9 sure signs you’re a sleep-deprived parent (in case you were in any doubt!)
The other day my cousin, who is bottle feeding her adorable new baby, gave her dogs the baby formula she’d just made up – she simply forgot who she was supposed to be feeding. With a little one who wakes ALL night, every night and only cat naps for 15 or so minutes during the day, she’s in the thick of it. A walking zombie.
I had a giggle when she told me, and then I made her a lasagne. Sleep deprivation just sucks.
Here are 9 signs you may also be suffering from the hell that is no sleep.
1. You can’t find the car keys
You may have been prone to losing the keys before you had a baby, but when your brain is fog it is likely you will find them in the most unexpected places – like the freezer.
2. You forget what day of the week it is
The only reason you know it’s a weekend is because your partner is still lying next to you when you wake up feeling groggy from yet another bad night.
Read more about sleep deprivation:
- Tired mums unite! The exhausting truth about sleep deprivation
- What NOT to say to a sleep deprived mum
- 8 truths all sleep deprived mums need to read today – and remember!
3. You can nod off, anywhere
The doctor’s waiting room chair might as well be a bed. Even Prince William can relate to this one as the tired dad of a newborn. He was spotted having a micro-sleep during an ANZAC day ceremony recently.
4. You rock the shopping trolley instead of the pram
While in Coles you might bounce a watermelon before placing it in the trolley – and then proceed to rock it back and forward while mulling over which apples to buy. Meanwhile your baby is asleep at grandma’s place.
5. You leave things on. All. The. Time.
Like the kitchen tap, full throttle, because you have been distracted yet again before turning it off. You only realise you’ve done this though after discovering water all over the floor when placing your baby’s sixth dirty nappy that morning in the bin.
6. You drive off without the pram
After buckling your sweet baby into her car seat and flinging your nappy bag into the front seat you proceed to drive home, only realising that you left the pram outside the park when you can’t find your baby’s lovie for her day sleep.”Ah, that’s right. It’s in the pram. Oh sh!t, the pram!”
7. You can no longer talk in complete sentences
You now communicate with your partner in grunts and gestures because finding the words to say, “Your wallet is on the coffee table” is too hard.
8. You dress your baby in toddler clothes
It’s only after trying to thread your baby’s pudgy little arms through dangling sleeves that you realise the size two t-shirt actually belongs to your toddler.
9. You pat your husband’s bottom like he’s a baby
You hear the sound of disturbed sleep in the night and instinctively roll over and start patting your husband’s bottom, shushing him back to sleep. Only he wakes up and gets excited. Then you have to let him down gently, because sleep. GIVE. ME. Sleep!
