My daughter had a hard night. She couldn’t get to sleep until after midnight, then she woke up at about an hour later scared and crying. That woke my son up. I really hadn’t hadn’t slept at all, but I stayed up all night with them.
I spent a few hours playing King’s Quest, a Sierra adventure game in the tradition of… Sierra adventure games, with my son, and we all had a blast with it, despite the fact that I was so tired.
I was reminded of how things were two years ago, right after my daughter was born. She had terrible infant reflux and could only really sleep by being held upright, so my wife and I took turns holding her in an easy chair in the living room. It would easy to be upset about something like that, after all, it is inconvenient, but our time with our children, particularly when they are young, is short and fleeting.
Eventually, my children won’t need me to hang out with them in the middle of the night when they wake up scared. Eventually, they won’t want to play games with their dad, or built legos, etc. etc. So it’s really a blessing to get a little more of that time, especially time that you aren’t trying to prioritize with something else, like schoolwork (I homeschool) or my own work.
It’s also good to just take some time to have fun. When I was having to hold my daughter for her to sleep two years ago, I was forced to not work, which is hard for someone like me who is generally focused on productivity. Instead, I had to occupy myself with media. I got to actually watch a whole series, and I got to replay Final Fantasy 7 after a long time. Last night I got to play King’s Quest. I rarely portion out my time to play games and have fun, so it’s sometimes good when I simply have nothing else I can do.
That’s part of why I’m enjoying playing through all the Final Fantasy games on my YouTube stream, because it’s time I can make specifically to play games that I really adore from the past (and the future, since Final Fantasy 16 is coming out). I finished Final Fantasy III on Tuesday and it was a blast!
I am independent artist, and despite having children (who sometimes don’t sleep), I’m able to put out books. Check out my book on developing your creative process below, along with some of my fiction.
Oh man . . . this brings back memories.
I hope your little one is doing better. I used to do this when my son was an infant and either couldn’t sleep, or would wake up really early. We had this routine: I’d wake up with him at 4:00 a.m. or whenever, give him a bottle, and he’d fall asleep for another hour or two. What would I do until then? I decided to play through the Final Fantasy Origins remakes of I and II, since I could play them with one hand while holding my boy. The last time I was really able to play an RPG.
1 Hand!
That’s actually a plus for the vita version of FF3 – I could play it one-handed while holding my daughter.
She’s good now, just goes through these phases every so often where her sleep is disturbed. You get it, I know.