I'm new to mumsnet so I hope this thread is in the right place. I am on mat leave with my six month old LB and I'm just finding it harder and harder to cope. Everyone says babies get easier as they grow but I am finding the opposite and I am not dealing with it well. My LO has never been placid. Each new milestone he hits just makes him more frustrated that he can't do the next thing yet. He can roll but wants to crawl and can't. He can almost sit but not quite unaided. Nothing keeps him entertained for more than five minutes so he moans constantly all day no matter what I do. I used to think I could ride the phase but I wonder if I will ever feel any joy about him or if it will always be a case of pure endurance. It was better when he slept well. But now he fights his naps and doesn't sleep through the night anymore - sometimes waking once, sometimes multiple times (normally after 4am). I think that's largely due to teething, which he's going through badly right now. I am trying to ease it for him but he won't take teether or cloths or anything. Only teething powders, which don't work for him, and baby ibuprofen, which was OK but now isn't helping. So I am finding myself exhausted and just wanting to cry at facing another day of whinging followed by a night of broken sleep. I feel like total hell and am always ill because I'm so run down. My DH tries to help but due to his work shifts and commute he can't really give me regular breaks. He's also totally stressed by the moaning. I get an hour off now and again thanks to my parents. But they're understandably not keen to have a moaning baby all that often. While I am away a break helps but when I get home I just feel awful again and the whining and grind of all the baby tasks just feels like a dark tunnel closing in. It feels like he will be grumpy and teething forever, I just can't see the end. I love my little boy so much and I don't regret his existence. But I am regretting that I am his mum because I just want some kind of life and I am clearly not cut out for this. I would never hurt him but I am starting to find it hard to like being around him at all. I feel like I can only breathe when he's asleep or elsewhere
When I am with him I do my best to look after him but its going through the motions and I am feeling less and less joyful moments. I guess I am just wondering if anyone else is going through this, or has been through this and can say honestly if things ever improve? I want to be a great mum and enjoy my LO but I am scared at how long it may be before things get better and how I'll manage until then.
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Can't cope with six month old
Kittycampers · 03/03/2018 07:42
Kitty you poor thing I’m so sorry you’re going through this. My son is 12 months now but when he was younger I felt exactly the same as you. There are so many developmental leaps/milestones (the wonder weeks) throughout the first year that baby can get frustrated and seem more unsettled. I found the baby stage incredibly tough and the first 6 months were the worst. DS finally started sleeping better at 6.5 months (no two nights were the same mind you and it very much depended on if he was going through yet another development which of course throws everything off.)
I want to tell you it does get better I promise. A good way to find out if it’s teething is if baby is pulling on ears or chewing on everything. A good tip is to refrigerate baby’s pacifiers (works a treat). You can also refrigerate a clean wet wash cloth and let baby chew on it. I also applied alittle teething gel to pacifier once ds stopped letting me rub his gums. I didn’t find the powders/gels that effective but found baby bonjela was the best of a bad bunch and the parsons teething powders worked as a welcomed distraction . I must admit though I put a lot of ds’s behaviours down to teething and I now know a lot of it was down to growth spurts/developmental leaps.
The first year feels like an eternity when you’re stuck in the cycle but then before you know it you’ll be celebrating your little ones first birthday and think it had flown. Hopefully weaning is going well and will settled your little one. At the start they eat such a small amount that I didn’t notice a difference until a month or two after starting weaning and when ds was on 3 meals a day. The sleep deprivation is torture, make sure you sleep when ever you get chance to and don’t feel guilty about letting your partner or any willing babysitters give you a break. 
and lots of cake needed...
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