Ah, those first heady days of parenthood, one blending into another,
the nights stretching long and lonely while keeping vigil with a baby
who never read the part of the manual that states that nighttime is for
sleeping. Remember those days? When you drive off to go out
for the first time in days or maybe weeks and for a split second you
wonder if you left the baby in his carrier outside? Or in the
house? So you turn around in a panic, narrowly missing a lamppost
in the process, but no, there's your baby, snug and safe in his seat,
smack in the middle of the back seat where he belongs? (Or was
that just me?)
Sleep deprivation, my friends. It seems to
come with the territory of parenthood, the parent's rite of
passage. And it's costing us about two month's worth of sleep
during that first precious year.
So
here's a new one:
Competitive Sleep Syndrome. You know, where the parents argue
daily about which of them
had less sleep the night before? Or they brag to friends (often
padding
the facts) about how well their baby sleeps. So now there's a
name for this! Who knew? Well, I know for a fact that I got
way less sleep than my ex-spouse when the children were infants; after
all, lacking breasts of usefulness to a hungry baby, he was able to
roll over and go back to sleep while I sat and watched old movies with
subtitles and the sound turned off. Ah, "quality time" (which
often was quite blissful, by the way, but sometimes though was just
plain hell).
Sound
familiar? Who stayed up with the baby in your house? (Or
were you blessed with a baby who slept through the night at five
weeks?)(And can I say I HATE YOU!) Spill it, will you?
Share your crazy sleep-deprivation stories, c'mon I know you have one!
