Tales of a Tired Mommy

Sleep is overrated. I am tough; I can survive on only a couple of hours. At least this is what I tell myself each morning as I stumble into the day with only a few measly hours of sleep behind me. Now I have done the newborn thing. I fully expected to get very little sleep in the beginning, what I didn't expect was:

- My second child who has been sleeping through the night very well, will suddenly start geting up 3, 4, and 5 times a night.

-The first time around you could nap all 12 times a newborn does during the day. With the second one you have 1 chance to nap and most days you are spending that time trying to wash the dishes, fold the clothes, vacuum, cook, and catch up on e-mails before anyone wakes up.

-When the newborn wakes up at 5 am I can feed him and he will fall back asleep for at least 2-3 hours, which means I get to sleep in. Except that my 2 year old has decided to become an "early riser" and burst into our room sometime around 6. There is no feeding her and putting her back to bed. Trust me, we've tried.

-My 2 year old wanting to "help" with the baby so that I can never leave the baby unattended where the other one can reach him. Which is everywhere. Which means going to the bathroom becomes a race to finish quickly before the baby is smothered, or hurt.

-That falling in love with a new little person is just as wonderful and exciting as it was the first time, and when it comes down it, totally worth the sleep deprivation.

I had also forgotten what lack of sleep does to your mind. Keys in the fridge, milk in the pantry, speaking in jumbles that no one can understand. Today while taking a most-needed shower I tried to shave with my toothbrush. The thing was, I knew that wasn't right, but I had to stare at my toothbrush for a full 2 minutes before I could figure out why that wasn't going to work.