The One Benefit of Sleep Deprivation

To be honest, C isn't a horrible baby when it comes to sleep.  He was never up every two hours and for the past few weeks when we put him down for the night, even though he fusses to be fed, he never fully wakes up.  We have rarely had those episodes of pacing the floor with him night after night.  But that doesn't mean that we're not lacking on sleep.  Prior to having C, I could sleep for 9 hours a night and still desire a nap.  There are weekends when RCW, who does not require as much sleep as me, will take the 11pm feeding and still get up with C at 5am too so I can sleep.  He's an amazing daddy and husband taking care of both of us!

While the lack of my 9+ hours of sleep have been an adjustment, there has been one big benefit of being tired.

When RCW works nights or out of town, I am finally so exhausted I can sleep!

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you may have picked up on the fact that RCW works out of town or at night sometimes.  And until we had C, I was a big scaredy cat.  There were many sleepless nights or nights where I would drift in and out with the glow of the TV.  But now that sleep is a precious commodity, I have found that I can sleep when RCW is working nights!  And without the TV on too.

And the real test of this was that last week RCW had to work one night.  He left at 8pm and was suppose to be home around 2am.  I went to sleep around 9:30pm and was prepared for C to start his request for his bottle around 11pm.  Instead of waking up to C's fussing, I woke up to RCW sitting on the bed right beside me feeding C. 

WHAT!?

I slept through the beep of our alarm system alerting me to someone coming in the door.  I slept through RCW coming into our bedroom and sitting down on the bed beside me.  I woke up when I heard C making some noise and rolled over to discover the scene.  

I was so confused.  I thought it was 2am, but alas RCW got home earlier than expected at 11:15pm and fed C before I could even wake up.

So while there are days and afternoons where I miss my sleep, this is definitely one of the benefits of being tired!  Because if I couldn't sleep while RCW is working at night or out of town, I'd probably end up falling asleep at my desk or being late for work way too often!  However, it did bother me that I didn't notice someone coming into the house late at night, but at least I still woke up when I heard C making noise.  Mother's instinct I suppose, kicked in.