Sleep when your baby sleeps? Ha!
Yes. Ha! and thats not a ha! of laughter.. its a snort of derision. I'm not going to sugar coat it for all you pregnant ladies reading my blog... living with a baby is shattering. Don't get me wrong, it's also wonderful and I love my munchkin dearly, but it's so exhausting! Yes, this is a moany post. I'm having a bad week so far so I'm going to offload on you lovely readers!
Experts who sagely advise to sleep when your baby sleeps, because it's important to get enough rest, have never had kids! When munchkin sleeps I don't have the luxury of having a nice snooze! I'm frantically running around the house trying to do everything I can't while she's awake! I never know if she's going to sleep for 10 minutes or two hours, so each nap is like a ticking time bomb where I cram in as much as possible.
The simplest of tasks become a challenge when you have a screaming baby demanding to be picked up. This morning for example, since putting her down, in between rushing back to her Moses basket to re-settle her each time she wakes crying, I've quickly gotten dressed (the days of standing in front of the wardrobe leisurely deciding what to wear and coordinating outfits are gone!), brushed my teeth, brushed and tied up my hair (sometimes its just tied up... why bother combing when you're not leaving the house!), gone back to the bathroom twice because i keep forgetting to change my breast pads, expressed half the amount I need for her next feed, put away half of her clothes from the laundry, poured a bowl of cereal, made a cup of coffee (which is now sat downstairs getting cold because I'm back upstairs resettling her with my slowly-getting-soggy bowl of cereal on my lap), and managed to do half my make up. Each time I finish one task I'm thinking which needs to be done next more than the others, just in case I don't get round to them. After an hour of unsettled crying and napping I finally gave in and picked her up hoping to settle her to sleep in my arms, which means no more chores til she's back in her basket! At least i have one arm free to write this! yes I've mastered the one arm hold! I still need to finish expressing the rest of my breast milk, wash and sterilise the used bottles from last night so I can use them later, clear the draining board and put away the rest of the washing. That's before her next feed! After, there's more, like making and having lunch (I hope!), defrosting meat for dinner... Cleaning the house and other non essentials like changing bed sheets and vacuuming have to wait til hubby is around!
And that is a good morning! Yesterday I didn't get time to get dressed til lunch and only ate 2 slices of toast and a boiled egg til dinner time. She also did an EXPLOSIVE poo after not going for two days which went all up her back outside the nappy and needed all her clothes changed and a full wipe down! Someone also woke at 3am for her feed and decided to stay up for pretty much the rest of the day... so I only had 3 hours sleep.
Yes I love her with all my heart and can't imagine life without her, but my god life was easy when I was working behind a desk! Office work seems like a breeze compared to caring for a teeny tiny baby. One smile and all is forgiven though. Who can be angry at this face?!
Experts who sagely advise to sleep when your baby sleeps, because it's important to get enough rest, have never had kids! When munchkin sleeps I don't have the luxury of having a nice snooze! I'm frantically running around the house trying to do everything I can't while she's awake! I never know if she's going to sleep for 10 minutes or two hours, so each nap is like a ticking time bomb where I cram in as much as possible.
The simplest of tasks become a challenge when you have a screaming baby demanding to be picked up. This morning for example, since putting her down, in between rushing back to her Moses basket to re-settle her each time she wakes crying, I've quickly gotten dressed (the days of standing in front of the wardrobe leisurely deciding what to wear and coordinating outfits are gone!), brushed my teeth, brushed and tied up my hair (sometimes its just tied up... why bother combing when you're not leaving the house!), gone back to the bathroom twice because i keep forgetting to change my breast pads, expressed half the amount I need for her next feed, put away half of her clothes from the laundry, poured a bowl of cereal, made a cup of coffee (which is now sat downstairs getting cold because I'm back upstairs resettling her with my slowly-getting-soggy bowl of cereal on my lap), and managed to do half my make up. Each time I finish one task I'm thinking which needs to be done next more than the others, just in case I don't get round to them. After an hour of unsettled crying and napping I finally gave in and picked her up hoping to settle her to sleep in my arms, which means no more chores til she's back in her basket! At least i have one arm free to write this! yes I've mastered the one arm hold! I still need to finish expressing the rest of my breast milk, wash and sterilise the used bottles from last night so I can use them later, clear the draining board and put away the rest of the washing. That's before her next feed! After, there's more, like making and having lunch (I hope!), defrosting meat for dinner... Cleaning the house and other non essentials like changing bed sheets and vacuuming have to wait til hubby is around!
And that is a good morning! Yesterday I didn't get time to get dressed til lunch and only ate 2 slices of toast and a boiled egg til dinner time. She also did an EXPLOSIVE poo after not going for two days which went all up her back outside the nappy and needed all her clothes changed and a full wipe down! Someone also woke at 3am for her feed and decided to stay up for pretty much the rest of the day... so I only had 3 hours sleep.
Yes I love her with all my heart and can't imagine life without her, but my god life was easy when I was working behind a desk! Office work seems like a breeze compared to caring for a teeny tiny baby. One smile and all is forgiven though. Who can be angry at this face?!
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