A few months ago my husband sent me a link to a UK Mother & Baby survey which claimed, after surveying 1000 mothers with children under two, that on average these mother's got 5 hours sleep a night.
We kind of scoffed at it, after 6 months of atrocious sleep from Sunday she was now only waking twice a night - a marked improvement - and I felt like a whole new person, energised, productive and happy.
However ... I started to take heed, counting the hours I got in between those wake-ups, averaging them out over a week or so, being honest with myself about what time I went to bed and, shockingly, I think I'm a 5-a-night kind of girl!
How is it possible I'm managing to get by on that?
Is this proof that the human body can adapt to anything? Am I slicing years off my life each time I push my strained and tired body and mind even further? Am I far under-reaching my potential as a human being, would I be doing a post grad in Chemical Engineering if I had more sleep? Would I be a nicer person?
Or am I just doing what generations of women have done before me: coping?
Sucking it up, doing my best, looking forward to a time (which will come, it must right?) when the kids get older and this aspect of parenting gets easier?
Living in the (sleepy) moment.
How much sleep are you getting?
At bedtime, our oldest child tells the youngest one to stop talking when the door is closed at night. I must say that I have it reeeeeeeal good.
ReplyDelete