CTV Toronto reporter Naomi Parness has signed off the air and has moved on to her next assignment: motherhood. While on her maternity leave, she will be filing occasional columns on the experience of this whole new responsibility. Here's her latest: 

Time flies when you are having fun -- or when you haven't slept. The hours turned into days, which turned into weeks, and now months. And now, after the long days and even longer sleepless nights, I have a two-month old son who is smiling from ear to ear, cooing, and has even giggled! Where did the time go?

I had a lot of feedback after my previous column because it was harsh and honest. People appreciated the honesty. There's nothing to hide. This parenting thing is a hard job!

"It will get easier," people told me from day one. Even perfect strangers walking by my stroller as my son cried told me "it will get easier." It was hard to believe, until it finally happened.

I am happy to report for those bleary-eyed parents who have no hope, that there is a light at the end of tunnel. As they start getting older and as they start gaining weight, it all changes.

Ben is now a pleasure and really such a good boy. And I am truly having fun. I can now honestly say being a parent is the best thing that's ever happened to me. And I realized why it took a few weeks for it all to settle in. One simple, amazing, sweet sounding word: Sleep.

We often say after a good night sleep we "slept like a baby." Well I've got news for you. Babies don't sleep. It's a myth. There is a tiny group of lucky parents whose kids are born good sleepers. And then there are the rest of us who don't want to hear about the good sleepers.

To a new parent, "sleeping like a baby" means taking 45-minute catnaps. Sleeping in someone's arms, or a car seat, or the stroller -- anywhere but a crib.

But that's all changed. Ben is sleeping much better, and we get five-hour stretches at night now, on lucky nights six. We feel like human beings.

Looking back I can say the first few weeks are hard. You are getting used to having a newborn while trying to deal with the fact nothing in your life is the same. What makes it even more challenging is simply not sleeping -- it makes you loopy. And it causes many stressful moments between the sleep-deprived parents.

They could make a reality show just based on the relationship of sleep-deprived parents at night ... it would be quite entertaining! I have to say I could not have made it through the first few months without the help of my husband - he's an amazing father. But he never seemed so amazing at 3 a.m. when you haven't slept and your kid craps all over you. You call for help and he turns over in bed and puts a pillow on his head.

Dr. Ron Heslegrave is a sleep researcher in Toronto and the Chair of Research and Ethics for the University Health Network and the University of Toronto. He says sleep deprivation is obviously a normal part of being the parent of a newborn. But he says it's important to manage it so it doesn't manage you. He says people who are sleep deprived:

  • lack judgment
  • have a reduced attention span
  • are more irritable

If you don't solve sleep deprivation, it can lead to health problems and be dangerous.

Heslegrave says in the U.S. sleep deprivation actually leads to more than 400,000 car crashes every year.

The bottom line is -- you are not the best parent if you are not getting some sleep.

But I know better than anyone how hard it is to get sleep at the beginning. Heslegrave says you need to put aside everything you "want" to do and realize your only "need" is taking care of your baby. That means sleeping when they sleep instead of getting other "things" done. The "things" can wait.

I was never able to do that -- I always had to get everything done. What I did have is a lot of support, which he says is necessary so you can have a break. This was how I made it through.

However you make it through, Heslegrave says you need to recognize that being sleep deprived may be funny to talk about but it is very serious. You have to recognize you are sleep deprived and try getting rest whenever you can.

The good news is, he says, new parents do get their sleep back. But let's be honest. I know sleep will be a problem for the next 25 years. Once my son is out partying I will be up worrying. I am just going day by day for now. That means enjoying my son...and enjoying him even more when he sleeps!

Read Naomi's previous columns: