Lack of sleep

[8008S]

How do you mums cope with lack of sleep during the nighttime?

I have finally accepted a decent nights sleep is a thing of the past and won’t be returning for a long time, but that doesn’t make fighting falling asleep easier every night.

I have the lights on very dim and white noise playing for DD but it seems to only ever make me sleepy and I find myself constantly on the edge of drifting off.

my partner sleeps most of the night as he works during the day, which means I also don’t get much chance to sleep during the day to make up for it.. although his job is far less demanding than motherhood and the night shift with DD but I dare bring that up to him with the risk of starting WW3.

Im quite lucky in the fact there are nights where she isn’t screaming the house down however this doesn’t mean she wants to sleep and putting her in her Moses basket awake tends to set her off so the majority of nights are spent cuddled up with her.

I EBF so a constant supply of coffee is out. How do all you other mums cope with not nodding off during the 100th feed of the night?

I co-slept. (It wasn't planned - just happened). Husband went in spare room.i had the double bed - set up to safely co-sleep. Bf lying on side. Baby fell asleep and so did I. Follow all the guidelines and make sure there is a firm mattress and baby can't fall off.

Exactly as above.
I'm not sure I ever tried to get a wide awake baby to sleep. Is the wake window long enough?
How old is she?

I find when I start reading my 4yr old bedtime stories I'm yawning my head off. Then I feed ds2 to sleep and I definitely could drift off as well. It's a struggle to go back downstairs and sort the house out!
4yrs old and 2yr old here and I still have terrible nights sleep :(

Dr Google says to limit caffeine to 300mg/day for nursing. Maybe that is keeping her up too 🤔 honestly don't know, just putting it out there..

We only have the one bed and the mattress is quite soft. As much as I love the idea of being able to cosleep I don’t think it’s something that we can do, especially as I’m a wriggler when I do get to drift off.

DD is 2 weeks old, it’s all very new for the both of us. She can have wake windows anywhere between 1hr and 3+.. but the past couple of days especially she can be fast asleep in my arms then as soon as I place her down she’s wide awake.

Sorry I may not have been clear RE the coffee, I haven’t been drinking any, as much as I’d love to to have some buzz to keep me awake 😂

Oh, she's so very new to the world. It'll be sleepless nights for a good while yet. However, it doesn't last forever (irritating when people say this I know, but it is true!). I found that after a month or so, I just got used to feeling tired, it becomes the new norm. When the time comes when you get 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep, you'll feel like a new woman. I suppose if you're EBF, your partner can't really do much in the nighttime. However, can he be with the baby whilst you go to bed early to catch some extra sleep? People always say sleep when the baby does in the daytime, and they are right, but appreciate its not always possible (certainly wasn't for me). I found that having somewhere to go every day would keep me going. Go for a walk, to the shops, meet friends or family baby groups/activities etc.

If your mattress is too soft to safely cosleep, I would seriously consider buying a new one. Even if it’s just incase you end up doing it accidentally. Your partner doesn’t need to go in another room, we have always coslept with both parents in bed. At first DS would go on my side with the bedside crib attached the other side so if he rolled away, he would roll into that which was absolutely fine. Then when he was about 8/9months he started sleeping in between me and DH. He woke 2 hourly until about 13ish months and there is no way I would have been able to sit up and stay awake for feeds for over a year.

He is now 2 and sleeps through the night so there is an end in sight (although I’m pregnant again so only a few months of respite!)

Are you swaddling? The rolled up towels under bum and around legs worked for us along with a swaddle. I also found tickling babies feet and face whilst feeding to keep them awake and take a bigger feed helped massively.

Just seen your baby is only 2 weeks..... Baby doesn't know night and say yet. You sleep when baby does....so naps during the day. It will top you up enough to get through the night.

Not everyone agrees with it but co-sleeping was the only way I’ve managed to get any sleep! My little on is 9 months old and we still breastfeed and co-sleep. We do side lying position so if I fall asleep during a feed little one isn’t at risk of getting dropped from my arms. We struggled to get her to go in a Moses basket she would just wake up as soon as we put her down so co-sleeping has been a life saver