We suffered with Harry, I really think we did. I've blogged about it before, and about all the things that we tried, but I didn't really realise how bad it was until we had Mia. She didn't sleep through until she was well over a year, but that was nothing compared to what we went through first time round. If Harry had been the second I would have taken him to the health visitor or doctor to check that nothing was wrong, but at the time we just thought it was normal and put up with it.
I've spent much of the past few years surviving on very little sleep. I remember a lovely holiday to Cornwall when Harry was an older baby, which passed in a sleep deprived haze. On two of our wonderful holidays to Center Parcs, at least six months apart, I was up and awake in the living room with Harry at 4.45am each day, waiting in desperation for CBeebies to start. Fortunately on those holiday occasions I was able to catch up on sleep later in the day!
We'd just got Harry to the stage where he was sleeping through regularly and going to bed without a fuss, when Mia came along and it all started over again! But in the last few weeks I've noticed that more often than not, both children are sleeping through. And until a reasonable hour - Harry's clock tells him that it's morning at 6.45am, and Mia is rarely awake before that. Sometimes we are awake earlier - this morning Harry needed the toilet at 6.15am and didn't go back to sleep - but I can cope with anything after 6am easily if I've not been disturbed in the night.
I'm fully aware that we're just going through a good patch, and children like to keep you on your toes with frequent changes to their routines. I'm sure that we've got many bedtime battles to go through yet. But, with fingers firmly crossed, for the first time in a good long while I'm experiencing what it feels like when you are actually getting enough sleep!
I have an early riser. I have been and am often still sleep deprived. It is horrible, but then I only sleep four hours a the most until I was 16, so I guess this is payback time!
ReplyDeleteI think that early rising is the worst, I can cope with getting up in the night as long as I can sleep until a reasonable hour, and even 6 will do for me! I was a bad sleeper as a baby/child too so yes, it's probably all karma!
DeleteI was lucky enough to take a good nights' sleep for granted before children. It's lovely when you get a good night as everything is so much more enjoyable I think. Hope you get a few more.
ReplyDeleteIt definitely makes a big difference to my parenting when I've had a reasonable night's sleep!
DeleteFingers crossed the sleeping continues, luckily Alex (apart from when he was really newborn and would only sleep when being cuddled or bounced) has always been ok generally. But on the odd occasion the early starts can really be felt the rest of the day-so really feel for you! We seem to be having many battles before bedtime at the moment which is a new for us!
ReplyDeleteThank you! We are doing quite well with bedtime at the moment, Mia goes straight off and Harry generally does without too much fuss, once we've completed all his various bedtime rituals and tidied his bedroom to his satisfaction!
Deletei bet that feels amazing!!! I will read your post to Bob in hope! ;o) x
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