When I was pregnant with my son I was amazed at the
advice that was given to me. Within the advice I
received from family, friends, and complete strangers
I discovered two very common themes. The first was
that my life would never be the same and the second
was to enjoy all the sleep I could get before the baby
came. Frankly, the idea of not having any sleep was
much more frightening to me then my life being
completely altered.
I am a person who cannot function without a minimum of
eight to ten hours of sleep. When I was younger and
had the freedom and luxury of lying around and
sleeping I could sleep for fifteen hour sessions
easily. I think that if it they offered an event
focused solely on sleeping for the Olympics I would be
the captain of the team. Unfortunately, a sport like
this was not offered and I’m afraid that the title of
that event would have been “lazy”. This is not exactly
the type of gold medal that one could have great pride
in so obviously learning that I would no longer be
able to sleep terrified me.
My son was born early one morning and following my
labor I proceeded to call everyone I knew to share the
good news. I took a shower and then curled my hair and
put on all my make-up for any visitors that might stop
by to see me. I was riding on an exhilarating high and
I wanted everyone to see how well I was doing with
this whole labor/mother thing. Of course a couple
hours later I was exhausted and slept the rest of the
day in my make-up and beautiful hair. I guess you
could call this my brief moment of insanity- a prelude
to many more. The rest of the day was spent marveling
at how perfect my son was, counting his toes and
fingers, and holding him. It truly was a wonderful day
being able to hold him for the first time. When
nighttime came I had decided to wheel my son down to
the nursery so I could enjoy a night of rest. Many
moms I had spoken to had said to really take advantage
of this amenity so that is exactly what I planned to
do. I was exhausted from the labor and primping and
all I wanted to do was sleep in perfect peace and
quiet. For some reason though the nurses kept on
wheeling him back into my room, disturbing my sleep in
the middle of the night, and requesting that I feed
him. I guess these nurses did not understand that I
could not function with broken sleep. In a daze I
would feed my son and then hand him back only to curl
back into bed until the next session of feeding came
two hours later.
During those first three months I read every book
there was to read on getting your child to sleep
through the night. I had friend’s who had children
that at the age of two were still not sleeping through
the night and I vowed that I would never be one of
those mothers. After much research into the art of
sleeping, we decided to try the ever popular Ferber
Method. Although the method was a difficult one for us
it truly seemed to be the most effective and after one
week of trying the method our son slept through the
night. I can remember the pure joy and elation I felt
and cannot begin to describe how happy I was. I’m sure
many mom’s remember waking up that first morning and
feeling that they had indulged in the most decadent
pleasure known to man- a full nights sleep.
My son is an amazing sleeper and although we have
those nights they are less frequent then they used to
be. When I see new mothers and hear about how little
sleep they get I have no idea how I ever survived it.
As a matter of fact, I think I have tried to block
this from my memory so that I can crazily do it again
someday. I hope knowing that it will end will be
reassuring to all those new mothers who are just
beginning the sleep-deprived journey. I promise that
there will be a light at the end of this tunnel. This
can be one of those many milestones you look forward
to, write in their baby book, and then prevail on to
the next hurdle. It is a sort of Olympic event, a
marathon stretch without sleep and then a surprisingly
sweet victory at the finish.
_________________________________________________________
Amy is a stay-at-home mother of a one year old son.
She is founder and creator of
http://www.momadvice.com
Her web site is geared towards mothers who are
seeking advice on staying organized, living on a
budget, and for those seeking work-at-home
employment.
The author resides in Granger, Indiana and her
hobbies
include reading, writing, cooking and cake
decorating.
Please visit her web site for more information on
these various topics for mothers and be sure to join
the forum where your opinions and ideas count.
