They say when you have kids, the party is over. But really, it’s the other way around. You may need that double shot of espresso after dinner, because your days of nightlife are just beginning.
Remember when you used to go out with your friends (where are those people by the way?), and stay up late? You were still guaranteed to be able to come home and crash hard — in a bed — without little monsters looming in your closet, until the next day.
Now it’s quite certain you will have to take one for the team and literally be the life of the party. You stay until the party crashers have all gone home and the mess is cleaned up. And the nights when you desperately need things to go right, they will almost always turn out inevitably worse.
You think it will end when your baby is no longer a newborn, and obviously yes, sleep does improve (from the zombie-like state you are in with a brand-new baby), but now you are subject to a whole new list of reasons your night will be interrupted.
Some of the causes piggyback on one another and therefore create a snowball situation. Watch out, avalanche area ahead. So here are just a few things that will occupy your nighttime hours even when your baby is able to “sleep through the night”:
- Comfort sessions
- Nightmares
- Injuries (yes, even surrounded by pillows they make it possible to have lots of blood)
- Exploding diapers
- Sleep walking
- Bed wetting
- Showering
- Wardrobe changes
- Cleaning of the bathroom (Probably most common after sickness or injury. But with boys, it’s just all the time. I’m sure you’ve always heard to never leave the seat up, but I would void this idea for your own benefit)
- Laundry
- Can’t sleep
- Trips to the potty
At first, my 3-year-old did not like me waking him up in the night. He would just sit on the pot and cry. But now, he is getting a little more accustomed to the routine.
When he goes potty in the night, I don’t give him candy, but I tell him he is my little star. Because he tinkles, tinkles in the night.
This seems to make him happy, as he likes to be the center of the universe. And thus far, we have done a lot less laundry and second baths in the night as a result.
Win, win situation.
Just keep in mind whatever or whoever is keeping you up at night, your nightlife is at a whole new level. You can party much longer and harder than your single friends. There is nothing like being a parent to give you a new level of night-time stamina. And we now have the ability to fully function and operate on an empty tank. This might be a skill that will come in handy as we embark on Part 2 of life (when the kids move out … or does that even happen anymore)? Or maybe then we will just hibernate each winter to catch up on all the shut-eye we have missed all these years?
I just know life has forever changed. I will never have a night when I don’t look up at the sky without thinking of my own little star, and all the epic parties we’ve had together.
