1 year of no sleep.. anyone else struggling?

[Syra]

I’m now closing in on one whole year of being woken up every 2 hours or more by a non sleeping baby.

I am breastfeeding and planning on weaning soon. I also co sleep and i think it does help somewhat.

I don’t really know why I’m posting to be honest I just needed to write down that I’m struggling. My mental health has been up and down all year. I’ve had issues with grief after losing a family member, Covid has been incredibly intense and now I feel like lack of sleep is really really pushing me to my limits. Im not a good parent when I feel like this.

@Syra No problem. I forgot to say also that mine also woke 'for the day' any time between 4 and half 5. Hideous. I was beyond tired. That meant nap time was by 9am because she was so tired (usually she fell asleep in the car on the way home from dropping the eldest at preschool). I had to move that nap and it was hard, but I did it by half an hour or so a week. Meant opening the car windows so it was chilly and singing to her etc to keep her awake, then I'd drag it out as much as I could. If she fell asleep anyway, I woke her.

Eventually I got that nap time to 12, which in turn over time shifted her whole day and night. Later nap, later lunch, later bedtime (not by much, but from 6 to 7) and combined with the dealing with the wakings differently eventually she would wake at a more reasonable time!

It feels never ending doesn't it. It will end I promise, but you need to take some steps to make it change it's unlikely to resolve itself (sadly!).

@FunkBus

Every time I read about non sleeping toddlers, it's always co sleeping.

Not only is co sleeping dangerous (and miss me with the safe seven BS, totally unscientific), it means your child never learns to self soothe.

You might want to take that up with research team at the University of Durham who have done extensive research into it.

@Moo678 I just wanted to say thank you so much for that link. I followed the advice and it’s worked really well. I’m now over a week without feeding him at all through the night. He still wakes every 3 hours but some shushing and bum patting and he’s back asleep pretty quickly. It’s still not great and he’s still up at 5am but it’s better than it was and that’s made a massive difference. I feel like we’re getting somewhere!

I’m still breastfeeding him a couple of times through the day and I feel like I’ll stop on a day that I choose not because I feel broken by all night feeding.

So thank you

Hey, how’s your sleep now?
I also struggle with sleep so wondering if you found something that helped 🙏