Losing my mind with lack of sleep

[Maise24]

I'm really at my wits end. I have a lovely 10 month old baby boy (breastfed but takes a bottle too) who has been waking up hourly or less since he was born. We've had maybe a handful of stretches of 3 hours sleep at a time max. He wants to breastfeed when he wakes, if my husband goes to him he will give him a bottle. He eats very well in the day, 3 meals and sometimes snacks. I've been saying for months that I feel at a crisis point with sleep but this week it's really gone up a notch. I feel so exhausted I can't function and I have our 3 year old daughter to take care off too, they both wake around 5am and sometimes my daughter doesn't go to sleep till 9 and needs me to lie in the room with her untill she's asleep. We haven't sleep trained either of them but now I'm starting to wonder if we should as I can't cope anymore. I stood at the top of the stairs this morning (baby in his bed!) and genuinely considered throwing myself down the stairs so I'd be injured enough to go to hospital and sleep there. The only thing that stopped me was the thought I could break my neck and be paralysed for the rest of my life which would be sad for the children

I really need some help. I think, I need someone to tell me it's OK to sleep train as the way I'm feeling now is just scary. I've been silently crying all day day the children are occupied and I just can't go on like this

Thanks if you got this far!

Of course it's fine to sleep train 🤷‍♀️

Lack of sleep will not be doing any of you any good.

Just reread your post, can you book yourself into a hotel for a couple of nights? I think if you're feel that desperate that's what I'd do.

Put both kids to bed at 7, I used to potter about outside dds bedroom so she could hear me but not see me.

If the baby cries reassure but leave again once settled.

Stop the night feeds, is he in his own room?

Of course it is absolutely fine to sleep train your baby. I recommend the Ferber method. We did it for both our babies when they were about 9 months old and it was absolutely the right thing to do. Make sure your partner is on board and you have a definite plan. One thing - don't attempt it if your baby is ill or teething. Good luck op, for us it took about 3 disrupted evenings and then they slept so much better and the whole household functioned better.

Absolutely sleep train! For your mental and physical health and also you'll probably find that your baby is a lot happier during the day having had a proper stretch of sleep! Choose a training method and stick to it.

We did really gentle sleep training with my 6 month old. We did it for naps and falling to sleep.
He still gets in bed with me when dad goes to work at 4am so it's not perfect yet but I'm happy with this. He goes down about 6.30. Wakes at 12.30ish for a feed. 4ish to get in my bed then up at 6.30am.

It's really helped us all get more sleep!

Sleep train. Short term pain for long term peace and good mental health…. For everyone in the family.

use a clock to time the crying…. It feels like hours but the clock will tell you it isn’t…. Baby will gain much more from a happy mum than they will lose from 3 nights of crying to sleep xx

Sleep train.

I did both mind at 11 months.

Gradual retreat is gentle. Good luck.

I used Ferber with my ten month old. It took three nights and we now have peaceful, relaxing evenings and have the energy to give her everything she needs when she wakes

You absolutely can sleep train if you feel it's the best approach for your family; you don't need anyone's permission.