it's three o'clock in the afternoon, and i'm in my dressing gown
actually it's 1215, but you get my drift...
I'm realising now just how much of my recoveryfrom PND had been related to not being sleep-deprived. That's right, 'had'.
Now babies are very zen. Well, maybe Zen is drawing too long a bow, but 'the middle path is golden' and 'the only thing that is certain is change'. And not all the change is good. Patrick had blessed us with sleeping well from about 7 weeks of age until approximately a month ago. I could put up with his hour-long scream fests during the day and his settling routine at night (that consists of walking around the garden patting his behind and telling him softly about the trees for about an hour) because I knew I could get a good rest during the night. I realise that we were extremely lucky to have this behaviour, and I never, ever bragged about it. When the other mums complained about their babies' sleeping problems I'd just nod and make supportive noises. I knew not to tempt fate. (BTW you are only allowed to be jealous if you have a baby that doesn't sleep nights and PND).
But now all that has changed again. He is waking every night, at least four if not five times: last night was 1030pm (it counts- we were already in bed), 1am, 3am, 4am, 5.30am, 7am. Mostly he feeds and goes back off to sleep ok, but at least one of those wake ups will be party time (followed by screaming when his parents try to re-settle him) that can go for an hour and a half. I am utterly exhausted. I can't sleep during the day, either, because he only has two 45-minute catnaps a day, and at least one of those will generally be in the car on the way somewhere, and the rest of the time he wants to be picked up and carried around (the Jolly Jumper is the only way I get anything done anymore). Last week was especially harsh because Mr T was on night shift so I had to do all the night stuff myself, and Mr T had first dibs on day sleeping (because he might have to do something a bit more complex than just getting his tits out- like putting in epidurals- and we all know how important that is, right?) so I was getting maybe 3 hours unbroken sleep, max, a day. I also find it quite hard to get back to sleep once he has woken us up, so I may only get a 30 minute nap between wake ups.
He has been awake since 7 am this morning and has only just gone down for a nap again, at 1215. And he's just woken up again. It's 1230. I hate my life.
ps ten points to anyone who can give me the song title and artist...
I'm realising now just how much of my recoveryfrom PND had been related to not being sleep-deprived. That's right, 'had'.
Now babies are very zen. Well, maybe Zen is drawing too long a bow, but 'the middle path is golden' and 'the only thing that is certain is change'. And not all the change is good. Patrick had blessed us with sleeping well from about 7 weeks of age until approximately a month ago. I could put up with his hour-long scream fests during the day and his settling routine at night (that consists of walking around the garden patting his behind and telling him softly about the trees for about an hour) because I knew I could get a good rest during the night. I realise that we were extremely lucky to have this behaviour, and I never, ever bragged about it. When the other mums complained about their babies' sleeping problems I'd just nod and make supportive noises. I knew not to tempt fate. (BTW you are only allowed to be jealous if you have a baby that doesn't sleep nights and PND).
But now all that has changed again. He is waking every night, at least four if not five times: last night was 1030pm (it counts- we were already in bed), 1am, 3am, 4am, 5.30am, 7am. Mostly he feeds and goes back off to sleep ok, but at least one of those wake ups will be party time (followed by screaming when his parents try to re-settle him) that can go for an hour and a half. I am utterly exhausted. I can't sleep during the day, either, because he only has two 45-minute catnaps a day, and at least one of those will generally be in the car on the way somewhere, and the rest of the time he wants to be picked up and carried around (the Jolly Jumper is the only way I get anything done anymore). Last week was especially harsh because Mr T was on night shift so I had to do all the night stuff myself, and Mr T had first dibs on day sleeping (because he might have to do something a bit more complex than just getting his tits out- like putting in epidurals- and we all know how important that is, right?) so I was getting maybe 3 hours unbroken sleep, max, a day. I also find it quite hard to get back to sleep once he has woken us up, so I may only get a 30 minute nap between wake ups.
He has been awake since 7 am this morning and has only just gone down for a nap again, at 1215. And he's just woken up again. It's 1230. I hate my life.
ps ten points to anyone who can give me the song title and artist...
posted by jen at 7:08 PM
1 Comments:
Is he having a growth spurt? If he is then it will be over soon sweetie.
Seth is a dreadful daytime sleeper too, but I think I've cracked the puzzle on that one. I just lay down with him to sleep and have chucked the fear of co-sleeping out the window. Even if he is ratty and screaming when we first lay down he just can't resist eventually cuddling into my warm body and crashing out too. Now that we are both sick it is my godsend cause if he wouldn't do this I'd be fucked royally. It even works when you just start him off this way I'm finding. We have a big L shaped couch which is quite firm, so today I put him in his safety roll thing and tucked him up in a blanket (while he screamed the place down), then I lay down on the other part and cuddled him into me until he went to sleep while I watched TV. Once he was really out to it I could get on with doing my own thing and then just lay down and hug him again when he roused a bit and he'd go back to sleep. I hope things improve for you soon!
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