The Art of Almost Sleeping

Of all the things that changed when I became a mother (what didn't?) - the one that took the hardest hit was my sleeping schedule. My first pregnancy didn't really affect my sleep at all - just gave me license to enjoy those afternoon naps even more. However, none of my babies have been "good sleepers" - so when my first son was born I had to make some serious changes and adjust to living on less, much less, sleep.

Now with four small kiddos to look after I have pretty much made my peace with just not getting as much sleep as I would like. And most days I have enough energy to get through the day without a nap, although I do occasionally take a little "power nap" at about 8:30pm when they are all finally, blissfully, peacefully sleeping.

Part of my adjustment to this stage of life and less-than-ideal sleep is my perfection of what I like to call The Art of Almost Sleeping. After many years of stumbling through in a sleep-deprived stupor, I've mastered a few levels of almost sleeping...

1. Sleeping in the car, or a chair, straight up. I always used to find my head bobbing when I'd attempt sleeping in a car or bus, but somehow after having kids I am able to sit with my head straight up and basically lock it into position and almost sleep...

2. Sleeping while the kids watch TV. This isn't something I do very often, but occasionally when I am in desperate need of a little power nap I am somehow able to simultaneously block out whatever children's program is on, while still keeping my ears open for crying babies or whining children. And when the program is over? Somehow I miraculously wake up right when it is over so the kids don't end up watching hours of TV while I snooze on the sofa.

3. Nursing babies while lying down. I may have mentioned before how lazy I am when it comes to night wakings. As my confidence in nursing grew, I started bringing the baby to bed with me, nursing them on my side and enjoying a few moments of almost sleeping. Of course, there are times when I wake up about two hours later and think I should probably put this baby back in the crib...

4. The "One-Eyed Mama". This is a technique I developed which makes the night wakings much easier. You can read about it in detail here. The past few weeks haven't been easy with the twins being sick and waking up multiple times each, and this technique not only helps me forget how many times I get up every night, but I'm getting so good at it, I could probably walk to the twins room and back with my eyes completely closed. Just have to make sure I pick up the right twin and return them to their own crib. So far I have not woken up in the morning to find two twins in the same crib, but it may well happen at least once! 

And if that's not almost sleeping, I don't know what is....