The Wish of One Pregnant Lady

Sleep. That's basically what it boils down to. All I want to do, morning, noon and night is sleep. And, of course, I'm getting NONE.

When I was young (God! Am I already starting stories like this???) I used to pride myself on how little sleep I needed to get by. Even when my two year old was born, people used to say to me "just nap when he naps"...and I thought "as if!" My body would NOT nap when there was light out (which in the long run started me spiraling downward into my pit of sleep deprivation).

In the past 25 months, my son has NEVER slept well. I keep waiting for that elusive and permanent "sleep through the night"...but he usually tricks me with a few consecutive nights in a row, only to throw me off when he's up every twenty minutes. And, as most of you moms know, being blessed with Mommy Hearing doesn't help the situation. I generally wake up when my son (who's in his room, door closed, air purifier on max volume) shifts positions - because, you know, he may get tangled in his blanket, or his panda may suffocate him in the middle of the night...? Completely and totally illogical, I know, but it can't be helped.

Now, I've heard two schools of thought when it comes to a second pregnancy and any possibility of finding sleep. #1 - Have your kids as close together as possible - you get all your nights sans sleep out of the way at once. #2 - Have your kids far enough apart that one child is sleeping through the night and you can devote all your sleeplessness to one. Of course, in my "planning" of this second child, I figured there would be NO WAY my eldest would still be up a hundred times a night at this stage, but with 9 1/2 weeks to go and two days straight of being up ALL NIGHT LONG a la Lionel Richie, I'm beginning to wonder if my choice was the right one.

I suppose it's also completely beside the point that I have been SO exhausted this pregnancy. From the beginning I've napped when my little one has napped, and even then I feel that it's not been enough. As a birthday gift, my husband stayed home from work and let me sleep in. And it was honestly the best present I got! This weekend, I sat down to readjust the couch pillows and woke up an hour and a half later when my husband and toddler returned from the park and knocked on the door.

I just wonder, once the new baby gets here, will I be blessed with the infamous second baby sound sleeping syndrome (please, please, please!) or will my strong light sleeping genes be passed down to not one, but two of my offspring. Only time will tell. Until then, I'm going to be sneaking naps every chance I can get. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz