When Mama reaches her boiling point...

My dear sweet daughter has been cutting teeth. Her sleeping pattern has gone off, waking at all hours and up early. She's not napping well either. She is fine, sweet as pie as normal, but mama...well, quite frankly it's caught up with me and I'm exhausted. Usually, I can catch up with a nap when she does a lot of night waking, but this weekend there was no napping.
I knew I was getting to my breaking point. So how did I handle it?
First, I let my husband know where I was at. I think that is so important. Communicating what is going on helps release some of that anxiety. It also gets me some help. He told me he would take over the bedtime routine with our boys. Great! Now all I had to worry about was getting our daughter down for the night. She went down pretty easy.
My husband suggested I go to bed early. As tired as I was, I knew what I really needed was a little me time. So I took advantage. I picked up a book and ran a hot bath. I could feel the stress just start to melt away. After my bath, I headed down for a little mindless TV. The combination worked for me. I feel so much better now.
Often as parents we get so caught up in going, going, going that we can forget to slow down. When you don't take any down time, that's when you enter the danger zone in parenting. I know I don't want to explode on my children, or my husband, or myself. It's up to me to recognize where I'm at and what I can and cannot handle. That's why the first step I took was so important, telling someone else and asking for help. The next part, spoiling myself a little is important too. So much of my time is spent giving out to my family that I don't take for myself very often. I've learned that I have to get a little me alone time in to re-energize myself.
Now if you will all excuse me, I'm headed off to bed. Hopefully, little miss will sleep a little better tonight.