Sleep Deprivation
“What does exhausted mean?”, Jedi asks.
“Really tired”, I reply. “Like Mommy. Mommy is exhausted.”
It could be worse. When Buzz was a baby, bed time was a nightmare. In order to get him asleep, we had to hold him and sway upright. Side to side, side to side. At times, there was a little bit of a bounce or rocking motion thrown in for good measure. This dance would last for hours some nights. He would be passed back and forth between J and I, as one of us gave up, crying in frustration (that was usually me). Until finally. Finally, his eyes closed. Then, there was the matter of laying him down without stirring and if he did, back to square one. I’m not even going to start on middle of the night wakings.
So I know it could be worse.
In comparison, Abby has been a decent sleeper. I refused to go through what we did with Buzz, so there was never any rocking or swaying or losing my ever-loving mind at midnight. I guess I’ve learned a few things this time around. Go figure.
What I’ve yet to figure out, however, is how to get a kid to slumber through the night before age 2. I’ve heard of it happening, I know it can, just apparently not in my house. Abby will shift and whine numerous times a night, always going right back to sleep once comforted, but that wakes me up completely in the process. I haven’t had a good night’s rest in… wait, what year is it?
Like I said, I know it could be worse. But if I don’t get a solid night of sleep soon, my brain may start oozing out of my ears.
I'm Crystal. A 30-something mom to 3 young kids living in the Midwest USA. When I'm not chasing my children, I'm a freelance writer and web designer. I like to tell stories from our days and share what we enjoy...
2 Responses
on September 18 2009
You know.. During those first weeks at home with Zoey.. I was running on pure adrenaline. So excited to finally have my little angel home with me and in my arms. I LOVED getting up in the night to see her beautiful little baby face. I would feed her, change her diaper, get her back to sleep and then drift off to sleep myself.
She has been sleeping for 12-13 hours a night since she was about 2 1/2 months old. And I’m totally thankful and I don’t take it for granted.. I promise! But if she wakes up earlier than usual, I feel DEAD. And TIRED. And want nothing more than to take a NAP. How do you get that adrenaline back so that you can get through the tough times like that??? They need to bottle that crap!
.-= Candace´s latest blog post: My back is broken! Help! Please fix! =-.
on September 18th, 2009
@Candace, Caffeine.
But in all seriousness, it’s amazing what you can do when you HAVE to. I don’t have the luxury of taking a nap or else Buzz will burn the house down, so I keep myself going whether I really want to or not.