Will I be ok?

@dwhite081705 That’s encouraging thank you! I guess I was worried I’d slowly deteriorate but I do feel surprisingly ok most days. I think the breast feeding hormones help and I’m lucky to not be working atm.
 
@eric2015 Just here to say my guy is 5.5 months and we get a 4hr stretch on a good night (rare) he had a month where he did 6-7 hr stretches but then we hit the 4mo regression early, ended up having to drop the swaddle, and it seems he hasn’t ever recovered. Sounds like we have similar sleepers. I’m trying to take it one day at a time. He averages 3 night wakes which is better than the 4-5 he was doing just a few weeks ago. I’m slowly seeing the light at the end and telling myself he’ll get there when he’s ready. He’s happy and healthy and hitting his milestones, so I know it’s just the way his body is right now. Hang in there momma, we’ll get through it!
 
@klsmo3 Thank you, Im glad it’s getting better for you and I hope some of these replies were helpful to read. I think we went through the 4 month sleep regression at 3.5 months and he’s had long stretches since then it’s just super random! But at least they help me recover.
We’ll get there! 💕
 
@eric2015 I’m probably going to jinx myself by saying this but my baby is 8 months and sleep got much better in the past few weeks already. She used to wake up every hour or two and need to be latched constantly, these few weeks she turns on her belly when she’s done nursing and sleeps like that often for 4-6 hours in a row. There are still some wakes but it feels wayyyy more manageable
 
@eric2015 About 1.5 years ago I was wondering the same thing. Many of friends/family who had babies before me seemed to be handling sleep deprivation much better than I. Until 6 months the longest stretch I had was 5 hours. The rest was waking every 45 minutes to 2 hours. Oh how I would pray for a 3 hour stretch, then pray for even 2 hours. I felt truly incapacitated for many months so much that I didn’t feel capable of driving most days and experienced hallucinations. My child is now 2 and mostly sleeps through. For me it took a long time for my brain to recover and I feel like even the best night of sleep is never enough, like I’m still healing BUT there have been many days where I realize how much better I feel and I can’t even quite remember those deathly days of sleep deprivation.
Your child will sleep better eventually. It’s great that you are realistic about how long it may take, because i was not. I thought babies slept great after the first few months…no idea I would be sleep deprived for years. What helped was going to sleep the second my baby did and doing whatever necessary to get sleep, so being showered and ready for bed to nurse baby to sleep even though she would wake soon after despite co sleeping. I’m talking 10-15 wakings per 12 hour period. If my baby slept eventually yours absolutely will too! We still nurse to sleep and she nurses during her entire nap sometimes but veeery slowly she is gaining independence on her own. I wish you the absolute best and I promise it will get better little by little. Someday you will look back and not even remember these tired times.
 
@aaronlove Wow you had a really rough time, thank you for sharing. I do feel encouraged! I also go to bed soon after baby does and try to be ready for sleep when I’m nursing him to sleep. I hope you start to recover soon. So it was a gradual improvement for your daughter after 6 months?
 
@eric2015 Thank you so much! Many more good days than bad lately. I take any rest I can get. I recently got her used to napping in my bed so I can at least lay comfortably while she nurses the entire time…perhaps one day she will solo nap again. The biggest change was moving her to her own room. It came with one long night of many tears but it had to be done for the sake of my mental health. I know it’s total opposite of attachment parenting but it got to the point where even she was chronically tired and not sleeping well in my bed so I put her in her crib one night at 6 months exactly and after that she started waking only 2x per night then soon 1, then at 8 months she slept through for the first time. It didn’t last long, sleep was horrible again from 11-18 months. I feel like 18 months was when she really improved on her own, a lot to do with the fact that she understood and could tell me if she was tired and we could negotiate what needs to happen and that she wakes up I’ll come check on her but she needs to go back to sleep in her own bed. Probably once a week she nurses mid night but most of the time she sleeps till morning. It still sucks sometimes but never ever as bad as the first 6 months.
 
@eric2015 I think the biggest take away is that yes there probably is still a long road ahead of sleeplessness but once your child is able to verbally communicate and understand you better, sleep will absolutely improve.
 
@aaronlove Thanks so much for sharing your experience and for the encouragement! I’m feeling heaps better about it all today after reading these responses.
 
@mshade Oh I go to bed pretty much the same time as him so that helps haha. Glad to hear you’re coping ok. How often is your bub waking up at 20 months?
 
@eric2015 It's a crapshoot. Sometimes it's every 1-2hrs, sometimes every 3-4hrs and on extremely rare occasions she'll go 5-6hrs. Those scare me when they happen, and I'll wake up before she does worried she died in her sleep.
 
@eric2015 Mine never did longer than 3 hours stretches except maybe twice in her lifetime when she did 5-6 hours. She is 13mo. Your body eventually gets used to it. Co-sleeping saved our life though.
 
@pleasant Yeah I bring him into bed the second half of the night and it definitely helps although I feel like I sleep better with him in his cot next to me. I guess I’m lucky he does 3-4 pretty often then! Although the rest of the night is often 1-2 hour chunks.
So your daughter is still sleeping like that? Sounds like you’re coping ok?
 
@eric2015 On good nights she wakes 3-4 times. On bad nights it’s 8-10 ish. Sometimes I have to rock or nurse back to sleep every hour or so before midnight. Then second part of the night usually is better.

It’s harder on my moral than on my body actually. Body is fine, as long as I go to sleep early to make sure I get enough hours. Body will find its rythme.

The hard part is that I can’t get a little bit of time on my own for self care. Sometimes I feel trapped by my toddler’s sleep needs.
 
@pleasant That’s interesting the second half of the night is usually worse for us. 8-10 times sounds rough. I know what you mean about feeling trapped by their sleep needs. I go to bed at the same time as my baby in order to get enough sleep so I get very little time to myself or with my husband. It’s not forever but it’s not a super short time either. I hope some of the other comments here give you some hope. 😬
 
@eric2015 He will sleep better and you will be okay ♡

I remember those days and thinking the same. It was a sort of depression I think that even if intellectually I knew it would end I just could not see the light at the end of the tunnel and my brain would tell me this was forever

Sleep was up and down not going to lie. Periods it'd get better and periods it would regress and be hard.

My dude started STTN around 17 months maybe 4 or 5 nights out of 7. Now at 21m he sleeps through most nights. He might wake up here or there if teething or overtired or whatnot but most nights he sleeps through.

I would say it took about a month of better sleep to "recover" mentally from the sleep deprivation but it did happen
 
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