Broken Sleep

I should be blogging about months four, five or six (whoa!) in terms of Henry's growth, new skills and personality in general, but I'll save that for another day. Today's post comes to you from the land of sleepy. In fact, I probably should be napping during this likely 30 minute nap, but I wanted to dust off the ole blog.

I will say that the first eight weeks or so of Henry's life were by far my sleepiest yet. There was plenty of crying between Henry wanting something all the time (milk or sleep) and my exhaustion and general feeling of overwhelm.


I remember once trying to rock him back to sleep in the middle of the night when I caught myself before falling over because I was so tired. In the early days, the only way to get him to sleep was to stand and rock and shush him. He never did like us sitting in the chair to do that.

As everyone tells you, things really do change constantly with babies. They are doing so much growing both physically and developmentally that it's bound to happen. But knowing that fact doesn't make it easier.

So just as soon as we had sleep trained him around 14 weeks, he decided to refuse to go to sleep without nursing. Talk about two steps forward and three steps back. And he's gone from waking up maybe 2-3 times per night to eat to sometimes 4-6. Needless to say, this mama is TIRED.

Aw, I miss my snuggly little six week old.

I think we'll be soon trying the Baby Whisperer sleep methods again (which involves plenty of crying and soothing them to let them know you're there) and I'll probably start waking up Pete to go in and try and put him back to sleep when I don't think he needs to eat. While I know he doesn't "need" food every few hours during the night, as a mom, it's hard to hear your baby cry (which often sounds pretty desperate) and not go in and solve the problem.

Anyway, this is all a long-winded way of saying that I'm tired, but I'm also continually surprised at how well I can function on very little sleep (usually 4-6 hours of broken sleep) and still want to go running several days a week. Yes, I probably should go to bed at 8:00 p.m. to snag a little more shut eye, but I can't seem to bring myself to go to bed that early. Plus, that's often time reserved for a bit of computer work for the running store or simply some chill out time.

What's your ideal amount of sleep? I operate much better with 8 hours, but I suspect that won't happen again for a few years.

Comments

Trisha said…
Ohhhh, sleep. Such a thing of the past, no? Our babies are sleeping from approximately 7pm - 5am, but I rarely get to bed before 10, I get up to pump at least once, and try to cram in a shower around 4, 4:30 before one or both wake for the day...this is not conducive to more than 4 or 5 hours. Ever.
I, too, continue to be amazed at my ability to function on such little sleep. Even more than my desire for 8-10 hours at night is my desire for a really long afternoon nap! I can't explain it but for some reason I really just want to come home from work early, crawl into bed in the middle of the day, and sleep until diner time!
Sleep deprivation is SO TOUGH. I struggled with sleep this summer and it just wreaked havoc on so many areas of my life as I was more emotional, less alert, less happy, etc. Ideally I would like to get 8 hours of sleep but 7 is pretty typical for me these days which I do ok with. I am sleeping much better these days so am happy with the 7 hours I am getting! I hope that Henry starts to sleep in longer stretches for you guys very soon!!!
Amber said…
Oh man that's got to be so so hard! All of my friends with babies have gone through the whole sleep regression thing when their babies were about Henry's age. Hopefully some sort of sleep training helps! I like to get a minimum of 7 hours of sleep but 7.5 - 8 is definitely preferred. I try to get at least 8 - 9 on the weekends! I can't even remember the last time I fully slept through the night. I'm a light sleeper with a small bladder so I usually wake up at least 2 - 3 times per night and pee 1 - 2 times! They aren't major wake ups though that result in my being sleep deprived or anything!
Leigh said…
I have no shame in admitting that I normally nap when Amelia goes down for her morning nap. I need 8-9 hours which doesn't happen and I keep telling myself to go to bed earlier, but never can. Sleep training was so worth it (yes it was hard) to us. I'm always here if you need help with it!

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