Yearning for Rest

By on

Yearning for Rest

My youngest was nearly one. The mythical “sleeping-through” remained mythical. And from the accounts of my new mum girlfriends, we had all been fed the same fantasy. None of us were getting a full eight hours. My very bones were weary with tiredness. It was impossible to fathom how we could continue and yet we all did. I yearned, yearned for rest.

I remember talking to mum about it. How weary I was. My dear mother has a way of seeing herself in every story. So she told me about how tired she was. As an aside, if you’d like to frustrate a person to tears, be a person without a baby telling a person with a baby how tired you are. Of course, new parents don’t have the monopoly on exhaustion, but for the love of all that’s holy – just give it to them. They are honestly only just hanging on.

And while my mothers “empathy” rankled she then said something that gave me pause “sometimes I wish for just a short stay in hospital, nothing serious of course, just a little rest.” Read more…

Sleep: How to get it (Sponsored)

By on
sleep_ how to get it

this post is sponsored by SleepMaker

Some people keep a sleep diary. This is how mine would go:

Dear Log,
It’s has been approximately 2,555 nights since my last decent sleep. Occasionally, my captors give me some relief and allow me a night without interruption, but it only serves as false hope. If I ever get a chance to escape, I can’t sleep 4am. My body has been ruthlessly trained to crave more sleep and yet be unable to gain it. Sometimes the youngest captor, who is by far the master at sleep interruption, will allow me nights and nights of sleep. When that happens, the eldest captor (who taught the younger all he knows) will wake with a variety of complaints – nightmares, a need for water, growing pains. They have cleverly worked together to make sure that I will never sleep a full night again…

Maybe I am exaggerating (maybe I’m not) but a thing that was once taken for granted is now a VERY BIG DEAL. And is for every mother of young children I know. How do we get more sleep? And when sleep is in short supply, how do we improve its quality?

Read more…