You have all seen the memes, you have felt the feeling of insane tiredness all too much. In fact, you probably just feel like you are in one permanent tired state and forever will be. Tiredness and parenting comes hand in hand, like fish and chips, Sundays and roasts and Ant and Dec. Tiredness, although permanent as a parent, I feel comes in stages throughout each day. Here are the stages of my parental tiredness;
1. Sickness; As you wake, bleary eyed from either alarm or child alarm, you wish as hard as you can that it is still the middle of the night so that you can march child to bed or turn off the alarm, but alas, it is time to rise. As you sit up in bed, a feeling of what can only be described as your body rejecting awake time suddenly erupts in your body and you feel sick. Really sick. Like you've had one too many tipples the night before, only you haven't.
2. Feeling Like Death. Oh, so glamorous. You can put on all the eyeliner, concealer and mascara you wish. You can straighten and do your hair, but you will still feel. like. death.
3. Somehow you make it through the morning when the sudden surge of adrenaline hits and you realise that you have to either do the frantic get up and ready for the school run, or whether you have a baby and toddler class to get to. You run around like you're on a mission and somehow make it to your destination. But what gets you through? That will be something in the form of Sugary Goodness. This stage lasts for quite a few hours in the day. Coffee becomes your best friend. Sugar is sought and consumed to just keep going through the day. You just continue to stock up.
4. Afternoon Snoozing. If you are lucky and find yourself on the sofa in the afternoon, the weight of the tiredness may just get a little too much and you find your eyelids drooping and dropping. You can manage to get a couple of minutes of snoozing each time before your toddler gets in your face and screams; "WAKE UP MUMMMYYYY!!!!"
5. The afternoon is soon over and the adrenaline kick starts again, ready to help you make dinner, clear up and get the kids into bed. FINALLY. Peace and quiet, so you think of all the things you can now get done in the house, then you realise it's now YOUR turn to watch Netflix, so hurriedly you get down onto the sofa and start Binge Watching TV because you can't move. Your body suddenly feels ten times heavier, so you just sit and enjoy.
6. An episode or so in and suddenly you realise you are Falling Asleep On The Sofa! You try with all your might to keep your eyes open and awake so that you don't miss out on what's going on in The Upside Down. Too late. Your partner quickly wakes you, not wanting for you to miss out or for him to have to explain for the seventh time what you have missed.
7. Giggling. My Husband and I know when we've hit peak tiredness when we enter the giggling stage. We find the most ridiculous things funny. It's when that happens that we know it's game over for the day.
8. Dragging Ourselves To Bed. We've had enough and know it is time to get to bed. We've been through the motions with the tiredness for the day, so we ever so slowly manage to lift ourselves off of the sofa and grab some water before heading up. Each step on the stairs feels like the most heavy step to make. It seems like a mountain, but we have made it. We are upstairs, brushing our teeth and we can hear our bed calling. So, we very VERY carefully sneak in to kiss the boys good night then retire to bed.
9. Wide Awake. Although you are still so very tired, so you have put yourself to bed, you now enter the wide awake tiredness stage. For some reason you spend a good hour scrolling randomly on Facebook and watching random videos like this!
10. Extreme Sickness. You finally get to sleep- As a parent I find this one of the best parts of everyday. HOWEVER, if your child wakes you after any time from 30 minutes after you fall asleep up to around 6 hours, you will wake with extreme sickness. Because basically, our parent bodies are buckling under the strain of never getting enough sleep. Ever. The wakes can be for good reason, like they need a wee or for a ridiculous reason; like Z was wondering around the other night wondering where a blue light was coming from. Either way, sickness occurs. Extreme sickness.
You may then manage to catch a few more Zzzz's before you wake and start at stage one all over again. What's your favourite stage of tiredness? What's the one you can't deal with? I'm all up for getting giggly when I am tired but the sickness is definitely the worst part of nighttime waking. Pop a comment below, I would love to hear from you.
8. Dragging Ourselves To Bed. We've had enough and know it is time to get to bed. We've been through the motions with the tiredness for the day, so we ever so slowly manage to lift ourselves off of the sofa and grab some water before heading up. Each step on the stairs feels like the most heavy step to make. It seems like a mountain, but we have made it. We are upstairs, brushing our teeth and we can hear our bed calling. So, we very VERY carefully sneak in to kiss the boys good night then retire to bed.
9. Wide Awake. Although you are still so very tired, so you have put yourself to bed, you now enter the wide awake tiredness stage. For some reason you spend a good hour scrolling randomly on Facebook and watching random videos like this!
10. Extreme Sickness. You finally get to sleep- As a parent I find this one of the best parts of everyday. HOWEVER, if your child wakes you after any time from 30 minutes after you fall asleep up to around 6 hours, you will wake with extreme sickness. Because basically, our parent bodies are buckling under the strain of never getting enough sleep. Ever. The wakes can be for good reason, like they need a wee or for a ridiculous reason; like Z was wondering around the other night wondering where a blue light was coming from. Either way, sickness occurs. Extreme sickness.
You may then manage to catch a few more Zzzz's before you wake and start at stage one all over again. What's your favourite stage of tiredness? What's the one you can't deal with? I'm all up for getting giggly when I am tired but the sickness is definitely the worst part of nighttime waking. Pop a comment below, I would love to hear from you.
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