While Ellie is doing much better on the sleeping front, sleep is still a precious commodity to me these days.
I'm back at work full-time, trying to exercise as many days as I can, fitting in Ellie's feedings or pumping during the day and attempting to keep up with stuff at home. I'm exhausted most of the time — and still have to limit my caffeine intake! Though my one cup of coffee each day is still better than the decaf I had during pregnancy.
Brian has been trying to simply talk me out of being tired... which is humorous. When I complain about being tired in the morning, he says something like, "You were only up with her for an hour last night." But even if I add together the 5 hours of sleep I get leading up to Ellie's nighttime feeding with the two-ish hours I get afterward, it equals sleepy.
And my time up with Ellie isn't the only time I'm awake at night. I have a really tough time falling back asleep after I feed Ellie. I've tried lots of different things to make it easier. I don't put my glasses on when I get up with her because keeping things foggy wakes me up a little less — though the diaper changes are a little interesting. So far I haven't actually put a diaper on Ellie backwards, but I've come close :)
Once I get back into bed I end up just laying there awake, usually listening to Ellie and worrying that she's spitting up or about to cry again. Or if I'm not hearing Ellie, I'm doing the calculations in my head of "if I fall asleep right now, I'll get another 1:45 of sleep.... if I fall asleep in the next 15 minutes, I'll still get an hour and a half of sleep..." You know how that goes.
The experts consider a baby to "sleep through the night" once they go for 5 or 6 hours in a stretch. And don't get me wrong, I don't miss the nights of waking up every 2 or 3 hours. But I guess I'm getting greedy now, hoping for some longer nights of sleep in my not-too-distant future.
One of the biggest changes I've found with parenthood is that sleeping-in is no longer an option. If I run up a sleep deficit during the week, I'm not going to be making up for it on the weekends because Ellie is still going to be up and ready to start her day when that clock hits 6 a.m. (or 5:45 a.m. or 6:15 a.m. or even the rare 7 a.m. ... but you get the point).
This past Saturday, Ellie came into bed with us and I nursed her for a few minutes while attempting to continue dozing. But Ellie woke up long enough to wake me, and then the dogs (who are always very ready to get up and get breakfast in the mornings) made sure Brian didn't go back to sleep. By 6:45 a.m., Brian was downstairs feeding the dogs, I was up getting dressed ... but Ellie was full and dozing away again! I had to laugh (and grab the camera). I guess she doesn't have any trouble falling back asleep.
I'm back at work full-time, trying to exercise as many days as I can, fitting in Ellie's feedings or pumping during the day and attempting to keep up with stuff at home. I'm exhausted most of the time — and still have to limit my caffeine intake! Though my one cup of coffee each day is still better than the decaf I had during pregnancy.
Brian has been trying to simply talk me out of being tired... which is humorous. When I complain about being tired in the morning, he says something like, "You were only up with her for an hour last night." But even if I add together the 5 hours of sleep I get leading up to Ellie's nighttime feeding with the two-ish hours I get afterward, it equals sleepy.
And my time up with Ellie isn't the only time I'm awake at night. I have a really tough time falling back asleep after I feed Ellie. I've tried lots of different things to make it easier. I don't put my glasses on when I get up with her because keeping things foggy wakes me up a little less — though the diaper changes are a little interesting. So far I haven't actually put a diaper on Ellie backwards, but I've come close :)
Once I get back into bed I end up just laying there awake, usually listening to Ellie and worrying that she's spitting up or about to cry again. Or if I'm not hearing Ellie, I'm doing the calculations in my head of "if I fall asleep right now, I'll get another 1:45 of sleep.... if I fall asleep in the next 15 minutes, I'll still get an hour and a half of sleep..." You know how that goes.
The experts consider a baby to "sleep through the night" once they go for 5 or 6 hours in a stretch. And don't get me wrong, I don't miss the nights of waking up every 2 or 3 hours. But I guess I'm getting greedy now, hoping for some longer nights of sleep in my not-too-distant future.
One of the biggest changes I've found with parenthood is that sleeping-in is no longer an option. If I run up a sleep deficit during the week, I'm not going to be making up for it on the weekends because Ellie is still going to be up and ready to start her day when that clock hits 6 a.m. (or 5:45 a.m. or 6:15 a.m. or even the rare 7 a.m. ... but you get the point).
This past Saturday, Ellie came into bed with us and I nursed her for a few minutes while attempting to continue dozing. But Ellie woke up long enough to wake me, and then the dogs (who are always very ready to get up and get breakfast in the mornings) made sure Brian didn't go back to sleep. By 6:45 a.m., Brian was downstairs feeding the dogs, I was up getting dressed ... but Ellie was full and dozing away again! I had to laugh (and grab the camera). I guess she doesn't have any trouble falling back asleep.
I remember the days of having to fall asleep three times a night - totally stunk! It's hard to explain to someone the difficulty of trying to do that. Just know, it will get better :)
ReplyDelete