Steve and I have been arguing whether we got lucky with this new baby or whether experienced parents simply make for easier babies. Steve takes the latter view and says he wants to take credit for how easygoing James is. I don't like taking too much credit for good kids because if you take credit for them being good you have to take the blame for them when they're not so good, too. I think the fact that we're not terrified of James definitely helps but I think he's just a more easygoing newborn than Paul was. Paul was a terrible eater; we used to have to undress him and put a wet paper towel on his chest to wake him up to eat because he'd fall asleep while eating. And in retrospect he was probably fussier because he wasn't as sated. James, on the other hand, can really put it away, and then he promptly sleeps for 2-3 hours at a time. More than once people have said "Oh, I forgot he was there."

This is during the day. At night it's a little bit more up in the air because he's still figuring out that nighttime is sleep time: like most newborns he perks up at night and wants to party. Steve and I divide our nights up accordingly: one person is "on" from 9:30 PM - 2:30 AM and the other person gets to sleep during that time. Then we switch and that second shift ends at 7:30 AM. If you're lucky, James will eat and sleep on his regular schedule during your "on" shift but frequently he switches things up and decides that he wants to eat basically the entire time, with maybe some projectile vomiting or nonstop noisy pooping (oh the noisy pooping!) thrown in for fun.

I'm aware that being guaranteed at least five hours of uninterrupted sleep per night is a pretty sweet deal for a parent of a newborn so I can't complain much. Even on James' roughest shift I don't feel that same deperate dark neverending void that I remember from my nights with Paul.

My only complaint is the bedtime deadline thing. It feels like right after we finally put Paul to bed it's time for us to go to bed--separately. Steve and I haven't slept in the same bed now for several weeks; we slept separately for a few days before James was born because, um, my snoring was so bad (I think it's clearing up as I gradually de-pregnantfy.) And then since then we sleep separately during our shifts.

The funny thing is that pre-James I wasn't going to bed much later. But there wasn't this feeling of GO TO SLEEP NOW IF YOU DON'T SLEEP NOW YOU'RE SQUANDERING YOUR SLEEP TIME--HURRY, HURRY, SLEEP! We could go to bed (in the same bed), I could read, we could watch a show, I could drift off. And I think right now, now I'm finally not pregnant and the weather is nice, I miss the possibility of having relaxing time with my spouse: every night we feel an urge to go sit outside and have a glass of wine by the fire pit and finally have a good talk, but just like that, it's time to GO TO BED!!!

But it's such a small complaint I might as well be complaining about having a baby in general, which I'm not. I'm adoring maternity leave so far this time around, my time at home and my good baby and my good fortune at my wonderful family. I think having a newborn in some ways is like being a kid again--your schedule is out of your control and you are forced to do things according to rules that are beyond your control. And just like a kid, even when you've got everything pretty much made, sometimes you still think, "I don't wanna."