sleep deprivation… yet again.

posted by hollymartinez on 22nd, 2010

Night, after night, after night of being awakened…

by children,
by the dog,
by a snoring husband,
by the neighbor’s dog.

Sometimes I wonder if I will ever sleep through the night again.

It wasn’t always this way. I used to be able to sleep through all sorts of sounds and events.

Thunderstorms and hurricanes used to be a great time to sleep. Now, even when the kids aren’t screaming, I lay awake, listening to the thunder and praying that it doesn’t wake them. Hoping that the electricity won’t go off and they won’t wake up in a panic because their night lights don’t work.

You know, sleep deprivation is a source of torture during war times. Poor mothers, we are like prisoners of war, exhausted and forced to keep going for the good of our troops.

I have done all sorts of crazy things in the past four years while I suffer from sleep deprivation…

Let’s not forget the toothpaste incident from an earlier post.

I have put the telephone in the freezer.

I put the television remote in the linen closet.

I have put a carton of milk in the microwave.

I have seen my son put a waffle in the DVD player, and not even get off the couch to stop him.

I have told the mechanic at the car dealership, “I love you honey, see you soon.”

I have even taken out our mailbox! I just continued to drive while the mailbox scratched the side of my van, all the while my daughter sat in her car seat and squealed, “mommy, you are hitting the mailbox!” My brain just couldn’t tell my foot to stop pushing the gas petal. Scary, I know!

I remember when Troy was just a peanut, a few weeks old maybe. I heard him crying in the night. I reached into his bassinet and began to rock him back and forth as I sat in my bed. I knew it was too soon for him to eat again, as I must have just put him back down and dozed off. As his crying became louder, I woke up more; I realized, I was rocking my pillow and there lay my infant son in his cradle screaming to the high heavens, and next to me, lay my sleeping husband.

Now, how is it that men can sleep through these things?

That, my friends, could be a blog of it’s own.