Will I ever get caught up on sleep? I’m starting to think it’s just something we have to deal with as working moms. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a lucky one. My son sleeps 12 hours most nights. But I don’t get anywhere near that.
The time after my son goes to bed is my time to get caught up. I do the dishes, prepare lunches for the next day, clean up all my son’s toys, do yoga, work on posts for the blog, relax and read or watch my favorite TV shows with my husband, and get caught up on social media. By the time I’m ready to go to bed it’s always at least an hour later than I wanted it to be.
On nights when I get into bed much later than normal, say 11:30pm, when my goal is 10pm, then I know for sure my son is going to have a bad night. It never fails, when I’m already extremely tired he wakes up during the night. And it seems to only happen on the weekdays that I work. I wake up thinking, there’s no way it’s morning already and I have to go into work today!
I normally wake up at least an hour before my son in the mornings so I can get ready for work on work days or start my work on my work from home days. I start my morning with a cup of hot lemon water because it helps hydrate me first thing in the morning. I usually follow the lemon water with coffee, shower and a big breakfast. I eat a bowl with lots of fruit (whatever is in season), homemade muesli, yogurt and almond milk. It’s delicious and filling and I eat it everyday.
To help me keep from feeling tired throughout the day, I try to stay active. I’m naturally a morning person, so that’s when I have my most energy, in afternoons and evenings I really start to fade. On days I’m home with my son I take him out to my baby bootcamp workouts, library story time, or play dates. These help us both stay active and awake. On work days I drink more coffee, and try to get up from my desk often to help keep me awake.
In the afternoons and evenings I like to go for a family walk outside or play with my son in the yard to keep my blood flowing and wake me up. Some days it’s harder than others to keep my energy up in the afternoons. I usually depends on how much sleep I got the night before and what my son’s mood has been all day. I wish I could nap when he does in the afternoon, but those are precious two to three hours I need to get my work done on days I work from home.
I’m sure this is something I’m going to face for a long time as a working mom, especially if I have more children. I had a rough night last night because I didn’t go to sleep until after 11pm, then my son woke up at 4:30am (this is very unusual for him). My eyelids feel heavy and I don’t feel as sharp as usual, but I’m getting by. I even was able to summon the energy to write this post! Hopefully tonight I can at least get 7 hours sleep, the minimum my body needs to feel decent the next day, and I wish I get those 7 hours more often.
I’m going to start trying harder to stick to my goal of going to bed at 10pm because I don’t like feeling tired all the time. I will need to cut out some TV shows and books I want to read to do that, but sleep is more important anyway.
What do you do to survive lack of sleep? How many hours do you get per night?
