A Miracle Has Occurred Here

By Contributing Writer, Bambi Moore

This morning after I slept all night I woke up to a miracle.

Did you catch it?

That was the miracle. I slept all night.

Not one person invaded my bed, afraid of The Crack (that space between the wall and the bed. Poisonous snakes live there between 2 and 4 am).  The two year old slept peacefully in his bed too. And, miracle of miracles, my baby slept from 9 pm until the toddler cheerily woke us both at 6:15.

Don’t hate me because I’m rested.

That is the first time in many months I have slept all night. At least eight months. But who’s counting?

Mamas like to compare notes about when babies start to sleep all night. Like everyone else, we like our sleep.

There are times that are particularly exhausting, like the time I cleaned vomit all night and never even made it to bed. That was fun. And I knew a mom once who actually took a hot casserole out of the oven without mitts because she was so sapped she couldn’t think straight. I knew another mom who claimed that when her baby was two months old she called the hospital and asked if she could come back for rest.

This is when a Titus 2 relationship would come in so very handy, eh? An older woman to come riding in on a white stallion with a Bible and SOS pad to clean the fridge while you slipped into REM mode. But I digress. Titus 2 relationships aren’t the focus of this post.

I want to address the average, marathon-tiredness many of us face when we have babies  to care for.

Do all things without grumbling or disputing  (Philippians 2:14)

Even when getting up repeatedly at night, followed by a day that continues to require a battle to stay awake or keep your cool with all the munchkins.

What has helped me over the years?

I remember that this is a fleeting season of life. But it’s an important one. And sleep that isn’t as deep or as lengthy as we’d like is a small sacrifice for the gift of that precious soul the Lord has entrusted into our care.

There will be new challenges that arise with each new season of motherhood. I have found pregnancy and infancy, while physically challenging, to be the easiest phase of childhood. Even with the loss of sleep.

Those babies grow up quicker than we think. By the grace of God they turn into friends and allies and more importantly, souls that glorify God in their own way.

Feelings of entitlement make us seethe that we should be able to get some sleep every now and then. Expecting something versus receiving it as an unexpected gift makes all the difference in the world.

And I love this verse as well:

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure 1 Cor. 10:13

The babies eventually will begin to sleep. But it can make us crazy-bitter to feel that we deserve it or that we just can’t be joyful with so little Z’s.

We can’t let an average lack of sleep cause us to become joyless in mothering. If it’s not sleep, there will always be something else that tempts us to become bitter towards our kids. When my babies are all out of this stage, chances are I’ll be so old I’ll have arthritis pain or something else to keep me awake at night, like the coyotes that howl or the dog that will fight a skunk on the front porch just cause he enjoys it.

Trust the Lord through this season, dear Mama. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. He has promised.