back to work sleep issues

[askins]

Please help me.  This is my second week back to work and my first week away for full days.  My son is 17 weeks (4 months) old.  Prior to going back to work, he was sleeping one 5-6 hour block (8:30p-ish until 2a-ish) followed by a 3 hour block (until 5:30a-ish), and then some dozing until 6:30 or so.  This was great for me, and I felt well rested.  

As soon as I went back to work, he started to wake up every 1-2 hours.  We quickly went from sleeping in the nursery in the crib (we had made that transition at about 12 weeks) back to co-sleeping so that I could nurse in my sleep.  But it’s not really working.  I feel like I’m awake ALL NIGHT.  I can’t really go to work this way.  I am really convinced that he is waking at night because he wants or needs “mommy-time” and I really want to give him that.  I feel incredibly guilty if I go to bed and shut the door and send my husband in with the baby.  My husband is staying home with our son, so clearly he gets sufficient daddy time during the day.  I’ve tried wearing him whenever I am around during the day and nursing him very frequently in the evenings, but it doesn’t help at all.  When he wakes at night, he just smiles up at me and blows raspberries – he’s ready to play.  My husband reports that he doesn’t sleep all day.  Usually it’s three naps – one is 2 hrs and the other two are 1/2 hour catnaps.

I know that I’m also in smack in the middle of the 4 month sleep regression time.  He does definitely demand more attention these days while awake.  But I’m convinced that this is primarily related to my going back to work.  In the weekend between my first two work weeks, when he was with me all day, he immediately reverted back to sleeping his 5-6 hour block as if nothing had ever happened.

What do I do here?  Is there anything to do?  Do I just need to go to work sleep deprived for the next N weeks or months?  I WANT to share sleep with him and have that special time with him at night, but I can't reasonably expect to be practically awake from 10p-3a (as happened last night) and function in the workplace.
 

[Anna Phor]

BTDT--and yes, it sucks. It is really, really hard. But it does get better.

Cosleeping is the only thing that saved me. Some other things that helped:

Getting the boob in the child's mouth BEFORE he fully woke up. It was easier to get him to go back to sleep if he didn't wake up properly in the first place.

Nursing lying down in bed. It took me a little while to get the hang of this, but it meant I could doze and nurse at the same time.

If the child has nursed and is AWAKE, I'd send baby and daddy out to soothe him down back to sleep, since dad can nap during the day.

Also, try making sure he gets lots of outdoor time during the day. That was somewhat helpful in improving sleep.

At work:

Make lists. I had NO short term memory function for the first few months after I went back to work, and I had to write everything down, or it would just fall right out of my head.

Caffeine. An extra cup of coffee was my savior.