Friday, April 16, 2010

On Being Sleep Deprived

Scribbleprints is doing a giveaway for a 'Sleep Deprived Parent' button. I figured that pretty much sums up what I've been for the past 6 years!

It started while I was pregnant with Sarah since it is hard to sleep well those last few months of being pregnant. Then all 4 of our kids haven't slept through the night until they were close to a year old (although I'm really hoping that Andrew is faster, but he's already 8 months old, so he's probably going to follow in his siblings footsteps!) And since I've gotten pregnant with the next baby right around the time the previous child is a year old, then I was exhasted from being pregnant and the whole cycle started again! So I haven't been well rested in 6 years! I am looking forward to when Andrew is sleeping through the night as then I can start getting the sleep I need since he is our last kid.

I feel like my brain is a colander and most things just go straight through! (I guess it's a colander with really big holes!) I leave one room on my way to do something and by the time I get to the other room I've totally forgotten I was going to do something! Not just that I forgot what I was going to do, but totally forgot I was going to do anything and I start doing something else! I don't know how many times I've come back to the kitchen and the dishwasher is open and in the process of being unloaded or loaded, or I find a half written email on the computer from an hour before, or the dryer is open waiting for me to put the wet clothes in after I've walked off with the dry clothes, or the washer goes through its whole wash cycle empty because I went for the next basket of dirty clothes and forgot I was getting them! One time I went to nurse one of the kids in the night and thought, "But I need to put this baby down first", so I laid the 'baby' on the floor and when I got back to bed, my pillow was gone and I found it on the floor outside the nursery! Or another time, I got in to nurse baby and realized I didn't have my glasses on (which for me pretty much means I'm blind) so I went back in the bedroom for them and when I put them on, something wasn't quite right. Dan looked at me and asked what I was doing. Turns out, I was trying to wear his glasses! But I better go make sure that the washing machine is actually washing clothes right now and that I haven't left something out that needs to be in the refrigerator!

2 comments:

Amy :) said...

You are too funny, Becky! I cracked up when I read the part about the "baby" and the wrong glasses. :)

Seriously, though, I don't think it's all about being sleep deprived. Maybe it's just being a mom, 'cause I find myself doing some of those same things you described.

I am constantly amazed at how different life is now that our kids are getting older, though. It is a totally different world than the years of pregnancies, nursing, toddlers, potty training, etc.

It's the craziest feeling to look back on it all and realize we're in a different stage with our kids now. But the funny thing is that *I* don't really feel any older, myself! :) (Hopefully a little *wiser*, though...)

Gale said...

Thanks for posting about my giveaway! Enjoyed reading your sleep deprived parent stories! Especially the one about the "baby" put down by the nursery floor. Can relate too to all the half-finished chores, e-mails, etc. too.

You're definitely one of the posts I'll be blogging about after the giveaway!