The other night as my husband and I were brushing our teeth, he looked over at me in the mirror and said “Whoa, look at your eyes!”. Now, one might assume that he was referring to my stunning bright and beautiful green eyes but alas he was not. He was referring to the big black circles surrounding both of my eyes. I calmly looked glared over at him and replied with a witty “Well it is night. Time for my alter ego “MamaCoon” to make her appearance.” I took a deep breath as I headed to bed knowing it was only a matter of a couple hours before I would be awakened.
In July it will be 7 years since I’ve slept through the night. Ok, closer to 8 since we all KNOW how much wonderful sleep you get when pregnant…in the summer… I had 4 kids in just under 6 years so if you do the math, that means I have either been pregnant or nursing for…a long time. Which means I haven’t gotten good sleep in…a long time. Because you know that as soon as the baby sleeps through the night, its one of the others that’s awake – you know, the ones who SHOULD sleep through the night. It’s a never ending battle that I know when my kids are teenagers and I’m begging them to get out of bed I will look back on with fondness. Maybe not.
So, since this is forefront in my life right now, I give you my QT’s (quick tips) for surviving sleep deprivation.
1. Coffee (or your caffeine of choice).
2. Vitamins – B complex and Iron. (B Complex increases metabolism of cells thus breaking down food faster and creating more energy. Iron helps cells produce hemoglobin which carries oxygen all over your body – more oxygen = more energy!)
3. Sleep when they sleep – haha, just kidding! This may work with the first but I’ve found that CPS frowns on mommy’s leaving older kids running around unsupervised because you were napping when your baby was!
3. Coffee and a B Complex. Together. Around 2pm.
What about you?? Got any wonderful advice to surviving sleep deprivation?? Seriously, I’m all ears!
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I have a 8 months baby, and he just wake up.. And I thought.. “omg it was wonderful when you were inside of me… I could sleep while you were awake without any concern”.
The only tip that I have and work for me… It is a strong espresso coffee!!!
I so agree! Today I had 2 strong cups of coffee! Thanks for the reply, us coffee-addicts have to unite!!
lol! I love your pretend #3 :). And even though we don’t even have babies in the house anymore, one of my preschoolers is good for between 1-4 wake-ups a night :/ good grief!
I just started some B Complex (taken in the afternoon like you) when the eye lids are not listening to my command to stay open. You are going to be an expert in this area by the time you have teens Abbi!
I’ll tell you what my mom told me when I asked her a similar question about when i would ever sleep again..she said, “You’ll sleep when you’re dead.”
Thanks, Mom. 😉
Karis – I can totally see your mom saying that! Actually I found a graphic that said just about that exactly but decided to use the one above. I was going for a self-portrait!
Thanks E! I figure when they are teens we will be up at night for other reasons – like wondering when they are going to come home – yikes!!
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