Who Needs Sleep?

Last night my daughter developed croup. This happens fairly common in my house. I got it as a kid, my son used to get it and my wife always has some kind of cough. This is my daughter’s first bout with it though.

The croup came on very suddenly too. She was fine all day. We swam, with other vaccinated people, ate barbecue, made brownies, got cleaned up and enjoyed the day off. Even when we put her to bed we just figured she was tired, that was why she was quiet we all thought. And even when I heard a faint cough from her room around 11pm, my wife and I both assumed it was one of those nighttime coughs that people get.

Then 3am happened. We first heard her get up to go to the bathroom, which does happen from time to time. But when we asked what she was doing her response was very raspy. Then she scurried back to bed, obviously trying to hide her cough from us. About five minutes later I heard the whooping sound, almost like a seal barking, and I immediately knew what was going on. For the next two hours my daughter and I hung out in the lower level of our house while trying to go back to sleep. We had a painter coming over very early, so I was trying to get a hint of rest before having to do all my morning routine along with talking to the painter. My daughter eventually crashed a bit after 5am, but I was in and out of sleep the rest of the night and into the morning. I wanted to monitor her breathing and make sure she was okay. And she’s fine. She has croup, a sore throat and a runny nose. No COVID, no internal stuff, still has an appetite and is as feisty as normal.

What I’m more impressed about, what has kind of shocked me, is how my daughter and my wife and I have been able to function on such little sleep. Back before we had kids my wife had I averaged 8-10 hours of sleep a night, like most couples without kids. After we had our son we slipped to about seven hours a night. Then when my daughter came it was down to six and a half a night. But that works for us. That is a good night’s sleep. If I get more than eight hours now it doesn’t feel as good as it used to. I function better on less sleep. Last night though, I got four hours sleep, my wife was around three and a half and my daughter got about six. We are all exhausted. But none of us have napped. My wife went into the office to work today, and she’s crushing it as usual. I talked to her earlier and she sounded like she always does. She’s a boss. My daughter had a doctors appointment, we picked up lunch, we saw my folks, she played with my mom and we are currently waiting to get my son and her meds. I have obviously been with her the whole time, and I was able to sneak away for a 40 minute four mile run. That was my self care today. I wouldn’t have been able to do that in the past. If I had only gotten four hours of sleep my next day would’ve been ruined. I would have napped, at the very minimum, twice. I know for a fact that my wife would’ve taken the full morning off and stayed in bed. My daughter would’ve been a crabby mess, and she would’ve napped also. I’m just amazed at how the human body adapts and finds a way. It’s really cool actually. I don’t think the doctor could tell how tired we were. My folks said we looked a little sleepy, but nothing out of the ordinary. The people at McDonalds didn’t know how sleep deprived I was when I got lunch. It’s really neat how we adapt the older we get and when you have kids. It’s kind of incredible in fact. I am starting to feel a crash coming, but dinner, getting my son from school, getting the kids to do their chores and clean themselves and go to bed and then spending quality time with my wife will help me push through the muck right now.

I guess I just want to say that our bodies are cool as hell, this stuff makes me appreciate it and want to take better care of it and I’m just blown away at the adaptability. It’s remarkable.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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