Friday, January 9, 2009

Sleep Patterns

Zach has stuck with this sudden new schedule all week. You wanna know what's funny? I'm more tired than ever. For more than 3 years, I've not slept more than 3 hours at a stretch. My body adjusted to it. My baby slept by my side, nursed as needed. My body adjusted to sleeping and dozing and waking and dozing and sleeping. Now we are on Night Four of the new schedule. Zach went to bed around 8:30. Woke up at midnight. Nursed on both sides each time. Woke up at 6 this morning. I've had a good stretch of 5 hours each night of potentially uninterrupted sleep. And I'm so tired!! It's like my body is saying "You tease! If you're going to give me 5 hours of sleep, why not go ahead with another 3 or 4??" Isn't it strange how our bodies work? I've dreamed and dreamed of sleeping more than 4 hours at a time. And now the night has arrived... and I need time to adjust to it? It really makes me wonder what would happen if I were to be able to go to bed and sleep with NO interruptions, NO alarm, NO obligations. Would I ever wake up?

5 comments:

Garret said...

"It really makes me wonder what would happen if I were to be able to go to bed and sleep with NO interruptions, NO alarm, NO obligations."

We call that vacation. Try it.

morninglight mama said...

HA! I just wondered this very morning, how long could I sleep if no one woke me up-- no whining, no screaming, no terrifyingly-silent-toddler-face-right-in-my-face when I roll over to the edge of the bed... could I sleep to noon?? Oh, just to imagine it...

Dharma said...

Ah sleep. I wish I slept better so I do get how tricky getting more sleep is in that is seems to never be enough. Hope it gets better.

Mrs4444 said...

It's kind of scary to me that I only sleep about 6 hours a night; you have me beat for SURE!

Anonymous said...

I'm gonna tell you what happens - and I guarantee this will be the case. When your children are old enough to wake on their own, pour their own breakfast cereal, turn on the TV and not set fire to the house, you will be so used to lack of sleep that you will have become accustomed to interrupted sleep and early rising that it will be your "norm". I used to be like you - and way worse. I couldn't handle less than 7 straight hours of uninterrupted sleep and dreamed of the day when I could sleep past 6 a.m. and get a solid 7 hours. Now I have nothing to get up for and nobody to wake me up and you think I can sleep late or enjoy a solid sleep? Nope. And boy oh boy, based on what I've heard about menopause and sleeplessness, I just can't wait to get to the next phase of not sleeping in my life LOL. So...in short...remember those days pre-children when you could crash at 4 am and sleep until 2 pm the next day no problem? Gone honey - kiss it all goodbye LOL