A new mom has captured the precise moment her son constantly waking up started “really getting” to her dog.
Dogs need lots of sleep. Dr. Amy Stone, DVM and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Florida’s College of Veterinary Medicine told Newsweek: “Dogs should sleep anywhere from 10 to 14 hours during the day on average.”
“Dogs listen to their bodies more than humans do,” Dr. Stone added. “When the signals to the brain tell them to sleep, they do.” This is what leads to things like day time naps and afternoon snuggles on the couch.
However, if something prevents them from getting the sleep they need, dogs are not especially good at hiding that fact, as new mom Stephanie Charbonneau, from Ontario, Canada, discovered.
TikTok/stephcharbonneau
Three and a half year old Jolene was as excited as anyone about the arrival of Charbonneau’s son, Brooks. “Jolene has been so protective over him as if she’s his second mom or something, she follows us everywhere and even gets up for middle of the night feeds,” Charbonneau told Newsweek.
However, after two weeks of Brooks of, in Charbonneau’s words, “waking up every two hours,” the disruption appeared to be getting to Jolene.
“I looked over at her and saw her looking just as exhausted as I probably looked in that moment and couldn’t help but capture it,” Charbonneau said. “Had no idea so many people would find that video as sweet and silly as I did.”
Much of the hilarity is down to Jolene. She appears tired and dishevelled in the clip, a duvet draped over her, staring off into the distance like a worn out mom dealing with stress and sleep deprivation while seriously questioning her life choices. Or she could just be thinking about what’s for dinner, of course.
Whatever the reality, the resulting video, showcasing how the change seemed to be “really getting to everyone” was shared to TikTok under the handle @stephcharbonneau, where it has already been watched over 115,000 times since being shared in January.
One viewer commented: “My dog was the same. He couldn’t even function properly and was so stressed playing nanny he couldn’t eat or go to the toilet until the midwife showed up.”
Another said: “Oh my god this is my stuffy every single morning after a rough night. She literally ditches and goes straight to our bedroom. The second I get up with the baby… sis has had enough by 7am & we don’t hear from her until lunchtime.”
Some offered reassurance that to both Charbonneau and Jolene that things would change. “When baba gets a bit bigger they will be best friends,” one said with another writing: “My doggo was the same, now he loves them so much.”
It’s been six weeks since that video was filmed and, while there are still ongoing adjustments, Jolene is getting used to having Brooks around. “Jolene was our first baby and no matter how it may appear in that video she absolutely loves her new brother,” Charbonneau said.
