Day Seventeen: Naps

This is part of a creative project called 100 Word, 100 Days. In this project I’ll be writing a 100 word piece about my experience as a new mother every day for 100 days. Read more here.

The common, infuriating advice often offered to new parents is “sleep when the baby sleeps”. The assumption central to this advice is that said baby rests easy, and never fights sleep or insists on being held through naps. This imaginary, placid child would never prevent her parents from either sleeping themselves or from using naptime to do almost anything else.

We do not have such a baby. In a dream world she and I could drift off together with her in my arms. Instead follow the safety guidelines and I watch her snooze on my chest, forsaking my own rest.