“So, your baby has been sleeping through since she was 3 months?”
“Yeah me neither..”
A reality as parents, we realise at some point, is that a good nights sleep is precious.. Or any sleep for that matter.. And a ‘sleep-in’ is a distant mirage that may come one day far far into future.. Although we don’t know when.
Sometimes I even foolishly say “tonight, we are going to have a really good nights sleep..” ..But whether it is feeding your baby, resettling a child, attending to bad dreams or seeing your child to the toilet. There always seems to be something that causes sleep to allude us. Even still, I like to spend the time I am physically back in bed calculating just how much sleep I have left (such a waste of precious time!)
So what can we do in this situation instead of complaining about it..?
The good new is there is sanctity in your insanity! There is meaning in what we would so often call ‘suffering.’ Time and time again, we have the opportunity to persist in offering each and every night, as a sacrifice to our Lord.
Offering up our tiredness and lack of sleep can indeed be fruitful.
Some nights can certainly be trying for many parents. It is truly a test of patience to be feeding a child every couple of hours or having to resettle your baby multiple times a night. I personally find that no matter how much ‘practice’ you have of waking during the night, it never really gets easier.
You can also take these nights one step further and take the opportunity to share it with God.
Here are some ways below:
- Pray the rosary or a decade while feeding your baby.
- Do some meditative prayer with our Lord while rocking or shushing your baby back to sleep.
- Be patient with your husband during those wee hours of the morning when neither of you may feel like talking.
- Be patient and nurturing with the children regardless of the issue.
- Try to offer up your impatience, frustration, tiredness, exhaustion for each time you are awoken for specific intentions.
Some ideas of areas to offer up could include:
- Holy souls in purgatory
- A friend who is no longer practicing their faith
- Your own marriage and family
- Your children’s vocation in life
- The sick and the suffering
- The Holy Father
- Reparation for your sins
- Conversion of friends
- The Church and its needs
Although you may be exhausted and ‘over it’ it is important to remember this is what God has called you to do. He called you to be a mother and God never gives you challenges you can’t handle.
Remind yourself every time you get up, “I am living out my vocation! This is the only place I should be.” You can even look to The Blessed Mother as the ultimate example and meditate on the kind of mother she would have been. So patient, so gentle. So generous with her time and her love. Remember children need their mothers and fathers for only a short time.. Although it can be so hard some days to remember this, one day you will be looking back and wonder where the time has gone and you will miss have those little voices in your home. Good nights sleeps will be so abundant they will go unnoticed and you may even miss those still nights when it was just you and bub in the nursery together.
Every night can fruitful. We can be strengthened in faith and virtue and truly understand what it means to be a mother. Even if at times, we may lose our patience (as it can be difficult not to) we can try to give it all to our Lord, remembering that our effort is never wasted. It is in little suffering like these we grow as people.
Do you have any special tips for mums in this situation? Share them below!
Originally posted 2014-03-27 02:50:09.