Winner of the December 2008 Best of the British Mummy Bloggers Carnival!


Thursday 8 March 2007

QT in the quiet hours

Sleep or the lack of it has become almost a non-subject for me third child in. I'm often amazed by the human being's capacity to cope on a physical as well as emotional level with all sorts of hardship. But working mums have to take home the prize for doing a great deal more than just function on the back of maybe 4 or 5 hours of broken sleep. I notice that when I dare to marvel at this capacity my darling husband will make comments such as, "Tony Blair and George Bush survive on less than that and the next day they have to get up and run a country." Bless him. But I notice that it's always me that gets up to attend to the two year old who has had a nightmare or to allow the five year old into bed with us or to cradle the baby in my arms and rock her back to sleep at 2am. Non-mother friends often gape in disbelief about this, but I think I've worked out what gives women the strength to do this and then just get up and go to work the following day. It's a simple thing called love. Because most of the time, even when I feel ragged with exhaustion, there is still something special about comforting my children in the dark, quiet hours before dawn. Lying quietly with Ava (6 months) between 5am and 6.30am this morning, her fingers wrapped tightly round one of mine, I just enjoyed the peace. Call it whatever you like, those hours can become precious quality time when the day is taken up with work of the paid kind.

3 comments:

undomesticgoddess said...

Hey Sara, love the blog. Totally with you on the predawn fuddled cuddles, simultaneously the best and worst time of my life. My 6 month old totally rejected bottle at nursery in favour of 4-times-a-night feeds from mummy when I went back to work - smart kid - and I will never forget that 4am feeling, stroking this tiny warm curly head and feeling drunk with exhaustion, adoration and the sense of being the only two living beings in the world. Right up to the point where i had to get up and go to work the next morning........

Unknown said...

Hi Sara,

The baby juggler goes international!

Helen Whiteley here - don't know if you remember me but our mums are good friends. Your mum forwarded this blog to mine, and she sent it along to me here in the United States. Fabulous blog. I am a mother of a 10 month old baby girl, Ava, and work full time in PR; so I plan to visit this blog frequently for survival tips.

Working Mum said...

Hey Helen! Good to hear from you. Please keep checking in to the blog, and send me your email address as well to: s.lloyd@macmillan.co.uk
I can't believe we both called our little girls Ava!