To ask how long you went without sleep when you had your baby?

[csectionsoon]

Just curious really!

I’m having my ELCS today and I have only slept for about 3 hours, if that, tonight. I just can’t switch off. Someone I know who has just had a baby in the same hospital has said the ward overnight is horrendously hot and noisy and impossible to sleep on - which I was sort of expecting anyway.

All being well we should be discharged home tomorrow and DH can stay overnight with me in hospital tonight which should be a massive help.

I do fully expect to not sleep a wink tonight, because of both the ward and wanting to just stare at my baby all night. Tell me I will survive. 😂 I can’t wait to be back in my own bed already even if it’s just for the hour or two of broken sleep that my newborn will allow me to get

When you had your baby/went into labour, how long did you go without sleep to the next time you slept any?

I have always slept much better once I hd my babies than when I was pregnant. I’ve had three elective sections. Stayed in for 4/5 nights each time, once because that was what you did then and the last one because the baby was under bili lamps. It was fine. I got good sleep and fed baby when they woke very few hours. I did a mixture of ff and bf. After section it takes a few days for milk to come in. It’s always longer than vaginal birth but some people are quicker than others. I pumped from beginning. Some said to wait 6 weeks a before starting to pump but that’s rubbish. Have them at breast and give them any colostrum you can but don’t be afraid to give formula if they are hungry because you’ll have nothing really. If you do both from the start they don’t get nipple confusion. Once home I did the baby whisperer method. Eat Activity Sleep, basically don’t feed to sleep. Feed. Let them be awake but in their bassinet and you can have a hand on them or something and then let them get to sleep themselves. Always worked well for me and mine all staring sleeping long stretches by 3 months and were more or less through the night with occasional wake ups. I know not everyone is same and it does depend on your baby’s personality too. Good luck.

I went into labour around 5pm on a Sunday, and had my baby at 8pm the next day (Monday). Then there was a bit of time while they weighed the baby, first breastfeed etc so I made it onto the ward late that night. I slept a bit (not much as there were several crying babies!) so by the time I was discharged on Tues evening I had only had a few hours sleep between Sun am and Tues pm. At that point I went to sleep and let DH (who'd had a proper night's sleep on Monday) figure out how to get DS to sleep!

Good luck OP!

I had my first DC during lockdown and I had to stay in for two nights. No one, not even partners, were allowed into the ward to visit and the midwives were all too busy to give any help so I stayed awake the whole time as my dd wouldn’t be put down in the crib for more than a minute.

You’ll get minimal sleep in hospital and probably minimal for weeks / months. Try and take any help offered, don’t be a martyr. It does catch up with you after a while.

All the best, OP. Everyone’s different but I only got a few hours’ sleep the first night as I was excited and aware of the baby. It was ok though as was kind of preparation for first three months of lack of sleep! But I wish I had prioritised my rest a little bit more now overall and tried mixed feeding at three months with my first child. Let others help you if you can. I struggled with this and was pretty sleep deprived for almost a year! 🙈

I think I slept maybe 5 hrs over 4 days at the hospital ( after my ECSC). I was on a high the first night then baby was cluster feeding at nights. During the day as soon as I closed my eyes someone would come in to check either on me or baby. I survived on power naps here and there.

DS was born at 2:30am so definitely slept after that until 7/8 am (he fed at 5). Dd was born 00:40 was asleep in my own bed at home by 3am.

I slept after my ECS for a couple of hours in the afternoon whilst my husband watched baby (in hospital) it meant I was able to survive the night. I then did the same when I got home. The very best thing you can do is trust your husband/partner to look after baby so you can have a couple of hours full rest… this will help you so much in the next 2 years. Motherhood and exhaustion kind of come hand in hand. I wouldn’t start adding up the lack of sleep on a debt sheet it will drive you crazy. Just enjoy the exhausted journey. Good Luck.

I was induced with both and had very fast labours, and they were both born in the afternoon so I basically got normal (late pregnancy!) sleep the night before they were born and then was in bed by 8pm the day they were born, up feeding them every 2-3 hours.

They tend to be quite sleepy and zonked out when first born. Both of mine woke up by night 2 and it was a bit of a shock!

With my first I went into labour at 8pm having been awake for 12 hours already. Then I was in labour for 28 hours. I was awake for hours after the birth feeding and just full of adrenaline. In total I was awake for about 45 hours and then only got a couple of hours. I was in hospital for a few nights so didn’t get much sleep til I was back home.

Best wishes for today. How exciting. 👶

Excited for you! I was a wreck, it had been almost 100 hours from waters going to when I finally could sleep (more than 20minute naps). The observations every 2 hours and the general noise is a big disturbance and if you're on strong medication you may not feel well enough to sleep (as was my case). Just be as relaxed and you can, rest when you can and enjoy your new baby as much as you can. Good luck!