Sleep Deprived Zombie Mommy

Let me start this post by saying that I'm a morning person and always have been. I was a competitive swimmer for 17 years, finishing my career at Northeastern University (Go Huskies!). You have to be a morning person to be a competitive swimmer. I am also lucky to be one of those people who only need about 5-6 hours of sleep a night to function and function at a high level. I don't think I would be able to accomplish all I have in my life if I wasn't able to make the most of my limited hours in my day.

Sofie snuggles are the best!

Fast forward to having a baby and now i'm craving sleep!!! I can never seem to get enough and I'm constantly playing catch up even though my FitBit says I'm getting 8-9 hours of sleep a night. So what has happened to the days of sleeping 5 hours a night, training 4 hours a day and taking 21 credit hours a semester in college??? I believe two factors are in play here: 1) energy expenditure from breastfeeding and 2) light sleeping from listening to the baby monitor by my ear.

Zombie Mommy during a growth spurt

I used to work out 4 hours day, 6 days a week with a mixture of swimming, weightlifting and cardio. I can tell you that breastfeeding is wayyyyy more tiring than those hours of sweating! It's hard to keep your body healthy enough to make enough milk for your baby (I will post later about some of the foods I have around the house to help me my milk flowing).

When I used to only sleep 5-6 hours a night, I slept HARD! I was out and dead to the world for those few glorious hours. Now, I'm always sleeping with one eye and one ear open, waiting to hear if my sweet baby girl is about to wake up. People used to tell me after you become a parent, you'll never have a good night sleep again for fear of what's going on with your child. Now, I don't sleep well because I want to help her if she wakes up crying and later I'll stay awake wondering if she will make it home safe in time for her curfew.

Sofie not happy with going back to sleep at 4am

Why am I bringing this up? Because the most important thing I can do for my sweet Sofie girl, is take care of myself. Now is this going to happen all the time? Of course not! My hubby started to see his wife, the former smiling morning person, fade away and asked how he could help (boy am I lucky that he is always checking in with me!). I feel like a new woman when I can get even 2 hours of sleep in the morning where I know someone is up and taking the monitor away from me. We started to implement this on the weekends. We both know that anything that happens in the middle of the night, I will take care of Sofie but when the morning comes and my husband is up he will take the monitor, close the door and let me sleep. It's amazing how hard I sleep for these few hours and they are the most restorative hours I have all week! When my mom comes and visit, she does the same thing for me and it's truly amazing!

Basically how I look when someone else is watching her :-) Like mother, like daughter

Why is this so important for my family? Well for one, I get a break and take care of myself so I can in turn take care of my family (and with a smile on my face!). Secondly, my darling Sofie learns that there are people other than Mommy that can provide her with love, care and comfort. Finally, my hubby can bond with Sofie Girl and feel comfortable with caring for her without the watchful eye of Mommy.

Melt my heart

Moms often feel the guilt of taking care of baby 100% of the time but it's not healthy for them or for baby! Zombies are scary, happy mommies are fun :-)

Happy Mommy!