Sleep...my long lost friend. Where did you go? Why did you desert me?
I have cherished you for many many years and now, when I need you most, you disappear.
My wonderful, awesome son has decided that sleep is evil and must therefore be detroyed...hee hee.
I understood that there would be sleepless nights with our new baby. Scratch that...I thought I understood that. Now I GET it.
I had no idea it would be like this. This amazing, beautiful creature has been left to my care and I love him so much that it's impossible to describe, yet, I am so beside myself some days/nights due to lack of sleep that I wonder how I will go on (drama, I know!).
He was on a roll, I thought. He was getting into a wonderful groove. He was taking few naps, but he was getting in to a groove over night...but was averaging just two awakenings per night. Sure I wanted more sleep, but I felt semi-normal, semi-rested. Then about 6 weeks ago, a sleep sucking monster possessed my baby and he has decided that napping for 10 minutes is enough and waking every 1-2 hours over night is good. I have now had to pull my Husband into the overnight game of baby tending and now he is turning into a zombie parent too.
I hear he's going through a 6 month growth spurt, he is also teething. I have heard it will pass and hang in there. I love all the awesome support and love from friends and family...but oh boy, do I wish my Mom lived nearby and could watch him overnight once and a while so I could sleep. I am TRYING to be as positive as possible. But it's tough. I have never felt so run down or so unlike my usual self. I had no idea that sleep deprivation would leak into all the areas of my life and make me crazy (or more crazy) than normal. I think it's aging me too...ugh. Any recommendations on great night cream?
So...we are choosing to wait it out, pray and love on our kid when we feel like screaming. What else can you do? I am reading every book on sleep out there and have found a bunch of stuff I can't stomach. I think the 'cry it out' method is crap. The gentler stuff is nice to read but doesn't offer much help. I just got the baby whisperer and am hoping to find some pearls of wisdom in that.
I have been hearing that routines is the ticket. Routines...babies on a routine. Does that really work for babies like mine? I am starting to think that when people talk about routines, they have a baby that easily slept and so a routine was easy. I have a baby that fights against anything I try to do on a routine basis other than nursing and am not able to nurse on a schedule either. I think the whisperer book is all about routines...so we'll see if I can do it and if the babe can follow.
Some day...soon I hope...I will get to snuggle into bed and get some real sleep and wake up refreshed. A girl can dream can't she!
Until then...sweet dreams!
4 comments:
I hear what you're saying about the routine thing. It's really difficult to get Evy on one, but we're trying. She eats about every three hours, so that helps. However, it usually happens that just as soon as we get a real schedule started, she wants to mix it up. And it makes sense, because the older she gets the less she'll need to sleep throughout the day. Which, of course, is proportionate to how much I'm going to get done during the day...The less she sleep, the less I get done. I'm pretty sure God made sure babies would smile early on. If they didn't, not sure we'd be so apt to reproduce.
I feel like your post today is really similar to mine: Post
I realized I wasn't going to get sleep so I stopped caring about it. I'm not kidding. Kaia still gets up once or twice a night. Rarely twice though. But I don't fall back to sleep once woken.
I look at it as bonding time.
-Chad
My Sister-in-law just had triplets about a month after we had Grayson, and I was feeling soooo sorry for her in her constant sleep deprived state (as she described it) until we received her most recent update and she described her situation. She was getting about 5 hours of sleep a night and was complaining because it wasn't a full constant 8 hours. I wanted to reach through the computer and slap her! I haven't had more than about 5 hours in almost 3 years and don't describe myself as constantly sleep deprived!
I feel your pain, hope he outgrows this little spurt and decides to sleep a bit for you!
Thanks!
Love the comments!
It's so nice to know that I am not alone on the exhaustion thing. Nartaya, your SIL gets 5 straight hours of sleep, with triplets! Wow!
I am thanking God that I don't have multiples...for many reasons, but she is so lucky regarding sleep!
Praying we all get sleep!
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