Sleeping Like A Baby
Labels: home life
Friday, January 19, 2007
Whoever coined the phrase "Sleeping like a baby" didn't have one of their own or were damn lucky in that department.
Case in point, or rather, my case in point:
As a baby and a toddler (terrible twos, threes and sometimes fours notwithstanding), my son was generally sweet in disposition. Until the dreaded Bedtime. No, it wasn't getting him to sleep that caused me so much despair, it was keeping him asleep.
You see, my son was a serial waker-upper (for want of a better term). He would wake up 7-8 times a night on average, once hitting a personal best at 15. In the early days it was for a bottle and a clean diaper but in the toddler years, it was for no apparent reason but to torture me. I tried every trick in the book, trawled websites for help but nothing worked. In the end, I decided it was just a phase and I would ride it out. And ride it out I did. For 5 whole years, I was surviving on naps. I never had a full 8 hour stretch until 2 years ago. In that period, I could never be trusted to sit down anywhere, be it in a car or on a couch, without falling asleep in 2 minutes flat. You only had to yawn in my direction....
You'd think with all this nocturnal activity, my son would be cranky and grumpy in the day. But the only cranky one was me. His Royal Highness was all daisy fresh and bouncing off the walls. Incredible!
Except for the short fuse and keeling over from exhaustion, you'd never know know I was chronically sleep deprived. I never had eye bags or dark rings, thank goodness. I don't know if it's genetics or the serums and creams I plastered on (and still do)but my face and eye area remained unscathed. There is justice after all.
However, when he turned 5, something clicked in my son's brain and he started waking up less and finally, slept through the night. R-E-L-I-E-F!!!
Now, if we can do something about the snoring.....
The Dutchess of Cookalot whipped this up at 4:27 am
: January 20, 2007 7:25 am