I remember it so vividly. It had been a good morning with my kids?Sophie, then three, and Juliette, just a few months old?and I was showered, dressed and wearing makeup (an impressive feat for a mama with two littles, I thought). Soph had been a dream about sitting for breakfast and getting dressed, and Juliette had nursed well and was babbling happily.
I?ve totally got this, I thought, as I packed a diaper bag, zipped Sophie into her coat and buckled Juliette into her car seat for the drive to Soph?s daycare.
The part I wasn?t considering in this idyllic scene was the fact that I hadn?t slept for more than a two-hour stretch for months (and that?s if I was lucky!). My husband and I had moved Sophie to a ?big-girl bed? a few months prior, in anticipation of our new arrival, and from the minute Sophie realized she had the freedom to leave her room, all bets were off. Cue hours-long bedtimes, musical beds and every stall tactic in the book. When we finally got her to sleep, she was up multiple times a night. No amount of strategizing worked to keep her snoozing until morning. Then we added a newborn to the mix. Juliette started out as a solid sleeper. This time around, we had learned a lot more about infant sleep patterns. I held fast to the ?sleep begets sleep? rule, and put her down for a nap every two hours like clockwork, knowing that if I let her get overtired, it would be a struggle to get her back on track. But by this particular morning, the nice sleep rhythm we?d set...