I distinctly remember leaving the hospital with Sloan and as the nurse wheeled me out, she patted me gently on the shoulder and said, “Good luck, honey and enjoy it. Motherhood is a thrill, but exhausting. You won’t sleep well again for the next 20 years.”
She then packed me into the car and waved with a bright smile as Lee and I pulled out of the parking lot, our eyes saucer-wide. I looked back at the sleeping baby in the back seat and thought, “Whatever. All those books I read said he should be on a sleep schedule within 8 weeks. Two months and we’ll be sleeping all night again.”
No, it’s fine. You can laugh. Go ahead, I’ll wait…
I have been at this motherhood thing for almost a decade now and I can say with certainty I haven’t gone a single month in the last 118 months where I have been permitted to sleep well every night. People…I am exhausted. E-X-HAUSTED!
I mean, it’s awesome. Don’t get me wrong. If we’re being honest, you should know that I was never a great sleeper to begin with. There are stories that my parents like to tell of me not sleeping at all when I was a baby. Oddly enough, they tell these stories with a tiny bit of glee whenever I mention the kids keeping me up all night….
Between bed wetting, nightmares, random fevers, falling out of bed, the dog barking at phantom shadows, the power tripping which sets off the alarm (C’MON!!!!) and down the list it goes, I am exhausted. Right now, I don’t want a month of uninterrupted sleep – I just want one week. Just a week!
Heck – I’d settle for a Saturday morning where I got to sleep until 8:00.
Or…you know what? I’ll just take another cup of coffee. It’s the best I can do for, well at least for the next 15 years, right?
While I sip my Cup ‘O Joe, you can enjoy these pictures. They make the sleepless nights totally mostly worth it. (You’ll notice Landon is missing from all these shots. He is the one with the fever who woke me up at 4:30. Tia is the one who fell out of bed. I’m going to need two more cups of coffee.)
*wink*
Oh how I wish I could tell you it will get better! You, my dear, did very little sleeping the first year of your life. Your “naps” lasted at the most, 30 minutes. You were just very curious and so afraid you would miss something if you closed your eyes. When you did sleep, you woke up very early. We put a full length mirror in your room, situated where you could see yourself, and you would wake us up talking to the baby in the mirror! By the time you are in your 60’s and the kids are gone and you think you can sleep as much as you want, you find yourself wide awake at 4 a.m. (Or never falling asleep until 5 a.m.) This summer, we will do a house swap when our hubbies are away and you can sleep as much as you want!
I like how you think. 🙂
Sadie slept well last night? Dingo de Mayo.
Last night, yes. A few nights ago…not so much. :/