Sleep is a funny thing. You don’t appreciate its value until it’s gone. It was a shock, for example, to experience that all-encompassing tiredness that came with having a newborn. Not knowing when you’d be able to get more than a couple of hours sleep at a stretch was mentally and physically draining. It was, hand on heart, the one thing I found hardest about those early baby days.

And then came the emotive side of sleep. The side that you’re totally unprepared for pre-motherhood, where random strangers ask if you have a “good baby” and you come to understand that babies who don’t sleep through the night do not come under the “good baby” category. I was always reluctant to label my baby as “bad”, so I would get defensive about her sleep or, sometimes, just tell an out-and-out lie. “Yeah, she’s slept through the night since she was 6 weeks old. Total dream baby. The best. My baby wins at being a baby.” Continue reading »