I do like to talk about subjects other than my children, but sometimes it’s nice to sit down with another mother to swap stories and commiserate about our lives and our families. I have found that even if her situation is seemingly worse than mine, there is always empathy, never pity and generally lots of laughter.
One of the never-ending topics is sleep. Every book and every person says something different. At the beginning I read everything I could about getting my son to sleep, keeping him asleep, blah blah blah. The information was as exhausting and confusing as the boy himself. The tiredness that came from that first year is different than anything I’ve ever felt, it’s like a weariness that starts in your core and just radiates through your body. Of course it is getting better, but I cherish every little bit of sleep so much more now for that experience.
So a friend of mine and I had a wonderful talk about our children and their sleeping habits and how they are keeping us up at different times of the night. Her son is generally pretty good but their daughter still keeps them up until 2am or later some days. My eldest does pretty well and sleeps most nights through and the youngest has recently vacated our bed and, barring the occasional nightmare, has been sleeping; well, like a baby. It was nice to find someone in a similar situation where we could be an encouragement to each other.
The only difference is my children are 2 and 4 and her children are 19 and 21. Sigh. Someone tell me there is a break somewhere in there where I DO get some sleep?
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