What is Heaven?

If you ask Biblical scholars, they will tell you it is God's address. If you ask the women in yogurt commercials, it is strawberry Yoplait® Lite. But if you ask me, it is 7 hrs of sleep - which I can proudly say I got last night.

We implemented a few countermeasures to young Benjamin's routine last night to ensure that he falls asleep at the proper time and stays asleep - they seemed to do the trick. The real litmus test will be tonight and tomorrow night and the nights leading up to his college going away party. I won't bore you with the minutia of what we changed (different time, different sleep location, no swaddle), the important thing is that a pleasant night was enjoyed by all - unless you are the breastfeeder (she's a trooper).

I never really needed very much sleep to function at a high rate, in fact I used to pride myself on how little sleep I needed. In college, I was the first one up clanging the cereal bowls together and the last one clanging the midnight snack cereal bowls together. Sleep was actually a bit of a nuisance, it was the thief that stole primo hours from my night to read/play/watch/do/think. But now, I love me some Zzzz's.

Now if I don't get proper sleep for an extended period of time, I get headaches. Migraines that would put a water buffalo down on the ground. You seen the Hulk? It's like that, except my clothes don't rip apart and the only muscles that bulge are in my temples. You ever had a headache that made you throw up? Welcome to my world. For about a year I got a garden-variety migraine once a week, but I had to work so I dealt with the pain. But every now and then, like a sighting of Bigfoot or the appearance of Brigadoon (kudos if you got that reference) I will get a migraine so off the charts that the only relief is A.) Ice pick to cranium B.) find a cold bed with zero light in the room and shove my head into a pillow.

I give you all of this setup because my Benjamin induced sleep debt was reaching critical levels, not because of him or Emily, it has just been a shock to the system. I would hate to subconsciously link my pain to my child, but that's the way we humans work. When are vitality or sanity is compromised, pushing us to our primal edge, we lash out. You can see this behavior in action at your local pizza buffet on a Friday night.

So let's review: Yogurt, good. Headache, bad. Sleep, heaven.