Jet Lag Has Nothing on Baby Lag

There are many ways in which becoming a parent changes you. You learn new things. You gain new skills. Some are obvious (diaper changing... patience...) and some are not. Take for instance, what I like to call "baby lag."

As a new parent, you learn to live with major sleep deprivation. All the time. You think it's bad when you're still at home on maternity leave. I mean, new babies wake up like every 90 minutes and want something. Like milk. Or a clean diaper. Sheesh. But then you go back to work. You still have to get up in the middle of the night. Every night. Sometimes multiple times. AND you also have to smack that snooze button a couple times before dragging your butt out of bed because there's some sort of crazy expectation that you actually show up at work. So you wander about in a sleep deprived haze hoping people at work won't notice your serious lack of concentration and short-term memory.

But all this has an upside. You have now conquered what I call "baby lag." And if you have successfully and fully obtained this skill, you are now immune to the more commonly known affliction of jet lag. I have traveled all the way around the world since my child was born. And you know what? International business travel jet lag has got NOTHING on baby lag. You get to sleep when you want. It's quiet. You have no chores to keep you up. People EXPECT you to be unfocused and drifty. Come on. Piece of cake. You have mad baby lag skills now.

A brief word of warning, though... international family travel is another story entirely... But that's a post for another day.

Working Mom's Job Satisfaction Index

Based on personal data, I have created a new index. The Working Mom's Job Satisfaction Index is based on data I carefully gathered after night-feedings, early-morning wet beds, late-night blogging, too many chores, working at night, etc, etc, etc. What I have discovered is that there is a direct correlation between my job satisfaction and how much sleep I miss. When I'm well-rested, I realize that work is very satisfying, and that being a good parent has very little to do with whether you work or not. When I'm tired, it feels like the sky is falling. I dream about becoming a stay-at-home mom. I forget stupid stuff. I get behind at work. I worry about whether I'm making the right choices. I make really bad decisions. And yet, here I am blogging instead of sleeping!! I must be over-tired.

Let the Baby Sleep!!

We are all subject to bad advice from time to time. We're especially vulnerable when it comes to advice from our doctors. So when our little man's pediatrician said, "Don't let him sleep during the day or he won't sleep at night!" I of course became paranoid about his long newborn naps. In retrospect, what glorious times those were. What I know now that I wish I'd known then was LET THE BABY SLEEP! (Disclaimer: please don't let your baby sleep through important feedings.) All of a sudden, night and day just snapped, and our little man started sleeping more at night and less during the day. No paranoia required.

There were some things we did do that may or may not have made a difference. For instance, we were really careful about making sure his sleeping area was dark and quiet at night and not dark nor quiet during the day. We instituted a bed time routine right away, though it evolved over time (does that count as a routine?). I didn't nurse him to sleep every night (though I did sometimes). There were probably other things, too, but you can read them all in books. We're by no means sleep experts, as our 7 month old is still, well, not an ideal sleeper. But he knows what night is, and he knows what day is, and he is super easy to put to bed. So I wasted all that paranoia when all that was really required was patience.

Please remind of this later when I'm paranoid about something else.