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

[ImNotAnsweringIt]

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.

Dear God tired that sounds totally hellish.

tired that sounds awful. I think I'm going to try nectarinas method that pip linked too.

Hope it goes well for you Broom. DD took quite a lot of shhhing and patting last night but then slept til 530 (from 830). She seemed v upset at 530 so I gave her a feed hen took about 20mins to settle, slept til 8am. She really resisted just now for a nap but has been asleep 50 mins now. the idea with nectarina's thing is that gradully you stop shhing and patting and move further away so that eventually you just put them down and they sleep or lie happily and self settle. never managed tht and not sure if I ever will but just pleased that I can pretty much always get her down with 15 mins or less shhing and patting in her cot and that she sleeps well and even if she does wake I can pretty much always get her back to sleep in 20 mins or less.
Feeling a bit pants today...day 46 of my cycle and think my period has finally deigned to make an appearance. Got a cold sore and backache. Hoping it won't be the mother of all periods after such a long build up.
Even though dd is sleeping much better I still have THE biggest eye bags ever. Do you think they'll ever go? I think I've aged about 30 years in the last 10 months.

An hour extra sleep -but only cause the clocks changed so he woke up at 6 instead of 5. not enough sleep again

Anyone up?

Hi Iwantcandy looks like you had a rough night. Luckily I haven't had the wide awake baby thing in the middle of the night since DD started walking but she still wakes frequently. Also stopped breastfeeding which I thought might help things but instead I find myself blearily preparing a bottle at 3am. Rod, back anyone?

Last night was particularly bad. Between midnight and 6am he didn't do longer than a 30 minute stretch -just as I was falling asleep again he would wake up screaming. Screamed if I left the room but if I sat in the room with him he just wanted to roll around and giggle. Fingers crossed tonight will be better

Am I the only one still suffering? If so how did you fix your dc's sleep? We have early waking issues

Hi,
Still here. We had a few weeks of slight improvement, then sickness, teething, went on holiday and its all been downhill. Tried a "let's get tough" approach and did nectarina's technique, but I'm afraid he's not ready, or it isn't for us. Resulted in days of hysteria for me, and a very awake sobbing baby for hours and hours the three nights we tried it. So, I've recommitted to co-sleeping and decided I actually really like it as long as I can push all the doubters and negative comments to the back of my mind. DP is worried DS will be sleeping with me when he's 10, but I'm assured they do grow out of it, and he is still going down into his cot for 4 or 5 hours a night (with wake-ups) so he still has a relationship with his cot, and it feels positive at the moment, rather than a place we've forced him into screaming. For a week he let my DP put him back to bed once or twice in an evening, which allowed me some rest, but that ended a week ago. He's 9 mo today. Maybe he's getting a bit of mummy-attachment anxiety...

Hope everyone else is hanging in there. Sending soothing vibes!
SBx

I've just found this thread after tearfully posting a rant elsewhere. Ds is 4 months, hasn't slept more than 1.5 hrs yet. Dh doesn't help- Ds doesn't take a bottle, will only bf to sleep, dh works away lots, and snores and smokes an sleeps through everything. Feel so guilty about resenting my lovely child, f'd off with dh doing f all round the house, guilty about spending his money on the baby, hating myself for not losing baby weight and looking 10yrs older...genera
Ly feel a bit poo. :(

Hello all, hope you don't mind me popping in to say hello. I haven't been on here for a very long time so thought I would come and say hello and let you know how it's been going here. (u may not even remember me lol) plus I thought maybe if I told u guys how things have been then it might help.

I struggled till my daughter was 8months old with lack of sleep. I breastfeed so I think that was an issue too as she comfort fed for a long time.
But what I did well actually it was with lots of support from my partner, but I had to have certain times in my head that was 'ok' to feed her, sounds crazy but let's say for example she would go to sleep at 7pm so I'd tell myself right ok so nothing now till 1am then I would gradually increase it as the weeks went on. But also we had to put her down at 7pm and let her cry for a bit and every five mins we would check on her, pick her up to settle her then put her down again. Eventually she would go to sleep, some nights were really bad and it would go on for an hour or so but other nights she would cry for maybe ten mins. I struggled as I knew if I just fed her she would sleep straight away so felt bad on her but I knew she was fed, changed and knackered and If I gave up I would make a rod for my own back. It took some doing but we got there. She still woke thru the night though and that was my determination and tears that eventually sorted it......again giving myself times that I could feed her. It was very hardwork, and I did give in at times because I was so tired but now I am pleased to say that at ten months she goes down good as gold at 7pm and usually sleeps thru till 5am where she will stir and cry for her dummy but I still tell myself that no she can feed at 6 and not before and she goes back to sleep till between 6amd 7.
I know a lot of people won't agree on what I have done but it worked for us and she knows when bedtime is and I'm finally getting some sleep so that I am a less grumpy cow the next day.
She still wakes some nights and it's not always going to be like this I know but we have finally got somewhere.

Like I said I know it's not for everyone but just want to say to u all don't give up, there will be a day where u get more than 2 hours sleep a night. Believe me I know how hard it is.

Sending hugs