Any parent can attest to the fact that after you have kids, sleep becomes a LUXURY. I was told this so many times while I was pregnant but I just kind of laughed it off and didn't think much of it. Then I gave birth to our beautiful baby boy on May 29th, 2011, a day that will live in infamy because, since then I literally have not slept for more than 7 hours at one time! and when I DO get 7 hours in a row (very rare) I feel like I have slept for DAYS. I never knew how much I took sleep for granted...now 9 months have passed and I know I will never take sleep so lightly again!
I was in active labor for 7 minutes shy of 48 hours. and when August was born into my hands, the adrenaline rush that followed was the greatest "high" I have ever experienced. When you have a natural labor, the hormones that help you cope with the pain rush through your body all during labor but especially right before birth and right after. I remember not sleeping at all during my entire labor (anyone who has experienced contractions knows that that is a pretty hard thing to do while having them) and then afterwards I was up for the next two days. Add into that the night I went into labor I went to bed at 10 pm and woke up at 2 am with contractions so I was going on only 4 hours of sleep. I had never been so exhausted in my entire life, yet my body would absolutely not let me sleep. All I could do was stare at my new perfect family while they slept cozily, snuggled into the soft, white blankets next to me. People kept telling me to rest, but I just couldn't get my body to shut down. I was physically and emotionally drained, but my mind was alert and I had adrenaline rushing through my body. It was the most crazy thing I have ever been through!
I was blessed with a GREAT sleeper. At the beginning- from birth- Gus was sleeping 6 hours a night, until I found out he was not gaining weight so we had to wake him up to eat every 2 hrs during the night. Now he takes 2 naps a day (usually 2 or 3 hours long each) and goes to bed at 8 pm and wakes up around 6:30 am (although lately he has had trouble staying asleep because he is teething!).
For the first 3 months of his life, I was breastfeeding Gus every 1-2 hours 24!!!! hours a day. Because he was having trouble gaining weight, I believed myself to be a selfish, bad mom and went on a mission to get him healthy and gaining. He did start gaining at about 3 weeks thank goodness but from there on out he was a voracious eater. Add to the mix the hellacious amount of pain I was in from breastfeeding and I was literally living off of about 2-4 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period. I learned very quickly how to function on that amount of sleep and even now I can function on that little sleep perfectly fine. Sad what my body has become accustomed to.
Once he started sleeping through the night (or sleeping for 6 hours straight), I found it hard to relax and settle down and once I got to sleep finally, he would just be waking up, ready to eat again. It is a vicious cycle!
Now that he is in bed by 8 pm (at the latest, usually it's around 7:30) I spend the next 4 hours eating dinner, cleaning, and spending some precious time with my husband. By the time I get to bed and fall asleep it is usually around 1 am. Since Joel usually grabs Gus in the middle of the night when he has been waking from teething and brings him into our bed to snuggle, I have been waking up between 6 and 6:30 am to a child either poking at my face, licking me, or standing up holding onto me and bouncing up and down all the while saying "babababababababa". At this point, I can only laugh and give up on ever getting sleep. I know all of you moms and dads out there know exactly where I am coming from. And if you are pregnant now, please take my advice and SLEEP, SLEEP, SLEEP. I am telling you, you are going to remember fondly those nights when you were actually able to sleep without a bouncing child next to you.
Beyond not getting sleep when the kiddo is up, it's pretty much the same story when he is asleep and you can finally lay down, or if someone takes him overnight. I find that since becoming a parent, I am a super light sleeper all of a sudden. I will hear him if he rustles through his monitor in the middle of the night. I will wake up if he moves 1/2 an inch while he is co-sleeping with us. I will lay there and listen to the monitor to make sure he is breathing before I go to bed. And the one overnight we have had without him?? Guess how much sleep I got on that night? (2 hours). That's right folks, Joel and I stayed up all night gambling at Spirit Mountain the ONE night we were free from parental obligations. I finally hit the hay at around 4 am and slept until 6 am and that was it for me. Sleep has now become a double edged sword. When Gus is awake I obviously can't sleep and when he's asleep, I can't sleep or am busy doing stuff that I can't do when he's awake. I honestly don't foresee myself getting much sleep in the next 10-15 years so I have just come to accept that fact!
On an end note, I am writing this blog while Gus is taking a nap. I didn't get much sleep last night and should be napping instead but did I? No of course not! Welcome to my world!
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