Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Sleep

Sleep.
Do not take sleep for granted.

If you are recently married, with no kids or single you are not going to relate to what I have to say. This is going to sound like whining and it probably is. Last night, Thomas the Angel started fussing around 1:00 am the fussing did not stop. Nursing helps while he is on the boob, but once he gets off, fussing. Rock him in the rocking chair, the fussing stops. Stop rocking, the fussing begins. Think he has fallen asleep and you are in the clear. Nope the fussing starts again.

Thomas is our third child. They are all under the age of four. Heidi and I have had maybe three good nights of sleep since we started this adventure called Parenting.

When Heidi was pregnant with Merry we started to hear the rumblings, "sleep now", "your life is going to change" and so on. We thought we were prepared. You can not be prepared!

In the beginning the shock of the responsibility is so great that the lack of sleep goes under the radar. 4 or 5 weeks in you start to wonder "what is going on?" "am I ever going to sleep thru the night again?" The answer is NO.

Heidi and I have become so conditioned to being awoken during the night that even if, by the Grace of God, they all remain quiet throughout the long night, I wake up any way and use the time to lie in bed worrying about stuff, business, the mortgage, the dogs, whatever.

My parents inform me that it doesn't get any better. There may be a lull between the ages of 5 and 15, then the real worry begins.

How do you function? In the beginning it is very hard. You feel sorry for yourself and want to take a nap all the time. Eventually you get used to it. Operating on 3 or 4 hours of sleep becomes commonplace. Like a Navy Seal.

So if you don't have any kids, congratulations on your full nights sleep. If you do have kids I know who you are by the bags under your eyes.

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4 Comments:

Blogger Peter said...

I have been reprimanded for using the Term "Boob" when referring the Mommies Milk Delivery Device. I will try to be more pc in the future.

7:11 AM EST  
Blogger Peter said...

On the topic of sleep. It started at 2:00 am this morning. Merry woke from a bad dream. Putting her back to bed got Thomas's attention back to sleep around 3:30 u[p for work at 5:45.

7:13 AM EST  
Blogger Peter said...

I almost made thru the entire night tonight. 2/2 I wasn't disturbed until 4:00am whem David woke up needing a drink of water. I rested comfortably unti work. Heidi reported that Merry woke up at midnight and that she had to attend to Thomas twice. I slept right thru

7:47 AM EST  
Blogger Staci said...

Ha! My husband is a PRO at sleeping right through the wake ups. But I say fair is fair. If there's not a nursing needed, then every other time is his turn and I jab him in the side with my elbow till he hears the crying on the baby monitor.

Welcome to the blog world. I just saw your comment on Stitching in the Buff and thought I'd check it out. I won't even get started on the boogers things cause I could go on and on... Ha!

3:44 PM EST  

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