Aitch has an ear infection, his first. His sleep patterns have been interrupted, so we got him down for his nap rather late yesterday, around 3:00 p.m. He protested at top volume for a few minutes, then suddenly dropped to sleep.

He did not wake up until 6:00 a.m. the next morning. That’s over 15 hours of deep sleep. He only moved once, around 7:00 p.m., when he sat up, looked around, and then flopped back down in the same position. I don’t think he even turned his head.

I spent the 15 hours alternating between relief at the unexpected respite from caring for a sick, crabby child, especially well-timed since I was sick and jet-lagged myself, and Husband had been holding the fort alone for days; guilt at my relief; concern that he must have lapsed into a coma; certainty that he had contracted African Sleeping Sickness, which I just saw on “House”; worry that I would wake him by prodding him to ensure that he wasn’t in a coma; and wonder that a human body could sleep that long.

I’m looking forward to the day when they make crib mattresses with embedded sensors that detect heart rate, body temperature, respiration rate, and blood pressure, and transmit it to your baby monitor. But then I would just worry that a leaky diaper would short-circuit it and electrocute the baby.