Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Killing Me Softly...With Lack Of Sleep

You can read as many baby books before the bundle arrives, but nothing and I mean absolutely nothing prepares you for the complete exhaustion. I was talking to Sarah Dauphinee the other day and she said that Louise was going to take Finn and go to a friend's house for the day, leaving Sarah to do whatever she pleases. Of course, sleep was the first thing she wanted to do. I have to admit, I was insanely jealous.

Even when Nate is sleeping during the day, I am constantly hoping he will sleep a few more minutes so I can get something else done. I was doing this so much, I had to make myself stop thinking that or I was going to wish his whole first months away in a haze of sleep. Nathaniel has been sleeping in our room but I am reconsidering this arrangement due to the lovely assortment of grunts, farts, sucking noises and mini-whines that he has added to his repertoire of sounds that he practices constantly throughout the night whether he is asleep or awake. His crib just seems so far away!

My favourite advice from people and the baby books is, "sleep when the baby sleeps". I obviously follow that at night. If I did that during the day, I would be wading in dog hair up to my ankles, I would be wearing the same undies for 2 weeks and we would be scooping food directly from pots into our mouths-as in nothing would get done. I am not a neat freak but I do draw the line at being embarrassed if someone drops by unexpectedly.

The good news is that Nate is sleeping on 4 and 5 hour chunks at night and I think I am just used to getting up at all times because exhaustion just feels normal now. I think things are looking up (or at least that is what I keep telling myself).


"Remember, this is just temporary"
-Sarah D

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