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The Effects of Sleep Deprivation

I’m not stupid: I’m just tired

From the day a child is born until… well, until the end of our days, we mothers have several periods of sleep deprivation. Initially we have the feeding every three-hour period, then it’s the colic period, later the teething period, then the several children diseases that keep parents up all night periods and finally the “I won’t sleep at home tonight” periods. Basically, sleep deprivation comes with the job.

There are people who may try to fool you saying that it’s only a phase or try to convince you that their children have always slept the whole night through. They’re lying. Seriously don’t believe them. The honest truth is that a woman will never have a real good night sleep after becoming a mother. And that’s probably why there aren’t many women who can conciliate the hardest job in the World (Motherhood) with a high position such as being President: chronic sleep deprivation leads to extreme fatigue, which then causes lack of discernment.

I’ve heard that women become slower after giving birth. Some say it’s the hormones, some say it’s pregnancy, some say it’s nature. But it’s not: it’s tiredness.

Check out the list of things I found myself doing after my son was born:

• Leaving the house in sleepers
• Putting the kid shoes backwards
• Quickly making a soup for baby’s dinner totally forgetting I had done one pan of soup the day before
• Using shampoo instead of body milk on baby
• Forgetting what I was about to say, being unable to name a particular object or switch people’s names – specially at the end of the day
• Painting fingernails with “Stop Biting “product instead of nail polish and only realizing that after washing hands for the 20th time.
• Returning home at least once every morning because I forgot something.

I used to have a great memory, always knew where things were and rarely forgot stuff around. Nowadays I don’t trust myself: I avoid holding important documents (like the passports when traveling) and I always check if I left the kid in the car. Seriously. It’s tiredness. And I bet every mother has a similar story.

Filipa Fonseca Silva is a Portuguese writer and advertising creative. Mother of one toddler with another baby on the way, she felt the urge to share with other mums the incredible things motherhood taught her and no one talks about.

When she’s not writing about motherhood, fashion and lifestyle in her blog, she writes novels. Her first novel Thirty Something (nothing’s how we dreamedit would be) has been widely praised and recently reached the Top 100 on Amazon. Her second one, The Strange Year of Vanessa M. was launched last June. You can find them both at any online bookstore.

Besides writing Filipa loves painting, collecting shoes and eating watermelon.
http://pipaswonderland.blogspot.com