Lack of Sleep...

[quetinha]

This baby sleep schedule is killing me. The last 2 nights in a row I have only slept 4 hours. Yesterday I at least napped an hour or so but I'm growing so frustrated! This morning when baby woke up I just cried nursing him. It's even making me not want to nurse. I know someday it will get better but right now I'm stuck in just feeling sorry for myself. (Until school started I could just go back to sleep but now I have to stay up to get ds1 ready and down to the bus stop.)

[Lady Lilya]

I've cried like that several times.

During the night, I just get enough sleep to not be any more tired than I was when the night began. During the day, he doesn't want to sleep, and I also have to get some things done, so I get more tired. So, every day I slide a little more in the negative direction.

It gets harder and harder to drag myself out of bed when he starts fussing to eat. If I ignore it, he escalates slowly to a cry. I've been letting this happen more than I think is ok.

I think this is just one of those things we have to wait out. Eventually they eat less often and sleep longer bursts.

[mamamoo]

co sleeping saves my sanity each time. My baby is a great sleeper at night if I am next to her. she only wakes once between about 11pm and 7 or 8 am!! if i had to get out of bed to get her, for one i know she would wake more often, and two...I would not be getting enough sleep at all. now my 2.5 yr old on the other hand, she thinks 6 am is a great time to start the day no matter what time she goes to sleep.

[Cujobunny]

Originally Posted by mamamoo

co sleeping saves my sanity each time. My baby is a great sleeper at night if I am next to her. she only wakes once between about 11pm and 7 or 8 am!! if i had to get out of bed to get her, for one i know she would wake more often, and two...I would not be getting enough sleep at all. now my 2.5 yr old on the other hand, she thinks 6 am is a great time to start the day no matter what time she goes to sleep.

Oh this is me exactly. dd gets up once between 10pm and about 630 and thats usually around 3.

I learned my lesson after ds and I was afraid to osleep in the beginning. I cant afford to be tired now because he's 2.5 and gets up at 6:30, energized and raring to go.

[PiePie]

we are cosleeping, but due to an incorrect latch at first with attendant problems for me, i now nurse her in the glider with the my brest friend, etc. i know someday i will be able to just give her my boob while in bed, but for now i think this is better. but ugh. last night she decided to have quiet alert time from 3:30 until god knows when (i woke dh and handed her off at 5:30). we fear she is becoming nocturnal. i have slept all afternoon...

[Lady Lilya]

Originally Posted by PiePie

we are cosleeping, but due to an incorrect latch at first with attendant problems for me, i now nurse her in the glider with the my brest friend, etc. i know someday i will be able to just give her my boob while in bed, but for now i think this is better. but ugh. last night she decided to have quiet alert time from 3:30 until god knows when (i woke dh and handed her off at 5:30). we fear she is becoming nocturnal. i have slept all afternoon...

Sigh. I haven't slept longer than an hour and a half at a time for 3 weeks now. Mine wakes up pretty regularly in the night at 11, 1, 3, 5 to nurse. He eats for about 20 minutes, and then we end up back in bed 10 minutes later.

Unfortunately, sometime around 1-3 he decides it is now day time, and there will be no more sleeping. He will mostly eat, with occasional short dozes, from then until about 9pm. Occasionally he will sleep an hour and a half in the middle of the day. By 9 he has dark circles under his eyes and sleeps really well.

[MamaRabbit]

Last night was the first time in 6 weeks that I got a full 3hours in a row. This morning I was so tired my DH had to wake me up and a baby was crying in my ear... yikes.

It does get easier, but it's hard to see that from this age.

[Jster]

So sorry to hear about all the sleep issues! I've been there with the first two (co-sleeping and they still woke up frequently, but at least it didn't jar me much). I'm trying to enjoy the fact that, for now, ds sleeps really well. But I remember dd2 sleeping through the night around a month old, then not again until I nightweaned her at 2!!!

Ah, sleep....sleep....sleep....

[quetinha]

Originally Posted by PiePie

we are cosleeping, but due to an incorrect latch at first with attendant problems for me, i now nurse her in the glider with the my brest friend, etc. i know someday i will be able to just give her my boob while in bed, but for now i think this is better. but ugh. last night she decided to have quiet alert time from 3:30 until god knows when (i woke dh and handed her off at 5:30). we fear she is becoming nocturnal. i have slept all afternoon...

I'm having trouble nursing laying down. He'll do it but it is painful. I feel like he has a mouth of needles. So for now I'm still getting up and using the glider too. Last night I got up and watched The Wedding Singer (again). He didn't sleep until 3:30. That 4 hour stretch felt nice. Now that ds1 has left for school and ds2 is back to sleep I guess I better go to sleep too!

[chlobo]

Well we co-sleep but this poor little guy is so gassy that he wakes up multiple times with major discomfort & needs help. It's so sad & also so hard on me and DH.

Anyone have a magic pill?

ETA: I've cried multiple times in front of DD and it scares her. She always yells at me and tells me to stop crying. It is so sad. But I'm so tired I just can't help it.

[lyttlewon]

Originally Posted by quetinha

I'm having trouble nursing laying down. He'll do it but it is painful. I feel like he has a mouth of needles. So for now I'm still getting up and using the glider too. Last night I got up and watched The Wedding Singer (again). He didn't sleep until 3:30. That 4 hour stretch felt nice. Now that ds1 has left for school and ds2 is back to sleep I guess I better go to sleep too!

DD was hard to nurse laying down at first. I slept propped up in bed on pillows so I could nurse her on my lap. At about 6 weeks she got enough head control that I could nurse her laying down.

[lyttlewon]

Originally Posted by mamamoo

co sleeping saves my sanity each time. My baby is a great sleeper at night if I am next to her. she only wakes once between about 11pm and 7 or 8 am!! if i had to get out of bed to get her, for one i know she would wake more often, and two...I would not be getting enough sleep at all. now my 2.5 yr old on the other hand, she thinks 6 am is a great time to start the day no matter what time she goes to sleep.

Yes DD is my sleep problem! She wakes up when DH's alarm goes off at 5:00 and wants to touch my eyebrows which means either a) Quinlan sleeps between me and her causing her to just play or b) I have to tweak my head around while I am on my side (with my back to her) and it hurts my neck. Mostly though she just declares she is done sleeping and I need to wake up. She did this at 6:00 yesterday. Once DH got home from shopping I went back to bed.

[josybear]

ds2 is a night owl. he nurses all night long, literally. i sleep through some of it, but not that much. ds1 rises with the sun and doesn't nap. i need sleep more than i need air at this point and there is no end in sight. somebody shoot me now, please.

[PiscesMama24]

Oh, I feel your pain! My 4 mo. old DD has started waking every 1-2 hours, all night long. Sometimes it's to nurse, toher times it's to play or practice rolling over. But I feel sooo exhausted! I try not to get too upset, but sometimes I hear her starting to wake up, and it's all I can do not to cry!

[PPK]

I'm glad I'm not the only one to start crying at some point in the night. I was feeling like a horrible mama for being a grump to wake up to feed/burp ds. We sometimes do ok with lying down nursing, but at night, I have a hard time putting in the effort to burp him, so as the night wears on, he gets more gassy and fusses and squeaks and then will keep breaking the latch if I try to nurse him. I feel bad that I'm too tired to help him more than I've been..I'm just so tired. Family is visiting too, so its been throwing off our nap schedule. There have been a few nights lately though that he's only waken up two times to nurse, otherwise its every 1.5 hours or so. I'm trying not to cry, I broke down the ther day and ds stoped nursing and fussing and just watched me

[Jster]

Originally Posted by jenrose9

I have a hard time putting in the effort to burp him, so as the night wears on, he gets more gassy and fusses and squeaks and then will keep breaking the latch if I try to nurse him.

I finally figured out a way that works well to burp in bed while laying down...I'm laying on my side, and I put baby up over my side/hip, kind of like you would put a baby on your shoulder. Usually that helps a ton, and he can get the burps out w/o any extra patting from me if I wait a minute or two. Although once we fell asleep that way...guess we were tired! HTH, and that you sleep well tonight!

[eri_flores]

Can't wait til I can nurse laying down...for now its a production of getting up and pillows and either the couch or a rocking chair (mom is staying on the couch for a few days). The rocking chair is creaky so it keeps hubby up (that's *if* he's here: he works nights so 3-4 times a week it's just me til about 3/4am). But we are having latch problems, so laying down just doesn't seem doable. I have to be able to see his face and mouth and work around his flailing fists of fury (trying to keep them from smashing my desperately sore nipples...yeesh). Anyhow, it's heartening to hear that I'm not the only one experiencing this stuff. He's sometimes sleeping in long stretches at night, but sometimes it's during the day and then he wants to be awake and the life of the party at night... So crazy!

[PiePie]

Originally Posted by jenrose9

I was feeling like a horrible mama for being a grump to wake up to feed/burp ds.

yep! glad to know i'm not alone. nak!

[mama2walden&luna]

Originally Posted by eri_flores

Can't wait til I can nurse laying down...for now its a production of getting up and pillows and either the couch or a rocking chair (mom is staying on the couch for a few days). The rocking chair is creaky so it keeps hubby up (that's *if* he's here: he works nights so 3-4 times a week it's just me til about 3/4am). But we are having latch problems, so laying down just doesn't seem doable. I have to be able to see his face and mouth and work around his flailing fists of fury (trying to keep them from smashing my desperately sore nipples...yeesh). Anyhow, it's heartening to hear that I'm not the only one experiencing this stuff. He's sometimes sleeping in long stretches at night, but sometimes it's during the day and then he wants to be awake and the life of the party at night... So crazy!

Walden was just like that. Don't worry, it WILL get better!

I'm not losing much sleep with Luna. She sleeps for long stretches at night and doesn't even cry when she wakes up to nurse. She's still getting the hang of nursing lying down. But I'm an old pro at it, so she's catching on pretty quickly.
There was nothing but sleepless nights with Walden, so I feel for all you mamas that are having that experience right now. Keep your chins up! You are not bad mothers for being grumpy or annoyed at 3am, it happens to everyone and it will pass.

[ladyleigh]

This little guy was sleeping so well at first- 3-4 hour stretches at night. The last few nights he's been up every 90 min and wanting to nurse for an hour or so. He's gaining so much weight- 14 oz over his birth weight at 2 weeks. I've been feeling bad about being grumpy as well. I find that I am more 'dramatic' when my dh is awake- as if I want him to feel sorry for me. Since noticing this I am trying to break that habit! 'Poor me, I have to feed the baby again while you lay there and go back to sleep'.

I was getting some cracking in my right nipple from feeding laying down, I think. I've been sitting up more and really working on latch stuff while laying down (I find holding him in the crook of my arm is better than him just on the bed).