Monday, December 30, 2013

Who needs sleep?

So it's 5:30 in the morning and I'm milking cows...WAIT. No I am not. Sorry, a little Weird Al Amish Paradise slipped into my strain of consciousness. I am awake, and writing a blog post. I just read pretty much every post Rachel at Finding Joy has ever written- and she's a genius. I don't have the words to construct mommy life like she does. But I read her To the Tired Moms post and it struck a chord.


When is the last time you, as a mommy, have slept through the entire night? Seriously- NOT ONE WAKE UP? Even if your kids are champion sleepers (which mine are when we are following our regular school-home-sleep schedule) you wake up anyway, I am pretty sure. Whether it's to look at the monitor, or check on a little one- you wake up. When you're nursing and bed sharing, even if it's to roll over and pop a boob out, you wake up. If your kid coughs like maybe he'll puke- you wake up. If he's (tonights saga) calling mama and saying "Stuff Nose! Stuff Nose! Water squirter on pweeese! (little dude wanted his humidifier on, apparently) you wake up.


It's been four years for me. FOUR FREAKING YEARS. I spent four nights in the hospital after J's birth- even though he had quality time in the nursery at night, I still woke up to pump, or chat with my nurses. I wouldn't even know what to do if I slept ALL. NIGHT. LONG. I spent four years in college and three in grad school, and I was always so tired. YEAH RIGHT. That was cake. This is real life. There is rest, of course- I couldn't teach all day and keep the house moderately (that's a stretch but go with it) tidy if I didn't have rest. Even if that's twelve minutes face down on the couch while the boys play nicely (i.e. don't try to kill each other) with cars. Still, that's not a night of uninterrupted sleep. Honestly, at this stage, I don't have a clue how my system would handle it. I think I would freak out, completely.

But that's ok. I've adapted. I'm cool with it. My little nuggets of love are well worth it, even if they are snoring besides me, just to rub it in.

No comments:

Post a Comment