Every parent looks forward to the day when their child finally “sleeps through the night”. To get 6-8 solid hours of sleep again is something that most new parents, while they may enjoy the stages of having a newborn, talk and think about constantly.
I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t exist.
When you have children, sleeping through the night is a fairy tale.
A MYTH.
A FANTASY.
A BIG FAT DREAM.
My kids are almost 7 and almost 3 and I barely go 2 days in a row with a solid nights sleep.
It’s always something.
Someone has an itch.
Someone has to pee (and my daughter is not old enough to be given the run of the house alone at night).
Someone had a nightmare.
Someone sleepwalks.
Someone throws up in their bed.
Someone throws up on the way to the bathroom.
Someone needs a tissue.
It goes on and on and on….
No wonder I’m so cranky!
About Kimberly Grabinski
After parenting 6 for the past 30 years, now 12 to 30, I have found that it DOES go on forever. With the younger ones its the general care or, illness, teens…drama, and older kids advice or a whole different kind of help needed. So the sleep you lose due to kids starts with the FIRST pregnancy and does not even go away when they all move out I hear. I have now been so conditioned to NOT sleeping that I have lost my inner clock. WHAT’s that funny, screeching sound? Oh yeah, we have a live in grand daughter now. Sweet, but sucks the sleep right out of you. Yawn…Good thing she’s cute;)
…This post depresses me. I have a 16 month old son who the past couple of day has been waking and driving me nuts again. We hope to have another in a year or so and I keep thinking about the sleep thing, and this makes me think, god why would I want to double the lack of sleep. Oh yeah, because kids are awesome.
How are they doing with sleeping these days? I still have trouble getting one or both twins to sleep sometimes until 11pm. Once they are asleep, it’s about a 50/50 chance that I will get called in the middle of the night.
My kids both go to bed pretty ok. If Abby happens to take a nap, it’s hard to get her to stay in bed til almost 10.
Some of the other stuff has abated somewhat. A few times a week I am still woken up for *something* in the middle of the night.
Jeepers! Tellin’ it like it is!
Then they become teenagers and start to drive and you are waiting up for them to come home. And they grown up and go off to war…. Sheesh!
It never ends!! :-)
Motherhood is the most joyous and annoying, sleepless thing in the world.
Finally! Someone who is willing to tell it like it is. I am so tired of the “sleeping through the night” question. As if that is some indication of my ability to train my child. There is always going to be something that wakes them up. The last time I got 8 hours was when I was pregnant
I know that part of the “problem” is that being a mom has changed the way I sleep. I hear EVERYTHING so i don’t sleep as deeply and I wake up to the sound of my son shuffling his feet through the hall to go to the bathroom.
But most of it is that they are kids and things bother them, things scare them, and it’s dark. Moms don’t get 9-5, we get 24/7 LOL
LMAO off. Want my 2 & 3 year old? Usually they are good but lately little Natalie has been teething. All she wants to do is be attatched to my hip. AND IF ONE IS UP…..THEY BOTH GET UP….while my husband snores. *gently pats you*
……so it doesn’t get better when they are 7? I think I am going to have an anxiety attack.
Nope, no better when they are 7. Actually he is worse because he has free reign…so he gets up and taps me awake and half the time scares the crap out of me. At least my daughter has to call me to get my attention since she is still in a crib.
Oh and yeah, my husband could sleep through a train crashing into our house….makes me so mad sometimes. “Oh, they were up?” yeah like 14 times.
Welcome to my world.