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.

Hi Guys

Still struggling here with an ill house and am seriously sleep deprived. The UN convention on human rights should have a section on parenting children under the age of 5. Right now I might voluntarily section myself just so i can get some sleep.

I have a guilty secret. My dear pils came today and took the boys out for an hour for me to get some rest. Couldn't bloody sleep! Laid in bed feeling anxious, stressed and depressed but not tired. I never would have seen that one coming. Sorry, feel I have let the side down by having the chance to nap and failing!

Agree succubi, it is shockingly hard. Why does no one talk about it obsessively like I want to?

Snap! My dad took oldest, baby was (for once) sleeping like a baby and I couldn't sleep! Grrrrr!

Hello, can I join? Dd is teething and has chest infection. She's napping on me now, thank god - first time today (she's 9mo). Am so knackered that I'm a bad mummy when she's awake - too tired for fun and games :(

The nap lasted 8 minutes

I think you get too tired to sleep bizarrely. Or to sleep easily. I have gone past feeling sleepy and onto constantly forgetting things. I struggle with conversation and get anxious more. Dd2 has thrown up the calpol and a bellyful of milk so tonight should be fun.

Hi all!

seaside I ate 4 yum yums for breakfast yesterday and that definitely helped!! Does anyone find they keep forgetting to eat? I struggle so much making and feeding the kids that by the time I realise they've finished and I'm left with slobbered over scraps, I'm too knackered to make anything else..

titihood I'd love to nap with DD but DS barely tolerates me being out of the room for 5 mins to settle her without screaming "mummeee!!" and hammering on the bedroom door. Doing a combo of feeding/rocking to sleep then cot (or letting her sleep in the pushchair). It means only half hour naps but I guess that's better than nothing.

I nearly fell asleep in the corner of a playgroup this afternoon while another mum was rescuing DD from escaping into the cold outside as I hadn't even noticed . DH really likes eating dinner with me but he's not even home yet - do you think he'd mind if I just went to bed now?!

Hi cookingfat, welcome and sorry you have to join us. Is your dd usually a good sleeper? Teething is hell isn't it, my nipples are so sore from being gummed and gnawed on all night. I am bloody fed up. Turned up to an appointment today two days early, which is not like me. Had a huge rush and stress to get myself, ds1 and 2 there for 9.30 then had to laugh breezily and brush it off when I felt like laying on the floor crying when they told me I had wrong day.

I get so much more anxious these days too, I think the constant sleep interruptions mean your nerves become sensitised. I am jumpy and reactive about the smallest things.

I won't die from tiredness though, this is what I keep telling myself even though I wish I would some mornings

working?

Yes. That would have been funny too!

Why can't the jehovah witnesses knock on the door when I want them to, I swear if they had at 2.30pm when DD woke from her nap, I would have welcomed them in and paid them a LOT of money to just watch her for an hour while I continued my nap!

I have been very lucky, DD slept through from 3 weeks because I clearly have amazing mothering powers , however, those powers seem to have failed because for the last 4 months, she is broken. We now wake at least twice a night and I've started bringing her into our bed to lie on my head. I believe its back teeth that are the problem and a few colds to go with it. I am broken, I am also 8 weeks pregnant, how we had the energy, I still don't know!

I know I've been lucky until recently, but I sympathise and its such a comfort to see that it is not just me who eats junk and just has to get through the day, half an hour at a time! I used to be so together but just feel like an old bag at the moment.

I am so happy to find this group, please can I join too? In my sleep deprived emotional state I could cry, finally somewhere to moan to to people who really understand.

Only a couple of my close friends have babies and they lie say theirs sleep through and have since they were 2 hours old.

Pity we cant set up some sort of video link in the middle of the night to offer support. My 14mo is really good sleeping from about 7:30 until 10.30 then shes awake constantly from then, last night she was awake from 1 until about 3 then every half hour until up at 7.

I do think its amazing how well u can get on with little sleep, a couple of years ago if I had 4 hours sleep after a night out I would complain all weekend to everyone but now thatd be a good night and its over and over.

Love the advice of eating a brilliant breakfast in the morning to treat yourself, I eat crap non stop all day because im so knakered so now im fed up, tired and getting fatter!

Keep the moaning advice coming.
xxxx

PS. Also nice to read about BFing mums, I also get blamed for BF mine thats why she has sleep problems. Thats their answer as if its my fault end of, theres no solution apart from letting her cry and not feeding her. Its such a big commitment to BF just a little bit of sympathy wouldnt go amiss!

And my husband is rubbish too, never got up with her once. Rant over.
xxx

Well I'm glad I'm doing the graveyard shift as my 2wk old just puked copious amounts of milk up! Luckily she was asleep on my knee, slightly reclined. If she'd been in her moses basket with me asleep it could've been awful! : (

That was more than just the last feed making a return visit. Wondering if maybe it's cos earlier my husband gave her milk for 6 months olds he'd mistakenly bought ( same colour carton ). She also vommed all over the new car seat on her 1st outing this evening. She's full of cold and quite phlegmy at the mo so maybe that? Anyways, she's fine but I'm gonna stay up a bit longer and watch her anyway. I can occupy myself with the milky - sick covered cushion and laundry!

Morning all, sending you all a strong . I should have gone to bed when DD went last night but like the rest of you, i can't just command sleep instantly! I find if I'm going to go to bed when DD does, I need to start preparing at about 4 in the afternoon i.e. getting myself ready for bed, having dinner, clearing up etc before taking care of DD's evening routing. At least BF'ing does make you sleepy so if I can be completely ready for bed I can transition from last feed before bed to sleeping myself relatively easily. Anyone have any tips for "switching off" and getting to sleep quickly? I hate the advice sleep when they sleep, it's just not that easy! (Not to mention the piles of laundry, washing up, cooking and hoovering that need to be done in the snatched periods of time that I'm not chasing DD round the flat)

I would like to add some advice too that might help BF mums. My little girl (now 14mo) didnt sleep more than 45 mins at a time in her cot. The 'breakthrough' was when my husband went away for two weeks, I let her sleep the whole night in bed with me to try and just catch up on sleep.

She slept from 11pm-10am through on most nights. I couldnt believe it. She did wake up a couple of times a few nights but just BFand then straight back to sleep not like the palava I had trying to put her back in ehr cot and her wakign straight away.

When he came back I couldnt face it so he stayed on the sofa for two more weeks bless him.

then I decided just to get her a matress so I borrowed a single matress from my mum and put it on our floor, she started waking a bit more so I blamed it on us disturbing her when coming to bed or my husband snoring (!). So in the end I have moved her into her room with the matress on the floor with pillows all round and its not perfect (hence me still needing this group) but now atleast she will go to sleep easily (I sleep next to her and BF then sneak out) and she stays asleep from 7:30 - 10;30 at first then is a nightmare but at least I can get things done in that time. So I recommend this massively.

My biggest bit of advice is dont worry about what the books say or the HV says, do whatever u can to get some sleep. My girl is 14mo and in a big bed already, it looks a right state in her room but who cares, I normally end up falling asleep in there with her which makes it easier to feed her at the next awakening but we dont all have to be in the same bed which is hard.

Sorry for the long post, hope this might help someone who is strugglign with theirs waking up every 45 mins like mine was, she just hated the cot!

Good luck xxx

Ds2 is 16mths and teething on and off. Had a good night this week and it was weird being able to think clearly the next morning. He still starts the day at 4am tho
mrs dobalina good work

Newmumsoph... Have been cosleeping with my baby too, unfortunately after a brilliant start he is back to waking all the bloody time! Not sure now whether to keep co sleeping, on the grounds that at least I don't have to physically get up, or stop and try to get him settled in a cot?

Emsmaman I find a glass of wine helps with the relaxing :)
Also reading, except I seem to read the same pages every night and have been on the same book for about six weeks...

My 7 mo is generally a dodgy sleeper, she has more bad nights than good ones. And a good one is not that great by anybody else's standards. I have started to resign myself, and try and remember that eventually she will let me have a full night. Even though she might be 14 years old by then ...

I cope with Berocca, a LOT of tea and coffee, daily walks, and frequently venting to my mum (she understands: my sister only needs about 4 to 5 hrs sleep a night, and sadly for my mum it was already the case as a newborn).

Oh, and I have convinced myself that all these mums with magical all-night-sleeping babies are LIARS.

So much of this thread rings bells with me, from the treating myself with a nice breakfast (and food in general..I'm going to be the size of a house at this rate) to the body screaming with tiredness. I get that if I've only been asleep a short time and have to do a feed and even though I'm lying down it's not how I like to sleep and it's like every fibre of my being is SCREAMING to lie on my front and pass out!
I have a 3.8 yo DS who was difficult til about 4 months old but then slept like a dream and by 5 or 6 months slept 7-7 every night. Hes still a fairly good sleeper, but DD (6mo) is atrocious at nights. I think she'll ultimately be a good sleeper as she can self settle but she's had illness after illness for 2 months now and wakes a minimum of 3 times between 10pm and 7am and sometimes every hour. She had a bad stomach bug 3 weeks ago and seems to still be suffering with wind.
I was sooooo smug with DS, I really thought it was people making problems by not being firm, but I have well and truly learnt my lesson.
I have a very warm dressing gown and wear that when I get up to DD, and then cover my bottom half with a duvet. I don't co sleep as then DS will come in to me in the morning and wake DD, when she might otherwise sleep in later. DH takes DS downstairs for breakfast when he wakes at 7am and off to school and assuming DD sleeps I get another hour then. I do all night wakings as DD is ebf, and then I can get DH (unemployed) to do the lionshare of stuff during the day if I've had a bad night. I work from home so at least I don't have to commute etc.

Morning ??????

Sleep deprived here & I haven't even had baby yet! Wide awake now but I will be so tired at 7 when I have to get up & get my kids ready for school

I no longer make sense. My brain that was has vacated my body and been replaced by a soggy flannel.

I know that feeling succubi. Had such a busy day today & a nice relaxing evening so I was sure I would sleep but 4 hrs & I'm awake. Must be quiet as dd is a light sleeper & if she hears me she will be up & chattering away & that will be the end of sleep for the night (she is almost 9, not a baby but needs very little sleep)

Argh! What a long week. DD2 has slept really badly all week now - between the 2 of them I've been up every hour tonight.
All made worse because I've had to clean the house my parents just bought before they arrive from France today. It's taken 14 hours this week when all I wanted to do is sleep. Just feel thoroughly miserable and extremely achey and basically sorry for myself. They had said they'd pay me for doing it but right now I'd rather have some sleep! I totally get the body screaming thing right now!