Opinion

I shouldn't complain...

Friday, October 15, 2010
Jared Jernagan

... but I'm probably about to.

And of course, I'm complaining about something I really shouldn't.

A warning to other parents of very young children: reading on may cause you to hate Jared Jernagan. He's completely out of line.

With that said, my son -- my 12-week-old son -- let me down today. I thought we had a deal, and then he broke it.

We've been going through the adventure of feeding him new foods. He's done very well. Besides formula, he's now a fan of rice, pears, apples and sweet potatoes.

He's not quite up to peaches yet.

The great thing about feeding him new foods (besides the rainbow of colors his spit-up has become) is his sleeping pattern. I've heard horror stories about babies who won't sleep for more than an hour or two at a stretch.

Not our little boy. From his earliest days home from the hospital, he was always good for four at a stretch.

Since we started adding more substantial foods? He sleeps full nights. Seven, eight or even 10 hours can be in play some nights.

I've grown used to it.

So when he reverted to waking up at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, I thought nothing of it. He'd gone to bed earlier on Tuesday, and Nicole's alarm goes off around 6 anyway.

But then he dropped a bomb on us this morning: 4:30 a.m.

I dutifully changed him, zipped his pajamas back up and put him back in his bed. Certainly he couldn't be hungry yet.

Wrong! Within minutes, Nicole and I were back up, with her fixing a bottle and me preparing to feed him.

4:30 a.m.? Really? I think this baby has a future as a farmer or perhaps a CEO. I just lack the desire to ever be up at 4:30, unless I'm still up from the night before.

But then again, I must say we've been pretty lucky so far. We have a happy, healthy baby who is a delight to be around. And he lets us get good sleep most of the time.

It's just that he might be getting us spoiled.

I suppose that's only fair. We do our share of spoiling him.

Jared Jernagan is the assistant editor of the Banner Graphic.