Having a bad day.

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The baby (4months) will not stop crying. It's such a battle to get him to sleep, he's not feeding as much because he's teething and I hate the sound of him screaming. It took two hours of rocking to get him to sleep last night (I'm typing while rocking him on my knees for a nap).

DH has been working such long days (7am-10pm) lately, and we had a fight last night about it. I've done every night waking since baby was born and I'm exhausted.

The house really needs a clean and I've not been able to make lunch today, so I'm hungry. DHs relatives are descending next week, and I've just found out that DH has booked two days work while they're up. So I will have a baby to look after while entertaining MIL, BIL and two teenage nephews.

I know I just need to ride it out, it's just a phase and will get better, but I'm so, so tired right now.

Parenting, while lovely and rewarding at times, is bloody hard work! Anyone else having a bad day?

Yes. I am too. H is being a total arse, we are splitting up, have ds 17 months and Dc2 due in 6 weeks.

It's so hard when they are small. I would say (given my experience of doing everything - I mean everything, h has changed ds nappy about ten times ever, no night waking in 17 months, never fed him taken him out, given me a lay in etcetera) that you need to address the night times and anything else bothering you now. Don't get lumbered with it all.

Re lunches, I used to make a packed lunch for myself in the evening when ds was asleep (usually in the sling on my front.....) and keep it in the fridge, I would make up bottles of drink, stock my snacks in the front room and the nappy change basket. Then I w as set up for the next day.

It's rolled out a lot on mn but a sling really was a lifesaver for me.

Hi @nottalotta sorry you're having a tough time, but thanks for replying.

I did use the sling with DS tonight and it was a reminder I should use it more often. Packed lunches is a great idea and I don't know why I hadn't thought of it yet. I'm just not on the ball with anything. I don't even think DS is a particularly difficult baby, but I'm struggling a bit at the moment.

The night time issue is hard, as I'm breastfeeding and on maternity leave and DH needs to be on the ball for his job. I'm thinking about moving DS into a separate room a as I think we'd all get a better nights sleep if we weren't disturbing each other, and if he's further away I'll be less quick to react and so hopefully give him a chance to self settle a bit more.

He howled for over an hour at bedtime tonight. I was cuddling and rocking him but he was inconsolable. Why does he hate sleep so much?! He had all his naps today (cried each time I put him down) so I don't think he's overtired.

There are a few things I need to address with DH, but it's finding the time as I never see him! And when he isn't working it's because we're seeing family/friends so that's not the time either.

Thanks for the advice, good luck with the new baby (I hope it's an excellent sleeper for you!) and I really hope 2017 is a better year.

Have you tried a different method of getting him to sleep? At that age DS would sleep in the bouncer downstairs with us during the evening and thats how we could sometimes get him to sleep.

I used to prep the night before too. A plate of sandwiches, some grapes and a yoghurt were quick to grab.

I've used the bouncy chair a few nights, bouncing him with my foot. Like the rocking, it eventually works but there's so much crying to get through before he will nod off.

He's become immune to the pram, as I have tried a few late night walks to get him to nod off.

DH has the car at work on an evening so I can't drive him around.

He is in an incredibly difficult phase of only feeding when sleepy so I can't even feed him to sleep at the moment.

I've tried singing to him, placing my hands on him, massage before bed. I always do bath, feed, story then bedtime at the same time. It makes me feel like an awful parent having him scream so much, as it can't be good for him getting that upset and stressed.

I either end up rocking him on my knees in bed, cradling and rocking him or cuddling and rocking him. It all seems to take 30mins - 2hrs of screaming before he goes to sleep. I then read all this stuff about getting baby into good sleep habits, but every bedtime and nap is such a battle with him. He used to be pretty good but the last fortnight has been awful and I really don't know what to do about it.

Also, I must be lacking in an organised Mum gene to have not thought about preparing lunch the evening before!