One of the most common questions I'm asked as a new parent is "how much sleep are you getting?"
People who ask are usually expecting a fairly imprecise response, but thanks to my Fitbit Charge HR, I have data!
Mid-June is around when my sleep started being affected by the anticipation of parenthood, down to an average 7.3 hours/night. That trend continued into July with an average 6.75 hours/night.
A. was born in August, and that's when I hit an average of 5.5 hours/night. Most nights were well below that in the 2-3 hour range, and it was only because friends, family or my amazing wife would facilitate an occasional longer chunk that the average was as high as it was.
September got me back over the 6 hour mark, and by November I was almost getting an average of 8 hours. Mind you it wasn't always 8 full hours of deep sleep; lots of it was time sitting still in bed, anticipating A.'s next request for room service or entertainment. There's still plenty of that but the waits are getting longer, the sleep in between deeper.
Lest any of this sound like complaining, let me say for the record that even in the most groggy, disoriented, sleep-deprived times, I've loved it. As much as getting more sleep has been great, part of me misses those moments in the night when we conspired to offer nourishment, comfort and love while the rest of the world slept. They were some of the hardest parts so far, and yet she made it easy:
I’m a journalist, publisher, software developer and entrepreneur with experience as a founder and organizational leader. Work with me or learn more about me.
One thought on “How much sleep?”