What was your sleep like before newborn?

[jillycooperfun]

I feel I might cope better with my first arriving this summer because my sleep was is so shocking anyway, when I was younger I'd get my 8 hours but in recent years I can survive off 4 or 5. I go to bed atound half 10 or 11 but often wake at 3 or 4am and lire awake until 7am when I may drift off although I need to get up at 7.30 so I've been surviving off not much sleep. However I'm a pretty light sleeper so maybe I'll be even more sleep deprived as waking up at every little thing and taking ages to get off to sleep again, what was your experiences?

I used to go to sleep really late before I had my baby so thought I'd survive. I didn't.
I think there's a difference between voluntarily being up still and being woke up/checking all night.
It does hit different not going to lie.

I have heard so many mums approaching the end of pregnancy struggling to sleep saying 'oh I think il sleep better when baby is here' nope sorry, that new born sleep deprivation just hits different it is relentless! Good news is it gets easier within a matter of weeks (most the time)

For me it’s the regular wake ups. DD wasn’t too bad, at her ‘worst’ she’d be up every 2 hours with half an hour in between. And then it would take me at least half an hour to get back to sleep myself. So I’d be getting 6 hours (which I regularly survived on) but instead of 11pm - 5am, it looked like this (my sleep, not hers):

10.30am - 12am sleep
12am - 1am awake
1am - 2.30am sleep
2.30am - 3.30am awake
3.30am - 5am sleep
5am - 6am awake
6am - 7.30am sleep

How you feel after a night of that is so different from when you’ve had one proper block!

I had terrible insomnia towards the end of my pregnancy. Usually got around an hours sleep. So when DD arrived my sleep definitely improved!
Having said that, I think I benefit from falling asleep really quickly. So as soon as she’s back in her crib, I can usually sleep too. DH takes about an hour to get to sleep each time so he really struggled with DD waking so much.

I have a 16 week old.
I used to be amazing at sleep!! Usually 8 hours a night and often 9+ at weekends. I also used to nap in the day when I had the chance and could drop off really easily. I thought this would mean I'd be able to catch up but since having the baby I've lost the ability to nap, and after the first night wake up it takes me ages to get back to sleep if at all.
I am surprised at how I'm managing, probably on 5-6 hours. Once baby wakes after 3.30 ish she generally won't go back down for long and has to sleep on me, but most nights we are still getting a 4-6 hour chunk so that's manageable.
I will say though, when pregnant I read stuff saying baby brain is a myth but my brain just does not work like it used to, I assume due to reduced sleep.

I've always been a pretty rubbish sleeper and it definitely prepared me well for having a newborn. I wouldn't stay that my sleep was better but I'm much better at functioning on minimal/broken sleep than my husband is. The other big advantage of being on maternity leave is not having to go to work. If I wanted to sit on the sofa all day watching Netflix with a snoozing baby, that was totally acceptable.

I actually sleep better after having kid, not now obviously when pregnant again cause hormones and uncomfortable... pre kids didnt sleep much

I have a baby,we take it nights about foe feeds at the minute - current night on looks like

Sleep 11pm-1am
Sleep 2.15 - 3.30 (at a push)
Sleep 5am-7.15 (again at a push)

Lucky at the minute as can do night about sometimes do feed about too...few nights in though on my own j was wrecked and I was never a good sleeper