@Ippollo
edited
It's Key To Have Patience
My mornings tend to look the same lately. I wake up sometime between 2 and 4 am because something is bothering my son. If I'm lucky, it's closer to 4 because that would give me about 6 hours of sleep. But when it's closer to 2 am, like this morning, that's only 4 hours of sleep, which is rough. What I've learned about myself since having a child is that my patience isn't great if I didn't a lot of sleep. When my son is struggling, and I can't do anything, I feel myself getting angry and frustrated. Thankfully I'm aware of this and can do something about it. I remind myself that he's only eight months old and what he's going through feels very uncomfortable for him. I will also take a few deep breaths and take my mind off of the sounds and actions he's making, and instead focus on the fact that I'm meant to comfort and protect him. It bothers me that my default reaction is anger when I'm tired. I've worked very hard over the years to prevent that emotion in unnecessary situations, so this shows me that I have more work to do. Thankfully I have my son, who will be a great teacher. If other parents have already gone through this, I'd be open to some advice. If my wife and I could get him to sleep better, I think we all would be better for it.
5 comments
Any idea what bothers your son? Teeth perhaps or painful intestines? Can he sleep if he sleeps with your wife? Don't worry it's normal to get angry if you are exhausted. Like we all know the mind needs rest to not go crazy. Keeping people awake is the way to do that and what they do to the enemy during wars to break them. If you don't need to work sleep if your son sleeps. Take a nap in the daytime. I wrote an article about the biological clock. It turns out the official sleeping habit is 4 hours sleeping, 2 hours awake, and 4 hours sleeping. Perhaps you can sleep in turn? If you need to work sleep somewhere else these days and let your wife sleep extra at other times. Might be your son's biological clock is upset too.
Thanks for your advice. We're pretty sure he's teething again. This morning was a lot better, and I think I learned something new about him. It's such a crazy process of learning as a new parent.
I can understand your feelings exactly. When my daughter was little, she woke up almost every night screaming. I almost no slept for 3 years. It was very exhausting. After 3 years it stopped, but I became 10 years older in those 3 years.
Woah...3 years. I guess I've got time to learn even more patience 😂
Patience is everything to be a parent. If we love our children, patience miust be the first to embody. That is the key to showing how much you love them.