My Husband, My Muse

There are two things you should know about Marcus. 1. He is my Muse. 2. He doesn’t mind. Really.

As you can guess we’re getting little to no sleep at the moment. If Alex sleeps more than 2 hours on end we’re lucky and, since she’s currently being bottle fed, both Marcus and I take turns getting up with her during the night. There is, however, a big difference between our waking up styles. When I wake up I may be cranky but I’m totally with it; I know where I am and what the task at hand is. In other words, I’m awake. Then we have Marcus who lands on the exact opposite end of the wakefulness spectrum.  In other words, he's not awake.

I haven’t written about Marcus’s propensity for sleep walking/talking recently though for a while it was definitely blog material. As it is, his actual sleep walking had dwindled to random, incoherent questions and chit-chat through the night. Now that Alex is here I’m getting the best of both worlds (and yes, I do find it highly entertaining).

One night I was woken up by a crying baby at 5:53 AM. Why, you ask, do I remember that exact time? Because Marcus also woke up and asked what time it was. I responded with “5:53” followed by a question of my own, “When did she eat last?” Marcus replied with “5:53.” “No,” I said “that’s impossible. When did we feed Alex last?” Marcus was certain the last time we fed her was 5:53. I gave up.  It was, after all, 5:53 in the morning and what time the baby ate last really didn't matter since it was clear she was ready to eat again.

Another episode occurred not when the baby was crying or making any fuss whatsoever. Marcus simply woke up, walked to her bassinet, and proclaimed that she should sleep in her own bed. “Why?” I asked followed quickly with “Are you sleep walking?” I was told in no uncertain terms that he was not sleep walking as he climbed back into bed and promptly fell asleep.

Finally, and definitely my favorite episode so far, happened just the other night. Once again, the baby was sleeping soundly however Marcus awoke and, I’m assuming, in his mind she was crying. I watched as he walked to the dresser where a pile of clothes was sitting and he began swaddling them. I asked what he was doing and got no response as he was very busy attending to the "baby." Finally, I asked “You know that’s not the baby.” Marcus didn’t seem to hear me but at the same time he bundled the clothes in his arms, gently cradling them, and walked to Alex’s bassinet and peered in. At no point in time did it seem like anything actually registered with him however he did walk back to the dresser, gently put the pile of clothes down making sure they were comfortable, and climbed back into bed.

Oh, Marcus. The good thing is I wake up every time he gets out of bed so I can stop him from doing anything too drastic…like diaper a pile of clothes. The bad thing is he’s diapering a pile of clothes.