I need sleep

[Emmamc93]

This is going to be a bit of a rant but I need help badly I’m seriously struggling with my mental health at the minute
i have a baby who is 6 months next week and all I have had since he’s been born is one full nights sleep
every night we do bath and bed routine at 6:30 and he’s asleep then for 7:15 he sleeps usually until I wake him at 11 for a dream feed but after that he could be up 3 more times not even really wanting any of his bottle and then he gets up about 5/5:30 for the day.
my partner said he will do mornings from 7 so even though the baby is awake he won’t lift him out of his cot and take him until 7 so I’m left for over an hour entertaining him which is taking out of my sleep too

then he’ll take him for maybe 2 hours and he’s back to me again. I’m getting no solid sleep except maybe 2/3 hours at the very most every night end I know he could be sleeping way worse but I’m just finding this so hard and it’s really leaving me depressed waking up to start every day exhausted and I feel like I’ve tried anything I can think of and nothing seems to help

I might be flamed for this, but why wake him at 11.? I would go to bed at say 9, then see what time he wakes for a feed. Hopefully you will get a few hours good quality sleep then . Good luck

I'm in a very similar situation, similar aged child and he never does any long stretches. I'm coping at the moment by going to bed extremely early. If your baby's asleep at 7.15, honestly I'd be asleep a few minutes after that! What time do you go to sleep?

Your partner needs to pull his weight more.

I agree with PP, don't wake him at 11.

And if your partner is not doing anything during the night, he should be taking him from earlier than 7!

I never manage to get anything done during the day with him so it’s always about 10 by the time I get to sleep, would he last longer do you think if I drop the dream feed? It’s just so so hard running every day on no sleep

I think it's definitely worth a go.

if you drop the dream feed he might wake for it around 2/3am but then he might sleep in longer so I would definitely give this a try

also as he is six months have you started weaning yet?

how about some porridge oats made with formula milk?

also your dp should be getting up with the child at least one day in a weekend to give you a lie in

Drop the dream feed and go to bed earlier yourself. Forget the housework etc, the bigger priority right now is your sleep/sanity.

Agree with all the above.

Cosleep.

I started at 8 months and honestly I wish I did it sooner. It only lasted a few months before she would do full nights on her own.

Hubby would put baby to bed around 7.30 and if/when she would wake one of us would get into bed with her.

We put a double mattress in the spare room on the floor and we would alternate who'd go in to settle her (and stay for the remainder of the night if need be).

She's 20 months now and does the whole night on her own.

@Carbon12 Did you just sleep on the floor rather than bringing her in bed with you and did she eventually grow out of it herself

I'd say don't wake the baby for the 11pm feed and see how long they go. My LO is 4m and goes to bed at the same time as yours and will last between 1-3am for a feed then back down until 7am. I don't tend to wake the baby, I just wake up when I can hear a little noise. Good luck and let us know how you get on 🙂

Yeah.

If we didn't fall asleep with her, we'd go back to our own beds.

Sometimes she woke up again, others she stayed until morning.

Overtime she woke up less and less and now she just sleeps in her own bed. We've put the mattress back onto the bed frame now so she can get on and off herself.

I have a newborn now so I can't cosleep with my eldest anymore since I have another baby in my bed. I really miss the cuddles.

We sleep trained all our DCs around 5-7 months (Ferber method). Took 3 nights max, then they would sleep 7:30-5:30. DH and I would alternate who got up at 5:30. We were often a bit tired, therefore, but never truly exhausted.

As above, don’t wake at 11pm and see how long they go. I hope your partner takes baby at 5.30 at weekends?