What was the worst phase/age for sleep deprivation?

[patagonia09]

As a new parent I'm trying to pace myself and prepare psychologically for the worst. What's the worst age you found for sleep deprivation: newborn? teething? toddlers?

newborn was the worst, give me a teething, snotty toddler anytime

I'd say about 8mths each of mine go thru a stage of teething which upsets their routine and by then they have become more aware of the change. Eg you give them cuddled when they wake - they get to like it and not like being left so have found ourselves spending lots of time sleep deprived until we convince them to sleep alone again!

Oh no no no don't do it. It will achieve nothing
A. It is different for different children
B. it will do you no good whatsoever fretting and stessing about what might not even happen.

The reality is, when you have a baby, sleep deteriorates straight away, which is inviteable, but that is normal and you will adjust without even realising, or at least with minimal concern to you. Anything other than that normal change to your life that a baby brings, you jut cannot predict.

For DH and me - newborn definitely, both times. The first night home from the hospital - URGH. At about the 3-week mark, both times, I hit rock bottom and just cried my eyes out for a whole day due to sheer knackeredness.

I remember my mum saying to me "nobody ever died of tiredness" and thinking, well, actually, it would be bloody easy - e.g. I am sure I was a danger behind the wheel of the car in those early weeks as I never had more than a couple of hours' uninterupted sleep ...

However, we were lucky in that both our DCs slept right through the night (and by that I mean from 7pm to 7am, with me waking them at 10pm for a quick 20-minute feed and then putting them straight back down again) at around 2 months.

Unwell Babies / toddlers so any autumn or winter pretty much!

I understand it gets better after the first 15 years.

Newborn was a piece of piss compared to 7-9 months and this winter (so 12-14 months). He's never slept properly.

I agree with mrsmcenroe I wish I had been more prepared for how physically and mentally tired I was in the first few weeks. DD slept through at 8 weeks too and has since only ever not slept well due to illness but it took about a year to catch up on the sleep I felt I had lost!

With DS it was newborn, he just wouldn't sleep at night, but teething only caused one sleepless night, DD slept brilliantly as a newborn and it was teething that was horrible and made worse by having to get DS to nursery every day even when I hadn't had any sleep.

DD was a shocking sleeper in general but I adapted and slept when she did throughout the day. But the worst age was 8 months ish when they're more aware of possibilities outside of sleep. So they don't just wake up, they wake up, sit up and start shouting 'bbbbooooookkkkkkk' at you. They know what they want. No sleepy bfing tricked dd, she wanted nursery rhymes.

DS is a different baby entirely. He only ever woke for feeds at night as a small baby and has slept through for months. Certainly by 3 months he was going from 9pm to 7am without a squeak. He's 6mo so it could change.

Wow how did the above posters get babies that slept through so early?

I think the first week or two you hardly sleep and I ran on adrenaline. Week 6 was the very worst for me in terms of wanting to give up breastfeeding and desire to give her away at night. then I think the body kind of adjusts to carry on functioning on little sleep. Now at nearly 3 months I don't feel desperate liketat 6 weeks but I'm functioning like a zombie most of the time.

We don't have support though. My advice would really be to let people sit with u'd baby for a couple of hours whenever they offer and try lo get a nap. Do as often as you can!

Congratulations on the baby. It is the best thing ever being a mum but I don't think anything quite prepared me for coping with exhaustion. I'd love a baby that slept through but I do think that's unusual.

Newborn was pretty bad but not nearly as bad as 8/9/10 month sleep regression. Crawling and standing-up Ds was up every 1.5-2 hrs on average, EVERY night for something like three months in a row. He's got 14, maybe 16 teeth at 13 months though.

using, it's luck. DD slept through at 3yo, ds at 3mo.

Oh that's not what I want to hear! I want to hear the Magic Technique to make all my problems go away....!

I have no idea! It definitely abounds like luck but with only one to go by I don't know. We used soothing music, bath, bottle, bed routine, lavender oil burning before I put her to bed, I heard the more they sleep in the day they better they sleep at night which seemed true.

Whichever phase of bad sleeping you're currently on is the worst!

I think the fact that you know things will change and you never 'fix' their sleeping forever is a very useful thing to know. Both in terms of when things are going well you're prepared for it to change, but also when it's really bad you know it won't last for ever.

4-6 months was by far our worst time (so far...) - sleep regression, teething first two teeth, terrible cold, huuuuge growth spurt all around the same time.

I wish I'd known what you already know!