I knew that I should be expecting to be tired and not to geta full night’s sleep, but no matter how much I mentally tried to prepare for this, I am still not ready for this. Tyler has reflux and major gas. Even though I’m breastfeeding (I thought it was suppose to be easily digested), about 10 minutes after he eats, he starts crying with pain for about 1 hour. He’s not close to be colicky, thank goodness, but it does make for a rough night.
So here I was 3:30 in the morning and doing bicycle motions with Tyler to help him with his gas. My son Jeffrey was sleeping with us on our bed. Ever since Tyler came home, he’s been wanting to do that and we’re o.k with that if it helps him adjust (even though we realized that a Queen sized bed no longer seems like a large size).
It seemed like Tyler was finally going to go back to sleep (I’ve been with him for over 1 hour and a half). I climbed into my little free spot on the bed praying to be able to get some sleep before I had to wake up again in another hour for another feeding. My eyes were shut and I was finally drifting off when all of a sudden, my husband decides to SNORE. Not just snore, but REALLY SNORE. I thought I was going to go a little crazy. I tried to ignore it first, then had visions of blocking his nose. Then I finally decided to try to roll him over (boy he’s heavier than he looks). Finally, when I’m on the verge of crying, my husband rolls over and stops snoring. Back to dream land for me, while I think
BOY THE NEXT COUPLE OF MONTHS WILL BE ROUGH
A little background to help you understand: I have 3, count them 3 sleep disorders; a form of narcolepsy, minor sleep apnea, and REM behaviour disorder. Bottom line, I need more sleep than the average person. My problem is that the average person’s REM sleep represents 20% of their total night’s sleep. It is the REM part that allows your body to recharge it’s batteries. REM for me represents only 9% of my total night’s sleep. Whenever, my body goes into REM, my brain starts losing oxygen so it kicks me out of the REM sleep, thus never fully recharging my batteries.
I have fallen asleep pretty much everywhere; concerts (including Guns N Roses concert when I was a teenager), coffee shops while talking with my friends, even while standing on the bus and unfortunately even driving (though that was a long time ago). Not only that but when I’m really tired, I start hallucinating because my brain is soooo tired.
Sleepless nights and Hallucinating days….. Oh what fun it is to ride these sleepless nights right now!
Not having sleep disorders (that I’m aware of), I can TOTALLY relate to your lack of sleeping. Lack of sleep is my evil nemesis!
Can anyone help you during the day – even for 2 hours – on a regular basis so you can sleep with just the baby? Do power naps (20-30 minutes) help you at all? It’s enough that your body is trying to nurture your baby – and my hormones really messed up my sleep cycles anyway. Is there anything your doctor can give you while you are nursing?
My daughters are now 3 1/2 and 1 1/2 and have totally attempted to conquer our queen sized bed as their own (with my hubby who has apnea AND the whole CPAP machine setup and never even feels the girls crawling over him in the middle of the night) – it has NOT been pleasant. I’m home with them full-time, and have found that being able to take a power nap during the day REALLY helps me – but I can SOOO relate to your exhaustion and honestly wish I could help.
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Thanks Debbie, I think just reading your comment gave me more energy. Sometimes knowing that there are others who are going, or have gone through the same things as you gives you energy. I try the afternoon naps as much as I can (when my 4yr old will let me).
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