Three weeks and three-plus hours

That’s how long we’ve been a family of five and roughly how many consecutive hours of sleep my wife and I get a night. And to be honest, it’s not bad. I’ve always been one to live by the mantra “sleep when you’re dead,” so having kids, more specifically three boys, makes that possible.

Over the past three weeks, Austin has steadily increased his alertness and the time he spends awake every day, though my wife is home all day with him and can further verify this claim. Once nighttime hits, the bedtime routines are in sight, and I’ll be honest—most nights she does it herself, further proving she’s one of the most patient and best people I know (one of the reasons I married her). Getting three kids to bed is no small task.

When I am home at night I get a glimpse into the routine.

It usually starts in what will eventually be the boys’ room, where she’ll feed Austin while reading books to them all. Then our oldest climbs to his top bunk or G gets placed in his crib, the order sometimes varies (when I’m home at least) all the while Austin is likely passed out in a milk coma or simply content with being full.

He’s not a very fussy baby by any means. In fact, he’s probably the most chill of all three. But currently, our older two boys both sleep extremely well throughout the night and have yet to be woken up by baby cries.

This week, despite my mantra, the lack of sleep has definitely set in, however. There’s really no choice but to push on. The first few weeks you get by on adrenaline and excitement, but it’s bound to catch up. And it has. Both of us were pretty wiped out this week, but she’s got the harder job by far. She’s got to tend to a newborn who’s attached to her 80 percent of the time—eating, sleeping, sometimes both—and a rabble-rousing 2-year-old who never stops moving or wanting to read Thomas books.

It’s a challenge. But it’s a challenge we’ve got to take head on, even though the majority of the time our heads are spinning.