Sleep Deprivation: One of the many joys of parenting

I might have gotten one and a half hours of sleep last night.

Maybe.

My almost two-year-old is currently trying to get in her two-year molars and so far it has not been fun. Thank goodness we haven’t thrown the “binks” out yet!

I love those nights when the kids wake up before I’ve even gone to bed for the night. Last night, that’s how it happened.

So I moved the four-year-old to our bed so I could lie down with the youngest and try to get her to sleep. To say the least, it didn’t help at all.

She wanted to go outside.

She wanted to watch a show.

She wanted to get food.

She wanted everything but sleep.

And the show didn’t help either as I eventually gave up and gave her the iPad, thinking at least then I could get some sleep.

WRONG! She didn’t let me sleep either. Misery loves company, right?

But who could get mad at these faces?

This is a common occurrence at our house, not usually to this degree, but my youngest two are not the best sleepers.

Kid #2 had issues from the get-go. So pretty much every day for almost the last five years, she has woken me up at least once each night.

Kid #3 started out pretty good. Such a sweet little baby and slept decently for the most part. But she has now come into her own and hates going to sleep by herself and wakes more often.

Who am I kidding?! All three of them still wake me up, sometimes multiple times a night.

How do parents survive on such little sleep???

Newborns are one thing, but that should phase out by the time they are four or five months old. I’m afraid at our house it is so common that I couldn’t even nap during nap time if I tried. Like now, my youngest is snoozing away and I should be doing the same, but I’m wide awake. I’ll probably get sleepy about five minutes before she wakes up and is ready to go, go, go! Sadly, I’m just used to the lack of sleep.

Good thing the roles are not reversed and my husband has to get up with the kids. He would never be able to function. Well, I’m not sure. Maybe he’d get used to it eventually, too. I was shocked he survived the summer with less than eight hours of sleep every night. Normally, if he gets even one minute less than eight hours, he is a bear.

Maybe if I wasn’t such a light sleeper. Or maybe if our kids were more dependent. Or maybe if I just ignored them better.

Who knows.

But I hear every.little.thing.

And since my youngest is not in a crib anymore, she comes and goes as she pleases. She now sneaks into my room in the middle of the night and will stand right by the bed waiting for me to wake up. It’s a little unnerving to sense someone by your bed, only to open your eyes and have someone right in your face.

So how do you cope with a lack of sleep?

Looking for suggestions here . . .

Seriously. Need. Sleep.

Time to go . . . the beast is awake!