Sleep is for wimps

Just when you think you can't get any more tired whilst continuing to function like a normal human being, your little one is subjected to the sudden appearance of molars.

Last night: I went to bed around 10pm, read for a bit (I am re-reading the Lord of the Rings for the three-dozenth time because that's what I do when I can't think what else to read), then put my light off and attempt to go to sleep. Midnight arrives. I am still half awake. Little man starts crying. I stick some Bonjela on his gums and lie down with him in my bed. Around an hour later I think he is asleep enough to pop him back in his cot. I would co-sleep if I could but the slightest thing wakes me. Even when STBE husband and I were actually acting like partners we didn't sleep in the same bed. Strange, I know, but we disturbed each other's sleep.

Then just after 5am little man wakes crying again. I try everything to get him to settle for another hour or two's sleep. I give him a bottle of milk, paracetamol, Bonjela, teething powder (baby crack). I walk up and down the landing with him, rocking and humming. I sit in bed rocking him. I lie down and cuddle him. No. He wants me to read him The Tiger who Came to Tea or open the blinds so he can look out of the window for the dog across the road. So we go downstairs and, for once, I stick CBeebies on so we can both stare at it like zombies. Because despite all his crying and struggling, little man is still knackered. I watch the Teletubbies with him for the first time and find myself wondering how on earth they could have called one Tinky Winky. I find myself deeply irritated by the Tweenies.

I go to a playgroup. I come home. Ben sleeps in the car. For an hour and a half. This is my half-hour cat-napping baby. I go to work. I knit. I work (really, I do). I drink tea. I attempt to not yawn too frequently. I come home. I go on the computer and watch an episode of Robin Hood, check my facebook, write my blog, check my email and catch the latest posts on the Baby Led Weaning forum.

It is now 10pm. Why am I not in bed? Pre-child I was usually in bed by 9.30pm. Now, when I really need an early night I don't do it. Because I have learnt that it's perfectly possible to function on an ever-decreasing amount of sleep. Sleep is for wimps.