I have to say after almost ten months {TEN MONTHS!} I'm still in utter disbelief everytime Justin says "It's okay, honey, you go back to bed." I usually ask - half asleep, "Are you sure???" Because Lord knows I wouldn't be that okay with it. He never complains, for which I am quite grateful.

So I guess this works for us. It does benefit everyone when I'm well rested, I have to say, and at least Justin and Eisley catch up on some of the bonding they miss out on while he's at work.

But, I concede: Justin is pretty much the better parent between the hours of 11pm & 8am.

PS - Have you seen my latest cakes?