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Original poster

Let's all meet here for a sleep deprivation support group

811 replies

ImNotAnsweringIt · 15/11/2011 11:56

I though it might be helpful to have a general thread with survival tips for dealing with the exhaustion and misery of the long or short term effects of lack of sleep. I bet we can all find someone worse off than ourselves, and that's always a help, hmm?

My little tips for making things more bearable:

Make sure you are warm enough when you have to get up in the night. Have dressing gown and slippers by your bed if neccesary. This also helps you get back to sleep quickly, should you be fortunate enough to have the opportunity!

Have lovely breakfast things in. I always have expensive cereal in the cupboards Just For Me.

Anyone else? Hang in there everyone, I am having a very down day today which is what inspired me to start this.

OP posts:
Iwantcandy · 12/03/2012 18:14

Oh Scotty just read your latest post Sad. Is there someone who can babysit so you can have a nap? Just a thought have you tried White noise? I had a free white noise app on my phone which helped when Ds was younger

scottygirl5 · 12/03/2012 19:45

Can't help with early start,at present 5 is a lie in for us but if you hear any solutionsp please share! We already use white noise but its become increasingly ineffective the older she's got :(. I got through the day but can't take this continuing much longer.

Iwantcandy · 13/03/2012 04:59

Argh!!!!

Iwantcandy · 13/03/2012 07:13

We're regressing. Up at 3.40 and we've just had a 40 minute nap. Not enoughAngry

scottygirl5 · 13/03/2012 07:44

We got a lie in till 530 this morning! Whoop whoop!

CakeAndCaffeine · 13/03/2012 10:02

Hello everyone, can I join? A fairly typical night with 7mo dd last night, slept from 7 til dream feed at 10, but then up at 12, 2.30, 3 and then ready to start the day at 5.50... At every wake she cries til I feed her. She's not keen on daytime naps but just had a half hour (fed to sleepofcourse!) then woke crying and I'm feeding her again to give me time to write this! I only read the first few pages but cried with relief that other people are going through the same, most days i cry at some point from sheer tiredness, I rely on my mum to take her for a bit every day so i can rest and then beat myself up about how I will manage f I ever have more kids/ don't have mum so close. How do people manage???

scottygirl5 · 13/03/2012 11:14

Hi cake! What you described is currently a good night for us if that makes you feel better,i had one like that last night,but if you'd told me I'd think that was good a few months ago I'd have cried! Has your LO gone from bad to dreadful too or has it always been as bad as it is now?

CakeAndCaffeine · 13/03/2012 12:01

Thanks scotty, Well she went from bad to good to bad to dreadful (the glory days around 4 months where she would only wake once from 10-6... A beautiful memory...) since Xmas (5mo) she's just got worse and worse, yesterday she got up at 5.20 but I see from this thread that's not unusual..! How many do you have and all they all difficult sleepers? I can't describe how relieved I am to find this thread, I have been thinking for so long that I must be doing something wrong, my sleep deprived mind is hugely relieved. Plus my dh is of the 'something's wrong, she has to learn' etc mentality which I am not. The one time i waited 5 mins of crying before going in, she was hysterical and inconsolable, it took me ages before she would calm down but if i just go straight away and feed her she often she just drops back off to sleep so thats what i do.... She's a big girl 9.6 kg/ 21lbs at 7mo and is getting onto solids very slowly so I really do think she is often hungry at night.

Iwantcandy · 13/03/2012 13:06

Anyone else finding that moving your body today is like trying to wade through mud lifting a lead weight? Am off to the shops to get a LARGE coffee with sugar (then worry about how I'm going to deal with the 3 stone extra baby weight I need to lose tomorrow)

Iwantcandy · 13/03/2012 13:08

Welcome cakeand caffeine! Sorry you have to join us. I am going to to try putting Ds to sleep earlier than usual tonight (if possible) and see if that stops the early waking. I had been trying to make bedtime later but it seems to be having the opposite effect

scottygirl5 · 13/03/2012 17:24

Candy. I actually feel good today despite not going back to sleep between the 430 feed and 530 wake up but think its just that compared with the last few nights it was good! Do know that horrible sluggish brain feeling though.

Cake,i think a lot of us only have one,i do,but not all of us. Must be so hard with more! None of my friends have such terrible sleepers so i find this thread reassuring too. Good on you for keeping her in her own room though. I find going through multiple times so tiring so now co sleep.

Iwantcandy · 13/03/2012 17:34

Scotty. Ds in his own room worked wonders for us!!! Went from waking every 40 mins to sleeping a 6,7 and even one 8 hour stretch. We now generally get one 4 or 5 hour stretch a night. Ds is a very light sleeper at night so slightest light or noise in the room wakes him and we were obviously disturbing him

scottygirl5 · 13/03/2012 19:50

Really wish it had worked like that for us :(

CakeAndCaffeine · 13/03/2012 20:19

Hi candy, I hope the coffee worked, as you can see I rely on coffee and cake to keep going (and as a result also still have 2st of baby weight to lose... I even at one point put on weight despite breast feeding a very hungry little girl...) We put her in her own room around 4 months because although she was sleeping ok at that point she was doing a lot of babbling and keeping us awake. The constant getting up and going next door is a killer but dh works so hard he needs to sleep. Haven't tried co sleeping - I can't imagine i'd get much sleep with her in the bed, but I often drop off in the chair while feeding. She's been asleep for an hour now so I'm off to bed shortly! Hope everyone has a (relatively ...!) good night tonight!

pipoca · 13/03/2012 21:00

Hello, think we're in for a terrible night as DD has an awful cold and a temperature, she's woken once already and I only put her down at 830. Not night feeding anymore and stripped the double bed in that room as she was waking only once or twice, so think there's going to be some hardcore shhh pat going on tonight and I'm not going to get much sleep.

Sophiesworld · 13/03/2012 21:43

Good luck everyone - let's hope for good nights all round Grin

Iwantcandy · 14/03/2012 05:16

Up at 5. Better than yesterday but still Angry

scottygirl5 · 14/03/2012 06:55

We had a shocker,down at 815 then up at 945,1045,screamed for an hour,woke every 15 mins for a couple of hours then every hour again for the rest of the night. How does it get better? !

Iwantcandy · 14/03/2012 11:27

Scotty that doesn't sound right -she can't be hungry that often something must be waking her up. Can you think of anything? Could she have silent reflux? Poor you xx

Sophiesworld · 14/03/2012 21:10

My DD is the same - she wakes every time she moves if I'm not right next to her. As soon as she stirs and senses I'm not there she starts to cry. She is just such a light sleeper that unless she is next to me in bed or on my lap she wakes every 15 mins. Sorry that doesn't help much Scotty as I know the co-sleeping isn't working for you Sad Just wanted you to know you're not alone!

Sophiesworld · 14/03/2012 21:11

How was your night pipoca?

Iwantcandy · 15/03/2012 04:29

Ds go back to sleep!! Please

Iwantcandy · 15/03/2012 05:45

Argh. This is beyond a joke. Sophie does your dc actuallysleep when you co sleep? Maybe I'll try that again. Anyone had good advice on sleep from their health visitor? I could try that...

scottygirl5 · 15/03/2012 07:14

I think our problem is light sleeping too. I have to admit that i fed on demand last night,so 4 times,instead of trying to get her to sleep using other ways,and we had a much easier night. She'd been sick several times in the afternoon/evening and i felt she needed to rehydrate. Now torn between doing that again and not 'making a rod for my own back'! Confused

Sophiesworld · 15/03/2012 08:18

Candy, yes she does - it's the only way she will sleep for any length of time (usually 2 hours at the moment). I think we may have had some longer stretches, possibly 4 hours, in the last couple of nights. Either that or I am so used to latching her on that I don't even remember some of the wake ups. I do feel very grateful that this works for us as I know it doesn't for everyone.

I do keep thinking we need to change things though, especially as I go to back to work 2 evenings a week at the end of April. DH will have to put her to bed then...

Last night I tried shushing DD to sleep but gave up after 15 mins crying and fed her to sleep anyway. Then I felt doubly guilty for allowing her to cry and not going through with it Sad

Scotty - that's great that things were easier last night. Maybe you could do that for a few nights to give yourself a break and then try again? Or would that just confuse her?

I keep wondering where some of the original posters on this thread are and whether they are now luxuriating in 8 (or more!) hours' unbroken sleep or so broken by long-term sleep deprivation that they can no longer even find the energy to MN... :s