Do you think sleep deprivation is worse with first baby?

[Sunshinegirl452]

Just that. Wondered if you felt sleep deprivation was worse with dc1 v dc2 due to the complete shock with dc1?

In my experience yes! I have a 9 week old and a 2.5 year old. With my first the lack of sleep was a complete shock to the system. I remember being up at 3 am googling if you could die from lack of sleep. This time round I am, of course, still really bloody tired but I find it is really not bothering me as much. Maybe because I know it does eventually get better?

The googling has made
me laugh.
yes knowing it gets me better is definitly getting me through dc2’s newborn stage atm I think!
I think dc2 sleeps better anyway, so ifs hard for me to tell, but I’m defibitly not as tired as I was with dc1

I think lots of things feel easier with number 2 because your expectations of life have been battered down by number 1.

No, because 2 and 3 didn't sleep. Maternity leave in the 70s and 80s was 6 weeks paid after birth. Son number 2 3rd baby, I bf for 14 months, because nothing else would make him sleep. By the time I had baby 4, working ft nights, with 3 hours sleep in the day, I didn't realise how much sleep I used to get, when I thought I was sleep deprived. By the time I retired at 65, my last year at work, I was unable to sleep in the day at all.

God, no way.

First baby, if they wake between 3 & 5am, at least you can go back to sleep at 5. If they are your second child, you will then be up at 5/6am for the full day regardless of how little sleep you had. Tbf I suppose it also depends on the age gap but I think lots of us probably looked back when we only had the 1 child and wondered what we were complaining about.

No, I found sleep deprivation harder with #2 but that’s because #1 slept from 11pm-6am from 10 days old.
#2 was hungry and fed multiple times through the night so I felt it worse with him (and toddler with night terrors).

You know what to expect with number 1 but with second baby you can’t sleep during the day or even rest much because the other child is awake. I was much more tired with number 2 and 3

Ds2 was harder.

Ds1 slept 4hours between feeds from birth. By 5 weeks he did a 7 hour stretch.

Ds2 was awake every 2 hours. At 3 months he started doing a good stretch.

Nope, I had my first at 19 and could cope pretty well at that age! When I had my 5th baby, he wasn't a great sleeper and I had 4 other kids to get up and off to school in the morning. I remember feeling like a zombie in those first few months 😩

No, because there's some evil sixth sense between them so as soon as one falls asleep the other wakes up. The damned Wakefulness Baton is passed back and forth to ensure no parent ever has a decent sleep.

But at least you're sort of used to it.

Absolutely not! This time, regardless of how much I’m up in the night, my 2 year old is up at sometime between 6 and 7 and raring to go. And if she’s ill or having a bad night, then I can be operating on very very little sleep indeed. Plus no naps for me to catch up because my 2 year old doesn’t nap anymore and I can’t go back to sleep after a 5am feed because of getting up with the toddler. My newborn slept until 8.30 this morning. I was up from 5 having fed him and then got up with the toddler. Was thinking to myself that with my first I could have gone back to sleep until 8.30 😭

I think it is much harder with another child, as you are dealing with their sleep schedule too.

Much worse with DC2. DC1 slept for England. DC2 was the total opposite. I couldn't understand what the fuss was about until DC2 came along.

Personally not at all. DC1 was an amazing sleeper, DC2 is.. not. Plus I have to be ‘on’ even after a crappy night sleep this time around, at least with the first you don’t have the pressure of still needing to be a good parent to a toddler/young child when running on fuck all sleeo!

I had two very different children. From about 2 weeks old, DD1 would breastfeed all evening and then sleep beautifully from 11pm-6am. DD2 was a bloody nightmare. So my sleep deprivation was worse with the second one, but not because she was the second one.

Given I got more sleep bf DS2 than DH did with sole care of the then 2 year old DS1, I can hand on heart say DS1 was way, way way worse but that's because he didn't effing sleep!!