The dark side of parenting: sleep deprivation

Most people that know me know that I love my sleep. love. my. sleep. I also don't like to be woken mid-sleep and well when you have a toddler and a 7 month old baby, its fair to say they don't give a hoot about YOUR sleep preferences. 

They have their own little sleep mission and just quietly its utter rubbish.

I think it's fair to say that the whole sleep thing has all got a bit out of hand in our house. And as a consequence, we are ALL suffering from a little sleep deprivation. I know sleep deprivation is inevitable with 2 babes in the house but sleep is necessary and this whole sleep on the pillow that your head first lands on protocol that we have created in our house is the absolute pits.

Most nights, I actually have no idea who is where or what bed one has landed in. 

Its like musical beds and it is not fun. 

For example, we have had: Noah in our bed. Jude in our bed. Brad in Noah's bed. Jude in Noah's bed. Brad on the floor. Noah in Jude's cot (!), Noah under his bed ("Jo, have you seen Noah?"), Jo in Noah's bed. Jo on couch. Brad on couch. Noah at our feet. Both kids in our bed.... Parents on the floor in kids room.

Can you hear the music playing... on and on but last night, I screamed:

"Stop!"

My poor family and neighbours heard the almighty roar of serious sleep deprivation. I declared right then and there that tomorrow I declare war on sleep. 

Yup. War. 

We all need it and I will fight for it. Damn it.

So, today. I started operation sleep in your own bed. I know it's going to be tough. I am no fool. I have fought this battle before, back in 2009. I know I would rather pull out my toenails but this needs to be done. We all need sleep! And I will make sleep a priority. 

So here's my pledge. For the month of November, these babies of mine will be sleeping in their own bed. And my husband will be by myside in our bed. Our beautiful bed. Maybe not 100% of the time, lets make it 80% of sleep time. 

Don't want to set myself up for an earlier failure. I can do this. We can do this.

Wish me luck. 

Anyone else got the same thing happening in their house? Want to join me in this fight for better sleep?

Love Jo xxx

What's your Ying... And where the hell is your yang?

Time has just flown by. It's been a good couple of weeks since I last logged into my blog. 

And.... lots, lots has been happening. 

We welcomed the arrival of two new baby boys; Jack and Lucas. We celebrated a first birthday (Happy birthday Finn), and dressed to impress at Seths superhero party and Eddies train party (yeah to being 4).  Speaking of 4, we celebrated our Noah turning 4. Happy happy birthday to our (not so little) big man. He dressed as a brave knight and celebrated his extra year with his little buddies in the park. The rain stayed away, I declared war in the kitchen, the cake was moist, the piñata was a hit (!) and Noah declared it the "best party ever". 

Happy. 

We hosted grandpa in our bungalow for a week, we dodged the busy laneways and crazy trams as Noah discovered the joys of riding a big boy bike and we went to scienceworks and played on the dots. 

Jude grew some hair, which is looking very blonde (err, genetics?) and he has developed quite a strong core. He is all sorts of sitting. And the boys are playing (yes, playing!) as brothers, which makes me so incredibly happy.

I started mummy boot camp and well, found my core too. It just happened to be whilst crouched over the toilet bowl. Running and me have never been friends. But it was all for a good cause. Our beautiful friends Lissy and Luke tied the knot and I had the privilege of being a part of the bridal party. Hence, the running. It was a beautiful day, the boys wore bowties and I actually caught myself saying "amazing" for the 200th time because it was just all so, amazing... 

Stop it. 

And then amongst all this "busyness" I had some real moments of self reflection. Life has a way of doing this to me, of saying, "Hey, Jo! You seriously don't look busy enough, how about you start pondering everything in your life? Like, what's important to you and to your family? What makes a good friend and are you one? What's good in your life and what needs some help? Whats your Ying? And where the hell is your Yang? And what needs to happen to make all that (over there on the other side of your head) happen. Snap to it." 

Busy place is my head. Fair to say I am not even close to answering a single one of those questions posed by life. Ill get around to it one day, I hope.

And that my friends has been a couple of weeks in my house. Crazy, busy, happy random bits of chaos.

How's your week been? What are you looking forward to this week?

Love Jo xxx