Sleep is for the Weak
By Glinda
Let it be stated for the record that I would be one of the first to be thinned from the herd.
One thing about having your children born so far apart is that you pretty much have totally forgotten what it’s like to take care of an infant.
This is a good thing and a bad thing.
Oh, there might be times leading up to the birth where your mind sort of has a flash of memory of walking around feeling like a participant on Celebrity Rehab, but due to the biological imperative that man procreate, the memory is brief and somewhat hallucinatory. Then you think to yourself, oh, it will be better this time.
Hardee. Har. Har.
I will be thirty-nine next month, and I looked at my husband and claimed that we (meaning, of course, I) were too old for this kind of stuff. In my twenties, I could easily operate on four or so hours of sleep. But now my ancient carcass needs more than that. I also have another child who needs annoying things like lunch for school and clean clothes, which makes for even less rest. I don’t know how people who have multiple kids under five do it. My hat is off to them, although I’m sure they’d rather me give them a pillow.
What doesn’t make it any easier is that all of my favorite shows are currently in new seasons, so there are days when I have to wrestle with watching the new episode of Lost or a half hour of sleep. Thank the gods for DVR, that’s all I have to say.
Now if you’ll excusce me, I’m going to stop writing and take a damn nap.
February 12th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Maybe my mom had drugs. She had three kids five and under. And a husband away at war. She must have had a dealer. Must have.
February 12th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
Oh I hear you, I had twins at 38 (our only children)…when they were about 2 my SIL who is 11 years younger than me aksed me if we were “done” and I told her I had *no desire* to be pregnant in my 40’s.
February 13th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
Phyllis, a friend who had her children in her mid 30s told me she understood why women had kids in their 20s. “Once you’ve tasted freedom,” she said wistfully, “it’s hard to go back.”
February 13th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
[Unsolicited advice follows.]
If you haven’t already done so, this is a great time to get the Munchkin involved in some chores. It will make your life so much easier to get him involved, and it’s easier to recruit him as a labor unit now than it will be when he’s 16 and you suddenly tell him to make his own damn lunch. When I had my second kid, my first was almost 5, and it was the perfect time to start her hanging up her own laundry on hangers and matching her socks, etc. The second one grew up watching his sister do chores, so naturally it was easy to transition him from moocher to labor unit.
[End unsolicited advice.]
I hope you get to nap with the baby!
February 19th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Well, I can’t speak for anyone else, but my mother, who had five children in under seven years, handled it by drinking.
Oh, she did laundry, she made dinners, made sure we went to school, and she did love and want us – but my dad’s job had him out of the house a total of nine months out of the year – year after year after year. She was in charge of EVERYTHING while he was away, and when he was home, she was apparently in charge of making sure we were quiet, and nothing else.
She raised five kids who could cook, do laundry, and loved to read, and the only thing she ever wanted for us was for us to be happy – and she didn’t tell us HOW we were supposed to be to achieve it; she left that up to us.
So there were probably worse things.