We don’t know how long it took Sisyphus to roll the stone up the hill only to have it tumble back down, but we can only hope that the gods were merciful enough to give him enough time to make it back down the hill and look for a moment upon his accomplishment.

Gods can be fickle, though, so there’s no telling.

K and I, however, know exactly how long our little Sisyphus takes to complete one cycle: three to four hours.

L eats almost in a panic at first. She doesn’t give a sign she’s hungry until she’s starving. Then it’s crying hysterics. When she gets the breast, she goes wild, as if she hadn’t eaten for days.

That starts with feeding. L is a gulper. When she’s nursing, she’s literally audible in the next room — which means she’s getting a lot of air with her milk. This requires a couple of burping sessions during the feeding session, and one long one after.

Burping L is an activity in and of itself. It can take anywhere from fifteen to ninety minutes.

What follows can be either an extended awake period (which requires constant monitoring, as L likes to have a bit of pacifier when she’s squirming about, and falls into hysterics when it falls from her mouth) or a sleep session.

Sleeping is shortly interrupted by pooping — apparently, an excruciating process for a number of infants, our pediatrician says. Much of it is just gas, which gets the girl squirming, straining, and turning red as she tries to get it out. As with burping, there’s a simple method to help get the offending gas out: pump the girl’s legs against her belly.

Once the natural gas exploration and extraction are accomplished, L may or may not go back to sleep. If she does, it’ll be for a very short spell, because it’ll soon be feeding time…