and it's 5:30 in the morning and he wakes up, having slept just nine hours instead of his usual eleven, and I myself woke up at 3:30, then fell back asleep at 4:30, and as I get out of bed, I feel dizzy and woozy with exhaustion--as happened this morning--I admit that I can become a much less agreeable mother to my son. I find myself ordering him around more instead of explaining things to him and waiting for him to digest what I've said; and sometimes I'm picking him up and moving him around with a brusqueness that I'm ashamed of afterwards.
It usually only lasts for a few minutes. As happened this morning. Rather quickly this time, I stopped myself, looked at what I was doing, and changed course, becoming much more cheerful and agreeable than I felt. And he seemed to respond--he was in a good mood all day, in spite of the less than perfect night he had; it also helped, of course, that he took two good naps in the morning and afternoon.
I also made a point of saying, "I'm really tired, Baby" which helped simply because it was honest and it made me feel better. The funny thing is--he really seemed to listen and understand what I was saying on some level. Some day we're going to be able to know what babies are absorbing and what they're not absorbing; I'll bet we'll be surprised at their capacity to understand, on multiple levels.
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