Before I had a baby I never thought much about sleep as a commodity. It was something I loved to do (and would do as much as possible) but if I ended up at a party on a Wednesday night until 4am it was no big deal. I could sleep at the weekend, right?
Oh, how I laugh at my poor naive selve. In the golden-sleep days I didn’t start work until 10am. 10AM! Living round the corner from work meant I had the morning routine down and didn’t have to get up until 9.10am. So I could get to bed at 3am and still get six hours sleep… which I did more than I’d like to admit. I obviously did not realise how good I had it.
When Elfie was young nightfeeds weren’t a problem; I’d prepared myself for the onslaught of sleepless nights and my life revolved around us both sleeping at the same time. The problem is now we have a semblance of routine, work to do and errands to run. Sleep deprivation is hard when you have to be doing stuff that normal adults do, like have meetings, go to the supermarket, clean the house, blog and cook dinner. This is all very difficult if you are cruising on three hours of sleep a night.
So the recent night time teething has been massively tough, as has the arrival of a new neighbour who gets up to work at 5am, always waking the baby. Now Elfie can be up 2 or 3 times during the night with her teeth and then for the day at 5. This is not what I expected from a fifteen month old and I am slowly going round the bend through lack of sleep.
We’ve had a word with our neighbour, have practically bought shares in Bonjela and my work schedule has eased up so I can nap. We’ve been on the lookout for our Country House Of Dreams (the rental market round here is insane, houses will go within 5 hours!) and we think we have somewhere in my parent’s village that is charming, quiet and will mean lots of lovely sleep. I know this is probably ‘just a phase’ she’s going through and it will improve, but until then please forgive me if the blogging is a little on the light side.
I’m going to bed.
Photo: baby E as a newborn. Aww.
Oh my goodness, we are totally in the same place right now. I have been wondering what I did with my time pre baby. I managed to do sod all on a regular basis evenings and weekends. Now I barely sit down before 9. We had a blissful few months of L sleeping 12 or more hours without a peep. No one tells you that doesn’t last eh. L wears an amber teething anklet which def worked to begin with and now I’m too scared to take it off and am convinced it must be making things better than what they would be without the anklet. Also teetha granules work a treat for us in the middle of the night although its the actual getting up that sucks isn’t it. I find i can’t sleep for ages after as am on edge that she will wake again
I’m so sorry you’re going through the same! It’s all relentless at the moment (including the housework which I’m pitifully behind on, urgh).
I have an amber necklace that E wears but it’s such a faff to take it off and on for her naps and at nighttime, she doesn’t like to sit still at all. The anklet sounds like a much better plan, I will look into it!
I’m the same as you, was up at 5am this morning then could not drop back off as I was waiting for E to wake up again.
Nobody tells you about this bit of motherhood, do they??!
Oh how miserable – I hope that things improve soon
We are currently going through a bad sleep phase and whilst I know it will pass I’d just like it to do so a whole lot faster!
Agreed – it’s difficult to believe ‘this is just a phase’ when you’re so bloody tired.