Exhausted!

[Knitting Mama]

Is there any reason you ladies can think of as to why I'm more exhausted now than I was when Cecilia was a newborn and needing every two hour feeding around the clock?

I don't think her nursing at night has changed; I rarely really wake up for her to latch on, and it's the same for her. So I guess it's possible that she's nursing more at night than she was before, but I'm just not noticing it.

Her sleeping patterns haven't shifted either. We go to bed between 8 and 9, and get up between 5 and 6. I should be getting a nice solid sleep there, but for whatever reason I am just having the hardest time. So much has gone to the wayside because I'm too tired to do stuff when she naps. Sure would be nice to have my energy back!

[jsh7809]

Sorry you are so exhausted . I would think that you are just hitting a place where the sleep deprivation is catching up with you. I know that's a big reason I crashed so hard with PPD a month and a half ago - her sleep started actually getting a little easier, but going for so long without any long uninterrupted chunks of sleep caught up with me. Maybe your DH can get up with her through a night to give you a solid 8 hours? That helped me a lot - even one night, and even though I still woke up a ton! - I read in the Sears' book that we need 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep to function, and 8.5 hours to function as well as we can.
I know that personally I got a good amount of sleep, but am still exhausted today from waking up a lot. I think in a way I am more tired when I almost get into a deep sleep for a long period of time... like when my body can taste a hint of it, it remembers what it's missing

[Knitting Mama]

Before getting pregnant, I slept around 6 hours a night, so I'm actually sleeping more now than I did then. And unfortunately, Chris can't get up with Cecilia since I'm the only one with the milk; she doesn't take bottles.

[mom2happy]

Are you able to get any cardio exercise?
Even just walking the stroller around the block twice is enough get things pumping and give you some energy.

[Knitting Mama]

Good idea. I might start taking Cecilia ot at 5:30 ish, when she's just had her morning meal. Otherwise it's just way too bloody hot until after dark.

[krismarie]

just a thought...but could it be a nutritional thing too? i definitely underestimate how much nursing really depletes my body of stuff... i'm trying to really stay on top of vitamins/supplements and eating better this time around.

[Knitting Mama]

Good call, krismarie. I don't eat all that well, and I have been bad about taking my vitamins lately. Bad mama!

[laughingfox]

I second the food and cardio recommendations.
I've been going to the gym at 6am when I can, and even though I'm miserable and hate dragging myself out of bed in the morning, I always feel 100% better for the rest of the day. As soon as I'm a bit better in shape, I plan to start running again in the morning.

If you have a nearby gym, see if they have a free trial offer. That way you can see if it helps without shelling out any $$$.

Good luck!

[Knitting Mama]

Gyms won't work but I will definitely get out for walks at least! Also thinking about getting a mama and baby workout DVD.

[jsh7809]

I don't mean to be a bummer, but I just want you to be watchful and careful. I started feeling constant exhaustion, no matter how much I rested or slept, right before crashing and burning with PPD.
Is there any kind of herbalist and nutritionist you can talk to about vitamins, etc., to make sure your adrenals and everything are working right? Don't want you to get burned out, mama!

[Knitting Mama]

I hope it's not latent PPD. I don't feel down at all. I do feel anxiety, but that is how I have always been, so it's nothing new to me.

[GreenTeaGinger61]

I have no scientific evidence for this only my own experience but with all my kids I started feeling really exhausted at this point. I noticed it acutely with my third because I started grad. school at the same time the exhaustion hit in. Not fun Same thing has happened with all of them..between 3 and 4 months, I feel exhausted...way more tired than before. I always wondered if there as some kind of hormonal drop or flux. Nothing helped but time. In about a month, I felt better again.

I also think that you just don't sleep as deeply as you did before. I know that I am a much lighter sleeper since having children (even with no baby I am attune to all their night noises..thankfully because I actually heard my son having a seizure both times). I think it takes the body awhile to get used to that and that after birth it might just hit later.

Exercise is always good. Makes me feel better and does take the edge off the exhaustion as does eating better but I still feel it.

[Knitting Mama]

Yeah, I'm sure you're completely right about sleeping more lightly. I was never a deep sleeper to begin with, but I wake up pretty much every time Cecilia's breathing changes in any way, including when she snores (baby snores are adorable). I generally wake up before she does to latch her on; she'll be sort of making snuffly noises but not awake or actively seeking the nipple yet when I put her on. I guess I'm just hardwired now to tune into her needs.

Let's hope I only have another month or so of sheer exhaustion before it subsides!

[ivymae]

I think it's just because you've been doing it two months and it is catching up with you. Your reserves are gone, your hormones are bottoming out, and baby is much more demanding when she is awake. It depends on the kid i am sure, but with my older girls (who hate sleep) I spent the first year on that mildly Zombie state.

[Laneybug]

I am completely with you on the exhaustion...and everything falling by the wayside. It really seemed that as soon as DD started sleeping for longer periods (six hours or more), I became an insomniac. Even on the nights when I do sleep, I have so much trouble dragging us out of the house and getting stuff done. And I didn't experience much of that at all in the first six weeks. I don't get it. She goes to bed between 8 and 9 and doesn't wake for a feeding typically until 4. Then we're back to bed til 9 or 930!! how can I be tiiiiired? Exercise does sound like a good idea (then again, it always SOUNDS like a good idea!). I never thought I'd say that I wish I could sleep as well as she does!

[jsh7809]

I spoke with another new mom whose baby is a little older than mine (almost 4 months) and she is feeling the same way! Newly exhausted, even though he's sleeping the same or better. Hmm... makes me think it must be a shift in hormones, or an accumulation of the hours lost catching up with you. Darn, I am hoping this doesn't happen to me!
The Sears' book says that you need to add hours to your "sleep bank" to help make up for the sleep deprivation, especially in the form of uninterrupted sleep in 5-8 hour stretches. I don't know how you can do that if you're cosleeping (and I know what you mean about the adorableness of baby snores and little noises!)... and although I recommend highly having DH or someone else get up with her for at least one night, my DH actually offered to do that tonight and I told him no, because it seems silly to do that when I have to wake up to pump engorged boobs around the time they'd wake up for him to give her expressed milk anyway. So I'm a hypocrite!
I am going to ask him to get up early with her in the morning, though, so I can get a little more sleep that way.
Hopefully no one else will fall to PPD (and I in no way mean that I think you will!), I just wanted to share that one of my first signs of really getting into a dark place was feeling super exhausted even though baby was actually sleeping better than before. And then having insomnia and thinking "I HAVe to fall asleep RIGHT NOW since she's just going to wake me up in 2 hours anyway" and "it's 4am and that means she's only going to sleep for 2-3 more hours, argh", even when she would sometimes sleep longer and better than I anticipated (and I would get no sleep at all with the worrying about it).
I'm trying really hard to learn that each night's sleep, and each nap, is a blank slate. Tonight she went down fairly easily at 8pm. So she might wake up again soon, or she might sleep through till 2am - who knows!

[crazyeight]

must be hormonol/baby age related. especially the last 2 nights. R slept 8 and 7 hours 2 nights in a row WITHOUT WAKING UP! so what happens those 2 days? i feel as sllloooowww as molasses.

i have thought (on those days i'm really exhausted and promise myself "i'll fix this!") that exercise would be a good idea but i am not a good person before 8 a.m., it's still hot at night and really...i just hate exercise. a treadmill in front of the TV though...i'd be FIT man!

[Peace+Hope]

Originally Posted by Cecilia's Mama

Good idea. I might start taking Cecilia ot at 5:30 ish, when she's just had her morning meal. Otherwise it's just way too bloody hot until after dark.

totally with you! i feel more tired now for some reason when i have to wake up w/ charlie than i did when he was eating more often. i'm taking fewer naps during the day now though. like you, i feel like i'm sleeping MORE now, b/c i too was a 6-hr night sleeper before he was born.

anyway, i quoted this because i've been walking every morning w/ charlie, or at least 4 days a week. sometimes i walk right from our house, sometimes i drive to a park w/ a walking loop in the shade. i check the weather the night before, so if it's going to be a hot day, i'm prepared to go earlier...

[jsh7809]

Wow, you ladies are good morning people. I rarely get out of bed for realsies until 9 or 10am. Granted, I am getting awakened at 3am, 6am, 7am, 8am, 9am, 10am... but you know, getting UP is a whole nother thing.
I am trying so hard not to be jealous of the 8 hour sleepers. Which is silly, since my little bug did a 5 or 6 hour stretch last night followed by a 3 or 4 hour stretch and a bunch of easy naps. But, you know, uninterrupted sleep? That's the holy grail right there.
C's Mama, didn't you mention on another thread that C has recently done a bunch of weird nights where she woke up every 2 hours? So maybe once you got getter sleep again your body kind of realized what it had been going through those nights? I swear mine goes into "boot camp" mode when the baby wakes up a ton, then when it finally gets to rest and relax, I get super exhausted and realize how much rest I really need to catch up on. It's the adrenaline that keeps me going the other days when I'm exhausted.
I think my PPAnxiety started getting bad when I couldn't sleep even when S was, and that adrenaline took over and started giving me panic attacks . So, maybe some exhaustion is a good thing, in a strange way. It sure beats panic. And you certainly have been working incredibly hard, for months and months, on little sleep!
I hope all of us get at least a few 6-8 hour stretches of sleep ourselves (cause, let's face it, even when the baby is sleeping 6 hours, I'm usually only asleep for 4 of those, no matter how hard I try to get to bed earlier). I don't know if I could even stay asleep! Some days I have to wake up to pump to relieve pressure even when she's still sleeping

[Knitting Mama]

There were a couple of nights when she woke up for reals, rather than rooting around. In both cases I was able to get her back down, but I was wide awake for a bit longer. So yeah, that probably has contributed to my overall exhaustion!