P.P.S.D.S. (Puppy Parent Sleep Deprivation Syndrome)
After we arrived home that first day, we were ready to get settled in and get the routine started. We were perfect puppy parents and me being mom I was a martyr, if she made a sound I jumped! As soon as she finished a meal, right outside where we clapped and cheered and stroked for every pee and poop. Then back inside to play for a bit, remember she was only 6 weeks old so 15 minutes tops of playing with toys, licking you, trying to chew your face off, attacking your ankles in an attempt to bring you down so she can chew your face off. Then the tiny T-Rex personality would switch off and Lifetime Movie sweet adorable puppy would return and she wanted to snuggle up and go to sleep. Well who can resist snuggling that warm little ball of fur so innocent and sweet. She would sleep for an hour or two while I held and stroked her while just gazing on all the cuteness. Then as soon as she woke up, back outside to cheer for pees and poops. Repeating the cycle.
Before we knew it, it was 3 in the morning and we were tired. I was valiant and was prepared to put her in the little cubby we had prepared for her to sleep in. In the kitchen we have a nook where you can sit on bar stools at the counter and it's the perfect size for a puppy to sleep if you block it off with a baby gate. It was all prepared with a big folded comforter for a comfortable night's sleep. As I slowly began to gather myself to put my new baby away, Chuckie said I might as well just put her in bed with us, since that was where she was going to end up anyway. He reminded me that Sugar only lasted one night when she was a pup, so why fight a losing battle. I admit it didn't take much to convince me.
Off we went to bed, it was fantastic I lay down and she snuggled up to my neck. I lay there for a while just basking in puppy love before I finally drifted off. It must have been oh at least 20 minutes before I was ripped from my peaceful dreams of puppies by the feeling of half my cheek being ripped off. Uh Oh, the T-Rex personality was back and wide awake. So I quickly grabbed her wriggling bucking body and headed downstairs for outside. My cheers weren't quite as exuberant for the pee and poop this time. My feet were freezing (I didn't have time to grab shoes) and my arms were chilled (no time for a jacket or robe.) But it was okay it was over quickly and soon we were back in bed. LeeLoo wasn't quite prepared to settle back to sleep so I sleepily shoved a chew bone in her direction and attempted to cover all my extremities for protection. I felt sleep claiming me as I felt her snuggling up again.
I think another 40 minutes had passed before I heard "Ow, Son of a ..." She found Chuckie's nose this time. I laughed, in all honesty I think it was relief that it wasn't me this time. Daddy's turn to take her outside. I didn't hear them come back up.
About 4:45 I heard her stirring, but she wasn't attacking so I remained motionless. She found her bone and played for a few minutes, still I remained motionless. I was afraid but mostly I was exhausted and I hoped she would go back to sleep. No such luck the whining started not much later. When we hit the kitchen, I almost dropped her she started sqirming and whining so much. I realized she was hungry, and luckily I had the foresight to start her food soaking before we headed to bed so it was ready. She devoured her food, then we went outside. This time she was playing around a little out there so I realized she was ready for her day to start.
Well this is what coffee was made for right? So we played in the living room for about a half hour. My coffee was starting to kick in so I was feeling okay, I was ready to play some more. Unfortunately, LeeLoo was done which she indicated by trying to jump on the couch (let's be kind and say her depth perception hasn't fully formed yet.) Since it was so comical watching her leap for the couch and land a foot away, I let her try for a while then I took pity and put her up. She curled up on my lap and drifted into a sound sleep. Great I was wide awake and she was out. She slept for 2 hours straight, she couldn't have done that earlier.
Our day went much like the previous day, lots of eating, sleeping, peeing, and pooping and a little bit of playing. With a trip to the vet in between. This puppy was really proving to be boring. But that night we were ready to head to bed early. So we fed her around 7 for her final meal for the night and headed up to bed around 9. She settled down after a few minutes and we both fell deeply asleep. We were only up about 3 times that night, but she was ready to start the day around 4 and again she was starving for her breakfast. This time I was ready for her morning nap and didn't make my coffee so we both went back to sleep until about 6.
This routine continued for like 3 more days. My eyes steadily felt as though there was sand in them. It was getting harder to make sense of things. My limbs felt like lead weights, each step was a struggle. I had a continuous slight headache. I was exhausted.
I tried to nap when she did, but my body is not built for broken sleep and I wasn't releasing the chemicals and endorphin's that a woman's body does after having a baby to help you deal with the cat naps. I hadn't changed out of pajamas in 3 days, my hair was just in a messy bun. I not only felt like death warmed over, but looked like it too.
I was panicking because I was going back to work in 3 days, how could I put in a full day of work feeling like I did? I had to come up with something, but I was having a hard time coming up with my own name let alone a plan to reduce the number of times she was getting up in the night.
Sometimes, the fates smile on you and things work themselves out. Friday ended up being a beautiful day, lots of sunshine and warm. So we spent almost the whole day outside. By around 6 p.m. she was exhausted. She slept and slept. So much so that I started trying to get her up to play and she would play for about 5 minutes and then right back to sleep but I continued to wake her and make her play for a while because I really needed her to sleep through the night. I even started to worry that she was sick because she was so drowsy. I'm a worrier so that's not surprising, but Chuckie suggested I call the vet in the morning because he was worried. We didn't think it was anything immediately dangerous, so we headed to bed about 10. She snuggled up and slept all night until 5 a.m.
She woke up chipper and hungry. T-Rex was back with a vengeance. This wasn't a sick puppy, this was just a puppy who had a full day of playing in the fresh air. This was also a miracle, Chuckie and I got 7 full hours of sleep. I felt like a million bucks. My head was clear, there was a spring in my step. Unfortunately, Saturday was rainy and yucky so there was no chance of wearing her out like that again, but I was no longer brain dead and I realized she was waking up so often because she was hungry. So I said we were going to move her dinner time from 7 to 9 and make it a little bigger. Now there was a chance this could backfire, more food later could mean more potty time through the night, but I figured it was worth a shot, plus she had just went a full 7 hours without needing to go so her bladder was getting bigger so it was on.
Saturday night she ate at 9 p.m. and then we went to bed around 10. She slept for almost 4 hours straight, then went back to sleep until almost 6. It had worked. I can handle 4 hour increments. Plus, I started back to work on Monday which meant I had to be up at 5 a.m. anyhow. So I figured if Chuckie took the middle wake up, I would get up with her at 5 and let Chuckie sleep until 6 when I had to start getting ready. Plus he'd be able to nap with her throughout the day.
We did it, we beat P.P.S.D.S., we were going to make it. They should throw us a parade, maybe make May 21st a holiday to celebrate the anniversary of our success. I don't know, maybe I'm still a little bit delirious.
