The marching orders dutifully delivered to every mother as she steps out of the hospital and into the exciting world of motherhood is “Sleep when the baby sleeps.” What she’s not told is how to get the laundry done, the beds made, the kitchen swept or even how to take a shower while her little one is wide awake and crying for any number of reasons.
When the choices have to be made between getting the laundry done or taking a nap, for those of us who’ve put our family’s needs ahead of our own, it’s usually our sleep that’s going to be sacrificed. It’s expendable, and we can live without it, we tell ourselves. It comes so naturally to convince ourselves we’ll catch up eventually, or maybe just learn to live without it. Delirium can make you believe anything.
