Sleep

Today, three weeks into lambing, I find myself completely focused on sleep.

I slept from 12:30 a.m. until 6:30 a.m. last night, certainly enough sleep to get by on. Much more than Dave got because he gets up for the 3:00 a.m. barn check and usually spends at least three quarters of an hour in the barn feeding lambs. Interrupted sleep is the worst of all. But I’m the one who can’t seem to drag myself out of bed or off the couch. When the alarm goes off, my mind says ‘time to get up and check for new lambs’ but my body is saying ‘just a few more minutes, the lambs will be alright for just a few more minutes.’

As I drag myself out of bed and downstairs, I fight the urge to lie down for just a minute while the running water warms up enough to make lamb milk, or until it’s a little bit lighter outside. But the lambs need to eat and there might be a mom out there who needs help with lambing. So I go.

After the ewes are fed and watered, the bottle lambs satisfied, and I make sure that nobody has lambed since Dave was out three hours earlier, I stumble back to the house, strip off my barn clothes and curl up on the couch under a quilt. When Dave wakes up, we’ll deal with the rest of today.

After breakfast, I return to the couch. After our 10:00 a.m. check of the barn, I return to the couch. And so the day progresses, doing lamb checks, eating and sleeping. I could even ignore the eating, but Dave insists we eat together.

Why am I so tired? Is it accumulated worry over sick ewes and hungry lambs? Is it working outside for a big part of every day? Or is it too many nights of not quite enough sleep?

What ever it is, I can’t fight it. It’s time for another nap.