So you know all the surprises and challenges of motherhood that I've mentioned in previous posts? Did I mention that when you factor in no sleep, it pretty much defeats your spirit and you want to crawl into a closet and die, if for nothing else than the fact that you'll finally get some rest? Yeah.
No wonder sleep deprivation is a form of torture. BECAUSE IT SO IS. I had no idea what I was in for in this department. I was so focused on trying to keep the baby alive that I was wholly unprepared for how awful it is to be awakened multiple times in a night. Even if you end up spending less than two minutes soothing the baby back to sleep, you still have to wake up, haul your ass out of bed, be woke enough to get the baby to stop crying or feed the baby; doing this multiple times a night does not a functional human make.
"Sleep when the baby sleeps." Yeah, I don't know about the rest of you, but I got away with this maybe four times total. And that was with the assist from my husband in taking a shift so that I could get uninterrupted sleep. You moms out there doing it on your own: you deserve a billion dollars and a tiara made of diamonds and Ambien. It sounds like such an easy concept, sure, but it's not easy to execute whatsoever. It's kind of the biggest load of crap ever, right? I mean, if I hopped under the covers every time the baby went to sleep, food wouldn't have been eaten, dishes wouldn't get washed, breast milk wouldn't have gotten pumped, showers would not have been taken, teeth wouldn't have been brushed, laundry wouldn't have been done... see where I'm going with this? If you sleep when the baby sleeps, nothing else happens. Unless, again, you have help.
I'm very lucky in that my husband took paternity leave for three weeks after the baby was born. He basically took over all my roles in the house while I recovered from my c-section and kept the baby fed and breathing. But it was still rare that I had the chance to sleep much throughout the day when the baby napped, because again, that's when you do everything that you can't do when the baby is awake and needs you. Maybe other moms had an easier time with this aspect, but not me.
Now that he's 8 months old, the sleep situation has improved greatly. He is pretty much sleeping through the night now, with only a couple wakings to find his paci and once it's back in his face, he's back to sleep. Sometimes I take the opportunity to change his diaper if it's been several hours since he fell asleep, but in doing this I run the risk of him totally waking up and possibly having to nurse or rock him to get him back to sleep. Oh, and sleep regressions seem scheduled to happen just about every time you could potentially get comfortable with a good sleep pattern, so that sucks.
So my sage advice: get used to not sleeping. Get right with that, and maybe you won't be as shell shocked as I was when I embarked on the journey of sleep deprivation.
"Sleep when the baby sleeps." Yeah, I don't know about the rest of you, but I got away with this maybe four times total. And that was with the assist from my husband in taking a shift so that I could get uninterrupted sleep. You moms out there doing it on your own: you deserve a billion dollars and a tiara made of diamonds and Ambien. It sounds like such an easy concept, sure, but it's not easy to execute whatsoever. It's kind of the biggest load of crap ever, right? I mean, if I hopped under the covers every time the baby went to sleep, food wouldn't have been eaten, dishes wouldn't get washed, breast milk wouldn't have gotten pumped, showers would not have been taken, teeth wouldn't have been brushed, laundry wouldn't have been done... see where I'm going with this? If you sleep when the baby sleeps, nothing else happens. Unless, again, you have help.
I'm very lucky in that my husband took paternity leave for three weeks after the baby was born. He basically took over all my roles in the house while I recovered from my c-section and kept the baby fed and breathing. But it was still rare that I had the chance to sleep much throughout the day when the baby napped, because again, that's when you do everything that you can't do when the baby is awake and needs you. Maybe other moms had an easier time with this aspect, but not me.
Now that he's 8 months old, the sleep situation has improved greatly. He is pretty much sleeping through the night now, with only a couple wakings to find his paci and once it's back in his face, he's back to sleep. Sometimes I take the opportunity to change his diaper if it's been several hours since he fell asleep, but in doing this I run the risk of him totally waking up and possibly having to nurse or rock him to get him back to sleep. Oh, and sleep regressions seem scheduled to happen just about every time you could potentially get comfortable with a good sleep pattern, so that sucks.
So my sage advice: get used to not sleeping. Get right with that, and maybe you won't be as shell shocked as I was when I embarked on the journey of sleep deprivation.
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