Sleep Envy

It's not until you become a mother that you really understand and appreciate the power of a good sleep in helping the human body work.

Sleep deprivation sucks.

Big time.

I remember the lack of sleep induced haze of those early days, weeks and months with Mini Cheddar.
She didn't start sleeping through properly until I stopped breast-feeding her at 6 months and even then it could be a bit hit and miss due to the dreaded teething.

When she was 5 months old someone really upset me. I remember her, a mother of a 2, saying to me with a look of half horror/half smugness "She's not sleeping through yet? Both of mine slept through at 8 weeks old!".

Photo credit: graur codrin

Well, whoop-de-bloody-do for you! Thanks for going out of your way to tell me that, no seriously, I really appreciate it. That's what my best sarcastic voice was screaming inside along with thoughts of stamping on her toes!

Obviously I didn't. I just smiled sweetly and mumbled something like "well, they are all different aren't they".  I didn't sleep that night.  This time it wasn't Mini Cheddar's fault either. The comment had wound me up.

Why do others feel the need to compare their sleeping angels to the sleep devil you've been blessed with?  Why do they feel the need to tell you exactly how 'Little Johnnie' sleeps through every single night without so much as a peep and emphasise how amazed they are that yours don't?  I'm sure she didn't mean any harm.  I'm sure she was just trying to be 'helpful' but at the time, comments like that are anything but.

Every now and again (thankfully very rarely now) we have a spell when Mini Cheddar has a small block of disturbed nights, usually when she's ill. It ruins us. We had one the other week and it made for a hellish day the day after.  My heart goes out to anyone who's little one doesn't sleep through, it really does.

In addition to this I happened to marry a man who's a bit of a sleep-o-holic. He can say he's not tired (usually waking me up in the process) and then within a couple of minutes he's fast asleep. Maybe it's a man thing? Maybe us women are wired differently?

I'm usually trying to get to sleep whilst thinking about any number of stupid, unimportant things.  I just can't seem to switch my brain off at night anymore. So, if my husband is really tired, he will snore a bit.

Cue me getting REALLY irate!

I don't swear but put me in a situation when I'm tired and someone else is sleeping soundly then the air turns a tad blue.

"STOP F'IN SNORING"...normally coupled with a wild waft of the duvet and a full-on stamping stonk into the bathroom just to make sure I've woken him up properly.

Sleep envy really can make even the relatively calmest of people turn into a monster.

I know.  I am that monster.