I hate getting woken up before I need to. Even if I wake up and go straight back to sleep, it is still very disruptive and I don’t feel like I’ve had a restful sleep.
My wife knows this.
She happens to be a morning person and I happen to be…not.
I love sleeping in during weekends because it’s the only time I can catch up from working days where I never sleep more than 6 to 7 hours. And for the first 6 months after my marriage, I’d get quite upset that at 7 or 8am on Saturday and Sunday, she really, really liked to snuggle up to me thinking I’d just go back to sleep and appreciate it.
Very quickly, it became quite clear that I didn’t want to be disturbed early in the morning and since then she sneaks out of bed those weekend mornings to do whatever she does at that time…like watch cartoons and eat coco puffs. Then the baby came along.
All my notions of sleep have since gone out of the window. The baby sleeps in the cot next to our bed and so even when my wife does night shift, I’ll still wake for awhile. I haven’t had a full night of sleep for as long as baby Natalie has been born.
But it was only this morning when I realised how much I’ve relaxed my ‘stance’ on sleeping.
The baby woke up early and didn’t want to sleep so my wife put her between us and played with her. And although she spent half an hour of my precious sleep head-butting my ribs and back, and then holding my shoulders as she stood up, I didn’t feel an ounce of irritation.
I smiled every time I felt her put her hands on my back and stand up because she only just started being able to do that maybe 2 days ago. And every time she head-butted me and squealed with joy, I chuckled to myself as well.
Parenthood truly does change people. The exhaustion is very, very real, but the joy that can come out of it is something which words cannot fully describe.
I love my baby girl and am so grateful for everyday that I get to spend with her.
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