I Didn’t Know I Could Feel So Tired

I can count on two hands the number of times my daughter has slept through the night since she was born nearly nine years ago. The day I brought her home from the hospital, I laid her down for a nap, tightly swaddled the way I’d been taught. She dozed off quickly, but a few minutes later, she began to cry. I checked her diaper, offered milk, and rocked her, but nothing worked. She cried harder, arching her back and wagging the fragile egg of her head to and fro. This went on for an agonizing 20 minutes, until abruptly her eyes fluttered open and the crying stopped. She yawned, stretched, and then drifted back into a peaceful rest.

An hour later, she stirred again. And then again and again, every hour, for the first three months of her life.

Friends told me to sleep when the baby sleeps. But what do you do