You know what they say about not properly missing something until it’s gone? In the case of pregnancy that’s been true with wine, pate and my favourite cheese. But the one thing I’m realising that I miss more than anything else at the moment is a good night’s sleep.
I can handle the regular nightly toilet trips and the inability to get comfortable with a huge nine month bump. But my reserves of stamina are well and truly depleted when it comes to dealing with my snoring husband or wakeful child.
Last night we had one of the worst nights we’ve ever had with Frog. Apart from one particularly bad night when she was about six weeks old and had terrible wind, and another when she was teething at around eight months, I don’t think there’s been a worse night. Even when she was a baby and waking regularly for milk she would still snooze in between feeds. Last night was different though.
My four year old woke up at midnight and came into my bedroom. Her dad wasn’t yet in bed so she got into bed with me claiming to have wet the bed. When I checked the bed was dry. Then she said she’d had a bad dream. Then she said she was hungry. Then she said she was thirsty. Then she said she needed a cuddle. And so it went on.
I couldn’t work out what originally woke her but experience told me not to panic and that she would fall asleep again pretty soon, if I let her stay in the bed with me. She’s a pretty regular sleeper so the odd night in our bed doesn’t concern me.
At 3.30am she was still awake. By this time I was crying with frustration and exhaustion. Every time I thought she’d dropped off I’d get a “Mummy, can I just have X, Y or Z?” or “I can see a fairy Mummy” or “Is it morning yet Mummy?”. As I was being booted from the inside by Frog’s baby brother or sister, I could hear her dad snoring in her room next door (they’d swapped beds) and feel her little hand tapping me to try to keep me awake.
And now, in the harsh light of day, I am reminded how rubbish I am on zero sleep and am already panicked about how I’ll cope once the baby is here to keep me awake too. When will I sleep?! Will I sleep at all? Will it send me a bit crazy? It’s been so long since I’ve had such a bad night with no sleep at all that I can’t remember what my best coping mechanisms are. And I can’t help but think that being nine months pregnant makes the whole no sleep thing even harder.
I have everything crossed that last night was just a blip and Frog will have a better night tonight. She’s clearly hugely stimulated by starting school and has been weirdly hyper right up until bedtime over the past week. But the night obviously took it’s toll on her too and I left her, for the first time, sobbing at school. My pregnancy hormones and lack of sleep found that tough, I can tell you.
As for the maternity leave zen that I wrote about last week, that’s kind of gone AWOL too. I’m finding that despite having an out of office set on my email I’m still getting demands from people (none of my regular clients, I hasten to add). It’s got to the point where I’m considering turning my phone off and changing my out of office to “HAVING A BABY. LEAVE ME ALONE.” Yep, the lack of sleep is making me irrational.
Any advice you have for coping with zero sleep this late on in pregnancy would be hugely appreciated. And if there are any sleep experts out there who can give me some pointers on helping my four year old if she wakes up again tonight… I’m all ears.
Link Up
Anyone else feeling sleep deprived this week? Or maybe you’re full of beans and have had a great week of rest and relaxation? Whatever your latest pregnancy update, link up your blog post here and join in the chat. If you can, don’t forget to comment on the other posts linked up to make the blogger antenatal group that bit more lively.
As ever, tweet me a link to your post or take the chat to Twitter using the hashtag #BlogBumpClub – I’m @mollyjforbes over there.
Poor you. I am pregnant with my first and don’t know how I would cope with running around after another little one as well as being heavily pregnant.
I really hope you manage to catch up on some sleep before the next bundle of joy arrives. And remember, you have survived those newborn days once, and you will again, so don’t worry!
This is true! I’m now feeling much better after a couple of nights of much better sleep. Hurrah!
Oh no
So sorry to hear you had a bad night with Frog. It’s frightening thinking about how we’ll cope with little ones already running around and a new baby in arms. I’m rubbish with advice for things like this sorry, I just hope Frog was having an off night like you say and that the new baby slumbers between feeds for you 
ah I’m so sorry you’ve had a rough week. I think sometimes starting school really affects sleep patterns for kids and I hope she settles down soon. But I also know that its not nice at all when you are so exhausted. Don’t worry about what might or might not happen when baby arrives. Take each day as it comes now and try to rest when F is at school x x x x
Can’t imagine how hard that is right now. I’ve been panicking about the sleep deprived nights plus handling my very active son! I did learn with T that as long as I had 4 hours in one block uninterrupted then I could cope. Literally doing that now!
My nights have been awful for a long time during this pregnancy. It’s got worse this past week. P2 struggles to sleep soundly between 1-4am!
We had a bad night with Archie the other day and it made me wonder how I would cope with a new baby, but I think we just do, somehow or other! I hope Frog settles down with school and it gets easier x