Re: ok moms, tell the truth

My boys ate every 3 hours during the day and every 4 at night. I had to feed two, but figured out real quick how to get a system going. The worst part was after I fed them I needed to pump too. I would at times fall asleep while pumping.

The best thing to do was to sleep when they slept. I was never a napper before, they used to make me more tired except for the frist 3 months with my boys.

You get thur it becuase you have to and you pretty much just function on auto pilot.

Good Luck!!!

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

Posted by anna

Posted by headoverheels

Posted by jerseypanda

I fell asleep on the couch snuggling with a stuffed panda bear.

When I woke up and looked at DH he asked me where DS was. I replied with "right here" and proceeded to kiss the panda bear. He asked me again and I did the same thing. Apparently I thought I was cuddling with the baby.

Does that answer your question???

OMG

see that's the kind of honesty i need! thanks

here's another one while we're at it.

it was bright and early one morning, I had to call back the schools (Im a sub) to let them know I couldnt work (I worked occassionally when they were little when grandma was over)
I think one of them was a few months old, dont remember when this occurred, somewhere in the 3-4yr timeframe thatI had 3 kids

well I began to dial the phone number of the school
ON MY MICROWAVE.

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

Message edited 9/2/2008 2:30:23 PM.

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

Posted by headoverheels

Posted by anna

well I began to dial the phone number of the school
ON MY MICROWAVE.

OMG PIMP i can so see myself doing this!

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

Its very hard! DS cried a lot the first couple weeks. And so did I! every time I got him to sleep and laid him down he'd wake up screaming. I just felt foulish calling my ped and saying, umm the baby is crying Lol!! It took me a couple weeks but I finally did and then we figured out he had a lot of gas from the formula. I have a TON of experience with babies and everyone expected me to be a perfect mom (I believe there is no such thing) I was petrified he had colic and asked myself "what did I do?" but it gets better and it is so so worth any amount of sleep deprivation. You will get through it.
Our best man walked in one day to find me hysterical on the couch and DH in the babies room trying to comfort him.....he said the most profound thing to me, something I pass on to all new moms and something I will never forget....he said "It's NORMAL! YOU are NORMAL! Your baby is NORMAL and being emotional is NORMAL"!!!!! That lifted a huge weight off of me.

Good Luck, you will do fine. You will be amazed what you can do with such a little bit of sleep. Enjoy every minute and try to remember it because in my lack of sleep haze I forgot to make a point to remember every little detail. And now I wish I did even though I had 84 thousand pictures to show for it

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

Posted by anna

Posted by headoverheels

Posted by anna

well I began to dial the phone number of the school
ON MY MICROWAVE.

OMG PIMP i can so see myself doing this!

but I DID have a bottle in my hands, so that counts for something, right ??

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

Posted by headoverheels

Posted by anna

Posted by headoverheels

Posted by anna

well I began to dial the phone number of the school
ON MY MICROWAVE.

OMG PIMP i can so see myself doing this!

but I DID have a bottle in my hands, so that counts for something, right ??

you were multi-tasking

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

It was bad, sorry. Those first few weeks were really, really rough....between the hormones and the sleep deprivation I was in a really bad place.

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

For me the first 3 months we tough...looking back I have to say that it was more like the first 2 but it took that 3rd month to get things to a better place...try to start routine and such.


There was one night (i tell the story all the time now) where I had gotten up to feed DS...came back into the bedroom and started crying...DH asked me what was wrong and I told him that we should have gotten a puppy instead....he broke down and agreed with me. At the time we were serious...now we laugh. It's very hard in the beginning but you love this little person so much and you know that you have no choice...you brought them here...so you suck it up and try your best...then one day you realize that either 1-you can function on less sleep really, really well or 2-they are sleeping more/better which means you do too. Then it starts to get better.

They smile at you really start to believe that sleep is over-rated...until they sleep through the night...then you realize how much you love it!


It's hard but you'll come to understand what BTDT moms mean when they say it's the toughest but most rewarding job.

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

I supplemented DS at 4.5 months. He did not sleep through the night until he was 6 months old.

Word of advice.

If you use drop-in liners for bottles. Don't forget to put one in the bottle/nurser at 2am in the morning. AND wonder why your feet are wet. Only to figure out SEVERAL seconds afterward what is going on.

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

I expected it to be worse than it was. People told me horror stories. No one in my family sugar coats when they talk to me!

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

It s*cks!! But I was lucky and by 6 weeks my DD was sleeping through the night. Once they do you feel like a new woman!!!

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

Posted by headoverheels

Posted by anna

Posted by headoverheels

Posted by jerseypanda

I fell asleep on the couch snuggling with a stuffed panda bear.

When I woke up and looked at DH he asked me where DS was. I replied with "right here" and proceeded to kiss the panda bear. He asked me again and I did the same thing. Apparently I thought I was cuddling with the baby.

Does that answer your question???

OMG

see that's the kind of honesty i need! thanks

here's another one while we're at it.

it was bright and early one morning, I had to call back the schools (Im a sub) to let them know I couldnt work (I worked occassionally when they were little when grandma was over)
I think one of them was a few months old, dont remember when this occurred, somewhere in the 3-4yr timeframe thatI had 3 kids

well I began to dial the phone number of the school
ON MY MICROWAVE.

OMG PIMP i can so see myself doing this!

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

I didn't have any sleep deprivation. I'm not lying! Steven was a dream

It wasn't until he was about 8 or 9 months that he work up and DH and I would share getting up. I could count on one hand how many times I barely got any sleep.

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

It was bad, but I think we had a handle on it pretty quickly.

That first week was AWFUL. I got anxiety around bedtime - and I made sure that I put myself to bed as soon as she was asleep so that I had a few hours myself by the time she woke up. I went to bed at 9:00 almost every night for 3 months. I felt like I was 10 again, but it really helped me to function.

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

I was VERY tough for me, I NEED my sleep. At about 3 months she started sleeping through the night, but then 6 months she stopped again. We finally did CIO at a year and that worked like a charm.

The sleep deprivation wasn't too bad when I was home on maternity leave because I would try and take a nap when she would, but it ws very tough on me once I went back to work. I'll admit there were several nights that I was crying along side her I was so tired. But it was worth every second, and now it seems like a distant memory and I'm ready to do it all over again.

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

The first 2 weeks really s u cked. We really questioning if we did the right thing by having a baby! Of course things got better and now I wouldnt trade DD in for anything!!

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

I swear - and I am not lying at all. In the beginning you just run on fumes basically. You don't even miss the sleep because you know they need to eat every few hours.

I had a harder time when Jack was 9 months and still waking randomly. Then - I was so exhausted bc I knew he didn't need to be up. KWIM!

You just learn to go - go - go!

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

I said to everyone, everytime I ever said I was tired..i was LYING. theres no description of how tired you will feel. BUT it passes and fast. and then is a vague memory!

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

for us, it wasn't bad, and still isn't

but that's because we had lots of help from people who would let us sleep, and would sleep over, and do the night feedings

it also helps that she couldn't BF, so it was strictly formula - so she wasn't "needed" all the time to feed or pump

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

You are asking an EXCELLENT question...
I think when I was walking around with her in my belly it was like YAY...look at me and there was SOOOOO much attention. AFterwards, I was sleep deprived for the first couple of weeks. My stomach was SO raw from the C-section and honestly, theres little to no adult connection. My advice...keep yourself busy on the maternity leave. I left for Florida after 4 weeks and it was awesome to get away. Since she was a winter baby I couldnt take her out in NY but had her all over the place in FLorida.

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

I was lucky. All 3 of my babies slept great from the beginning!

My 1st baby would only wake up 2-3 times to eat and was back to sleep. He would sleep from 10 pm -10 am (waking 2-3 times). He slowly dropped all the night feedings and by 3 months he slept through the night. My girls have been similar too.

My last baby still would wake up once to eat until she was 9 or 10 months old. but she would nurse quickly and was back to sleep so it never fazed me.

eta: I never had any help. My DH had to go back to work the day after each baby was born and my husband is in the military so we had no family for help.

Message edited 9/2/2008 4:37:50 PM.

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

It is so bad you can't even comprehend it until you've been through it.

Re: ok moms, tell the truth

Honestly i have not had a problem. (I am not BFing... although i did for the first week).

I haven't felt sleep deprived at all. In the beginning, my son was up every 3 hours, which wasn't bad at all.

Although i'm extremely lucky in that my husband splits all the feedings with me and will also do a full night of the feedings by himself so that i can get a good nights sleep here and there.

Message edited 9/2/2008 5:21:53 PM.