Harried Holidays

Am I the only mother out there that finds once-relaxing holidays not so relaxing any more?

We have been on two significant holidays now as a family and while both have offered a pleasant and fun respite from our day-to-day lives, I can’t say that I’ve returned home from them refreshed and relaxed.

First consider the packing and preparation. Like where will Bode sleep while we’re away? Last time it was the travel bassinette, this time it’s a portacot with an extra foam mattress. That’s nearly a third of the available trunk space in the car gone. Where will he sit while eating? Last time it wasn’t an issue because he was exclusively breastfed, this time he’ll need a highchair. The highchair at home would take up the entire remaining space in my Subaru (the only one of our vehicles that fits his carseat), so we’ll need to source a travel highchair that straps onto a normal chair. Thank goodness for the Internet.

The Exhaustion of Motherhood

Oh the exhaustion. I am just so tired all the time! Sleep deprivation is certainly nothing new to me (or any mother for that matter), but every time I reach a new peak of fatigue, I wonder when I will arrive at the oft-promised “easier” phase of parenting nirvana.

(Experienced mothers can stop laughing now.) While the early days and weeks of Bode’s babyhood were certainly the most intensely sleep-deprived ones, I didn’t actually “lose it” until he was 6-8 weeks old, ironically coinciding with him consistently sleeping for much longer periods through the night. By then the cumulative effects of sleep deprivation were eroding my sanity and the increase in my activity levels fuelled by my expectations of what I “should be able to do by now” were taking their toll physically. 

I was dancing on the cliff-edge of postnatal depression. Occasionally, I fell.