Saturday, March 26, 2011

Well duh

Do you ever have moments when someone says something and you think :"how come I didn't think of that? The concept is so simple, so true, and so obvious".

I had that happen to me the other day.

A mom mentioned that she didn't realize the extent to which she switched into basic survival mode for those first six weeks after her baby was born. Get up, change the baby, feed the baby, soothe the baby, rock the baby to sleep, and then do it all over again two hours later. You're so sleep deprived that it is you fervent and desperate hope just to make it through the day without endangering life or limb.

How true.

I felt like I was never 100% awake or fully functioning for the first month. I didn't expect the lack of sleep to affect me so brutally, for breastfeeding to be such a trial, or for the feeling of helplessness when I couldn't soothe our crying baby. It was a Challenge with a capital C, lovelies.

But having gone through those rough nights makes me so much more appreciative of where we are now and reminds me that things usually get better, eventually.

Benjamin has slept for one massive four or five hour block for the past two weeks and, coupled with an increased amount of sunlight in our corner of the world, my quality of life has improved tremendously. Hallelujah!

Plus the smiles and chortles that are starting to emerge from the little bambino are so fun the watch. I'm loving this new level of interaction.

And the sleep.