Of the countless new things that I have learnt since I became a father the most important one of all deals with the importance of sleep.
Not since my University days have I had to function with the absolute minimum of soul restoring z’s. And even then, I can recall more than one project gleefully binned in the pursuit of a good night’s rest.
These days, fatherhood has become synonymous to me with the mind numbing fog that clouds your every waking moment.
The little sleep I do manage to glom onto is often fitful and frequently interrupted.
The irony here is that there are three people living in the house, all of us dying for a little rest and not one of us seems to get a wink.
My daughter is a fighter, which fills me with hope and dread. (I can just imagine what her teenage years will be like. No stranger myself to going a couple of rounds with the ‘rents for no good reason I can already foresee the ‘take no prisoners’ battles that await me in a dozen years or so.)
In the meantime it would serve her well to pick her battles a little better and give the sandman a pass every now and then.
Ever spent two hours struggling to get a baby down for a twenty minute nap? Hardly seems worth it, don’t it? And why don’t babies get calm, rationally presented arguments? I mean, I’m pretty sure what I’m saying makes perfect sense. I know I’m convinced
What’s really sad though is how the exhaustion and lack of sleep can really destroy any of the fun associated with being a new parent.
It’s not about cooing and cuddling your baby anymore. It’s about struggling to keep your sanity despite the endless crying, the lurching from feeding to feeding and those little moments of insanity where sleep deprivation crawls into your mind and makes you do funny things.
I remember one hellish night where my daughter refused to sleep and let us know, loudly, about her thoughts on the issue. My wife and I would tag each other out every hour or so, but our spirits were slowly being eroded by our fatigue and our complete inability to do anything about the situation.
Thankfully we’re starting to leave that kind of stuff behind us now. Time is already glossing over the worst experiences. But as I mainline my fourth cup of coffee for the day I realize just how much further we have yet to travel.
Not since my University days have I had to function with the absolute minimum of soul restoring z’s. And even then, I can recall more than one project gleefully binned in the pursuit of a good night’s rest.
These days, fatherhood has become synonymous to me with the mind numbing fog that clouds your every waking moment.
The little sleep I do manage to glom onto is often fitful and frequently interrupted.
The irony here is that there are three people living in the house, all of us dying for a little rest and not one of us seems to get a wink.
My daughter is a fighter, which fills me with hope and dread. (I can just imagine what her teenage years will be like. No stranger myself to going a couple of rounds with the ‘rents for no good reason I can already foresee the ‘take no prisoners’ battles that await me in a dozen years or so.)
In the meantime it would serve her well to pick her battles a little better and give the sandman a pass every now and then.
Ever spent two hours struggling to get a baby down for a twenty minute nap? Hardly seems worth it, don’t it? And why don’t babies get calm, rationally presented arguments? I mean, I’m pretty sure what I’m saying makes perfect sense. I know I’m convinced
What’s really sad though is how the exhaustion and lack of sleep can really destroy any of the fun associated with being a new parent.
It’s not about cooing and cuddling your baby anymore. It’s about struggling to keep your sanity despite the endless crying, the lurching from feeding to feeding and those little moments of insanity where sleep deprivation crawls into your mind and makes you do funny things.
I remember one hellish night where my daughter refused to sleep and let us know, loudly, about her thoughts on the issue. My wife and I would tag each other out every hour or so, but our spirits were slowly being eroded by our fatigue and our complete inability to do anything about the situation.
Thankfully we’re starting to leave that kind of stuff behind us now. Time is already glossing over the worst experiences. But as I mainline my fourth cup of coffee for the day I realize just how much further we have yet to travel.
