Last night my daughter slept through the night. She has been depriving me of sleep for 1 year and 1 month now. She still wakes up in the middle of the night, every night. Except last night. Now, I am not under the delusion that she will sleep through the night every night or even most nights from now on, because my three year old son still wakes up at night at least twice a week. But at least he goes back to sleep almost immediately. Anyway, the point is, this morning I woke up feeling refreshed and that doesn't happen very often.
It got me thinking about calls: and lack of sleep and how exhausted I used to be as an intern. And how it's nothing compared to how exhausted I am as a mother!
I hate calls. Fortunately I don't do calls anymore, but having to get up 2 to 3 times a night to feed a baby or put a toddler back to bed is like doing calls in itself, except you're on call every night and every night you're guaranteed to be called out and it's certain that you will be called out more than once. And even though you don't actually have to get dressed and go to the hospital, it is constant and by far more exhausting. As soon as you fall asleep again, the "beeper" goes off yet again. Normally, on a call like that it would be better not to sleep at all, but you don't really have that option as a mother. And sleeping when the baby sleeps... well, that's a laugh! And there's no such thing as sleeping in or taking a nap either. the kids will have none of that!
But I think the problem is more interrupted than litttle sleep. I think interrupted sleep is much worse than getting even a solid 4 hours. When we went to Las Vegas recently, my mom babysat for us and so, although I was jetlagged, when I slept, it was uninterrupted and so when I woke up, I wasn't exhausted. I felt rejuvenated even. It was strange because I'd kind of become used to the sleep deprivation.
But I'm back to being a walking zombie now. Hopefully not for much longer though.
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2 comments:
natural sleep cylce is 90 minutes.
I discovered that the second I expelled my firstborn, I signed up to call 24/7/365. I also discovered that I CAN function on 4-5hrs sleep a night.
So I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't mention that both my 8yo and my 9yo still come through on a regular basis in the wee hours of the morning?? Apparently it's to tell me they love me...Ah bless. No really, they could have kept that til 8am surely?? Or even 7... There are some nights when I am sooooo tired I don't even realise they are there until I wake up and find them snoring gently next to me!! Apparently it does get better. I'll let you know, ok?
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