Hell hath no fury like a woman woken
NS January 26th, 2009
The Noble Baby, the one who has slept like a dream since he was born, has decided that shrieking all night is fun and that the only thing he wants is to lounge on my shoulder while I walk around the house. Laying in bed next to your mother in a peaceful slumber is for pansies, apparently. TNH had the gall to complain about the noise and ask for earplugs at 5.15am when I came into the spare room where he was sleeping, asking for help. I’ve had about six hours sleep over two nights, broken into god-knows-how-many-dozen segments. Needless to say, I lost the plot. A pack of baby wipes ended up the target of my fury and are now spilled all over the floor, having been beaten mercilessly from their packaging. The filing cabinet became an unsuspecting victim as well, an innocent bystander hurt by cross-fire, when slamming the baby wipes repeatedly down on the top somehow dislodged a ragged chunk of the cheap wood and exposed a screw holding the drawer on. The noise scared the bejeesus out of my poor, innocent boy and his face was one of wide-eyed shock before he wailed again and burst into tears. I slumped onto the bed, hair clenched in my fists, and joined him in crying.
Sleep deprivation does twisted, messed up, horrible things to a person.
- Parenting 101 , The Noble Baby
- Comments(5)
“Sleep deprivation does twisted, messed up, horrible things to a person.” So,so true. I hope you’re not feeling guilty over any of this. I know I used to feel guilty whenever I lost my temper, which happened at least once a week during the really tough months of (almost) 6 hours of broken sleep per night.
By the way, my kids are 7 and 9. It gets so much better.
Was nodding away as I read this, knowing totally how you feel, until I read in horror: ‘The filing cabinet……when slamming the baby repeatedly down on top…..’ OMG, thought I, oh no no no, I can’t believe she would do that. Then I read it again. That’s what sleep deprivation is doing for me
Apart from anything else, it’s so maddening when their sleep patterns seem to deteriorate as they get older, you’re left despairingly asking yourself why everyone leads you to believe things are only going to get better. I hate people who say ‘this too shall pass’ so I won’t say it, but well,…. you know. Presumably THC is sleeping all night, imagine how much worse things could be. Feeling better? OK, take another pack of wipes.
Awww… poor you!!
Blame Darwin. If it wasn’t for the whole “survival of the fittest” thing we wouldn’t be doing this reproducing lark and driving ourselves to the edge of sanity!!
I’ll mail you offline and make you an offer.
I hear you. Ours decided that he wasn’t sleeping anywhere but our bed last night.
Thanks for the commisserations everyone. Things have been much better the past two nights, mainly because we figured out that what kept waking him in the first part of the night was his moses basket — he’s too big for it. So we’re co-sleeping 100% of the time now, until we can get TNC’s new bed ordered and assembled and move TNB into her old cot. Musical beds! I don’t mind though, I just love snuggling all night with my bambino.
Siobhan, I can assure you that it was the baby wipes, not the baby, that I slammed into the cabinet.
Vered, I did indeed feel guilty but I know I’ll get over it. I have to keep reminding myself that this is probably the hardest stage in parenting I will face — in the midst of the Terrible Twos *and* with a new baby to contend with. Things can only look up from here.
Brinkster, thank you for your very kind offer, will email you back shortly.
A Free Man, I hope you get some sleep tonight!