"Sleep when the baby sleeps."

This is the advice given to new moms by other moms whose babies are too old for them to remember what useless advice it is.

It sounds good in theory, right? You could be up all night nursing or whatever, so try to nap when the baby naps to get sleep in whenever you can. But in practice, the baby will only sleep in your arms so you have to nap sitting up, and/or the dog barks every few minutes and wakes you or the baby up, and/or the baby naps for a half hour at a time so by the time you fall asleep the baby is awake again. By the end of the day you haven't napped much at all, and you've still got the night ahead of you.

Caroline is a good baby, she really is. She sleeps through the night (7-8 consecutive hours) at least once a week, and rarely cries for no reason. But no matter how low-maintenance your baby is, you are still going to be Tired for the first few months. The kind of Tired where you feel like you have sand in your eyes, and where you almost run red lights accidentally. The kind of Tired where once you get a minute of free time you would choose a nap over ANYTHING else, including eating or sex. In fact, I've forgotten where I was going with this post because I am so Tired.

Today I am sick, though, and it's the first time I think I've ever been thrilled to be sick. Tyler stayed home to take care of Caroline and I am allowed to sleep as much as I want!! I've always been an 8-hour kind of girl so this is approximately the most amazing thing ever. I'm also planning to ask Tyler for a full weekend of as much sleep as I want for my 25th birthday, which is coming up on April 2!

I'm off to nap now... ZZZzzz....