sleep deprivation

It snowed last night! I chose to ignore the fact when I woke up at around one this morning, having fallen asleep fully clothed, after a totally exhausting week. (Don't you hate it when that happens?). But it was still on my car when we left for ballet, not long after I had got up. I have been feeling under the weather recently, and the spell of *fresh* air at the 1000 ft high riding school kept me awake, but didn't do much for my general wellbeing. Allie got bored and cold after the first 20 minutes of pointing at horses ('horsey'), and a duck ('doot, doot') and wriggled and moaned the rest of the time, as he did for much of the night. He only seems happy whilst feeding, which I cant do for a marathon 8 hours, I'm sorry.
So I was in a bit of a sleep-deprived haze all day, but fortunately had arranged to go to Josie's after ballet, which is about the only place I can be when I'm in that state. So we did have a bit of a time for a chat and the children played, boy, did they play. I didn't take Allie and he had just fallen asleep when we got back around six- great timing for a nap! so I managed to get him to wake up for some tea, which he hadn't had yet and he went off about 8.30, and has slept for the last 3 hours. I hope that's a good sign. I have been tearing my hair out this week. Finding it so hard just to remain conscious during the day, or anything resembling human. Managing to do the bare essentials, but feel bad sometimes that I'm not *doing* anything with the children. Actually get a bit worried sometimes about my ability to cope as I've had a lot of health problems in the last few years and get very little support with the children. I'm not sure whether it's stress that brings it on a lot of the time. I know sleep deprivation is a big factor. Must do something about that...