It’s been a crazy couple weeks…first I was sicker than I’ve ever been since having kids, then little Gemma got her first real flu, then last night sweet K-fer was up for 3 hours happy as a clam due to my forgetting to inform him that it was nighttime.
I also don’t think Gemma has slept through the night more than once since before we had Kristopher…she has adapted without a hitch in any other way and loves her little brother to pieces, but her sleep patterns seem irreparably damaged. Being a big fan of my previous 8-10-hours-per-night-plus-naps, this has wreaked havoc on my functioning ability.
Short nights catch up on us all!
In honor of my beautiful little blessings, here is a little list for you all:
You know you’re tired when…
… you fill up your contact case with solution and shut it but forget to take out your contacts before bed. The next morning you think there has been a miracle and your vision is 20/20 (I actually uttered the words, “It’s a miracle!” and shook Carl awake). Then you rub your eyes in amazement and realize there is something glued to your eyeball. A little disappointing.
… you remember to take our your contacts before bed but forget you remembered and poke around in your eye for a good minute before realizing there’s nothing in there but eyeball.
… you take your 3 week old (or 4 month old…oops) baby out to the store and when someone stops you you cannot for the life of you remember what you named him (this is very embarrassing, because the first time you just stutter out the first thing you see (Dorito? How unique…) and the next time (yes, this happened more than once), you remember how that went and instead you stand there and think about it and look just as completely crazy. Lose lose).
… you put your potty-trained child on the toilet with her underwear still on and are even more confused than her about how it ended up wet.
… you memorize all your kids’ story books (I have about 35 down pat) so you can read them with your eyes closed and pretend to yourself that you’re resting.
… you cannot remember when you last showered or washed your sheets…if you’re going to do one you have to do the other, so you decide against doing either.
… you cannot remember your phone number, address, or worse still, email password you’ve have since the seventh grade (yes, I know I should change it more often, but really, if I can’t even remember it this way, that would just be asking for trouble).
… you know your mother/mother-in-law is coming over and you don’t even dust.
I’m sure you can all add so many more and I’d love to hear them! :)
Obviously, I wouldn’t trade having my kids for the world, and I find the effects of extreme sleep deprivation quite entertaining (especially after a good nap).
Who can resist this?
Really, when you’re running on 3-4 hours sleep for a couple consecutive weeks, I certainly hope you can laugh at the effects, or you better sit down and have yourself a good cry and a good nap, and leave things in the hands of a good husband, friend or family member.
Tomorrow is another day, and for today I laugh in the face of sleep – HA, WHO NEEDS YOU!?!!!
Ok, clearly I do. Ah well, maybe next year :)
I’m seriously sitting here with tears streaming down my cheek becauese I’m laughing so hard! I think all mom’s have been there (being sleep deprived) but you’re stories are some of the funniest I’ve ever heard! Please continue to share more :)
Please ignore all the typos in that post (it’s hard to see with the tears making my vision blurry)
LOL, thanks Joni!
Now there should be no more complaints when, as a parent, I have to go through the whole list of names to get to the right one. Right, Sarah…I mean Anna :) My poor daughters who still live with us…sometimes I say the wrong name and get “she doesn’t even live here anymore!” I love you all, whoever you are :)
Thanks for the laugh! :) I’ve had MANY a sunday where I get to the nursery, and stare blankly at the spot on the whiteboard where I’m supposed to write my child’s name. :)
Haha! It’s even worse when your children are old enough to take advantage of your disability and ask you questions that you respond to and then get mad at them for doing something you obviously would never say yes to but did in your trance. As for names…I’ve just started calling them all hey you. And stopped wearing contacts. (: Sterkte!
:) You’re too funny!
You also know you’re tired when, after lovingly taking the trouble to make homemade soup stock, you go to strain the stock by pouring it into a colander and forget to put a bowl under it to catch the juices so you get to watch all your delicious stock drain straight down the sink…on the positive side, I didn’t have the colander sitting on the counter instead of in the sink.
Now that is one I can relate to! I have definitely done that too.
Since when do you dust before I come over?…Just kidding :) I hope you get some sleep soon!
I, too, laughed out loud at these. Especially the one about forgetting his name in the store. I had that a couple of times with Joshua. I resolved that problem the next time around by finding out the gender… by the time number 2 came around, I had had a few months practicing to myself out loud at home :)
Okay, I laughed so hard about the contacts! I have definitely searched around in my eye for my contacts before.
Here are a few more:
You know you’re tired when someone is talking to you and all you see is them moving their lips and making some odd sounds. You can’t understand what they’re saying at all!
You know you’re tired when you realize that it’s noon and you’ve been in your pjs for several hours. And you have just been wandering around the house for hours just moving dishes around, not cleaning up anything. And you just don’t care!
I feel bad laughing at your expense…but forgetting your baby’s name is just too funny:) Hope you guys start feeling better soon!
Yawn. I’m still tired and my youngest is 4! I loved your list. Tostitos would have been a cuter name. JJ. You’d be so just “one of the moms” with all the stories here in Ottawa church since December about being sick etc…it’s like you never moved. :-) Wish you more naps. Will Gemma nap if you all 3 nap in the same room. Once Kristopher is asleep she crawls in beside you and you both snooze? When Jürgen was little and I was expecting Mathias I would put on a movie for him in our room and put a mattress on the floor in front of the door so I could nap but he could not leave the room or do anything without waking me up. He watched a 50 min movie with me close by and I got a nap! :-)
Thanks for sharing, Anna! I really laughed out loud at these! Just when I was feeling sleep deprived, you made me realize that I don’t even have it that bad. I hope you have a really good sleep tonight! :)
Oh Anna! This definitely made me smile. I like your positive spin on sleep deprivation, life’s humour :)
LOL…. you know you are tired when…
…. you wake up to nurse the baby at 2:00 am and find your self still sitting in your nursing chair at 7:00 am… still with the baby attached to you and your other kids awake and ready to roll.
LOL, that’s a great one Elizabeth! I’ve definitely fallen asleep nursing but not for that long!