Sleep is for wimps?

I think that having children has aged me. In fact I know that it has.

When I look in the mirror I now see a few grey hairs and some lines round my eyes. But I don't mind this. Hair can be dyed and a bit of botox should sort out the lines (ouch). No, what I really suffer from and detest is the tiredness that seems to pervade my life at the moment. It seeps into my bones and make me fed up and grouchy. My daughter has even taken to calling me "The Mummylo" - apparently this is like a Gruffalo...except hairier and more scary.

When I was pregnant with my first child well meaning folk said things such as "get more sleep" "make the most of sleeping now before the baby's here". Oh how I laughed in the face of these naysayers. After all I thought, what do babies do except sleep? Well I admit I was wrong. Babies don't sleep - or at least mine didn't. They cry, they feed, they want to be picked up, they wee, they poo but they don't sleep.

Now four years after my first child was born I am exhausted. Although my daughter now sleeps well my two year old is a terrible sleeper who regularly seems to wake between 4-5am and likes nothing more than jumping on my head shouting "wake up" and "cake".  I really don't know why he wakes so early. We have a good bedtime routine and I try as much as possible to make sure he has fresh air and exercise every day to tire him out but nothing works.

And the days are tiring too. I used to work in quite a high pressure role in marketing and I've had many difficult bosses. Some have been cold hearted and manipulative, some have been argumentative but none followed me to the toilet and clung to my leg whilst I tried desperately to get a moments peace and as far as I can remember they didn't chant "mumeeeeee" at me constantly whilst I was trying to work whilst mushing banana into my hair.

So that's how I feel today fed up and washed out. Please permit me a bit of a self-indulgent whinge. If you are tired like me feel free to sympathise and join in. If you are radiant with health and glowing with energy please share your secrets - I will pay you.