Sleep When the Baby Sleeps

"Sleep when the baby sleeps."  That is all you hear right before you give birth and for a few months after.

I found this nearly impossible to do.  First of all, there's that whole business of not wanting to put your tiny baby down.  If you listen to the books, which I did, you put your baby down when she is drowsy but awake.  But then they say it doesn't really matter for the first couple of weeks.  So there's lots of cuddling to be done that always takes precedence over sleeping.

And then there's the visitors, phone calls, cleaning and laundry plus the general need to function during waking hours like normal people do, even though life feels anything but normal in those first few weeks.  And Clara had a milk protein intolerance that caused her to cry pretty much non-stop until she could sit up unassisted (I'm not entirely sure why one led to the other).  But, see?

I promise we are not laughing at her.  OK, maybe a little, but sometimes you just have to laugh because otherwise you would be crying too!

So sometimes when they go to sleep you just want to sit in the silence for a second.

Then you go back to work.  Wow.  Now that is a whole new level of tired, and yet I hardly ever sleep during her naps on the weekends when I am home.  There's just too much to do. 

I would be surprised if any new moms out there actually made this concept work.  And if so, what are your secrets?