Tiredness |

The last couple of weeks have been slightly strange. Ok, not strange. More like, bloody exhausting. A fresh wave of sleepless nights is visiting our household which I think I owe to the lovely age of “teething” we now seem to have entered. Coupled with the transition of getting the baby to sleep in his cot rather than the (3rd borrowed) basket that he has now grown out of, it has been tiring to say the least. It felt like I had a new-born again and, unfortunately, unlike the first lot of sleepless nights which I got through probably just on sheer baby euphoria, on this second wave I felt like I was starting to lose my patience a bit and go bonkers. Slowly.

Baby boy is now 6 months old and doesn’t sleep through yet. I know this is normal for a lot of babies so I’m not really worried and have become used to 1- 2 wake ups a night. This particular wave of sleepless nights though seemed to come from the depths of sleepless nights hell and meant I was regularly waking up about 4 times a night to provide feeds, cuddles, transfers back to cot, waiting at base of cot, waiting outside baby’s bedroom door, more feeds, cuddles, and so forth.

After about day 3 of sleepless hell, the lack of sleep was causing me to become a grumpy, stomping stroppy 5 year old type mooching about the house, trying hard to hold onto lunch dates / inkling of a social life / seeing other adults before 6pm (when the OH gets home from work). In turn, my moods were swinging from utterly weepy to utterly uber shouty bitch. Of course all of which was being directed to the Dear Husband. (“What do you mean you’re going to football / Do you never think maybe *I* might want to have a social life too??”). The OHs reaction to all of this is usually stunned silence or “don’t cry, calm down”. I’m not sure anyones told him that the only response to that is “What?! Am I not calm!??. I am calm! Dont tell me to calm down..!!” etc. On one particularly bad day, post bad night, I was meant to drive to a friend’s house about 15 minutes away and all I could think about was how tired I was. So after some huffing and puffing I eventually wailed that I was “sooo tired!”

OH: “Why don’t you have a nap then?”

Me: “Because I want to go oooout!”

OH: “Oh, I thought you were tired?”

Me: “I want to do boooooth!”

OH “Shall I drive you?”

Me: “Nooo, its meant to be a girlie day”….[Insert more weepy whining here]

(Yes, there is something about lack of sleep that brings out the whining a bit extremely).

After about Day 8 of sleepless nights hell, the “teething” pain seemed to subside without any kind of visible result. Although i’ve realised that most unknown pains or cause for crankiness are now always classed as “must be teething”. This week Baby Boy is also taking to the cot which is a massive relief. Not sure where we would have found yet another basket for him to sleep in that was actually big enough and wide enough for his little river-dance-in-his-sleep legs. We back to the “normal” amount of wake ups a night. This week we (umm.. *I*) have had no tantrums. So far. But its Thursday already. That’s definitely good!

Long live 1 – 2 wake ups a night (for now. Sleeping through is very good too. Just for info).

I used to dread the night feeds when baby was first born. Mainly because I’ve never been a night person. I’ve always been a morning person and would usually start dozing off on the couch around 9.30pm. Yes i know. That is very very early for an adult but I would be in bed, by the latest around 10.30pm, and sleep for a good 8 to 9 hours. Anything else was deemed “an awful nights sleep”. Little did I know.

Obviously the hibernation style of sleeping went out the window when baby boy arrived. The first few weeks were a wee bit hard as baby boy would wake every 2.5 hours. Each feed in itself would take an hour so I’d sit and clock watch and think about how much sleep I was going to get that night. After the euphoria of a new baby wore off, I would sit feeding, and feel my head loll, and then jolt upright violently. Thankfully, over time, I settled into a good night time routine. It became slightly more interesting after i switched over to full bottle. Bottles can be faffy at the best of times. But when you have to actually leave your bed to prepare a feed, in the middle of the night, it can feel like hard work!

After 4.5 months of night feeds you would think I’d have it all mastered into a smooth intrinsic quick operation. And I have. Well. I have kind of mastered it. If you disregard the bumps, kicks, quick shuffling in the dark and occasional “what’s the noise? Oh, the baby needs feeding”, then yes. Yes of course! I have it all mastered.

It goes something like this:

1. Baby starts initial shuffling and noises for a feed

2. I wonder what the noise is, establish I indeed have a baby that needs feeding and reach for phone in the dark to see the time. I am usually half wishing it’s around 5am and that baby has slept through the night. It’s usually around 3am though. Quick loud whisper to OH to put lamp on.

3. Shuffle out of bed in the dark and quickly exit room to make feed, without further stirring the half awake baby. Bang into various objects on the way out and make mental note to clean it up in the morning. (Mental note will erase itself about 5 seconds after this as memory is so shite post pregnancy)

4. Make feed and count the number of scoops of formula out LOUD just to be sure. (Do you know how hard it is to count to 4 in the middle of the night when you’re half asleep?). Shake bottle violently in an attempt to cool down and stick under cold tap in an attempt to speed up cooling down process.

5. Shuffle back into pitch black bedroom and hiss at OH to put lamp on.

6. Pick up baby who is now very much wanting feed and search for feeding / maternity pillow frantically on the bed. Find pillow being hugged by OH and prise from his hands.

7. Now this is the crucial bit. Settle with baby with feeding pillow under one arm, phone in one and bottle in other. For any Friends fans out there you’ll remember how Joeys agent Estelle would light up a cigarette every time the phone rang yelling “hold onnnn, hold onnnn, hold on!! Go!” that’s me, but the bottle version. Obviously I’m only yelling in my head. Else that would be bad.

8. Feed baby and switch Twitter on. Aaaand relax. Or at least try to keep awake through feed.

9. Burp sleeping baby and settle him back into basket. Try to quietly clamber over OH and turn lamp off.

10. Settle back into bed and wonder if baby will now sleep for 5 hours straight.

11. Repeat whole process 3 hours later (unless it’s day time. In which case I am already hugging the feeding / maternity pillow!)

Anyone else do it smoother? I think not 😉