Monday 11 April 2011

I need sleeeeep...

We all know that babies wake up in the night and mothers get little sleep in the early days. What we do not know, is how long this will go on for before the baby starts managing longer breaks between feeds.

I had never contemplated that at 4 months old, Elliot would still be awake every 4 hours throughout the night given that his brother was sleeping from 7pm until at least 5am if not later by the same age.

So here, is a quick top 5 reasons why it is obvious that I am sleep deprived.

1. I keep forgetting to do up my flies. Luckily, we spend much of our time at home so no-one except me notices.

2. We went on a rare night out on Saturday. After one glass of bubbly, I was completely incoherent. Mostly as a result of not being able to remember any marginally intelligent vocabulary. This happens a lot. Without the alcohol.

3. Nothing, and I do mean nothing, gets done. Paul gets home from work to find wet washing has been sitting in the machine all day, breakfast, lunch and Felix's dinner things are strewn across the kitchen. And as for work/health/social arrangements, the list of pending jobs is just huge.

4. My food intake has increased, even beyond pregnancy levels! I've noticed an increase in tummy size, not just left over jelly belly flab, but a firmer, food related roundness. But when I tried to cut down on my snacking last week, I had an obvious energy lull which was only remedied by the intake of a hot cross bun.

5. I can no longer remember if the previous night was a good or bad one. I start the conversation with "For example, last night, he fed at..." and then I tail off in a mumble along the lines of "I can't even bloody remember what happened at 4am, but when I woke up, he was in bed with me".

One day, yes, one day, I shall get some sleep and then my life will start to become normal again. Whatever normal is with two children.

4 comments:

  1. Your post made me try to think back, it is scary how quickly you forget the lack of sleep. I do remember the power eating tho! I was snacking all hours of the day and night - and if I tried to cut back it all felt even more crazy. We have just moved house and our 18 month old has been up 2-3 times a night, but in the morning I can barely recall what happened and when, just that I look and feel like death. Hope you get some more shut eye soon!

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  2. Sleep deprivation is the worst form of torture...not only do you feel like a zombie in the night when you're feeding but then all through the day too...if you aren't able to get a shower it makes things even worse!
    My son is 15 weeks today and is a great sleeper but only since we moved him into his own room a few weeks ago.
    He does still wake once in the night a few times a week and the broken sleep makes me soooo tired...how on earth did I cope in those early days!!
    xxx

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  3. Thanks for the comment Kate. It's funny, we try so hard to finally get the baby sleeping and then one thing after another comes along that wakes them up again as toddlers! Here's to more sleep for everyone.

    Mumbling Mum... I have thought about moving him into his room. I hate the idea of having to get out of bed though. I think it might be worth a try.

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  4. Oh yes, I too seem to have increased my food intake and have been trying hard to cut back but I need it to keep me going through the day. Even if my daughter does sleep through the night, I seem to naturally wake up in the middle of the night and then go to check if she's ok. I want more sleep....

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