What is the most tired you’ve ever been?

This question is very easy for me to answer… because I am the mother of twins.  My boys are fourteen years old now, but it seems like just yesterday that I brought them home as infants.  I remember a lot of joy from their first year of life.  Quite honestly there’s a lot I think I blocked out!  But one thing I remember with crystal clarity is how tired I was.  Eight feedings a day times two.  Endless diaper changes.  Mounds of laundry.  Plus all the anxiety and fear that comes along with being a brand new mother.  For me, it gave new meaning to the word exhaustion – a tiredness that went straight through to the very marrow of my bones.  I remember when the boys were about six weeks old, I had to have a very small surgical procedure to have an atypical skin blemish removed from my leg.  It was out-patient surgery with general anesthesia.  The nurses wondered why I was so excited to be put to under. “Just let me sleep as long as you possibly can!”  The kind of rest I needed in those days was rest for my body.  The meeting of a biological need with very clear physical symptoms. Continue reading →