Bloody exhausted!

[ShutterHaze]

I have a 13 month old DD and, after months of terrible sleep, it’s currently loads better - hurrah! - although we still have one wake up a night (which we alternate between us) and I tend to be go early either for work or with DD.

I’m really surprised at how EXHAUSTED all. the. time. I wake up exhausted and am knackered by the end of the day. Some days I feel like I struggle to function throughout the day. I’ve always been a really active person and am still exercising regularly (not as regularly as pre-baby but still a few times a week). Is this normal and will it improve? Any tips?

It’s difficult to say from your post if there might be anything else going on but on the face of it, yep completely normal. My one year old has been sleeping all the way through till 5.30am for a couple of months now and I’m still knackered and ready for bed at 8pm each night. It does improve though, until you are a fool and have a second like me 🙂

@Nosleepforthismum well this is the thing! I’ve always thought I wanted two, but I genuinely don’t see how I’ll ever have the energy for it 😅

I feel like this and mine is 6 😂😂 I think it's just the relentless exhaustion of being on the go all the time, meals, planning activities, tidying, jobs, behaviour etc it's just always something to do and that's exhausting in itself even if I manage to get 8 hours sleep a night.

I've been wondering this myself. My 18mo finally started sleeping through at 13mo but I feel more knackered now than I did then. Though he's been independently walking from 10mo so I feel like I'm constantly running after him🤣 I keep hoping it gets less exhausting but I'm terrified it just won't😭

Maybe get your iron checked - I've been like this for ages and finally had a blood test recently. My iron level was 20 when it's supposed to be between 30 and 120 (not sure what those numbers are in, but i accepted I'm v low!), so am on prescription iron tablets now. I was taking liquid iron but it clearly didn't touch the sides of the problem.

I also take magnesium which can help with sleep quality

I had a virus (I think) that made me feel like that for a few weeks recently but it improved. I do think it might have potentially been a hormonal thing as coincided with stopping BF and getting my period.
But as someone said above, maybe worth getting the GP to check your bloods and see if you need Iron or similar. If you’re not taking a multivitamin then start.
It is just exhausting though having a 13 month old!

Like someone mentioned please do get your bloods tested. I remember being super exhausted and ignored it thinking it was what all new mums felt. Although that’s true it escalated to me being run down for almost two and a half years before doctors realised I was severely anemic. I needed a blood and iron transfusion.

How much are you actually sleeping??

Errr you have it extremely easy. Most children wake up more than that until 2/3! So I think I'd get a health check with the GP.

I don't feel as exhausted as you describe and I'm up at least three times a night (10-6) with two little ones and have been for three years. I wonder if you're experiencing some kind of deficiency.

Thanks all for your comments. It’s odd because I recently had a blood test and it was all fine - my iron was on the low side of normal as it always has been but higher than it has been at points I’ve had a prescription. I’ll definitely start talking a multivitamin though.

@Shiningout & @Devilsmommy - thank you ladies - this makes me feel better that it’s not just me 😅 I think I’m mentally exhausted as much as anything else!

@Whatisityoucantface that’s a really interesting point. I’ve stopped BF within the last couple of weeks so maybe that’s contributing - when I think about it, it feels like it’s coinciding with that period of time. Hopefully it’ll level out.

That sounds awful - I really hope you’re ok now

Ermm it still varies a lot - on a good night probably 7, more like 5.5 some nights. I know I need to go to bed earlier!

Ha to be fair, it’s not been more than a couple of weeks we’ve been down to one wake up. For the rest of her life her sleep has been awful and in the immediate period before it got better, I was on a couple of hours’ sleep some nights. That’s the thing that’s weird about it - I probably felt better on 2 - 4 hours’ interrupted sleep than I do now!!

How do you do it with 2?!

'Errr you have it extremely easy. Most children wake up more than that until 2/3!'

Not in my experience no.
My kid and kids of my friends were all sleeping through the night by 12-18 months.

Wake up several times until they're 3? That's a bit extreme.

Mother of a 21 months old here. I see the biggest difference in my energy when I go to bed early (consistently), and I mean 7-8pm. Asleep by 9pm.

Recently I've been going to bed at 10pm (up at 5am) and I'm knackered.

@penguinbiscuits your first post is reassuring - she’s only just starting to sleep through (down to 1 wake up for a couple of weeks and over the last couple of days it’s been at 5-6am so hopefully it’s on the way out 🤞🏻) so I’m hoping we’re finally getting there!

Your second post is probably getting to the issue - I’ve always gone to bed late pre-baby. I’m still doing that, so probably need to accept I need to go to bed much earlier now to get a good night’s sleep. It’s so hard though isn’t it when you want some semblance of down time after the little one is down (which sometimes isn’t until 8 - 8.30pm).

Yep that was around 6 years ago.