Sleep Deprivation and the Full-Time Workin' Mom Treadmill

Started daycare this week.  Now I get the gist of what being sleep deprived really is...  The new schedule has Tag and I partnering up to limit the hours that Evey spends in the daycare. 

I get out of bed at 5am, walk and feed the dogs, get myself showered and dressed (which is no simple task...the clothes that I set out the night before, in an effort to be efficient, quite often don't work.  With these nursing boobs and pregnancy hips, it's slim pickin's in the closet these days), gather up the stuff to pump and store milk at the office, feed Evey and get out the door by 6:15 so I can make it to work before 7 so I can beat rush hour and leave the office by 4 to pick up my darling little one from daycare before 5pm.  So far so good.  The morning walk is balmy and the sun starts to rise so it's not so bad.  Winter will be a test of my mettle...dark and cold do not a happy early morning Heidi make.  Of course it's all completely worth it to be able to spend that extra hour with my sweetpea in the evening.  I just wish I didn't have to miss the smiley playful baby that she is in the mornings - she always wakes up so happy.  Which leads me to Tag's schedule.

Tag wakes up at 5am and/or 6am to help Evey settle back into sleep once I've left, and then snoozes until about 7 and takes care of changing, dressing, sometimes feeding, and then packing up Evey and her daycare essentials, dropping her by the daycare around the corner and starting his workday by 8:30.

Evelyn seems to have adjusted pretty well -- she likes the caretakers and they adore her.  We just have a teeny tiny problem napping during the day....  It's a small collection of 20 minute cat naps, and it's just not doing the trick.  By the time I pick her up in the late afternoon she's got blue shadows for eyelids and she crashes into full-on sleep when I get her home.  Which breaks my heart because of course all I want to do is interact with her and get my dose of Evey smiles for the day.  Good thing we're still co-sleeping or I'd have to find a way to crawl in next to her in the crib for the night (!).

It will get better, I know that.  For Week One it really was quite successful.  I didn't even cry at work!  And now we're starting a decadent 3 day holiday weekend with lots of time for play and cuddling.  And sleep.  Amen!!