Yahoo Lifestyle 
Mum’s brutally honest parenting time-lapse goes viral
Thought you had a bad night’s sleep last night?
Spare a thought for mum blogger Melanie Darnell, whose latest video showing what she goes through as she tries to catch some sleep with her nine-month-old beside her - it will make you exhausted just watching it.
In a viral clip that's been watched nearly 1.3 million times in just a few days, the mum-of-three, whose husband is out of town, is seen hopping into bed solo at 10pm.
She only gets about an hour of sleep before being woken by her son Milo, and later bringing him into bed with her.
Cue hours of wriggling, crying, snuggling, hair pulling, breastfeeding, and brief cameo by one of Melanie’s other children who gets into bed as well at 1am.
“Parenting doesn’t end when the sun goes down,” Melanie captioned the post.
“I want to parent at night the same way I parent during the day. You have two nighttime parenting goals (1) get sufficient rest yourself and (2) meet the nutritional and emotional needs of your child. It’s a tough balance.”
Rather than stress out about how little sleep she’s getting, Melanie says she adopts a practical approach by realising that just like other mums, she can only do the best she can.
"During these moments let’s think of all of the other parents that are up with their babies at the very same middle-of-the night moment and take comfort in the thought of each of us cradling our babies in the dark of our homes, together in shared experience," she says.
“To all of the tired mothers out there, breathe in and breathe out.
“These days are intense but short lived. Both you and baby will be sleeping more soundly before long. For now, cuddle your babies, nurse them and love them no matter what time the clock says.”
With the clip ending with a bleary-eyed Melanie in the kitchen, she turns to the one thing that can help sleep-deprived mums – coffee.
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