According to a recent survey, one out of every three marriages end in divorce mainly due to a of lack of sleep because of a crying baby … and I completely understand why. If your kids are still young, you probably know why also!
Before having kids, I never would have imagined that I could go so many nights without sleeping well and not die of exhaustion. Even though I have an amazing husband that is an even more incredible father, the truth is that he is a very, very deep sleeper. So much so that I have to remind him when it's his turn to go check on our kids when they cry. Our exhaustion has been the cause of more than one fight between us.
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I'll never forget when our daughter, our first baby, was a newborn and she still slept in a cradle in our room, next to our bed. My husband used to sleep so soundly that many times, he did'n'e even realize how many times the baby woke up during the night. During that time, he used to work outside of the house and I used to feel so bad waking him up to take care of his daughter. But what drove me crazy was that when he woke up after a particularly bad night, and even when he saw the major under-eye circles I was sporting, with a straight face he'd tell me: "Wow, Vanessa slept really well last night, right?" I literally wanted to choke him then!
The survey of 2,000 parents was conducted in England and I'm sure that many moms can completely relate to the results. For example, 11 percent of the parents admit to faking sleep when the baby wakes up crying so that their spouse would tend to the crying little one. Honestly, this number seems really low, because I'm sure there are many, many couples that do this. I say it because both my husband and I are guilty of faking sleep countless times–and I think it's totally normal when you're tired.
All this shows that although having kids is the best thing that could have happened to me, raising them is one of the most difficult things that I've ever done. If your marriage is strong and stable before having kids, it's more than likely that it will survive the baby stage, so don't fear!
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