Phew! What more is there to say? The Little Dude is five weeks old today and I must say, it is tough.
I think one of the hard things is being a lone parent to him is there really is no respite. I have great friends who have offered to come around and look after him for an hour or two, but it is actually at midnight, when you have had a restless and crying baby on the go for five hours that you really need to be able to go ‘here you go, you take him into the spare room for a few hours’.
It is not so much the sleep deprivation, as I am probably having as many hours (5/6) as I did a few weeks ago, but it is the unrelentlessness of it all.
I am also finding myself allowing bad habits to creep in. For the last few nights, without exception, he has fallen asleep in my arms, so as we speak, he is in his basket where he has been for the last hour where I am attempting to get to to fall asleep on his own again.I am also desperate to start trying to get him into some form of baby whisperer routine, but when you have a baby who falls asleep at five am, the thought of waking them at seven to start a routine when you know they might well sleep ( and allow you to sleep) until nine is currently proving too much.
I know I have to start getting him into a routine sooner rather than later, and I hope that I have the strength to do it in the next week or so….
Tough going this baby business!
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Sorry you’re going through a bit of a trying time at the moment. I never got my kids into any kind of routine and they turned out okay!! Don’t be too hard on yourself and enjoy a glass of wine now and again.
Thanks Emma- wine & chocolate muffins are the future I think!
Give yourself a break
The best piece of advice I ever heard when mine was little was to treat the first 3 months like a 4th trimester. Looking back now that’s exactly what it was like. ie let them feed, cuddle and sleep when they want to as if they were still in the womb – because they don’t realise they aren’t separate from you yet. Around 3-4 months my little one really changed and his sleep became pretty predictable and only then did I introduce ‘bedtime’.
What I also found useful then was setting a time in the morning (for me it was 6am) and before that was still nighttime so if he woke before then I’d keep things quiet and try to settle him back to sleep. After that it was officially morning and I’d get him up, open the curtains etc. (Sorry if any of that is patronising or not what you want to do).
Sounds like you’re a superstrong ballsy lady. And you’re managing to keep your sense of humour and blog and look after a little one = you’re doing pretty ok
Thanks v much for the words of encouragement thrifty mum! As everyone says, just ‘get through the day’ at this point!
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