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Ok, for years I've enjoyed falling asleep at 10pm and magically waking up at 6.30am with nothing in between.
For the past 18months I've not had one night where I haven't been woken up. Absolutely shattered all the time.
Last night I was awake for 4hours as the little un had a high temp.
I've stopped going away/staying with friends and I've not seen my bestmate since last year. I'm just too tired. Shattered. When I go on rides sometimes I'm worn out even before we start and sometimes I actually see little pricks of light/half fuzzy.
FFS. How do seasoned-dads cope?
Help.
Sounds pretty standard, I just deal with (with coffee :D) they'll soon start sleeping through and you'll start to feel normal (ish) again. Little one is 22 months old btw, and I started trading the month after she was born as well 😯
Alternativly, see below \/
MTFU
get a good old fashioned drinking habit. that'll sort it.
Repeat after me:
"It won't last forever, it won't last forever"
Says the smug Dad who's kids sleep from 7pm to 8am, almost without fail. 😉
MTFU
+1
Suck it up Hora. Having been through it with daughter #1 and then with twins I can safely say you don't know how easy just one baby is/can be.
Sorry.
Oh and Calpol and Neurofen (alternated) are your very very best friends when little dude has a temp.
No idea how to help, but I was suddenly reminded how bad it was when swavis jnr who is now a year old had a bad night the other day, he was still wide awake at 2am. I genuinely wondered how I managed when he was tiny.
He's really good normally, down at 7 up at 6:30/7. I realise we are very lucky with him though.
Mine have both slept through from about 10 weeks (sorry) but due to a combination of both of them and the wife being ill last night I am running on 90 minutes sleep.
Today Hora, I feel your pain.
However, tomorrow I won’t. 😀
Calpol and Neurofen
We had one episode a while ago where nothing was bringinh down his temp and he should really have been fitting. I soaked a towel in cold water, rung it and wrapped it around him - it worked. Mental as the towel was drying out even after a couple of minutes..
8yrs of permanent sleep depravation and counting.
I maintain (to my wife) that women are designed to cope with this but not men, oddly she disagrees - quite rudely usually.
I find, I can sort of cope with lack of sleep, but being woken up from asleep more than once just does me in.
MTFU + 1
my lad sleeps from 7 till 4AM perfectly. then is pretty much wide awake. he takes after me in being an early riser i suppose, I've gone from NEEDING 8 hours sleep to happily surviving on less than 5.
With you Hora. (Mine are 2.5 yrs old)
Just as we think we have them sorted (with the occasional waking in the night) one or the other of our twins gets a bug. Izzi has been on anti biotics for two weeks now, only just improving and is up at least three times a night.
Of course, just as she recovers from it, Evie will get it and we will go through it all over again...
I maintain (to my wife) that women are designed to cope with this but not men, oddly she disagrees - quite rudely usually.
😆 my missus has always loved sleeping in at the weekend and I've always been the one bolting upright, bright-eyed etc early. So when I suggested its a Mothers duty to suffer a lack of sleep I almost lost an ear 😆
I reckon that from the first one being born till the second one was about 2 (just under 4 years duration) a good nights sleep was just something I could wish for. We stopped going out in the evenings, trying to recover in the weekends put paid to going out and holidays were not on.
Was not helped with son number one getting up very early every day - 4.30 am was a lie in!!
It does get better
Once the kid grows out of it "old man's bladder" will set in and you will be up for a piss 2 or 3 times.
5hrs sleep a night has always been fine for me, so it's never been an issue.*
* other than teh colic. Oh my that was bad.....
Once the kid grows out of it "old man's bladder" will set in and you will be up for a piss 2 or 3 times.
and I'll become even grumpier..
Our kids didn't give us a proper nights sleep for months at first but then I started a job that involves being away from home during the week and I find I'm quite well rested now (the wife's f~~~~ed mind!).
MTFU
You should have read the small print 😉
We've got 3 of them, aged 5, 3 and nearly 1.
the first two slept 12 hours after about 7 weeks old.
The third one has manged only 1 night of uninterupted sleep since he was born. Usually get around 4 hours sleep a night.
Last night:
1am, baby wakes, back to sleep around 2am.
2.30am, eldest is sick in top bunk. Strip bed, give her a bath, scrub matress and carpet. Back to sleep about 3.30am.
4am, middle child crying and complaining of being wet. Insists she hasn't wet the bed. Turns out eldest was sick against the wall, deluged down onto bottom bunk and soaked into duvet. Strip bed, scrub matress, pull out beds, scrub carpet / skirting board etc etc.
Been up since, and now at work!
And my mother insists these are the best times!
"OrmanCheep" Your name..
Eeeeeeeeee memories 8)
Day 53 in NICU, and currently recovering from major surgery.
Right now I'd love no sleep to be my biggest concern....
You need this book:
ps best listened to with no kids around/not at work
Dear Hora.
My son is 16.
I still don't sleep good.
HTH. 😉
he takes after me in being an early riser i suppose
Wierdo 🙄
My good lady does all the night stuff since she recovered from her c section, as she thinks its only fair as I'm going out to work all day, so she does it, although I make sure I offer to help, and do what I can at weekends. this will all change when she goes back to work in Feb.
oops double post...
All 3 of mine have been "bad" sleepers in a variety of ways.
The best one is the middle one, my son, but he sometimes sleepwalks.
Our eldest hasn't slept on her own for 4 years.
Our youngest, who will be 4 on Saturday, needs very little sleep and she goes to bed after I do and wakes up a virtually the same time as me. She doesn't seem to suffer for it though, unlike me, grrr! 😉
My mother-in-law told me when my wife was carrying our first child that I would never sleep the same again. I laughed at the time....
jam bo
keep in there. FB jnr was a week in NICU & 4 weeks SCBU. Didn't hear a peep from him as he was initially heavily sedated then fed every 3-4 hrs so had no reason to cry.
He made up for it when he got home - 3 months of not sleeping at night.
If you have "Wires" by Athlete on itunes, delete it. I still can't listen to it.
Sounds terrible to say this but before hora junior I use to hear about men walking out on a wife/small child and just think '****er' - now I can see in some circumstances why it splits couples, the tiredness, the bickering, lack of sleep etc. Awful isn't it?
she thinks its only fair as I'm going out to work all day
Of course your missus just sits around all day doing **** all. Work is where dad get a rest, and to mess about on STW 😉
and to mess about on STW
😆 
The training (aka near neglect) starts from day one. You put them in their own room the first night you get them home from hospital, you make sure they are the right temp and fed and leave them there. Just use a baby monitor for good measure. OK there is the obligatory feeding and changing in the early days but the principle is the same; if they cry leave them a while, then leave them some more and they'll go back to sleep unless they really do need something. Sounds a bit like tough love but it works. Our 2 (now almost 8 and 6) both slept through from being about 6 or 8 weeks and they have always slept in their own beds. True, our oldest sometimes has some difficulty getting to sleep initially but then she reads for a bit and then tucking her back in (her own) bed with the promise of popping back to see her in half an hour is usually enough for her to be fast asleep until 7 the following morning.
11 month old here - sometimes sleeps through sometimes wakes at 5 or 4 ish - she is left to BTFU. Self soothing according to the wife.
I can sympathise. We have two boys with 13 months between them. Eldest is 2 and youngest is 1 tomorrow.
The eldest had pretty bad colic so we got no sleep for the first 6 months or so. Everything started settling down and number two came along so we hadn't really had time to recover properly. Fortunately the youngest was very easy (in comparison) so now a year on we're starting to feel almost human again, except the eldest has the side off his bed now so will occasionally wander in. For the most part we're able to sleep in til about 6:30 now so it's all good!
I can honestly say that the last two years have been the hardest (but most rewarding) in my almost 40 years, looking back I think I was a total zombie for the whole time. At times we didn't know how we'd cope but we did, and so will you.
My advice - get some ear plugs, seriously. Take turns on the nightshift and having a lie in, while the other gets the baby up and out of ear shot in the morning. Because we have two it's a little harder in the mornings, plus I need to get out for work anyway, but on a weekend we'll each have a lie in and it's a huge help.
6 years and counting, I reckon I've had about 2 weeks in that time of uninterrupted sleep. It's actually worse when you get a 'good' patch and it turns bad again..
old man bladder made me laugh though I've got that as well, REM sleep is a distant memory.
Mrs b wants no. 4 😯
1am, baby wakes, back to sleep around 2am.
2.30am, eldest is sick in top bunk. Strip bed, give her a bath, scrub matress and carpet. Back to sleep about 3.30am.
4am, middle child crying and complaining of being wet. Insists she hasn't wet the bed. Turns out eldest was sick against the wall, deluged down onto bottom bunk and soaked into duvet. Strip bed, scrub matress, pull out beds, scrub carpet / skirting board etc etc.
Been up since, and now at work!
No Children here, but it sounds like an average night when I used to do callout (except without the puke) 😆
When he does sleep through, rare I'll wake up at circa the time he normally does crying etc. So I'll lay there wide awake looking at the ceiling thinking 'hes alright isn't he?' Sheesh.
Go on- its fun making them! Book a weekend away and get someone to look after the other 3.Mrs b wants no. 4
I wont be following my advice and wont be going past number 1.
sugdenr - Member
she thinks its only fair as I'm going out to work all day
Of course your missus just sits around all day doing **** all. Work is where dad get a rest, and to mess about on STWPOSTED 4 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST
hora - Member
and to mess about on STW
ha ha ha... I know! what she doesn't know and all that... 😉
Virtual hug for Jambo, hope things get better for you soon.
Hora, I think you've left it a bit long to get a warranty replacement. I think your best bet is to flog him off on the classifieds without mentioning the fault, and get a new replacement which won't hold you back in your sleeping ability 🙂
We had about 6 weeks of hell but since then sleeping has been fine, it's eating that's the issue with our daughter. Still, would be boring if it wasn't a challenge 🙂
Sounds terrible to say this but before hora junior I use to hear about men walking out on a wife/small child and just think '****' - now I can see in some circumstances why it splits couples, the tiredness, the bickering, lack of sleep etc. Awful isn't it?
No - just look at little one, give him a hug and feel the love. Then hug your partner and tell her you love her. Try not to hate the experience.
MTFU
+1
Zaskar - "Training" doesn't work with all kids, no matter what the super-nannies and child-gurus claim.
My 3 1/2 year old sleeps through, maybe 1 night a week on average. At the moment, my missus is crook, so I'm having to sort him out in the middle of the night. Normally, I'll go through the cycle of getting him back into his bed, then getting woken up half an hour later, several times through the night. But its so frikkin' cold I've just been hopping into his bed with him to be punched and kicked for the remainder of the night.
On top of this, he's going through a phase of sleep-walking, night-terrors and nightmares.
and as for changing wet sheets in the middle of the night, its a right PITA
The advantage is, I now only need about 5 hours sleep to feel refreshed.
My two have been challenging in the sleep stakes. And while I'd like to have followed Zaskar's tough love approach my wife is as soft as butter.
My eldest keeps waking up with nightmares at about 4am.
My youngest has slept through twice in nearly 4 years.
The bad days are behind me now and I can cope with this level of sleep interuption.
But aren't they gorgeous?
My 3 yo often wakes up crying or shouting for Mummy or Daddy, but a quick snuggle and he's [i]usually[/i] back to sleep. Provided I can get back to sleep easily it doesn't bother me too much. Last night I was up twice but because it was a quick cuddle and back to sleep I felt OK in the morning. If they get you up and keep you up it can be a big hairy PITA and I've definitely become a grumpier person since having kids to deprive me of sleep. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel though...you will too Hora