How do people cope with no sleep?!

[Wannabemummy25]

I'm 24, I work full time and have a husband and a dog! We don't have kids and I'm not pregnant. I go to the gym 4 times a week and eat relatively well but I'm always exhausted?! I go to bed at 10pm and get up at 6 every single day but I'm always exhausted?! My question is, how do new parents cope with the lack of sleep?! I can honestly barely function as it is on 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep and frequent naps at weekends!
How do all of you parents do it because it makes me worried for when we have kids!

Well, it’s often a case of having no option but to cope. Your drive to care for your baby overrides the tiredness.

And there are days when I’ve just cried and felt hopeless and as if I’m going insane.

I tell myself constantly “this will not last forever “.

Your body adapts and will put the tiny helpless human first.
DD, nearly 2, has a medical condition which means she wakes after every sleep cycle. We co sleep so I haven't slept for longer than 30 minutes in one go for nearly 2 years.
Pre kids it would have floored me but I've just got used to it.

1. Tell yourself it won't last forever. That some day your children will have left and you'll be glad you got all of those extra cuddles (all night, while they're screaming!)

1. Eat cake. Lots of it.

As both pps have said - it is instinct and 'getting on with it'.

I've always liked my sleep.
I was genuinely worried before having dc 1 that I wouldn't hear him when he woke in the night (I sleep through all those storms and commotions people talk about the following day) but your body's natural instincts kick in.
Don't get me wrong, it can be hard, but you just get on with it, repeating the mantra that is is just a phase and you will come out the other side.

Red bull
Flapjack

You get used to it. It's as simple as that.

Other things on your life slide, expectations get lowered, and you get on with it. I have a bf, teething, never sleep baby and a SN toddler who can sleep for 39 seconds and think that's the night done. Got. 😂

It's amazing what you can cope, manage and get used to when you have to.

Git, not got. Bloody polite phone!

Before I had kids I felt like OP - exhausted all the time. Now I have them I generally feel the exact same. Still tired, but no more so than before.

So maybe that feeling is just life as an adult whether you have dc or not. And now I think about it, I was often tired as a kid as well.

@peekaboob You're so strong, I commend you.

As pp said, you just cope. You have no other option.

@PatricksRum Thank you 😊. She had an op in January that was meant to help but it didn't work and some other things were discovered during the op. She has another op booked at the beginning of April (assuming "non-essential" ops still take place)

But like PP said, you just get on with it don't you - they all sleep through eventually or get old enough to explain not to wake mummy too, other DC stopped waking me up when they reached about 8.

Earlier bed time than 10, even when he's almost 3.

Gym/ exercise is pushed to the bottom of the list

Bedsharing as some broken sleep is better than none and I won't sleep train

Redbull and coffee..... Lots of it

Have you had your iron levels checked? If you are exercising hard then you may have an issue with anemia.

Well.... you just don't die and don't have a breakdown (Or try not to!). Take yourself to bed and get and rest as much as possible.

I currently try to spend 12hrs in bed with my 3 week old. I go to bed at 9pm and on a good day I don't get out til 9am. During those times he's feeding every 2-3hrs. On a bad day my toddler also wakes intermittently in the night and is up for nursery at 7am. Those are the days I feel like death warmed up! On a good day I can get 8hrs of (broken) sleep.

Before I had kids I needed 8 hours to feel on good form but I can honestly say that after having kids I just got used to it; when they’re tiny you just focus on getting through the day in the hope that one day it’ll get better (and for the majority of people it does). The hardest part is going to work on little sleep but you get through it even if sometimes you feel sick from tiredness

Before having a baby I used to feel exhausted all the time too. I think that’s just a symptom of having a busy life.

I think it’s a different type of tiredness after having a baby though, like my body has learned to just keep going but my brain now just functions on 50%. So I get by on not enough sleep because I just don’t do anything mentally taxing in the day. No idea how I’ll do my job though when I go back in a couple of months!

Coffee. Lots of.
Like pp say you just get on with it. Becomes your new norm.
I still get days where im on verge of tears all day and ready to run away but far less now lol.
Saying that, i have 4 dc, ds6, dd 22mth and 8 mth old dtw. The twins started sleeping through from after 7 to 7 then it all went to shit at christmas when they got sick. Then after their stay in hospital couple weeks back theyve gone back to waking every 2 to 3 hours again!!
Wouldnt bother me too much but dp has taken to the sofa to sleep as up after 5 for work. (And then takes a nap in afternoons at home betw shifts...) ive been left to do all night wakings. For all of them. Mostly its ok and just twins up. Sucks though. I Keep reciting the mantra that it will pass. I live in hope lol.

I used to think I needed alot of sleep.
After D1 was born I learnt that 5 hours is enough to feel fresh as a daisy.
4 hours leaves me rested but easily tired
3 hours feels like a hangover
2 hours or less leaves me questioning my life choices, anxious, worrying about work, scared and generally really crappy and brain-fogged.
D1 is 26months and D2 is 3 weeks. Currently getting 4 hours sleep and feeling very grateful indeed.
Good luck