Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Countdown to the big day.

I have learned so much this past (almost) year about more than just motherhood - but mostly motherhood. In celebration of the upcoming completion of my first year of motherhood, and surviving a completely new life, I want to share the lessons I have learned - one at a time - as a countdown of sorts until Mason's first birthday. Enjoy.





Lesson 1 - The term "sleeping like a baby" is complete shit.





You will never sleep like you did as a teen again. In the beginning, Mason was up every two hours to eat, took an hour to eat, leaving me an hour to eat, shower, nap, clean, change his diaper, whatever. I have never felt tired like I did in the beginning. This lasted about 3 months (not so much the two hour thing, but just about) and then it started to get better. He started sleeping more, and eventually I got used to it, then after that he started sleeping all night. I forget when this was exactly - I would have to look it up (look for the lesson on "momnesia" soon). We got about a month of peaceful., fulfilling rest - or as close to it as you can imagine, because do you know what catheters do to you? Trust me, just because there is no baby jumping up and down on your bladder anymore DOES NOT mean you won't be getting up to pee during the night. Or hearing the baby. Was that the baby? No? I could have sworn I heard the baby.





Then teething hits...and possible nightmares....headaches?.....separation anxiety....crawling....standing....FUN FUN FUN. He still wakes up sometimes. Sometimes he doesn't. It's a crap shoot. But think about it: do you sleep EVERY night, through the night, without waking up? Hells no. You are an adult though. You aren't scared. Truth is, when Mason goes to college, moves out of the house, and I no longer have to worry about him - maybe I will get some sleep. Maybe I won't. That's only like, what, 17 years away?

2 comments:

Laura said...

Ha! I just told my husband essentially the same thing... to sleep like a baby is not a "good" thing. I told him this after a night where I got ONE hour of sleep. The kid? He got a little more, but mom was so stressed over the events of the night she couldn't sleep even when he was snoring soundly!

Jessica said...

Oooh I like these...

I agree with the sleep thing. When I actually sat down to realize how much sleep I was not getting - yikes!