When you find out you're expecting, you are reminded over and over again that it is tiring and you'll have next to no sleep. I however was not prepared for my angel baby who was sleeping 7:30pm-5am at 8 weeks old to turn into the worst sleeping baby I ever knew possible.
I miss sleep so bad, I need it. I turn into another person who is grumpy and sad and just wants to moan and moan until everyone knows that her baby is broken as he will not sleep, that is until 9am and I have been awake for 5 hours and drank lots of tea and ate lots of chocolate so I can feel faintly human again.
William is 5 months old tomorrow and has a strict bedtime routine consisting of baby massage, lullaby, bedtime book and bottle until he drifts off around 7pm. The professionals advised this would make him a good sleeper. They have no idea!
I never expected a baby so small to be able to sleep through the whole night, I don't mind night feeds, but when your baby is waking every 30-120 minutes and takes a whole 30-40 minutes to go back down and he then wakes for the day at 4am.... every day.... for almost 3 months.... it has done me in!
The other night he woke at 12midnight and woke for the day at 4am... in between that, I woke 6 times bouncing, rocking, feeding and cuddling him in the hope he will let me have some sleep every time he woke up.
I don't feel comfortable with the cry it out method, he went through a hungry phase of downing 5oz bottles throughout the night every 2 hours, now he is nuzzling 1oz and wasting 5oz every 2 hours. He is not cold, not too hot as we have a gro egg.
I'm sick of feeling like a bad mother in the night and over compensating in the day.
When I can get a 3hour block sleep, life is easy.
When I get 30 minutes here and there... I saw things I regret, I argue with people and generally ruin my day at 4:30am.
To all the mothers who are getting no sleep and feel like they are black and blue through exhaustion/sleep deprivation, you are not alone.
Every other Mum I have come across in my 5 months of being a parent has exclaimed proudly that there baby is sleeping 9pm-9am, 7pm-7am, 12 hours straight, sleeping through the night... and if I'm honest, it makes me feel like I surely did something wrong as my baby is lucky to go 2 hours. Did I break him? it isn't normal behaviour? what's wrong?
I then go on Facebook days later and see they have put status' on about being up on the night feeds. If more Mothers were honest, it would make the other Mothers feel less awful and more normal!
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