you know you have a crappy sleeper when.... - Page 2

[veganone]

Oh yeah - I've even asked the ped for a referral to a sleep clinic or specialist.

I forgot one:
*When lack of sleep changes your baby making plans from 2 to just this one.

[NotTheOnlyOne]

when is becomes something blissful to look forward to every night, when you wake up dh for "his turn" and get to lay in bed and listen to your dh handle the fussy baby...right beside you.... as long as YOU are not the one doing it at the moment... because you can stretch and relax and roll over and at least get physically comfortable for a few minutes.

And I know all the late night programming too... The discovery channel needs to get some new shows!

[netgyks]

Originally Posted by veganone

I forgot one:
*When lack of sleep changes your baby making plans from 2 to just this one.

Yeah I didn't forget that one! Mine's not tooooo awfully bad, asleep by 11-midnight, but I have to get up early to work while he sleeps in and my body just cannot function anymore on the amount of sleep I get, though it used to be adequate pre-baby.

The fear of a really really horrible sleeper scares me out of the 2 kid idea. I'm barely cutting the mustard with 1!

[chipper26]

Originally Posted by Mommy2Haley

Day? LIFE revolves around naps, bedtime, nursing, etc!!

:

I keep thinking she'll grow out of it and then another month passes by and nothing changes.

[lurve]

thank you my commiserating mamas! i have to second the "when you hear about another child who *finally* started sleeping through the night at a certain time. first it was 6 months for me and then LO didn't start. Then I heard 10 months and I waited patiently. Then a year. nada. Then 18 months. la-de-dum. now i am looking forward brightly to 2 years! but i have a feeling we might be in the 3 to 4 year stage. but there is nothing better than snuggling with her when she is passed out!

[Calm]

- when you have your first bonafide nervous breakdown.

- when you no longer think mothers who control cry their kids are lazy and/or terrible mothers; even though you can't bring yourself to do it, you actually understand and envy mothers who do.

- when your husband gets a vasectomy because "we are NEVER doing this again!"

- when you have moved the TV into the garage for storage because there is no such thing as "evening free time", you're in bed by 7pm in desperate hopes of getting in some hours before "it" all starts.

- when you have old sheets up on the windows in more desperate hopes that less morning light means more morning sleep. Doesn't.

- the curtains covering the old sheets are taped with masking tape to the wall at the bottom, to stop the faintest glimmer of light entering under where they gap from the wall.

- your bottle of rescue remedy lives under your pillow.

- you've mastered the "bed rock", which is putting baby on your chest/stomach and rolling from side to side when comfort is needed because it's all the energy you have left.

- when that energy is depleted, you've mastered "resting" in bed while a baby screams in your arms. Sometimes you even manage to muster up enough movement to stroke his head to add to the pitiful pats on the diaper you're offering as comfort. You hope he can't feel you sobbing from your sense of hopelessness.

- you've nursed so much you and the bed are covered in puke and you don't even bother to wipe it before you and baby roll exhausted into it - face first.

[sunnygir1]

Originally Posted by Calm

- when you have your first bonafide nervous breakdown.

- when that energy is depleted, you've mastered "resting" in bed while a baby screams in your arms. Sometimes you even manage to muster up enough movement to stroke his head to add to the pitiful pats on the diaper you're offering as comfort. You hope he can't feel you sobbing from your sense of hopelessness.

Yep. I often fall asleep in the middle of a word while singing to her, or in the middle of stroking her hair or patting her back. I am so tired right now that I almost cried reading your post...oh, the sobbing and begging for sleep!

[blueridgewoman]

I hate that whole "more time putting her to sleep than actually sleeping" bit. Gah. Drives me insane-- I spend an hour and a half getting her down and she sleeps for twenty minutes. WTF?

And yes, we have mastered the side to side rock.

[sunnygir1]

...you have to hop on MDC in the middle of the night (to check your last post) because you can't remember if your lo went to sleep at 9:15 or 10:15 and you are really curious about how many hours you just got.

[mamabearsoblessed]

*you scratch your nose and it wakes the baby*

*you swallow and it wakes the baby*

*the alarm goes off and you all sleep through it.... including the baby*

[Calm]

Originally Posted by mamabearsoblessed

*you scratch your nose and it wakes the baby*

*you swallow and it wakes the baby*

*the alarm goes off and you all sleep through it.... including the baby*

OMG, so true! Ridiculous. But true.

[NokomisThree]

good stuff

man that's funny stuff

how bout these

you learn to sneeze silently, even though you feel like it will blow your brains out.

You try to have everything in the house ON one night and OFF the next, you've tried absolute silence and absolute chaos. No dice. Then you have people over, and the babe sleeps like one, while everyone is eating dinner and enjoying themselves! They all think you're crazy because the baby is "so good." They leave, and all hell breaks loose.

[mamabearsoblessed]

Originally Posted by NokomisThree

man that's funny stuff

how bout these

you learn to sneeze silently, even though you feel like it will blow your brains out.

You try to have everything in the house ON one night and OFF the next, you've tried absolute silence and absolute chaos. No dice. Then you have people over, and the babe sleeps like one, while everyone is eating dinner and enjoying themselves! They all think you're crazy because the baby is "so good." They leave, and all hell breaks loose.

[lemurmommies]

Originally Posted by Calm

- - when you have old sheets up on the windows in more desperate hopes that less morning light means more morning sleep. Doesn't.

- your bottle of rescue remedy lives under your pillow.

These two things are sooooo us.

I'd like to add:

- when you start the process of nightweaning and comment to your very AP minded chiropractor that you're thrilled you got 4 hours of sleep in a row, and your chiropractor looks at you like you've lost it.

[Devaya]

when you want to strangle people who say 'my baby wakes up at 3 am every time'...

[Autumn C.]

"When you have trained yourself to wake from a deep sleep and go silently running from the room because you have to cough."


"When you can single handedly hold your dh (who is literally almost twice your size) down when he wants to switch positions right after you have finally delatched the LO."



"When you spend every free moment on MDC's Family Bed and Nightime Parenting board ranting, venting, sharing sadness, disappointment, anger and occasionally laughter, finding strength in the community of women you've never met.

[Momma2SoSweet]

Originally Posted by earthgirl

When you absolutely cannot wait until your LO outgrows nap time b/c it's such a freaking chore.

But truthfully, DD finally sleeps really well at night. But we have been through sleep-hell so I can totally relate.

This is where I am at. My dd has been a crappy sleeper all her young life and is FINALLY sleeping for long periods at night. However, getting her to sleep for her nap is such a chore- it is so draining that I actually dread nap time every day. I honestly can't wait until she doesn't need a nap anymore.

[*Eva*]

When you have to pin your child down to get them to be still long enough to sleep. My 4 year old up until about 4 months ago used to have to be held down in a bear hug in bed to get him to lay down and stop moving long enough to sleep.

[Tinker]

Originally Posted by MamieCole

*when you hear people say their child used to sleep for 5 hours but now gets up every two hours and you think to yourself, "babies can sleep for two hours in a row?!!"

* when at 21 months of age your LO has never slept longer than an hour. ever

*your LO will wake up every three minutes for a period of hours for no known reason. you easily get her back to sleep by switching sides but you are awake. for the rest of the night

*when your fantasy life no longer involves sex but a pillow and 12 straight hours of uninterrupted sleep. ahh, bliss



Right there with ya mama. I have this fantasy of leaving DS at home with DH for a whole day, going to a hotel, asking for their quietest room, checking in and sleeping ALL.DAY.LONG.

But I can't be gone more than a couple hours without DS melting down, so it will have to remain a fantasy.

I miss my old friend, Sleep. Maybe one day in the future we shall meet again.

OMG!! I have that same fantasy!

[Tinker]

Originally Posted by Purple Line Design

I'm so glad I found this thread... I was beginning to think we were the only ones! DD is almost 2 and has never really slept through the night. I can count on one hand how many times she's slept more than 4 hours straight (and 6 was the longest ever). All of the moms I know in real life have perfect children who sleep through the night w/o being attached to the boob. So happy to find we're not as strange as I thought.

I'm right there with ya! Although my dd who is 2 has slept through the night 3 times in her life. I of course did not sleep through the night, because I kept waking up expecting her to wake up.: