You can sleep too

“Sleep when the baby sleeps” that's what everyone says. None of us ever do it. When the baby goes down, we are relieved to have a moment to ourselves.

The instant that baby falls asleep, we have a list of things that we have been wanting to do. Things like... going to the bathroom, having a bite to eat, showering perhaps? Sometimes we do things other than fulfill our basic needs, glamorous things like... the dishes, vacuuming or laundry.

We don’t sleep.

We should sleep, we should take that advice, then we might not snap at the other members of our family when they leave their bedroom light on or forget a toy in the hall (where you inevitably trip over it).

If we weren’t so sleep deprived, we might be nicer to telemarketers, we might remember where our keys are, and we might not foam at the mouth when older kids are a little too loud returning home from school. In extreme cases we may even have the desire to tolerate our loving husbands.

We still don’t sleep.

We can’t. We have put so much pressure on ourselves to have a clean home, to look a certain way and to cook fabulous meals. We always think “I’ll just do this one thing, and then I will lie down.” Then we get distracted either by the household things we need to get done or by the social networks on the computer... sometimes we even have actual people over to our houses... ahhh human contact; it’s lovely. That is something we will always choose over sleep.

You know what I did today? I slept... when the baby slept! I actually did it! I left the laundry unfolded, the dish washer full and the floors covered in dog hair. You know what? It felt great! AND I fed my family left over chicken with Kraft dinner.... they all survived. As a matter of fact, the kids were thrilled.

I slept when the baby slept and the world didn’t end. You can do it too.

Guest blogger Maureen Turner