I am a sleep addict. In the other language I speak (Nepali) there is an actual name for someone who can sleep as much and as long as I can: kumba karne. I happily sacrifice my much beloved long mornings (and afternoons) of sleeping in, plus naps, to experience the joy of mothering an infant. I can somehow get by if I go to bed soon after she falls asleep. I still feel like DEATH when I wake up in the mornings (sooo not a morning person), but after a red bull or coffee I usually perk up enough to feel like I’m a human being.
This week, however? Sleep is hard to come by. My wonderful, easy-going baby is having some sort of growth-spurt/teething issue. She can’t get comfortable at night. She crawls and turns and stands (yes, she can now stand up). She screams if I lie her back down. She screams if I try to hold her still. Eventually she face plants, with her little bottom in the air, and falls asleep. I wait until her breathing is deep and slower, and turn her back around on her back. This would all be fine if that was the end of it, but that’s not the end of it, at least not yesterday.
After a half hour of crying, restless moving around, rocking, holding, more crying, she fell asleep. And she re-woke at least every couple of hours, just to fuss and cry and move around some more. Dudes, I was so tired, but we went to swimming lessons anyway, and she had a great time. She stuffed her face after at lunch, eating a whole squeeze pouch of banana peaches, egg pieces, biscuit and gravy pieces, and toast. Then took a long nap on the car ride home.
Who didn’t get a long nap? Me. So my mom graciously watched her while I napped in my bedroom. But guess what? Little Miss Cranky Pants only wants ME to come play with her, so after listening to fussing for too long I just gave up and went out with her. I battled her into a nap around 5pm, just before heading out to…
WORK THE NIGHT SHIFT!
I’ve been rotated to night shifts for two nights this week. I’ve stayed up past 10pm a total of ONE time since getting Jo Jo. It’s going to be rough going, really rough going. And tomorrow, when I get home? Sleeping is going to be pretty hard, too, as Jo Jo will just be waking up and wanting to play, and wanting MOMMY.
Somehow, I’m going to get through this. I have no idea how, but I have to, so I will.
Mother of All Things 
That last line sums up parenting the more difficult bits of parenting pretty efficiently! I hope it mysteriously goes more smoothly than you’re imagining.
Hang in there! I couldn’t work nights and take care of a baby. I have a really hard time when we have to be up at 5am for work and we have multiple long weeks ahead of us. I hadn’t given anything to Wallace for teething, but I was given homeopathic (for reals no gross ingredients) Camilia teething relief stuff by a friend. He could not settle for nap today and kept biting me then crying. I gave him some, within 5 minutes he was making happy baby noises, and 5 more he was sound asleep. I was shocked!