The plight of a sleep-deprived mom

Today, I looked at the mirror and said hello to my raccoon eyes.  Ugh!  Last night  I had about 3 hours of sleep.  Yesterday, only 2. Each day,more or less I get the same amount of sleep: 2 or 3.  Sometimes, a much appreciated cat nap in the afternoons if I get lucky but that rarely happens.  If one child sleeps, another one is awake.  If I heave a sigh of relief when Kliven takes his nap, that would most probably be replaced by a sigh of exhaustion because Korby just woke up. And just recently,  I've been blogging my heart out.  So, sleep-deprived me just got more sleep-deprived.  

Having a new baby is no joke. According to an article of Medical News Today, parents lose an average of six months' sleep during the first 24 months of their child's life. Approximately 10% of parents manage to get just two-and-a-half hours continuous sleep each night and over 60% of parents with babies aged less than 24 months get no more than three-and-a-quarter hours sleep each night.  That's like, many hours of sleep wasted away and many sleepless moms sporting raccoon eyes!  I kind of got around my sleepless schedule and I followed a routine that works for me, the kids and hubby too.

Before we sleep and after the kids are all tucked in their beds, I prepare all the things my babies might need throughout the night.  These are >> baby bottles 

>> milk powder all scooped up in their respective servings in tiny milk containers

>> and diapers for easy changing .

This saves me time and effort from having to go out of the room in a flurry when they do wake up and ask for something in the middle of night.  In a way, it diminishes the disruption of my sleeping momentum. There is teeny amount of time during the day that somehow all 3 kids are taking their naps.  During these times, I squeezed in my household chores

and blogging.  Sometimes, I do go through my day, smelling like baby burp and looking like a complete mess but I managed.  Aside from preparing all the stuff that my kids need before bedtime to ensure a "good" sleep, I also ask for hubby's help in taking care of the kids especially when I do my mommy-me-time which at this time is so infrequent.  So we switch turns in taking care of the kids.  I also get happy when the in-laws and my own parents are home.  At least, I get my time off even just for a while and grab a nap. When it comes to the house chores, I deliberately ignore them for a while.  Sometimes, it just takes away that energy reserved for hubby and the kids. There are days when I had to drag myself off my bed, groggily prepare breakfast and with eyes half-closed, see Rai and Khym out the door for work and school.  It just seemed like, I've been losing that good amount of sleep for the longest time having 2 closely-spaced kids. When I did get around my sleep-deprived self after I had Kliven, Korby came and I had to go back to square one--zero sleep and snappy me.  Snappy me.  The exact word to describe me at the moment.  Probably another effect of sleep-deprivation but hopefully not postnatal depression though.

These days, I'm sporting 2 dark eye circles, unkempt hair and burp-prone clothes. I've been day dreaming of hours and hours of uninterrupted sleep,

soft pillows,

snug beds and melodic music.  But alas, that's not the case. So here I' am sleepless and exhausted with wired kids.   Anyway, the kids will do grow up. By then, I'd be snuggled up in my bed feeding on my much needed sleep but I'd be missing those sleepless nights, dark-eye circles and  bedraggled ugly hair because I've been living that kind of life for so long.  So moms, whoever said this would go on forever?  Babies will only be babies once.  Let's just embrace our sleep-deprived selves and dance to our raccoon eyes :)