I remember when Maria was born and didn’t sleep for more than an hour and a half at a time. Jon and I were so sleep deprived we could barely muster a “hello” in the morning (I’d walk past him with a grunt and a scowl to hand off Ri so I could sleep for two hours and then the reverse would happen when it became Jon’s turn to sleep). I remember looking in the mirror at 3 pm and swearing I was looking at a ninety year old version of me. I experienced every single effect noted in this sleep deprivation article.

My mom came up from Cincy one evening about three weeks after Ri’s birth. She didn’t bring food, toys, diapers or blankets for us like other visitors had done. She brought something much more valuable – sleep. She allowed Jon and I to go up in our room, close the door, and sleep for seven hours straight. At that moment, I would have paid 1 million dollars for such a gift (sorry mom, too late now). We woke the next morning and were actually pleasant with one another. We gave each other a morning kiss and skipped downstairs. Our moods were massively changed after just one full night of sleep.

Fast forward to present. Both kids sleep through the night. They don’t wake to be nursed or held or walked. It’s beautiful. What we’ve been waiting for after years of sleep deprivation torture. So what do our smart selves do? Get a puppy and start the process all over again!

I was seriously sporting all of those sleep deprived “effects” on Tuesday after a weekend of crate training and whining. Jon was out of town for work and it was going to be me and the kids and Rocco for the week. But my sis pulled through and told me she’d come to Columbus for a few days. She arrived Tuesday afternoon and left Thursday afternoon and it was the same renewed and refreshed feeling I had when my mom came up to watch Ri. I went to bed at 10 pm on Tuesday and slept until 6:30 am. Pure Heaven. Sarah stayed up with the puppy and got him out of his kennel to pee in the middle of the night. I was so close to making out with her when I walked downstairs the next morning.

Energy had flowed back into my body and I could actually process a thought. I was ecstatic! Sarah whooped that puppy into shape walking it and playing with it and getting it to stop chewing its leash. She is a born puppy master. I was so sad to see her depart on Thursday afternoon (as was Ri who begged her to stay so they could keep going to Stauf’s and making cookies). But she left me in a much better place – awake and alert, pleasant, beautiful and loving this little butterball of a dog.