The myth of bedtime

[ailbhe]

7 pm wasn't bedtime, it was time for a one-hour nap. It took 3 hours to settle her after that (Hi Anna!), the last 45 minutes of which were spent breastfeeding her on the floor as Rob gradually dimmed the lights. We think what made her wake fully after her "nap" was a very wet nappy.

We're going to try waking her at 7 am to ensure that any napping happens early in the day. Perhaps she only needed no daytime naps for two weeks and now needs them again. Who knows?

I see the doctor again on Tuesday. I must ask if there's anything I can do to improve my sleep. I can't get to sleep, and when I do I have nightmares, which wake me. Lather, rinse, repeat, add toddler who wakes in the night needing a drink. I only get "enough" sleep because I've given up getting up in the mornings and catnap until 9 or 10 am while Linnea plays on me. Tomorrow Rob is going to see if I can get sleep from 7 to 10 am - he will wake her and take her away, and if she doesn't whimper or cry, I might manage it.

Comments

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

I've been having bad dreams about being chased by crocodiles & Andy leaving me for another woman. My sleep is appalling too :/

3 hours is very dull isn't it?

[ailbhe]

I had both company and help, but it was still not at all funny. I have lots of sympathy for you, doing it all on your tod.

Alcohol does help my sleep but only in the very short-term. I need a longer-term solution. But the psychologist waiting list is THIS long.

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

I'd love to be able to have a small alcoholic drink to relax me & help with my sleep problems, but it makes me throw up as reacts with the anti-depressant :/ A soak in a hot bath is good & I do try to have one most nights. I had one at midnight last night. I'm still waiting for counselling. I was put on the list as a severe case in April.

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

My (wholly unsolicited) advice is for you to sleep in a different room for a while. Let Rob take the night shift, sleeping with her. You stay in the guest room for a couple three weeks. The improvement in your sanity and stamina when you have slept will be such! a relief.

Or so has been my experience. I still haven't moved back in, though I am working up to it in the couple three weeks, I think.

[ailbhe]

I can't sleep through her crying for me. Sad but true. Even when we had a guest room!

But I do need to get extra sleep, and I think that while Rob is unemplyed, he can take the early shift and let me stay asleep, as I can't nap, and he can, damn him. He also has no problems getting to sleep at night, and I do (it's almsot midnight).

[the-warwick.livejournal.com]

It may be time to get toughish. She gets taken back to bed by daddy (beaten awake by mummy sadly). He gives her a cup of water in a spillproof cup.

That's the option. It screws up daddy the next day (and the problem there is?). Mummy smells like food and daddy doesn't. You don't fail to react, but it beomes daddy's job. The cup gains importance and Rob gets a little extra bonding time. I'd chuck in a bedtime story too. but a short one. That story should be only come from Rob for 3 months.

[heraldis.livejournal.com]

Pretty much what we did, although daddy luckily is a light sleeper. has had the advantage that night settling is such a habit for daddy now that mummy only has to do it on really bad nights!

[flybabydizzy.livejournal.com]

This is how we did it, too, about 18 years ago. I was falling apart, so stopped feeding during the night - he would get a sippy cup of water and a pat on the head. He was incoherently indignant at first, but a week of being very tough settled him to sleep about 11pm to 5am. He was about 18 months at the time; I stopped feeding him at 21 months

[sierra-le-oli.livejournal.com]

Having continual nightmares like that must be really unpleasant. Do you do anything right after a nightmare like drink some green tea or do you try to get straight back to sleep?

[ailbhe]

The insomnia means that if I get up *at all*, even to go to the loo, I find it really difficult to get back to sleep again. The only thing that doesn't make it harder to go back to sleep is breastfeeding, because of the hormones released. I wonder if I can borrow a newborn who needs to feed every 2 hours or so and doesn't kick? Linnea kicks. Hard.

[(Anonymous)]

You really shouldn't let her kick you! You should stop the feeding and say, "No! Don't kick me, or no more (whatever word you use for breastfeeding) tonight!" Who's in charge here? ;-D
And I think Warwick is on the right track. (That, or the rubber mallet is called for!) Good luck!
Elaine

[ailbhe]

She doesn't kick while breastfeeding, she kicks in her sleep. It's why she sleeps in her own bed now. What kind of idiot do you think I am?

[(Anonymous)]

I thought you were the sort of idiot who still sleeps in the same bed with her baby 'cos you are breastfeeding her, and then complains that she keeps you awake by kicking you! My mistake! ;-P