Pillow talk

Before I birthed my child, I used to love to sleep.

On weekends, Josh and I would routinely sleep until 11 a.m. or later. I liked nothing more than to stay up late and then sleep in. If I had to get up before 10 a.m., there had better be money involved.

My friends knew better than to schedule brunch before 11 and usually, it was more like we were eating lunch.

And working from home made it possible for me to sleep until the last possible second during the workweek. When all you have to do is walk down the hall in your pajamas to your office, you can sleep pretty damn late.

When I was working late-nights a few years ago, I would sometimes work a 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. shift and wouldn't get to sleep until after 2. I would then sleep in until noon the next day. I was in heaven.

But since having Jack, I have adjusted my expectations. I now consider 9 a.m. "sleeping in" and that's only because someone else gets up with him.

Josh and I have had entire Let's Make a Deal-type conversations at 7 a.m. that consist of pleading, cajoling and the recitation of a mental spreadsheet of who has gotten up early when for the last six months.

On weekends, Jack still thinks it's a weekday, and really doesn't grasp the concept of "sleeping in." When he was a wee baby, we could get him to sleep until 10 a.m. on weekends by bringing him in bed with us. But now, he's quite chipper at 7 a.m.

For the last few months, we've kept the swing in our bedroom next to the bed. It's become the emergency exit. If Jack wakes up early, say before 8, we stick him in the swing and hope he is lulled back into slumber.

Most of the time, it works. This weekend, we got almost two more hours out of him. Saturday, he woke at 7 a.m. and the swing bought me another 90 minutes. I got up with him at 8:30 and Josh slept until 11:30 a.m.

Today, he got up at 7 and we got almost two more hours out of him, so Josh got up at 8:45 and I slept until 10:45, when he brought Jack in to nurse.

That means I got 12 hours of sleep. I can't remember the last time I was this well-rested. It's delightful.