Sleep is such a huge issue when it comes to parenting. I honestly, and naively never really thought about it before Theodor graced the world with his presence. Then I spent about 3 1/2 months thinking about nothing else, because surprise surprise, I wasn't getting any.
Now I still think about sleep but normally these thoughts are accompanied by feelings of pride, happiness, and enjoyment that can only occur when getting chunks of sleep that are longer then an hour or two.
I love that my son actually has a bedtime and nap times now. Sure they are flexible based on how much sleep he has gotten so far in the day but before these were terms which just had no place in our lives.
Every day was a big fat question mark that quite honestly filled me with fear.
Would he sleep at all? How long would it take him to fall asleep at night? Would he cry for hours in my arms? Would he be happy when he was awake or miserable? Would I be able to get him to sleep even an hour not in my arms? Would he ever sleep more then an hour or two?
Would I make it through the day???
I now wake up every morning more or less refreshed and these questions don't even go through my head. Everything is so much better in ways I didn't even let myself imagine before because I just never ever thought we would get to this place.
Next Post: How I got to this place.
Ha, that's so true. Sleep deprivation does evil things to you! It's so nice to get to that stage when you put them down in the evenings and you know you won't hear a thing until the next morning (or at least, for the next few hours, as you're still in the early stages!).
ReplyDeleteI remember being afraid of night times when Teddy was young and having panic attacks before we went to bed just because I dreaded those interrupted nights (and the feeding, and pumping) so much. It's funny how quickly you take things for granted again though once sleep has returned to it's "normal state".