Mother Nature's way or preparing?
Are you insane?
That's like saying the best way to prepare for starvation is to go on a crash diet, and the next person who says that tom me is going to be on the receiving end of a sleep-deprivation-induced punch in the face.
Are piles preparation for the pain of childbirth? No they're bloody not. They're just an unpleasant aspect of pregnancy which has no positive use whatsoever.
Is our body clever? Undoubtedly - it's making a whole new person.
But is sleep deprivation part of it's cleverness'? No. It's part of it trying to cope with the massive demands sudenly being made of it, and understandably not managing to keep everythng else ticking along quite as smoothly as it once did. It's not our body's fault - it's doing the best it can.
It's a f-ing ridiculous thing to say - clearly in an ideal world we would be building up our energy reserves now for when we need them during and post birth.
Just like in an ideal world we wouldn't have all the other rubbish side effects of pregnancy. But this isn't an ideal world, so we and our heroic bodies just battle on doing the best we can.
I really find though that ridiculous statements like that (usually made by people who have either never suffered with it, or have forgotten what it's like) REALLY don't help.
You're right Tod (but please turn off your caps lock - it looks like you're shouting!) post birth, we will cope, I'm sure, but that's not to say that a decent amount of sleep now wouldn't help.
I'm planning on trying to get the odd short nap in during the day when I'm on Mat leave to try and top-up the reduced amounts I'm getting at night...
However, I refuse to be all idealistic about the fact that I'm not sleeping. I'll get through it, but I'm not about to try and pretend it's a good thing.
Rant over...
DB
xx