Perspective please...

I need it!

I know I haven't written much in the past week.  What with Iwan turning one, and me turning thirty you'd think there'd be loads to write about, and there is.  It's just that with all that's been going on in the past week, I've been left with very little time to write.

And lest you think it's all party party party over here, the biggest time suck of all has been a nasty little virus called Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease.  Iwan came down with this little gem over the weekend, and is just now getting over it.  Poor baby!

While I'm sure my son would argue (if he could) that the most difficult thing about this illness are the mouth sores that made it impossible for him to eat solid food for a couple of days, I, on the other hand, would say that the waking up at night is the worst part.  This is where I need a little perspective.  The me of 4 or 5 months ago would laugh in my present face for complaining about this.  Iwan was notorious for waking up 3-4 times a night until he was about 8 months old, it was really hard but we dealt with (how we dealt with it is another whole post entirely- I'll get to that someday. Promise!).  Since then, G and I have become accustomed to Iwan sleeping 12-13 hours, with the only little peeps heard over the monitor being the contented little snuffles of a blissfully sleeping baby.

But this week he has been waking once or twice in the night because he doesn't feel good.  Totally understandable.  But here I am, dragging myself around as if I've spent the night mainlining tequila with Charlie Sheen.  Again, the me of 5 months ago is shaking her head.  For her, waking once or twice would have been a huge sleep victory.  Granted, she wasn't pushing her 30th week of pregnancy, but still...

I spent a couple hours this morning wondering if I'm going to be able to deal with a newborn again.  I mean, of course I am, but this week has been a little reality check.  I guess it all comes down to expectations.  I would never expect my newborn baby to sleep through the night, so that makes it much easier to deal with the constant wakings.  But when I put my one year old to bed, expecting to snooze right on through, it's much more of a shock to the system when the monitor starts blinking a few hours later.

Here's hoping that little mister feels better soon, and we all start getting a good night's sleep again.  At least for the next 10 weeks or so!