Sleep…you never truly understand just how amazing it is until you can’t have it. Any mother you ask will more than likely have some interesting story about lack of sleep. Like putting the spoon in the refrigerator and looking for the box of cereal in the washer. Lack of sleep can do interesting things to your mind but somehow your body still manages to go on with the motivation of your little one. I have learned that my body has become accustomed to lack of sleep. I can function normally on about 4 hours of sleep now. This would never be possible if I did not have my beautiful daughter driving me. A website I found that was useful to me was http://scienceofmom.com/2013/05/14/sleep-deprivation-the-dark-side-of-parenting/ It holds a lot of beneficial information and something I read there rang particularly true to my life hence the picture above. It shows that while new moms loose about 45 minutes of sleep to there already end of pregnancy sleep deprivation. Dad’s loose only about 18 minutes. I’m thinking yup that’s my husband and must be nice. But the truth is we let them sleep since they resume working way before we do, at least I do. It’s a lot harder for them to adjust in part being that their huge mess of changing and raging hormones are directly connected to pregnancy or the little one.
Adjusting can also be hard for some mothers out there. Lack of sleep is no joke and takes a lot of work and time to get used to. It plays a large role in mental stability and happiness, and with our hormones and emotions already being ran through a ringer it can become very easy to fall into postpartum depression or become ill. Let me be one of the many to tell you this does not make something wrong with you or make you a bad mother. It’s normal and very treatable but you have to speak up if your feeling like something is off. Nobody is going to judge you and it will make your life and the sleep deprivation much easier to deal with. I started to feel myself fall into the pit of stress and depression and found myself wondering why I was having such thoughts. Instead of ignoring them I started doing research and linked my symptoms to postpartum depression. I was thinking I was a horrible mother and was not cut out for motherhood if I could feel and think such a way, but after reading up I decided to take action and started writing down my feeling and carefully going through them. That’s when I stepped back and realized just how ludicrous my thinking really was it also helps to talk to someone. If it does not start to get better after that then call a doctor there is nothing to be ashamed of. A website that I found particulary helpful and might just help you or someone you know to is http://www.postpartumprogress.com/the-symptoms-of-postpartum-depression-anxiety-in-plain-mama-english. If any of you have any experience with this or know someone that went through it I encourage you to share please. It does get better, I got through it and I know you can to!
The Spitup 
This was a great post. So many new mothers suffer from postpartum depression, but do not get the help they sorely need. You have a very “true” voice when you write and that’s why I found your post just as interesting as the resources you provided.
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Trisha,
I love the image you posted at the beginning of this blog post! I have seen it on FB before and have re-posted it myself a few times! However, I must say that my husband is one of the few diamonds in the rough who have shared the sleep deprivation right along with me. In the beginning with our first son, as a new parent, he would wake up when I did and he felt so bad that I had to get out of bed to breast feed and change a diaper that he quickly started sharing duties. When our son would wake up, my husband would get up first and change his diaper and say “ready” over the baby monitor so that I would then get up to breast feed. He continued to do this the entire time I breast fed and this was the same routine from the beginning with our second son (and I expect it will be the same with our 3rd child). It really helps having the understanding and support from your partner, especially as a new parent, when dealing with the side effects of sleep deprivation! I’ve put orange juice in my cereal more than a handful of times when I was a new mom!!
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Hey There!
This whole post was extremely interesting. First off, the length of the post was perfect. While only two paragraphs, each one was filled with good information to really drive home the point you were trying to make. I also really like that the entire post was very personal. By giving examples of your own personal struggle allowed me to almost believe in the information even more.
The use of links in the post was extremely helpful, because I can only imagine that other people, specifically women, are going through the same thing in some cases and while reading your blog may help, most seek action and help to aid them in remedying the deprivation. The links led to actual steps and possible help for these major problems women can face.
I would say the only critique that was almost instantly fixed was the very first picture you had at the top. At first I thought it was implying that men don’t take part in the struggles of having a baby, but when you further explained it later it made sense why the photo illustrated what it did.
Good post!
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