Wednesday 3 February 2016

BABY: The 8 Types of Night Parents Experience

 
When I announced I was pregnant one of the most popular comments I received from other parents was to 'enjoy my sleep while I still could'. It's no secret that babies don't often sleep through the night, it's to be expected. However I didn't appreciate how many different types of nights you can experience as a parent. It's not as simple as sleeping through or not - here are 8 different nights you may have experienced with your little one...

 
Slept 'through the night' - There will be some lucky people reading this who will (slightly smugly) consider their baby in this category of sleep. They'll often sleep 'through the night' with everyone waking up bright eyed and bushy tails in the socially acceptable hours of the morning. If that's you then a) What's your secret? b) Be warned, it could change at any moment! I was once one of these slightly smug parents when at 11 weeks Isabella slept through every night, fast forward to 4.5 months and we've not had a full nights sleep since. Treasure every one you get!

Wake up once or twice for a feed - Not too bad at all, in fact you may be laying in bed awake wandering why your little angel is sleeping so well for once and your not! Staring at the monitor...going to the toilet as an excuse to check in on them and see if they're breathing...checking your phone a million times...basically doing anything other than making the most of this precious time to sleep.  

Wake up once or twice but won't go back to sleep easily - now on paper waking up once or twice doesn't sound too bad does it? But when you add three hours of screaming in between those two get ups you quickly haven't had much sleep at all. Personally, these are my most feared nights. 

Wake up 4+ times throughout the night - at this point you begin to wander whether sleep will ever happen, yet at every 'get up' you wish...hope...that this will be the time they'll stay asleep until the morning. If only...

Slept well for the first few hours of the night - this puts parents into a false sense of security that tonight could be the night they 'sleep through'. Yeah right. 

Wake up every hour - just enough time to fall into a deep sleep again only to be woken up from said deep sleep feeling hot, sick and disorientated. How can it only be 1am?! Zzzzzz

Wake up every 30 minutes - you put ALL your effort into getting them back to sleep, using all of the techniques your told not to do as your baby will become 'reliant'. Only to find that after 20 minutes of rocking/shhhing/patting/cuddling/singing your little darling to sleep, they sleep for 10 minutes (enough time for you to get back into bed, snuggle under the duvet, head hit the pillow, just start to doze off)...and the screaming starts again. Ahhhhhhhh! 

Just didn't sleep - sound familiar?

Then you have the nights when teeth, illness, weather, growth spurts and developmental leaps can play havoc with your little ones sleep pattern. Calpol will become your best friend when illness/teething strikes, but for the other times you're left with the reoccurring hope that tomorrow night will be better and that one day they will sleep through the night.

I hope you all have a good nights sleep tonight. Most of this post was written at 2.30am on a Wake up every hour night. Oh the irony.

Feel free to leave a comment :)

Helen x
Let's Talk MommySuper Busy MUm
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17 comments

  1. Sounds very familiar - I do curse the people who don't appear to even experience a difficult night #sharewithme (@MummyFever)

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    1. I just want to know their secret - I can't seem to find any reasoning behind Isabella sleeping or not sleeping...a constant guessing game!

      Helen x

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  2. Aww my little ones are toddler now but definitly experienced those nights when there were baby's if not still once in a while now :) lovely post and photo hun xx
    #sharewithme

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    1. I'll take every once in a while!! There is hope at the end of the longggg sleep deprived tunnel :)

      Helen x

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  3. Definitely had my fair share of waking up every hour.. that seems to be her favourite trick at the moment! x

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    1. Oh no!! Hopefully tonight will be better...always keep on hoping :)

      Helen x

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  4. Oh I'm so glad you wrote this - I'm in a constant state of 'am I doing something wrong' at the moment with my 3 month-old (first baby). We had a glorious week over Christmas where she seemed to sleep for a good 6-7 hours before needing a feed (it was a Christmas miracle), and then that disappeared and its been somewhat unpredictable since - and it doesn't help that lots of people (strangers mainly) will always ask 'how's she sleeping'...after a bad night you feel like shouting back 'shes only a few months old, how do you think?!' ....Hmm, that turned into a bit of a rant, sorry! Fab post - thank you :) #sharewithme

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    1. Rant away...I'm all ears! :) I'd love to know the secret behind parents who have little babies who sleep through - we're 10 months down the line and still not getting a full nights sleep (despite following all and every piece of advice offered). I just think babies aren't meant to sleep through, therefore we're in a completely 'normal' situation ;)

      Helen x

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  5. They like to keep us on our toes don't they?! Our baby was completely unpredictable until precisely one year of age when he suddenly went from consistently howling between the hours of 1 and 3am to sleeping 13 hours at a stretch. I hope you get your sleep back soon!

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  6. I think I've been all these and probably a few more besides! Thankfully my kids are now 5 and 7 and so I'm the smug parent now - but I still do live in fear of the other kinds returning...and it's such a shock to the system when they do wake in the night for some reason. Thankfully not often these days - phew!

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  7. Urgh I hear ya and my kids are 3 and 6 and still don't sleep well! Pass the coffee, all the coffee x

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  8. When I speak to people and they say their babies sleep through, I seriously want to smack them on the nose! Lol
    My daughter is 6.5 months old and we've done all the above. It's sooooo hard. She has been ok last couple of nights and actually had a good few hours sleep and you feel on top of the world !!!! Funny before my daughter, I'd feel knackered and now I think how lucky I was and had noooo idea!!
    At least we are not alone I guess :P X

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  9. Sounds very familiar! Ben started out as a hard to settle baby (one night he wouldn't sleep till 4am!) then after getting really tired I just decided to co-sleep, and as I was breast feeding it made things so much easier! Although he didn't sleep through till 14 months. I should have known from the beginning he'd be a baby that doesn't sleep much, we cut out naps before he turned 2 and a half!

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  10. Oh bless you sleepless nights are tough and caring for kids the next day and yourself without your batteries recharged is more than tough. I am a smug my kids have always slept through the night since 8 weeks hardly ever woke to feed at night (want to kill me yet? just wait) like you said it can come out of nowhere my daughter is almost three and all the sudden she is a nightmare to get to sleep having night terrors wakes asking questions and wow I am exhausted. So even if it didn't happen while babies one child finally got the better of me in the end. hahahaha Thanks for linking up to Share With Me #sharewithme

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  11. As a Mum to five I have lots and lots {and lots!} of memories of those night time feeds. And even though my youngest is three and those nights are behind us, there's a little part of me that misses it all. Thanks so much for linking up with #MMWBH

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  12. There is nothing as rubbish as a lack of sleep, I work late in the evenings then if Baby up too I have very little. The last two nights have been 4.5hrs and 3.5 hours! Need caffeine! :) Thanks for linking up to #TheList x

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  13. Lack of sleep is literally torture. With a 6 week old baby I'm going through all of these at the moment, good and bad nights it's like rolling a dice on a daily basis and seeing what we get. That's why we have chocolate and coffee! #brillblogposts

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