I NEED Sleep, this is no joke

Last night I was up until the wee hours “partying” at a wedding. Now of course the term partying has been revised greatly from my days in my 20s or frankly my days spent not pregnant. However staying up until 12:30, being too wound up for actual slumber until an am hour, is something that rarely happens nowadays. So when my alarm woke me up at an hour I was completely not ready to embrace, I couldn’t help but let my brain expand to the thoughts of the future sleep deprivation that is haunting me.

My children are maniacs from sun up until sundown. Drew consistently gave up napping around 3 and Gabby is having shorter and shorter naps these days. During those key hours from bedtime around 8pm and wake up around 8am, they are out! They have been known to sleep in on the weekends until that lovely 9-10 range. Sleep has been a very valued practice in these parts.

I realize that I am very blessed where this is concerned, however I feel as though I have “earned” it. For one, I have not only one challenging child but two. And although most parents probably could rationalize that they have challenging children too, I think I have admitted testimony from key professionals to substantiate my claim. And certainly if you have read any of my previous blogs, you have to somewhat agree with me. Right?

Secondly, I learned very early on in my early parenting weeks that I CANNOT survive on little sleep. The three headed monster that I become from lack of sleep is so horrendous to deal with that it would be completely unfair to subject any children to being raised by that kind of mother. Drew, as an infant, was the worst sleeper that ever existed. It might be partly because he was and is the best eater known to man. But he also wouldn’t fall asleep without extreme coaxing. The exasperation I went through to get him to sleep made it no problem to eventually let him cry it out and self soothe. I frankly was in a state of desperation and had nothing left. It was the best thing that could have happened though because he became a good sleeper. Then Gabby came out knowing that the word on the street was that her mom could totally not handle lack of sleep, so she slept really well from the get go.

So now comes the dreaded bitching and moaning that I have worked hard to not let my blog become while I am toting around this extra being. How the heck am I going to deal with two young children that have WAY too loose schedules while being completely sleep deprived?!?! How am I going to run to preschool, get that quick errand done, take Gabby to her class, pick Drew up, give lunch, lug around two extra kids (one of which is overdue for her nap and crabby) to Drew’s class and get everyone down for “quiet time” while being on a few interrupted hours of sleep?!?!?! I already feel like I have to crawl passed the finish line to get us to this 3pm marker now and I don’t have the extra child and the EXTREME sleep deprivation!

“G-d, please grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I can. And the wisdom to know the difference.” P.S. Please G-d, just give me a baby who knows the difference between night and day and sleeps accordingly. Amen.