I love being a mom. The little dude is hands down the best thing that has ever happened to me. But that certainly doesn’t mean that there aren’t things about my old life that I miss dearly.
Things like sleep.
My goodness, do I ever miss sleep.
And being able to sleep for 8 hours in a row, or sleeping in, or going to bed at a reasonable time – and not 7pm when I put my kid to bed in hopes that I might actually get a few extra hours too. I miss being able to sleep without getting hit in the face, whether it is by the monsters hands or his chubby little feet. I think the best way to describe co-sleeping with my child “is sharing your bed with a drunk octopus, looking for its car keys.”
And of course I have tried not having him in the bed with us, but rather than being woken up by a swift kick to the head every so often, I find myself barely sleeping at all because EVERY single noise or bump in the night wakes me up in a complete frenzy thinking something awful has just happened to my child – like he fell out of the crib – or perhaps the Goblin King has taken him.
Friday night was definitely one of those “making a deal with the devil for just a few hours of sleep” kind of nights. For whatever reason the turd just kept tossing and turning and kicking and turning and tossing and crying and wanting to nurse but not nursing, half asleep and half awake and just fighting sleep as best as he possibly could.
What time did he wake up you ask?
It was 5.
Not 7 am like we’re used to, but 5.
In the morning.
WIDE awake.
Who doesn’t love being up at 5 am on a Saturday? This girl, right here, that’s who.
Being family day weekend and all (at least here in B.C.) we decided that perhaps we should take advantage of our early wake up call – and since Roller Derby Practice clearly wasn’t going to be an option for me after a night like that (and neither was napping) – we decided to check out the Tot to Teen Expo at our local rec center.
The Tot to Teen Expo, which happens annually, was nothing at all like I expected. I expected it to be a lot more like the Mama Collective (which if you haven’t checked out, you definitely should). There were far more real estate agents, financial planners, and young living vendors than I cared for.
But that isn’t to say there weren’t some incredible vendors as well.
Tidy Tushees was there (if you ARE considering cloth diapering and live in the Okanagan – you need to check these guys out), the Okanagan Regional Library was there (and they gave us a cool color changing pencil) and Good Night Sleep Site Okanagan was there.
Which was PERFECT , since you know – I share my bed with a drunk octopus.
They had these darling little information packages with 4 key sleep tools and few bonus sleep tips. Only problem is – we already do all of these things. We have a bedtime routine, we make naps a priority, he always goes to bed with a full tummy and a clean diaper, we have a consistent sleep method, and so on.
So, after grabbing a card and considering (only considering) the idea of a sleep consultant it was time for more coffee – the magical beverage that makes me feel like a fully functional human being (okay, maybe not fully functional, but close)
Can you guess what happened in the car?
The kid fell asleep.
And do you mess with a babe who is asleep? No, you most certainly do not.
Instead, you drive around.
And keep driving around.
For HOURS.
* clearly Matt is so impressed.
After one soaked pedestrian (more on that one later) and two hours of aimless driving, the little turd finally woke up.
I would love to say that his night of no sleep was just a once off, but lucky for me, last night was almost an exact repeat of the night before. Isn’t teething just delightful?
Adventures in Poop – The Poop-ocalypse!