I am alway more than willing to admit that motherhood is pretty rough. You’re on call 24/7, which is enough to drive any human being insane. You’re constantly covered in a grody concoction of puke and pee and poop and drool and sweat. You never get a moment to yourself, and your moments of peace (such as when the babies are both miraculously sleeping at the same time) are usually spent trying to get as many chores done as you can before one of the babies is back up and trying to throw themselves off the furniture. Life as a mom can be difficult, and for some mom’s it’s harder than others. 

Take the post partum depression mom, for example. Life as a mom is hard enough without having to feel abysmally bleak about everything. Motherhood combined with a depression that feels like it’s swallowing you whole is complete hell. Or what about mom with a colicky baby? That’s always fun, to have a baby who is screaming in pain no matter what you do. Bedtime seems to always be the worst because not only is mom flustered about not being able to help her baby, she’s also running on pretty much no energy and is barely holding it together enough to keep trying to console her baby. 

The scariest part about these examples is they are not terribly uncommon. Many mom’s have experienced one or the other. If you have many mom friends, chances are at least one has experienced at least one of these situations. But these examples are a bit on the  extreme end of the spectrum. There are other smaller struggles that every mom has experienced at one point or another. One struggle every mom knows too well is sleeplessness. 

Sleeplessness is one of those things every mom goes through whether it be just for a week or for the entire first year of their child’s life. The earlier your kid starts sleeping through the night, the luckier you are. Now, my two babies can certainly drive me up the wall. My one year old especially knows exactly what buttons to press that makes mommy act funny (funny, in this case, meaning angry). But one thing I will forever be grateful for is the fact that my kids have always been awesome when it comes to sleeping. I never even really had to train then to sleep through the night. Once they each hit about 2 months old, they started sleeping through the night with me. It’s something I have always appreciated so much because I have heard other moms complain about their kids not sleeping through the night for the first several months of their life, and I could just not imagine having to live like that. Especially when it comes to moms who don’t cosleep or breastfeed. You mean you don’t just roll over and stick a boob in your baby’s mouth before they have a chance to get really upset? How do you still live?! 

Don’t get me wrong, I have struggled a little with my one year old not being able to sleep without holding my hand as he falls asleep… But I would rather that than getting only three or four hours of sleep at a time every single night. That would just kill me  My kids may struggle with certain things, but seeping though the night  not one of those things and I can’t even express how happy I am that they allow me to be the best, well rested mommy I can be. Props to all you moms out there who deal with sleepless babies, my hat’s off to you.