The long and short of it

The shortest 60 minutes of my day: The one-hour period beginning at midnight, when I crawled back into bed after comforting Loaf, until 1 a.m. when she woke up again in need of more comfort. An hour? It felt like I'd closed my eyes for 5 minutes.

The longest 60 seconds of my day: The minute that passed from 1:16 a.m. to 1:17 a.m. after I put Loaf back down to sleep and tried to make an absolutely stealth, silent exit from her room, moving so slowly that only time-lapse photography would pick up the slow slide of each foot on the floor, praying with each second that she would sleep, stay asleep, shhh, sleep baby sleep, until finally reaching the threashhold and pulling the door closed behind me, griping the doorknob in my hand and letting it turn one milimeter at a time so there would be not even the slightest audible click as it came to rest in the strikeplate.