If you’re a mom you know what it feels like to be sleep deprived. There’s nothing quite like being woken up every few hours by a tiny newborn who requires your full functioning and undivided attention throughout the night in order to sustain life.
The challenging thing is not all little people learn how to sleep well, often they need help learning that skill. So the only thing worse than being woken up by the little baby is being woken up by that little baby three years later when she isn’t so little any more.
It’s tricky because you know she’s waking up because you failed as a mom to teach her how to sleep well when she was tiny.
So for two months we’ve been working a sticker chart in our house to get this not so tiny girl sleeping better so her very sleep deprived and grumpy mama can feel human again. All I want is six consecutive hours of sleep a few nights in a row, not too much to ask, right?
She rocks the sticker chart, earns her fish tank and I start to see the light at the end of the tunnel when we come down with a dreaded head cold over the holidays. Long story short, we digressed, big time. Fever, cough, me sleeping in bed with her…there are no words.
And now we’re starting over again, but she has the fish tank, so it’s tricky. I’m trying to get her back on track with out putting the fish tank in my room and causing her to re-earn it. Jury is still out on whether or not we’re going to make it.
But the point of the story is that today I woke up sleep deprived, again.
So when she charges into my room in the early morning hours and proclaims, with more excitement then her little body can contain, “Mom, I have the best news ever!” you might understand why I’d be skeptical.
I mean through the hazy fog that is my brain on not enough sleep, not much is registering on my radar as “best news ever” unless it involves me still sleeping, which obviously wasn’t the case.
In a matter of nano seconds she announces: “It’s snowing!”
And in honoring my new years resolution, to be more mindful and live in the present moment – no goals – just awareness as the minutes turn into hours and hours into days and weeks and then just like that the year is over — I decided to wake up with joy in my heart that my little girl loves life despite her grumpy mama’s influences.
And the snow is beautiful – the trick is being in the present moment and not thinking about shoveling it.
