3am happenings around here

I happen to be an imagine-the-worst type of person.  Somehow knowing what that scenario is gives me a sense of calm and comfort knowing I could handle it.  So when preparing myself for life with a baby, I obviously planned accordingly.

My worst case scenario in this case happened to be me as a newborn: as my parents have reminded me time and time again, I was not the easiest of babies and adored being awake (and attended to!) in the wee hours of the morning.  While I certainly deserved an equally challenging baby, Samantha has been a fairly good sleeper (knock on wood!) giving me a luxurious 5-hour stretch most nights.  And being sleep deprived hanging out at home is nothing like trying to slog through a day at the office on minimal hours, so I do feel my worst-case-scenario preparation served me well in this somewhat large adjustment in my sleeping patterns.

Still, after 4 weeks of nursing, I was excited to be able to start pumping so I could hand the reins over to Stefan for a 3am feeding on a weekend night here or there.  We picked Sunday, August 24th for the big event.  

At 3am that morning, however, it wasn't Samantha that woke me up, but rather a 6.0 magnitude earthquake!

Clearly the universe didn't want me to get that full night of sleep. :)

While we've had earthquakes in SF while I've lived here, we've never had one this big, so this one was the very first I had felt.  I was paralyzed by the shaking and just sat in bed shocked as to what to do next.  Stefan, however, was (per usual) quick on his feet, grabbing Samantha and whisking her to safety.  Once the shaking stopped, we quickly looked up what to do next - could there be aftershocks?  should we stay in our house?  where was the safest place to be?  After a bit of nervous debate, Stefan checked our gas lines to make sure there were no leaks and we decided it was safe to head back to bed.  

Since I was already very up, however, I opted to do the 3am feeding and put Samantha back to sleep.  No point in wasting my (very precious) bottles in this scenario.

The next night, however, Stefan got his chance to do a sess with Samantha and she loved every second, taking the bottle like a champ.

I'm still nursing most of the time, but it's certainly a relief to know I can leave little Samantha without worrying she'll starve (and scream someone's ear off as my dad and Stefan know oh-too-well) and knowing Stefan can take over in the middle of the night should I be running on empty.  
Assuming we don't have any more quakes around here.

xoxo

KK