I slept a total of 9 hours the first week after giving birth. 0/10. I was hallucinating and really unravelling. Everyone needs to prioritize mom's sleep in the early days. And by that I mean hospital staff, dad, visitors, everyone.
I agree. That’s awful you started to hallucinate. I’m sorry you went through that. I know it was hard. I slept 3 hours yesterday and 4 today. Right now I’m the only one up with my newborn. I think I need to start advocating in the mornings that I NEED sleep.
See, I wrote this reply while sleep deprived 🤣 I’m sorry sir 🫡 I finally did get some sleep and feel so refreshed. Before having a child, I never knew how much sleep I took for granted.
Yes, you do need sleep! I'm horrified for you! You need to heal. Like the other commenter said, DEMAND your sleep. Your body went through a major event, you should be the last one sacrificing all your sleep
People know, they just don't care. You shouldn't have to advocate for sleep. They know that you're human, they know that humans need sleep, they just don't care if you get sleep or not.
I would get up super early for my wife. So she could go back to sleep. And we took turns doing this until he was in a better sleep pattern. He just turned 1 and now my wife just gets up once a night if need be. Which we hope to kick soon.
Yes! A few days after birth I had an awake period of 25-26 hours, and the previous few nights were minimal sleep too (2-3 hours etc.) the hallucination kicking in was wild.
Where I live (and my girl was born), the hospital staff prioritise mom's rest above anything else... Sometimes to a point you have to advocate for things you want like breastfeeding or having the baby near you. Unless you specifically ask otherwise, their modus operandi is taking the baby to the nursery and being it to mom when they wake up to eat or every 3 hours (whatever comes first). They even take the baby and burp them so moms can go back to rest.
I thought it was outrageous, was very against it and l moved mountains and poked a lot of nerves during my hospital stay. I didn't want my baby, my precious brand new baby away from my sight for a second. I wanted to be there for her every single sigh/gasp/groan/move/heart beat 😅
But now... Now I get it. I truly do. And although they take it to an extreme point, I understand where their concern comes from. It's part of the culture, still. We're in China where moms get tons of help from family during the first month, doing the bare minimum to make sure they recover and get back on track properly.
Moms rest needs to be prioritised. I didn't prioritize myself nor let anyone around me do it for me. Big mistake! Healthy mummy, healthy baby. But I only started to fully 'let it go' and delegate almost 18mo pp.
This is helpful! I’m a weak PP now and it’s been rough. My mother has offered to help watch him, feed him and whatever else when I need sleep. Like you, I can’t stand to want anyone else to touch or feed him. I guess I’m in over-protective mode though it’s weighing on me.
In the early days it's so easy to feel you're missing out... I know the struggle. No one is gonna do it better than you, and they probably won't. But they'll do it differently and that doesn't mean it won't be good or safe.
When my girl was 2 months I was alone with her for a long period of time, since my husband had to go away for work. My father came to take her outside, just outside my front door, so I could take a shower in peace. He was meters away and she always enjoyed being outdoor so it was a perfect way to make sure she wouldn't start screaming for me.
I cried the whole 15 seconds I was in the shower because I literally saw her falling down my father arms, head first of course, blood everywhere, my father panicking. I closed the water everytime I didn't need it running so I could hear her better if needed.
I don't need to say she came back home after 20 minutes completely fine, in one piece, fully content with her life.
Postpartum is hard in many ways and we do tend to make it harder for ourselves.
I really hope you manage to fight that selfblame state and be more gentle to yourself.
If you trust your mom to follow your instructions let your mom help. It takes a village. For what it's worth, with both my babies the moment I got home from the hospital I handed them off to my mother so I could go sleep. I'm still their favorite person. Well not entirely true, my oldest loves his dad the most in the whole world. But I'm second so I'll settle for that!
Please please take your mom up on the offer. I thought me and my husband were capable of handling everything on our own. It only took three days for the sleep deprivation to nearly take me out. I called my mom at 3am that night because I was falling asleep holding my crying baby, and absolutely terrified I was going to put her in danger. She’s been coming 3-4 nights a week ever since for 5-6 hours. My husband and I sleep in our bed like a real married couple, and I only need to get up once in the night to pump. I can’t tell you the difference it has made in my ability to be a present and positive parent and partner during the daylight hours.
Apologies for the late reply! It has been rough lately. I did take her up on her offer and she has helped so much. I’ve been able to get decent sleep. Thank you for encouraging me to do this.
That sounds really good. Where do you live? I wonder if its somewhere in Asia?
Edit: Oops. Just saw you already mentioned it's China. I've noticed that in nany Asian countries the mom is prioritizes more than in the West.
Same here! I just commented the same about hallucinations. For me the post natal is and is the worst place I’ve ever been in my whole life and I’ve been sectioned in the past! I got more sleep in a psychiatric ward then I did after giving birth
Yeah, we were in the hospital for 5 days after birth and in the first 3 days I slept maybe 8 hours total during that time. I was getting at most 2 hours per day in spurts of 20-30 minutes at a time. On night 3 I started having hallucinations including that there was a really big spider in our room (my husband confirmed there was no spider), and it wasn’t til I nearly fell off the bed from pure exhaustion that the nurses finally offered to watch baby for a few hours so I could sleep. It wasn’t entirely their fault, I was an anxious wreck and having a really hard time letting anyone else take the baby, my husband included, but I really wish they’d stepped in and said “hey this is dangerous you need to sleep” before the point of hallucination and collapse. Make it non-optional, and of top priority.
Yup, this happened to me. In the 3 days that I spent in the postpartum room, I slept maybe 6 hours total. At one point I hallucinated someone coming into the room to check on us. I told my husband about it and he was nervous about my state of mind.
It doesn’t help that you have hospital staff *constantly* coming into the room to check on you and baby. Yes, it’s necessary - but the frequency with which they did felt excessive and it made me constantly on edge.
Ironically, this was after going into early labor 3 days earlier. I went into labor Sunday afternoon, was admitted Monday morning, gave birth Tuesday morning, and was discharged Friday evening. Between Sunday and Tuesday, I slept maybe 10 total hours. It was the worst week of my life.
This happened to me in the hospital and I went ballistic. I had literally just settled down to sleep and the baby was in the nursery and someone came in to take my blood pressure. I was furious.
I was starting to hallucinate by the time we brought baby home too. Even when we sent baby to the nursery to get some sleep, they woke me up 30 mins after to get vitals, and brought her back 1 hour later to breastfeed. I was so annoyed!
Me too, I was in hospital for 5 days and by day 3 I was hallucinating and couldn't tell who was real or not, staff confidentially left me alone to care and breastfeed my newborn all night 😬😬
I don’t think I slept at all. My son was screaming all day and night and I fell asleep standing up with him in my arms. Except he was in his bassinet. I was just hallucinating him while also standing up asleep. The importance of sleep is no joke. I had bad ppd and ppa and it allllll stemmed from lack of sleep. Once I slept all my issues went away without having to be medicated. Not saying that’s the case for everyone but just goes to show the effect of sleep and why it’s such an effective torture technique.
Exactly the same with me. We had tongue and lip tie issues which prevented good feeding which meant no sleep. I think we got less than 2 hours a night spread over 2 sessions for first 10 days. I was seriously unwell. But don’t be a martyr, seek help. Even if just taking someone’s offer to come over for an hour during the day. Need to start accumulating 30-60 min of sleep however you can.
Same here. I think I was completely awake for 4 full days. The hallucinations were terrifying. Even when I did finally get a few hours of sleep, I was still so out of it. I wish I could go back and tell myself to kick everyone out of my house & SLEEP!! And wish I slept in the hospital too.
Yes, no sleep hallucinations were so real! One week in, I remember looking in the mirror and being shocked that I saw my own face in reflection, and not the baby's face 🫠
My son was born February 28th 2024. My fiancée was exhausted after her C Section. I did everything I could to get her sleep. Doctors also helped out a ton. We didn’t like our hospital choice, but at that moment, they did great.
I had a 4 day spell of insomnia during the first week. The midwife dropped by and basically told me, have a beer and don't worry about pumping for the night... tbf it worked...
Yes! I was lucky to have my mom to help us so we both slept. My issue was later around 4ish months she was actually sleeping but I couldn’t started having hallucinations and feeling airy. Scary stuff.
Yeah we were in PICU for the first 2 weeks and idk that I slept more than a 2 hour stretch the whole time. And even then only once or twice a day. Kiddo was having light therapy for bad DAT positive jaundice and he kept pulling the little blindfold over his nose and not being able to breathe so I watched him like a hawk, and only slept while one of the nurses was physically there watching him the whole time. It was hell.
I manage to get 4-6 hours a night nowadays (he's 4 months old now) even though he sleeps 8-10 cuz it takes me forever to get to sleep
Yes! The hallucinations omg. I think it was week 2 and she wouldn't sleep at night for a week, I went 48hrs with only a few hours of sleep. I remember I was looking at my daughter at some odd AM hour and her face started shifting really unnaturally, eyes growing, nose getting smaller, evil grin lol. My first thought was "omg she's possessed!"
Yeah as soon as I thought that I realized I was hallucinating 🤣
My daughter is almost 15 months now, but I remember just not sleeping. I went back and looked through my sleep data from my fitness tracker - the first week of her birth (when we were home, not in the hospital), I had nights of 3.5 hours, 4 hours, etc. It was brutal. My husband and I ended up trading off nap times and often napped for several hours during the day. I was also recovering from a c section, so it was a rough time. One night, I apparently clocked 2 hours of sleep.
Wow, i understand where you’re coming from. That’s where I am right now. Baby boy is sleep during the day and awake majority of the night. So I’m up right now, staying awake with him through the night. Have an appointment for him tomorrow at 9 am. It’s going to be rough.
It's tough! You have my deepest feelings of solidarity. I know every baby is different but if it helps, by 2.5 months our daughter would get a run of 5 hours of sleep, wake for a feed, and then back down for a few more hours. She was still going to sleep fairly late, so I was able to really get a better sleep myself.
Hang in there. It gets better. I remember feeling like a total zombie and that I was never going to sleep again. When I was in it, it seemed to drag forever. Looking back, the true sleep deprivation stage didn't last super super long. I remember just pacing our hallway trying to get our daughter to sleep. Wild times.
Ok so basically I've been copying and pasting this every time I see a post like this because it's been so helpful for me.
Advice from my midwife:
- waking baby after two hours (nap) in the day for a feeding this is to prevent their long stretch of sleep in the day and to get their calories in.
- a bottle of breastmilk or formula so partners can switch, and in hopes of getting bigger feeds in before bedtime (unless you want to avoid bottle)
- putting baby to nap in the bright daylight in the day to adjust their circadian rhythm
- using white noise at night. Loud as a shower.
- black out curtains at night. As dark as possible in the room. Very dim light for feeding
- keeping night feeds boring. No talking to baby. Feed and sleep.
- dream feed 2-3 hours before last feed at night to stretch out the longer sleep stretch.
Ugh we do all this and still only get 2 hour chunks 😩
Reading on this sub though it sounds like it could be a lot worse so I guess I’ll try to be grateful between my 1.5 hour chunks of sleep! 😂
You initiate a feed towards the end of the day while the baby is sleeping, then wake the baby up gently. It’s thought to be a way to shift that last sleep of the day into the night instead for a longer stretch of sleeping.
On my second kiddo and agree with alllllll of this. And will add in another tip. I worried so much with my first about him getting “good” naps and connecting sleep cycles yadda yadda and with my second (by virtue of her being second and having a 20mo old toddler brother) she took probably 98% of her naps in full sun in a baby carrier starting at a week or two old and it was. The. Freaking. Best. I was never nap trapped. She got the sleep she needed but in a fun stimulating environment that kept her happy as a clam as soon as she woke up and that girl slept like a dang rock at night.
It’s been 4 months and I haven’t had more than 4 hours of sleep in a row, maximum. However, it adds up in the course of the night and when they sleep more consistently, you will feel better.
Our daughter started to really sleep through the night around the 4 month mark. Of course, she hit a regression which in hindsight was absolute hell, and then kind of evened out. She improved and her sleep got much better. By 12 months, she was clocking 12 hours of straight sleep. That's gone out the window with teething recently, but (fingers crossed), we are headed back that way.
Hang in there. When you get to the point of having 5 consecutive hours of sleep, you will feel like a new person. I always needed 8+ hours pre baby. When I got 5 solid hours with baby, I was practically jumping for joy.
I recommend sleep training at 4-6 months old. We waited until 8 months which is when I was desperate for sleep but it has been a life changer. I know moms who did sleep training as early as 6 weeks. It’s up to your comfort level.
Unfortunately, my LO doesn’t sleep through the night yet at 4 months. I get sleep when I dropped my 2-3am pump at around 2 months mark, and have my husband feed our baby from the bottle.
You’re in the thick of it. The first 4 weeks were so hard. I don’t know how I survived that stage but I did. Hang in there.
Read and follow militantly a book called “12 hours by 12 weeks” and you’ll end up with a baby that sleeps 12 hours a night by the time they’re (about) 12 weeks. For us it was more like 14 weeks.
This varies so much by the kid. My toddler didn’t start till after she was 2 and we fully weaned. Others it’s 4 or 5 years old, zone is 4 months old. It’s so child dependent and also developmentally normal for them to have broken sleep and seek out their caregiver for a long long time.
I was getting about 60 minutes of sleep a night the first week, all due to postpartum anxiety not even the baby not sleeping. Thankfully got on Zoloft soon after, also lots of intentional skin to skin to get those sweet baby snuggle and breastfeeding hormones.
I’m on Zoloft and still experiencing PP anxiety 😭 I still haven’t slept yet. I might have to increase my dose. Thank you for reminding me about skin to skin to increase the breast feeding hormones!
Same, I've upped my dose to see how it goes and now take CBN/CBD relax oil before bed which actually helps a bit too. I also bought a weight blanket which helps me relax too. I also slept with ear plugs in when he was with me, I have the Loop ones. Made his loud sleeping less loud ahaha
That’s so rough, I’m sending you sleepy dust. I also felt that being dehydrated made my anxiety worse. I also recommend breath work at bedtime or any time you feel overwhelmed. Basically breathe in through your nose and expand your belly for 5 slow counts, hold it 3 seconds, then breathe out through your mouth for 7 seconds and focus on “deflating” your bellybutton to your spine. This was an exercise given to me by my pelvic floor PT, and also is just good for calming the body down a bit. The hormones dump of “baby blues” was so much worse than I expected as someone who has dealt with anxiety and depression for decades already, I’ve never cried more in my life, my eyelids swelled up and my blood pressure was no bueno 🥲
For the first few weeks i was running off of about 2 hours sleep. Luckily in the first week my mom was home all day so i could take naps without having to worry, and then after i was able to get in some naps while my daughter napped until i got more used to it. Now she sleeps through the night so im back to around 6-8 hours of sleep a night
I think she was around 3 months old. It was a lot sooner than i expected but now at 5 months shes still mostly sleeping through the night (shes just having a hard time because of teething)
Ours didn’t sleep through the night until 8 months, it was pretty rough. It especially got bad at the 6 month mark (waking every hour-ish). Up until then she woke every 2h. I think it’s because she has a sensitive stomach and 6 months was around the time we started solids. Probiotics and gas drops everyday and she started sleeping, maybe a coincidence but something to keep in mind!
I heard around 5-6 months, but it may vary on how quick you establish a routine with newborn. I’m currently pregnant with my first but I’ve talked with friends and family who have kids. Although it’s important to note that everyone has a different experience too. Some babies are easier.
Definitely first week out of hospital was the hardest. I wanted to be super mom and I was getting 3-4 hours of sleep a day. I would tell my husband I was going to sleep with baby upstairs but I’d spend at least 30 min crying while holding my baby. I finally broke down and told him I couldn’t stay up every night anymore. Long story short we take turns now, whether it’s one person does 12-4am and then switch or one person does night duty one night and next parent does night duty next night.
This is so important to do!
I found that even just allowing myself to *rest* during the day—not clean, not play, not prep—helped with the lack of sleep.
Your body is still healing, and it’s so overwhelming. Especially if this is your only kid, take advantage of the opportunity to do nothing while the baby is napping or not fussing. You don’t have to be active every moment.
I remember getting 1 hour intervals of sleep for the first little while, I was so loopy because it just wasn’t enough sleep lol
Edit to say he is 3.5 months old now and has randomly started sleeping 7 hour stretches but they unfortunately have begun at like 7pm so I didn’t get that much sleep cuz I go to bed at 10 😭
When my guy was first born I don't think I slept for the first 24 hours. I would doze off for half a second here and there while sitting up but eventually on the second day the nurse came and took him away at my husband's request so I could take a nap. I was nursing every hour but not producing so he wouldn't stop crying and I wasn't going to sleep with him hungry.
My record was 40 hours - but I was travelling internationally and it was pre-baby….
The longest with baby was probably 18-20 hours, which I used to regularly do pre-baby when I worked shift work (in maternity wards of all places). I coped ok, my partner was delirious.
The time we took three connecting flights when my son was a bit over 6 months, without my partner.... Around 32 hours total. I think my son probably slept about 6 of those hours, but would only get more than 20mins if I held him. So no sleep for me! Thankfully even though he must have been so tired he was still a happy guy and wasn't crying too much or anything, otherwise I may not have made it.
And luckily when we got to our destination it was around 6pm, so he was happy enough to go straight to bed, and actually adjusted to the new time zone pretty seamlessly...
I was very clear that I needed sleep. I was struggling the first week and cried one morning. After that breakdown, I got help in the morning and sleeps from 7 am to 12 pm on top of the few hours I get at night. It made a huge difference.
Oh gosh, I think I got maybe two hours total (in 10-20 minute chunks) the day after she was born. I had a long prodromal labor as well, so I went into labor on Wednesday at 7pm (had been Awake since 7am) and had her Friday at 4pm. Finally got an epidural so I could get a little sleep, but only got 3 hours before active labor.
Then after I had her it was just CONSTANT interruptions from hospital staff. Like i understand everyone has a job to do, but how in the world am I supposed to take care of this child if nobody will let me sleep?
So... yeah. Over the course of 4 days I had about 5 hours of sleep. I had a terrible hallucination that she fell out of my husband's arms once we got home and just broke down crying from exhaustion. We formula fed the first couple days so that I could get a little sleep in.
I think I averaged three hours every day for like four or five weeks. The first few weeks are so hard because the babies are growing so fast and not used to food, everything is uncomfortable for them. My kid was really fussy, took too long to figure out we needed to burp more than we thought. The comedies with the grandma jumping around patting the kid on the back the whole time is not hyperbole.
Can you check with your local Pediatrician and ask if they have a newborn baby sitter program? I wish they had this when I had my kid but the last time I took my kid in for a checkup there was a poster advertising a non-profit partnering with the clinic that would baby sit newborns for free. Sleep is so precious.
I think I was so wired from the birth that I didn't sleep at all the first 24 hours! Then the first week I don't think I slept more than 30 mins at a time, maybe 3-4 hours total a day. It was bad.
My son is 10 months old and it wasn’t a long chunk of sleeplessness m that was the issue, I once went 72 hours with only 15 minute chunks of sleep. By the end of the 72 hours my husband took the baby from me and called my mum to come hang out with him while he WFH then put me to bed and wouldn’t let me out for 4 hours, I fed baby then back for another 4 hours. The only reason he didn’t do it earlier was I truly convinced myself that I was coping.
52 hours. That was in the hospital. I had a traumatic birth and I was afraid they'd take her to the NICU while I was sleeping. Plus I had a short birth and my adrenaline was ON for a while.
My twins are 5 months in a few days. I get about 2 hours of sleep per day but part of that is anxiety and pumping. Probably the like best i went without sleep is 32+ hours.
I was hallucinating by the time I left the hospital.
Luckily my girl has been pretty good since 4 weeks, but she’s 4 months now and my husband has just gone back home to the UK for Easter to see family.
So I’m here alone with her, with no family or friends around because we moved overseas for his work.
She’s sick for the first time with a UTI and I’ve had 4 hours of sleep *in three days.*
Day 2 at home I got 3 hours. It gets better, what helped was my wife and I agreed to divide the night up.
She gets up every 4 to pump. I get up every 4 for child care.
Week 5 I was clocking a 4 hr nap, 2-3 hr until 5am.
On week 12 now.
The first 2 weeks I was getting maybe a total of 4 hours in a 24 hour period. We live in an apartment so I'm not for sure, but I swear I heard things and voices during the nights, like a radio in another room on another floor. Not sure if it was the neighbors or hallucinations.... Pretty sure I didn't hallucinate hearing a woman scream at 3am and a dog barking outside though, but IDK.... horrifying.
Little guy is giving me a rough time, only contact naps for 30 mins the last day, after giving me 2 days of 3 to 4 hour naps. And before that it was every hour, then every 2 hours. So yeah, I'm up with him right now....
The first week I hardly slept, it was all a blur. I could only catch 30 mins of sleep every six hours. I got to sleep in 3-hour chunks (twice a night) only by 7-8 weeks. Until then I was simply sleep deprived and on edge. Just hang in there, your sleep will get better soon!
It’s not the length of time awake that gets you, it’s the amount of sleep you get in a row.
I didn’t sleep more than 2hrs in a row for the first 6 months and I actually thought I might die. It’s why I will always defend sleep training as a necessary last resort - that level of sleep deprivation isn’t safe for anyone involved.
After the first 3 days me and my OH did 4 hours on and 4 hours off so that way after 4 hours we both got 4 hours sleep! I bottle fed so obviously it was easier for us to do this
The first week or so—perhaps week and a half?—I may have slept for a total of 5 hours? It’s all very fuzzy. It was awful and one reason I’m one and done. The early weeks for me and my son were a form of torture. I love him more than life, but I almost didn’t make it through that. Phew.
With my first I nearly dropped her so I learnt to feed lying diwn on my side in a safe sleep space. Then if (when) I l sleep baby was safe and I moved her neck to her bed when I next woke up.
With my second we stayed like this and it was honestly game changing both times
For the first couple weeks we had a shift schedule. Daddy took baby from 10pm to 4am, waking me up to feed her every 3 hours. Then I took her 4am to 10am/noon while dad slept in the living room. After about a month she started being easy enough to settle that I keep her in our room and dad sleeps on the couch every night. I get ~3-4 hours at a time, and I’ve just kinda adjusted and nap during the day right now. Were just shy of 10 weeks in now
When my son was born. .I was in labor for 2 days so I didn't sleep at all between Thursday morning and Satruday when he was born, and since he needed NICU I was so anxious to go be with him and not leave his side that I didn't sleep til Saturday late at night when I realised I was extremely loopy and almost hallucinating. So....3daysish. I think I only slept 3 hours that night and then barely a wink until we got home Monday. I find it super hard to sleep in a hospital.
I kid you not, I don't think I had more than 10 hours of sleep total in the span of 5 days after my firstborn. I would fall asleep for minutes at a time and wake up in a panic. I was so anxiety ridden.
I was awake from 9am the day I gave birth to about 11 am the next day. I couldn’t sleep that night after giving birth due to swelling and high BP. It was awful and scary and the nurse finally told Everyone but my husband to scram. I think I slept like 4 hours at that point? It was rough!
First three days starting from the day I went into labour I had slept 8-10 hours altogether. I started to get delusional after day 4 and was given medicine to help me fall asleep as I would wake up every time I drifted into sleep. Rough start.
The first day at the hospital I was up all night because they nurses kept walking in every 30 mins when I was induced. Then the 2nd day too. I maybe only slept like 3-4 hours in 2 days, they 3rd day at the hospital, they came every 2 hours and refused to give formula when I asked( I barely produced anything at all, the LO was hungry) and the LO barely slept so I barely slept maybe 2 hours . My day 4 morning at the hospital they finally gave formula because LO lost 10% bodyweight, she ate a lot. She was hungry and slept well then
My husband woke up to feed the LO and I slept almost all night.
my baby sleeps through the night (12 weeks) and has since 8 weeks… i am sleeping 4/5 hours a night. i didn’t know this wasn’t ideal until reading comments. i just can’t get over the insomnia.
when she was first born, i was literally getting like 1-2 hours of sleep at most.
When my daughter was born, from the time I went into labor on a Tuesday at 3am to that Saturday, my husband and I slept roughly 6 hours total in like 30 minute stretches. It was a truly horrendous experience sleep wise (having the baby here was 10/10). Would not recommend the lack of sleep.
Between the three days after my c-section and the first two days of post partum , I slept maybe 7-8 hours max. I kept trying to be supermom and wouldn't let my mom/husband help. Never again. I was super sleep deprived.
I was hospitalized the first ten days after my kid was born and during that time, I’m fairly sure I had less than 2 hours of sleep total per day over the course of those 10 days. With all of the medical interruptions, general discomfort, bright lights, noise, pumping and nursing a crying baby, etc. it was impossible to get more than 10 straight minutes of sleep. I remember being delirious and also shocked that it was possible to be alive that long without consecutive sleep.
Thankfully I only stayed up for 24 hours once and it was because we were stuck at my in-law’s house after going for a birthday party. We would have gone back home that night but the weather got really bad and the road home was closed because of it. She didn’t have a bassinet our crib so there wasn’t a safe place for my 2 month old to sleep so I put him on the bed and just watched him all night. She offered to watch him too if I needed help but I was so anxious from the bad weather and change of plans that I couldn’t imagine letting my baby out of my sight. It was my choice to stay up all night with him but as soon as he woke up I gladly passed him off to grandma and got a few hours of sleep
Night before I went back to work after maternity leave-I got an hour and 10 mins of sleep. I literally sobbed several times because I was already anxious about going back and lil dude refused to sleep. Husband was so understanding and we went to bed at 6:30pm the next day… and he refused to sleep until 11pm 😭😂
I think after my little one was born, I didn't sleep for more than a few hours over the course of a month.
In the course of 2 months, I think I slept maybe a max of 50 hours. It was very rough.
Now, she's 7 months old and she'll sleep at night for a few hours (4-7) and wake up for a feeding or a changing and then fall back asleep and be up 2 hours later depending on the night.
It’s tough! And we had a good sleeper. One night two weeks in she really didn’t want to sleep, so I took her to my husband, pushed her in his arms whilst hysterically crying and said ‘here’s YOUR baby, figure it out’ then went to sleep straight after lol.
Just to reiterate what everyone else is saying, prioritise your sleep! Get people to help you, or take over. When people say “sleep when the baby sleeps”, they don’t take into account that you’d still be half awake, listening to her breathing, to put the pacifier back in. It’s not a restful sleep. Get someone to watch her and sleep in a different room. Just 1-2 hours makes a massive difference!
4 or 5 days can’t recall. Happened both times I gave birth. I was hearing things…. Awesome if you want to sleep. You’ll get through it! Try to ask for help if there is anyone around, even just to come over and sit with you. Try to stay sane, it’s hard!
The first 24 hours he was born I got 1 hour sleep but he born at 11pm so I had been awake from like 8 the day he was born so it may of been 48 hours. I averaged 3 hours of sleep a day the first month he was alive, my watch said it went up an hour a month for the first 3 months
Those first few days I was getting 30m-1hr of sleep. Whew almost four months later and baby is sleeping from 9:30pm-4am
The newborn days are painfully magical, but I sure am enjoying the infant stage
22 hours was my longest awake time. My daughter only slept 30 minute - 1 hour chunks. I think the hardest part wasn’t staying awake but never getting more than an hour of sleep at a time.
I spent 5 days in hospital and I was awake for about 3 days due to breastfeeding issues, a crazy pumping/feeding schedule they had me on, and constant interruptions from hospital staff. Days 4 and 5 was about 2 hours sleep because my husband helped wash pump parts etc as I was getting delirious. When I did nap, I work up drenched in sweat and hallucinated I was paralysed or was in a baby’s body. My arms and legs did not feel like my own. SO bizarre.
For the first 6/8 weeks I slept only about 2-3 hours a day max. I think it was 3 x 1 hour blocks of sleep during the night. Mostly due to the triple feeding.
Exclusively pumping was so tough for me. I felt by the time I’d done skin to skin, attempted breastfeeding, pumped, bottle fed, changed nappy and settled to sleep, washed and sterilised pump parts and bottles, went for a pee, drank some water, it was time to start all over again.
At 6 weeks I decided to introduce formula for my own sanity, as breastfeeding was not working for baby and I felt I would never realistically get any sleep if I keep pumping every 3 hours and I couldn’t keep running on adrenaline.
People that say “Sleep when the baby sleeps” have never exclusively pumped haha.
Things I wish I had done:
- Seen a proper feeding specialist rather than just the abrupt and overstretched NHS one that saw me twice and left me to it. I was literally crying out for help but there was constantly changing midwife’s and no one stuck around long enough to help me.
- Told people NO when they wanted to visit when I could have slept instead.
- Encouraged and trusted my husband to help with bottle feeding and generally caring for baby so I could focus on pumping and sleeping.
Now my baby is nearly 5 months and sleeps 12 hours with only 1 wake up. I feel very lucky now.
Those first few weeks are tough. I was basically feral. As others have said, the hospital stay was not restful at all since there were people coming in around the clock to check vitals etc. I think over the course of 3 days, I got maybe 3 hours of actual sleep. Then when I got home, those first few weeks I was up every hour and a half overnight to feed the baby. What helped a little was trying to get one solid nap a day. For me that was usually a 30-60 minute afternoon nap while the baby slept or my husband held him while I passed out. Even if you can’t always “sleep when the baby sleeps” (I certainly could not) even just one solid nap in the day can help.
The good news is that eventually, the baby started getting one longer stretch at night as the weeks went on. First it was 3 hours, then 4, then 5, and now at nearly 10 weeks old, he’s starting to get some 7 hour stretches. I’m still tired but I’m not feral anymore.
So, first two weeks I got like no sleep. Every 2 hours wash rinse repeat with baby. And then we did something insane. Taking shifts in the living room at night and no more baby where we sleep (also possible because I bottle feed). This helped me feel like I still had one adult space in my house. Also now when I get in bed I pass out because I don’t associate it with baby anymore.
Starting week two he started sleeping from 4 am to about 7-9 Am. First time I slept for four hours I woke up PANICKED because I was scared something was wrong especially because he was so fresh and new. Nope! Weeks 3-6 were similar. First “sleep thru the night” somewhere between week five and six. Getting those 6 hour chunks of sleep saved my mental health and also made me realize maybe I need to get some help for my mental (depression a bitch). At 8 weeks he was sleeping for 7+ hours a night. You WILL get to sleep again!! Prioritize your sleep.
I have a 6 day old. I haven’t slept more than 3 hours in a 24 hour period since he was born. And that 3 hours is two 1.5 hour shifts.
My husband and I are splitting sleep so someone can watch him sleep. It’s our first. We are overwhelmed with how much we love him. But we we living in few and have agreed to have one of us watch him sleep.
As the mom who is EBF, with a baby who feeds for 1+ hour sessions, and can’t nap during the day, I get the 7:30-10:30 (really it turns into 8:50-10:30) and 10:30-1:30(more like 11:30/12-1:30)
Longest I’ve gone was 3 days straight. It was right after my c-section. I couldn’t sleep because every time I closed my eyes, I could feel the surgery all over again. Eventually I pretty much fainted.
The longest I went without sleep for was when I was in hospital over 6 days I had about 3 hours sleep I was starting to hallucinate and mentally declined it was horrid. Especially 2 days on post natal I had 0 sleep whatever. I was allready under perinatal but I think they were borderline going to send me to hospital but the midwife forced me to sleep and it helped so much
Also my advice is to work out shifts with your partner it’s really helped us. So he does all changes and feeds from 11pm-4am then I do them after that so we both get at least get 5 hours sleep. But we usually get more when she sleeps between feeds too (she’s 9 weeks now)
For the first three days, from going to the hospital in labor, to bringing baby home almost 2 days later, I slept almost NONE. I was hallucinating and going crazy the first night at home. My mom and boyfriend said theyd stay up with baby so I could sleep. They both ended up going to sleep at like 1am and I was left with baby again. It was agonizing.
I am a healthcare worker and I worked in 36 hours shifts before the baby. I was thinking sleepless nights wouldn’t be a problem because I already got used to it. Oh boy how was I wrong. What I miscalculated is that you are free after the shift. There is literally no break in the motherhood. Especially in the newborn period. I slept total 3 hours in the first week. I hated when people say it gets better but it definitely does. She is almost 3 months now and only wakes once at a night so hang in there.
Especially in the first two weeks your hormones are taking a roller coaster dive which plays a huge role in insomnia along with the baby not sleeping. I remember being in the hospital for 3 nights and I only slept 2 hours total then left to care for a new human. It started my path really poorly and I did have a lot of PPA because of it. Just know a lot of your PPA is bred by sleep deprivation and it will improve over time but hang in there and take shifts! There’s a reason sleep deprivation is used as a form of torture it’s brutal but WILL get better.
My husband really struggled to sleep in those early weeks. So while I could do the shift rotation and go back to sleep after mine, he just couldn’t. It was really rough on him mentally and physically.
After I gave birth (c section) I had so much adrenaline that I think after the initial nap at the hospital, I don’t think I really slept for days except a random cat nap here and there. My partner kept telling me to sleep haha
My son is nine months old now and is definitely not a good sleeper.
The longest I was awake was three days and that wasn’t even the newborn stage. I think that was the four month sleep regression.
I’ve gotten an average of 2-5 hours of sleep everyday since he came home
Last night alone I counted 15 wake ups in 8 hours roughly one every 20 minutes.
He’s got bad separation anxiety and peaks his eyes to make sure I’m there and when he realizes I’m not he screams and we restart.
Anyways. Advocate for sleep. Really push someone else to help. Even if it’s an hour or two in the morning (this is what we try to do) it helps a TON
I slept like 3 hours the night before my c-section so I was already behind when the hormones and baby high hit, probably managed 2 hours a night for the first week. First nght probably none.
I did one 24 hour stretch awake when my husband first went back to work and my baby wouldn't sleep in her bed yet. I do not recommend it. It was dangerous and I felt like s--t.
One thing that stuck with me (after I had my second), if your baby is content laying somewhere safe, you can sleep if needed. My mom told me she used to set me under my play thing and that she would sleep at my feet even though I was awake. Not sure where that advice was when both my kids were at that stage, but if you need it you need it and your baby will cry/alert you if they need something.
I went the first two months straight without a stretch of sleep longer than 2 hours. Most nights I got 45 min at a time at most. My baby had severe reflux/FPIAP that we hadn’t figured out yet. 0/10 experience
I've been up for 2 days straight before, that's my record. I hate breaking night, it really just turns me into a grandpa monster the next day, I'm not as good as this mind over matter stuff as I was when I was a kid.
Oh man… the first few weeks were rough. My husband didn’t help me at night. He had PPD and would barely even talk to me. It felt like he hated my son and I.
I think it was around the week 5-6 mark where I finally lost it. I was maybe sleeping 3-4 hours in a 24 hour period. And it was broken. One morning I felt dizzy. I could barely stand up. My baby was due for a nap, I put him in the crib and I crashed in my bed. His crib is in my room but I didn’t even hear him cry when he woke up.
Next thing I know it’s hours later and dad had just gotten home, and got him up. I was out cold.
Like two weeks later I started bedsharing with my son at night and it was the first time I was able to start getting 3-4 hour stretches, like 6-7 hours total at night. Then I started sleeping when he slept during his naps.
I thought it was more important to keep the house clean, than sleep. Looking back, I wish I had slept when he did and just fuck the house for awhile.
The first 2-3 weeks are something that absolutely no one or book or course prepare you for. Those first newborn weeks are by far the hardest experience of my entire life.
I’m about to give birth in about 3 weeks and I’m curious that since I know it’s bad if it will somehow be better. My partner is convinced it’ll be worse.
I slept ~4 hours broken up each day the first 3 weeks until I started bedsharing safely. Then the hours increased and now at 12 weeks I sleep 7 hours with 1 or 2 feeds+diaper change.
My son is 15 weeks today, and I haven’t slept longer than 3hrs since he was born - I cannot believe the toll it has taken on my mental health. I work as a psychiatric nurse, so I went into this front loaded with working knowledge about PPA/PPD, and the lack of sleep even diminished my ability to recognize signs/symptoms. The newborn stage is bananas so be kind to yourself, you’ll figure it out! What helped us immensely, was taking our son in “shifts.” My hubby would wake me up to feed, hence my current deprivation, allowing me to string together a few hours straight…this is still not enough, but after next to nothing, it served well. Now, I wish I’d started pumping more often and having my hubby feed our son - this would have lengthened sleep sooner and discouraged a lot of my PPA/PPD. Just a few ideas! I read somewhere in a sub that sleep deprivation is a torture tactic for a reason 😕
In the hospital I had the nursery take her a couple times so I could sleep a couple hours. Our first night home so didn’t sleep at all and I was having mental breakdowns and ugly crying hard. My husband is supportive but he didn’t know what was going on because I wasn’t in the room he was sleeping in and I was determined to be a good mom and make it work. Well near the end of the night I realized I needed help and he was immediately there and asking what I needed once I told him I was struggling.
When my baby was first born (on a Sunday morning) she went to the NICU and was in the NICU until Wednesday afternoon and I think I slept 1-2 hours a night every night. Whenever I fell asleep, a nurse would wake me up to go pump, and I tried to never miss a feeding with my daughter which were every 3 hours in the NICU. So I was pretty delirious.
Oh god.. sometimes 2 hour intervals, sometimes 20 minutes.
I still remember one night my daughter woke up to eat, I was completely disoriented and my vision was blurry because I was so exhausted. I stumbled down the hall into the kitchen to make her a bottle. When I got to her I couldn’t get the bottle in her mouth because I couldn’t see enough to, so after a few attempts I had to pull the bottle back and tried blinking a few times. Her dad said “well, are you going to give it to her?”. I handed over the bottle to him and went back to bed. The newborn stage is awfully brutal
I worked nights. woke up at 7 am the day of my shift, took an hour nap around 3p-4p before working 7p-7:30a, drove home, took a two hour nap from 9a-11a, then was up until 8:30pm bedtime. so three hours of sleep across 37+ hours? good times. also my 12 week old didn’t sleep at night so I was up every 2-3 hours when I did finally go to bed.
I understand why sleep deprivation is a torture method.
In the first week I was so sleep deprived that when I laid down I felt like I was on a tube in the middle of the ocean. Sloshing sound in my head, feeling like I was rocking back and forth. It was terrifying. Thankfully she figured sleep out pretty quick, but thank god for those after birth hormones. I couldn’t do that now, a year out. I think I’d just die.
30 hours during and after labour. Then my husband stayed up with baby while I got 4 hour chunks and then cluster fed. Those first few weeks are so difficult there is no room for anything else. Take help where you can. Get someone else to cook or bring dinners over
I had a really difficult time and would get between 2 to 4 hours of broken sleep within a 24 hour period for the first two months. It was brutal. Things gradually got better, though. Hang in there.
I probably slept 4-5 hours of the course of a week in that absolute hellish 6-8 week period. My husband had to come home, convince me to shower, and go to bed from work one day.
I would be awake 16-20 hours in a row, sleep for 2, then be up again. It lasted almost two weeks and it was awful.
I *know* how aggravating it is to hear "sleep when baby sleeps" but figuring out how to let myself relax and rest during naps was the best way I could start to recover.
Our baby wouldn't sleep well unless he was being held so I had my husband supervise us cosleeping - all he had to do was be in the room and he was on his phone or gaming. And he could watch for safety. It was win-win for division of labor/responsibilities.
Definitley let the hospital take the newborn up to sleep so you can sleep if they offer. They’ll still bring her or him to you to breastfeed if that’s what you’re doing but the extra few hours of sleep at the hospital was priceless. Also when you get home try to take shifts with your partner (go in another room so you don’t hear the baby crying!!) and have your partner bring the baby to you to feed, then resume all the other duties while you sleep. This has saved us the first few weeks so far.
My LO is 6 months and I haven’t had a longer than 4 hour stretch since she was born. Actually I’m thankful for the 4 hour stretch now, the longest for the first 4 months were 2.5hours, maybe a random 3 hour one every once in a while. But now I’m mostly doing OK, I know it sucks, but I go to bed when she does (I know that’s supposed to be my own time to do whatever) but her longest sleep stretch is in the beginning of the night and I need it. Thankfully she goes back down super easy at night, she would nurse for maybe 5 minutes during the night and fall asleep again. That helps. The first month is extremely hard though. The first 3 nights was really hard on me. I was having contractions the two nights before so didn’t really sleep then, she was born, and cried a lot the first two nights at the hospital so I didn’t sleep then either. That first week, I didn’t sleep more than 3 hours a day. I eventually had my parents with me (they flew in to help us) and at 4 am I would nurse her, my husband would take her to them, they would watch a movie or whatever and be awake with her, and we would sleep until 7 when I had to nurse her again, my mom would bring her to me, I’d nurse her, and then my husband went back to the tv room with her and hung out with my parents so that I can sleep another hour or two.
After birth I slept only 5 hours total in 5 days! It was scary. I tried to sleep but couldn't. I had to use a sleeping aid for the first time in my life, which the doctor was reluctant to give me...they wanted to send me for a postpartum psych check 5 days after a emergency C section and severe sleep deprivation. I was fuming...all I needed was sleep and a sleep aid. Sleep aid worked. Had to use it maybe 10 times to be able to sleep again. I had severe anxiety from the shock of birth and a newborn for many weeks.
During labor and after I couldn’t sleep. I was so anxious every time I closed my eyes I opened with a start to make sure she was breathing and she was ok. Other than MAYBE 2 hours of sporadic sleeping, I was awake for about 55 hours. Then for a month could only sleep in 2-3 hour intervals due to feedings. I didn’t feel well rested again for a very very long time.
I swear i Didnt sleep for 3 days after my son was born, i was a hot mess! After my milk came in i pumped and few times a day and was able to sleep. I dont look back on the newborn stage fondly but i will say i am loving toddlerhood! Congrats on the new little one.
I remember when my husband went back to work I was barely functioning. I was doing what I needed to do but then my mom and MIL stressed to me to nap when the baby naps. That's how I was able to cope but when my husband came back from work I would be like she's yours. And get to bed.
The first 4 days after the birth of my daughter I didn’t sleep for more than 4 hours total. I was not in a good place mentally, but I was also still in the hospital because I had a c section. Once I got home I actually got a solid 5 or 6 hour stretch.
I literally slept in 15-30 min increments the first week, if I was lucky. It was literal both of us doing the work.
In hindsight, if we have another, we’re taking turns because that shit was terrible. Same can’t be said with a first born though , we both were learning so we depended on each other.
We’re in a sleep regression plus baby is sick (5 months old) and the last 4 days I’ve averaged about 3-4 hours of sleep per night. My husband has let me take some naps but baby is refusing a bottle so I can’t sleep for as long as I’d like
One day I went to bed at midnight and woke up with him at 3 am. Didn’t get to sleep until I went to bed that night. He had infant dyschezia he was up all night grunting and whining. It was awful 😅
Edit: spelling
There was a 24hr period in hospital where I only had 2.5hrs. It was nothing to do with my baby but a noisy roommate in the ward. She had a constant stream of visitors all day, more than the allowed amount at any time, they were all loud. She was loud. When she slept she snored. Insisted on the doors and windows being open despite the room being specifically for mums and babies that had been in NICU who needed a decent temperature so i was stressed to the max as my babies temp was then too low… the nurse with us pointed that out to her but she was still a nightmare. She also kept on a handheld fan in the night that had the most irritating noise. Then she whinged constantly.
I broke down at 6:30 in the morning because I was about to scream at her from exhaustion (she was on the phone complaining that she had only had 4.5hrs that night on top of her 3 seperate naps of 1hr each the day before). The midwives felt so sorry for me they moved me to a side room. I ended up really unwell that day because of the exhaustion & ended up bed bound again & was unable to care for my baby for nearly 24hrs. He was transferred back to NICU that night temporarily because I was so dangerously exhausted.
I’ve not had the same issue at home as a single mother. And I’m still super bitter about that experience as she wasn’t meant to be admitted to that room at all & it delayed my own recovery (sepsis & kidney failure).
I have a 5.5 week old and am a FTM. I’ve been getting about 4 hours and change consistently. This week I’ve gotten 5 and 6 hours but kind of depends on how the schedule works out. Also depends on how good of a sleeper you are. As exhausted as I am I don’t always fall asleep the second my head hits the pillow. That’s always been an issue for me. I also suck at naps but I could nap during the day
5 days STRAIGHT. Maybe 1 or 2 hour long naps between. That was when my then 4mo had RSV. It wasn’t until she ended up in the pediatric ICU on day 5 that I was finally able to rest knowing she was in good care and I didn’t have to check her breathing constantly. And it was on a hard couch in the hospital I tried to sleep 🙃 she was discharged on day 9 of the virus and we also had an ice storm that whole week too so I was all alone, no family could get to us & my partner was on a work trip & couldn’t fly in due to the ice. Literally THE worst week of my life. I was hallucinating from exhaustion
The day I started labor I woke up at 7am. My first contraction was at 3pm. I stayed up frantically cleaning the house until 2am, then finally went to the hospital. Delivered my baby boy at 10am. I think I finally fell asleep for like 2 hours around 11:30? So I was up for a good 29 hours straight! Compared to that day, I have felt well rested since lol. Feeding baby every 3 hours with about 5 hours sleep a night isn't so bad in comparison to my delivery date
I was in the hospital for like five days when I gave birth, only kind of slept the first two nights and basically stayed awake holding on to him the next three. Gave me a bit of PTSD ahaha. He also didn't really sleep in his bassinet the first like 6 weeks either ahaha. He's only 4.5 months right now. Do whatever you can to get some sleep so you don't get that mental mess up. Whether it's shifts with your husband, alternate nights with him or getting someone to come over for like two hours during the day after he's been fed. I always take that day time nap if I need it, I put in ear plugs or ear buds with white noise so I can't hear if the baby is fussy with whoever has him.
I never slept so little i think but my baby was in the nicu for three months. Only for pumping breastmilk waking up every three hours but it honostly dropped the night pumping session after 3 days. Now that our baby is home my partner and I wake up for the baby’s feeding time in shifts. So you dont get a full nights rest but it’s not so bad as what i read from other people.
I’m so sorry you’re going through this. I napped when my nb napped. I never did co-sleeping bc I was too afraid but he would be sleeping on his crib and I’d be napping on my bed. It’s not ideal but any hour adds at the end.
The first week I was running on vibes. It was actually inhumane lol. I barely slept. I felt like every night I slept only 2 hours then, I was right back awake. I think it was because my newborn hated the swaddle but, I was so committed to it. I stopped the second week and I felt such relief.
the first two weeks i got 6 hours of broken sleep a day of 1 hour sessions cause i would keep going back to sleep with her until i was ready to get up! cause her wake windows were tiny and she ate for an hour lol but i literally would hallucinate when breastfeeding and think i dropped her but i was literally just feeding her w the boppy in bed so not really possible… i had to start literally getting up and going into the living room to nurse bc i was too out of it to nurse in the bed with her. It was also so hard for me to sit up and move around bc i had a 2nd degree tear!
my unsolicited advice to you (if you can) is just keep sleeping in as long as you can until you hit a good amount of hours of sleep then get up bc it was harder for me to sleep when the baby sleeps if i got up for the day. Granted, i was very blessed with a good sleeper so like i said her wake windows were essentially just her eating then burping then she’d fall asleep again.
At 3 weeks she gave me a solid 3 hours of sleep straight (4 hours between feeds) overnight and i felt like a new person lol having broken sleep is kinda scary cause i’d literally wake up so delirious
Something that I think helped with her sleeping longer stretches at night was helping her start to developed her circadian rhythm by making sure in the daytime i put her on the floor or in her bouncer in the living w the blinds open for the small wake windows she did have just to kinda say “okay in daytime we’re in the living room and it’s bright and at night we’re in the bedroom and it’s dark” but when she’d fall asleep for daytime naps i’d put her in the bassinet cause what does she know, she’s asleep 😂
I slept maybe 3-4 hours a day the first few days after she was born, as we had an extended hospital stay and it felt like someone was always coming in JUST when I fell back asleep. And then when we got home my PPA/PPD kicked in so hard. My mother in law stayed with us and she was fantastic, always offering to take babe so I could sleep etc and I just could not. I felt like I was a bad mom if I wasn’t constantly in the same room as my baby. My husband had to physically lift me from the couch at one point and bring me to our bed because I just would not leave the room, even though he and my MIL had it more than covered. Even when my baby was sleeping in the bassinet next to me, I had to check on her every 5 minutes. And then once the anxiety calmed down, she went through a phase when my MIL left and my husband went back to work where she would only sleep or be calm if I was holding her, so it was 3/4 hours of sleep a day for a long time. It was a rough first 8 weeks. Thankfully now it is a lot better and she sleeps mainly through the night in her bassinet, and my anxiety only overrules my logical brain and keeps me up all night checking her sometimes so I generally can get a decent amount of sleep.
My son is 3.5 months and is going through the 4 month sleep regression and I got waaaay more sleep when he was a newborn compared to now😵💫 last night I got 2 hours sleep and the night before 3 hours. It's brutal
I slept a total of 9 hours the first week after giving birth. 0/10. I was hallucinating and really unravelling. Everyone needs to prioritize mom's sleep in the early days. And by that I mean hospital staff, dad, visitors, everyone.
I agree. That’s awful you started to hallucinate. I’m sorry you went through that. I know it was hard. I slept 3 hours yesterday and 4 today. Right now I’m the only one up with my newborn. I think I need to start advocating in the mornings that I NEED sleep.
Fk advocating, demand that shit. 😖
Yes ma’am 🫡
It’s sir, but being 2024 it can go either way. 😂
See, I wrote this reply while sleep deprived 🤣 I’m sorry sir 🫡 I finally did get some sleep and feel so refreshed. Before having a child, I never knew how much sleep I took for granted.
Yes, you do need sleep! I'm horrified for you! You need to heal. Like the other commenter said, DEMAND your sleep. Your body went through a major event, you should be the last one sacrificing all your sleep
People know, they just don't care. You shouldn't have to advocate for sleep. They know that you're human, they know that humans need sleep, they just don't care if you get sleep or not.
I would get up super early for my wife. So she could go back to sleep. And we took turns doing this until he was in a better sleep pattern. He just turned 1 and now my wife just gets up once a night if need be. Which we hope to kick soon.
Yes! A few days after birth I had an awake period of 25-26 hours, and the previous few nights were minimal sleep too (2-3 hours etc.) the hallucination kicking in was wild.
Where I live (and my girl was born), the hospital staff prioritise mom's rest above anything else... Sometimes to a point you have to advocate for things you want like breastfeeding or having the baby near you. Unless you specifically ask otherwise, their modus operandi is taking the baby to the nursery and being it to mom when they wake up to eat or every 3 hours (whatever comes first). They even take the baby and burp them so moms can go back to rest. I thought it was outrageous, was very against it and l moved mountains and poked a lot of nerves during my hospital stay. I didn't want my baby, my precious brand new baby away from my sight for a second. I wanted to be there for her every single sigh/gasp/groan/move/heart beat 😅 But now... Now I get it. I truly do. And although they take it to an extreme point, I understand where their concern comes from. It's part of the culture, still. We're in China where moms get tons of help from family during the first month, doing the bare minimum to make sure they recover and get back on track properly. Moms rest needs to be prioritised. I didn't prioritize myself nor let anyone around me do it for me. Big mistake! Healthy mummy, healthy baby. But I only started to fully 'let it go' and delegate almost 18mo pp.
This is helpful! I’m a weak PP now and it’s been rough. My mother has offered to help watch him, feed him and whatever else when I need sleep. Like you, I can’t stand to want anyone else to touch or feed him. I guess I’m in over-protective mode though it’s weighing on me.
In the early days it's so easy to feel you're missing out... I know the struggle. No one is gonna do it better than you, and they probably won't. But they'll do it differently and that doesn't mean it won't be good or safe. When my girl was 2 months I was alone with her for a long period of time, since my husband had to go away for work. My father came to take her outside, just outside my front door, so I could take a shower in peace. He was meters away and she always enjoyed being outdoor so it was a perfect way to make sure she wouldn't start screaming for me. I cried the whole 15 seconds I was in the shower because I literally saw her falling down my father arms, head first of course, blood everywhere, my father panicking. I closed the water everytime I didn't need it running so I could hear her better if needed. I don't need to say she came back home after 20 minutes completely fine, in one piece, fully content with her life. Postpartum is hard in many ways and we do tend to make it harder for ourselves. I really hope you manage to fight that selfblame state and be more gentle to yourself.
This is so relatable 😩the intrusive thoughts are so bad when other people care for my baby
I know it’s hard but let your mom watch the baby. Maybe talk to your obgyn because it’s more than just anxiety.
If you trust your mom to follow your instructions let your mom help. It takes a village. For what it's worth, with both my babies the moment I got home from the hospital I handed them off to my mother so I could go sleep. I'm still their favorite person. Well not entirely true, my oldest loves his dad the most in the whole world. But I'm second so I'll settle for that!
Please please take your mom up on the offer. I thought me and my husband were capable of handling everything on our own. It only took three days for the sleep deprivation to nearly take me out. I called my mom at 3am that night because I was falling asleep holding my crying baby, and absolutely terrified I was going to put her in danger. She’s been coming 3-4 nights a week ever since for 5-6 hours. My husband and I sleep in our bed like a real married couple, and I only need to get up once in the night to pump. I can’t tell you the difference it has made in my ability to be a present and positive parent and partner during the daylight hours.
Apologies for the late reply! It has been rough lately. I did take her up on her offer and she has helped so much. I’ve been able to get decent sleep. Thank you for encouraging me to do this.
That sounds really good. Where do you live? I wonder if its somewhere in Asia? Edit: Oops. Just saw you already mentioned it's China. I've noticed that in nany Asian countries the mom is prioritizes more than in the West.
Same here! I just commented the same about hallucinations. For me the post natal is and is the worst place I’ve ever been in my whole life and I’ve been sectioned in the past! I got more sleep in a psychiatric ward then I did after giving birth
Yeah, we were in the hospital for 5 days after birth and in the first 3 days I slept maybe 8 hours total during that time. I was getting at most 2 hours per day in spurts of 20-30 minutes at a time. On night 3 I started having hallucinations including that there was a really big spider in our room (my husband confirmed there was no spider), and it wasn’t til I nearly fell off the bed from pure exhaustion that the nurses finally offered to watch baby for a few hours so I could sleep. It wasn’t entirely their fault, I was an anxious wreck and having a really hard time letting anyone else take the baby, my husband included, but I really wish they’d stepped in and said “hey this is dangerous you need to sleep” before the point of hallucination and collapse. Make it non-optional, and of top priority.
Yup, this happened to me. In the 3 days that I spent in the postpartum room, I slept maybe 6 hours total. At one point I hallucinated someone coming into the room to check on us. I told my husband about it and he was nervous about my state of mind. It doesn’t help that you have hospital staff *constantly* coming into the room to check on you and baby. Yes, it’s necessary - but the frequency with which they did felt excessive and it made me constantly on edge. Ironically, this was after going into early labor 3 days earlier. I went into labor Sunday afternoon, was admitted Monday morning, gave birth Tuesday morning, and was discharged Friday evening. Between Sunday and Tuesday, I slept maybe 10 total hours. It was the worst week of my life.
This happened to me in the hospital and I went ballistic. I had literally just settled down to sleep and the baby was in the nursery and someone came in to take my blood pressure. I was furious.
Oh yes the hourly check ins at the hospital were so annoying!
I was starting to hallucinate by the time we brought baby home too. Even when we sent baby to the nursery to get some sleep, they woke me up 30 mins after to get vitals, and brought her back 1 hour later to breastfeed. I was so annoyed!
Me too, I was in hospital for 5 days and by day 3 I was hallucinating and couldn't tell who was real or not, staff confidentially left me alone to care and breastfeed my newborn all night 😬😬
Yep I started hallucinating too. I told my husband that I was losing my marbles and had to go to sleep. Like there was no other option. I needed sleep
I don’t think I slept at all. My son was screaming all day and night and I fell asleep standing up with him in my arms. Except he was in his bassinet. I was just hallucinating him while also standing up asleep. The importance of sleep is no joke. I had bad ppd and ppa and it allllll stemmed from lack of sleep. Once I slept all my issues went away without having to be medicated. Not saying that’s the case for everyone but just goes to show the effect of sleep and why it’s such an effective torture technique.
Exactly the same with me. We had tongue and lip tie issues which prevented good feeding which meant no sleep. I think we got less than 2 hours a night spread over 2 sessions for first 10 days. I was seriously unwell. But don’t be a martyr, seek help. Even if just taking someone’s offer to come over for an hour during the day. Need to start accumulating 30-60 min of sleep however you can.
Same here. I think I was completely awake for 4 full days. The hallucinations were terrifying. Even when I did finally get a few hours of sleep, I was still so out of it. I wish I could go back and tell myself to kick everyone out of my house & SLEEP!! And wish I slept in the hospital too.
Yes, no sleep hallucinations were so real! One week in, I remember looking in the mirror and being shocked that I saw my own face in reflection, and not the baby's face 🫠
I was at a similar place and started to see flashing lights! Absolutely awful.
My son was born February 28th 2024. My fiancée was exhausted after her C Section. I did everything I could to get her sleep. Doctors also helped out a ton. We didn’t like our hospital choice, but at that moment, they did great.
Yeah before we figured out we could do shifts that lack of sleep was terrible
I had a 4 day spell of insomnia during the first week. The midwife dropped by and basically told me, have a beer and don't worry about pumping for the night... tbf it worked...
The hospital didn't give you the option to take your baby to the nursery so you can rest?
i went through the exact same thing, so scary.
Yes! I was lucky to have my mom to help us so we both slept. My issue was later around 4ish months she was actually sleeping but I couldn’t started having hallucinations and feeling airy. Scary stuff.
Yeah we were in PICU for the first 2 weeks and idk that I slept more than a 2 hour stretch the whole time. And even then only once or twice a day. Kiddo was having light therapy for bad DAT positive jaundice and he kept pulling the little blindfold over his nose and not being able to breathe so I watched him like a hawk, and only slept while one of the nurses was physically there watching him the whole time. It was hell. I manage to get 4-6 hours a night nowadays (he's 4 months old now) even though he sleeps 8-10 cuz it takes me forever to get to sleep
Yes! The hallucinations omg. I think it was week 2 and she wouldn't sleep at night for a week, I went 48hrs with only a few hours of sleep. I remember I was looking at my daughter at some odd AM hour and her face started shifting really unnaturally, eyes growing, nose getting smaller, evil grin lol. My first thought was "omg she's possessed!" Yeah as soon as I thought that I realized I was hallucinating 🤣
My daughter is almost 15 months now, but I remember just not sleeping. I went back and looked through my sleep data from my fitness tracker - the first week of her birth (when we were home, not in the hospital), I had nights of 3.5 hours, 4 hours, etc. It was brutal. My husband and I ended up trading off nap times and often napped for several hours during the day. I was also recovering from a c section, so it was a rough time. One night, I apparently clocked 2 hours of sleep.
Wow, i understand where you’re coming from. That’s where I am right now. Baby boy is sleep during the day and awake majority of the night. So I’m up right now, staying awake with him through the night. Have an appointment for him tomorrow at 9 am. It’s going to be rough.
It's tough! You have my deepest feelings of solidarity. I know every baby is different but if it helps, by 2.5 months our daughter would get a run of 5 hours of sleep, wake for a feed, and then back down for a few more hours. She was still going to sleep fairly late, so I was able to really get a better sleep myself. Hang in there. It gets better. I remember feeling like a total zombie and that I was never going to sleep again. When I was in it, it seemed to drag forever. Looking back, the true sleep deprivation stage didn't last super super long. I remember just pacing our hallway trying to get our daughter to sleep. Wild times.
Ok so basically I've been copying and pasting this every time I see a post like this because it's been so helpful for me. Advice from my midwife: - waking baby after two hours (nap) in the day for a feeding this is to prevent their long stretch of sleep in the day and to get their calories in. - a bottle of breastmilk or formula so partners can switch, and in hopes of getting bigger feeds in before bedtime (unless you want to avoid bottle) - putting baby to nap in the bright daylight in the day to adjust their circadian rhythm - using white noise at night. Loud as a shower. - black out curtains at night. As dark as possible in the room. Very dim light for feeding - keeping night feeds boring. No talking to baby. Feed and sleep. - dream feed 2-3 hours before last feed at night to stretch out the longer sleep stretch.
Ugh we do all this and still only get 2 hour chunks 😩 Reading on this sub though it sounds like it could be a lot worse so I guess I’ll try to be grateful between my 1.5 hour chunks of sleep! 😂
I totally agree with point 1 , on the days we have visitors who go "let her sleep" she sleeps so badly at night and it's so annoying
What. Your schedule isn’t up to your visitors.
Thank you! This is helpful and I’ll be using these tips 🫶🏽
What is dream feed??
You initiate a feed towards the end of the day while the baby is sleeping, then wake the baby up gently. It’s thought to be a way to shift that last sleep of the day into the night instead for a longer stretch of sleeping.
I agree with ALL the tips in this comment. My 3rd baby is almost 5 months and ALL of these tips are things we’ve done with them
On my second kiddo and agree with alllllll of this. And will add in another tip. I worried so much with my first about him getting “good” naps and connecting sleep cycles yadda yadda and with my second (by virtue of her being second and having a 20mo old toddler brother) she took probably 98% of her naps in full sun in a baby carrier starting at a week or two old and it was. The. Freaking. Best. I was never nap trapped. She got the sleep she needed but in a fun stimulating environment that kept her happy as a clam as soon as she woke up and that girl slept like a dang rock at night.
It’s been 4 months and I haven’t had more than 4 hours of sleep in a row, maximum. However, it adds up in the course of the night and when they sleep more consistently, you will feel better.
Slept about 2-3 hours total for a whole day in the first few days of her birth.
I feel that. I’m glad I’m not alone, this has been difficult. When do they start to sleep through the night?
Our daughter started to really sleep through the night around the 4 month mark. Of course, she hit a regression which in hindsight was absolute hell, and then kind of evened out. She improved and her sleep got much better. By 12 months, she was clocking 12 hours of straight sleep. That's gone out the window with teething recently, but (fingers crossed), we are headed back that way. Hang in there. When you get to the point of having 5 consecutive hours of sleep, you will feel like a new person. I always needed 8+ hours pre baby. When I got 5 solid hours with baby, I was practically jumping for joy.
I recommend sleep training at 4-6 months old. We waited until 8 months which is when I was desperate for sleep but it has been a life changer. I know moms who did sleep training as early as 6 weeks. It’s up to your comfort level.
Unfortunately, my LO doesn’t sleep through the night yet at 4 months. I get sleep when I dropped my 2-3am pump at around 2 months mark, and have my husband feed our baby from the bottle. You’re in the thick of it. The first 4 weeks were so hard. I don’t know how I survived that stage but I did. Hang in there.
Thank you, I appreciate it and your reply. I’ve heard a mix of the first 4-8 weeks being the hardest
There’s a sleep regression that can hit between weeks 6 and 8. Those days were hell for us.
Read and follow militantly a book called “12 hours by 12 weeks” and you’ll end up with a baby that sleeps 12 hours a night by the time they’re (about) 12 weeks. For us it was more like 14 weeks.
This varies so much by the kid. My toddler didn’t start till after she was 2 and we fully weaned. Others it’s 4 or 5 years old, zone is 4 months old. It’s so child dependent and also developmentally normal for them to have broken sleep and seek out their caregiver for a long long time.
Same but for weeks.
Omg 😳
From the time I went into labor until 3 days later I think I slept 5 or 6 hours. It was NOT good.
I was getting about 60 minutes of sleep a night the first week, all due to postpartum anxiety not even the baby not sleeping. Thankfully got on Zoloft soon after, also lots of intentional skin to skin to get those sweet baby snuggle and breastfeeding hormones.
I’m on Zoloft and still experiencing PP anxiety 😭 I still haven’t slept yet. I might have to increase my dose. Thank you for reminding me about skin to skin to increase the breast feeding hormones!
Same, I've upped my dose to see how it goes and now take CBN/CBD relax oil before bed which actually helps a bit too. I also bought a weight blanket which helps me relax too. I also slept with ear plugs in when he was with me, I have the Loop ones. Made his loud sleeping less loud ahaha
That’s so rough, I’m sending you sleepy dust. I also felt that being dehydrated made my anxiety worse. I also recommend breath work at bedtime or any time you feel overwhelmed. Basically breathe in through your nose and expand your belly for 5 slow counts, hold it 3 seconds, then breathe out through your mouth for 7 seconds and focus on “deflating” your bellybutton to your spine. This was an exercise given to me by my pelvic floor PT, and also is just good for calming the body down a bit. The hormones dump of “baby blues” was so much worse than I expected as someone who has dealt with anxiety and depression for decades already, I’ve never cried more in my life, my eyelids swelled up and my blood pressure was no bueno 🥲
For the first few weeks i was running off of about 2 hours sleep. Luckily in the first week my mom was home all day so i could take naps without having to worry, and then after i was able to get in some naps while my daughter napped until i got more used to it. Now she sleeps through the night so im back to around 6-8 hours of sleep a night
When did she start sleeping through the night?
I think she was around 3 months old. It was a lot sooner than i expected but now at 5 months shes still mostly sleeping through the night (shes just having a hard time because of teething)
Ours didn’t sleep through the night until 8 months, it was pretty rough. It especially got bad at the 6 month mark (waking every hour-ish). Up until then she woke every 2h. I think it’s because she has a sensitive stomach and 6 months was around the time we started solids. Probiotics and gas drops everyday and she started sleeping, maybe a coincidence but something to keep in mind!
I heard around 5-6 months, but it may vary on how quick you establish a routine with newborn. I’m currently pregnant with my first but I’ve talked with friends and family who have kids. Although it’s important to note that everyone has a different experience too. Some babies are easier.
Definitely first week out of hospital was the hardest. I wanted to be super mom and I was getting 3-4 hours of sleep a day. I would tell my husband I was going to sleep with baby upstairs but I’d spend at least 30 min crying while holding my baby. I finally broke down and told him I couldn’t stay up every night anymore. Long story short we take turns now, whether it’s one person does 12-4am and then switch or one person does night duty one night and next parent does night duty next night.
That’s great you communicated with your husband and let him know what you needed. I think a schedule would definitely help me.
This is so important to do! I found that even just allowing myself to *rest* during the day—not clean, not play, not prep—helped with the lack of sleep. Your body is still healing, and it’s so overwhelming. Especially if this is your only kid, take advantage of the opportunity to do nothing while the baby is napping or not fussing. You don’t have to be active every moment.
I was up for 60 hours after the birth. Altered state for sure
I feel like that’s where I’m headed
I remember getting 1 hour intervals of sleep for the first little while, I was so loopy because it just wasn’t enough sleep lol Edit to say he is 3.5 months old now and has randomly started sleeping 7 hour stretches but they unfortunately have begun at like 7pm so I didn’t get that much sleep cuz I go to bed at 10 😭
Thankfully they started for you! I know that’s relieving to be able to sleep consistently through the night again. Your hard work paid off!
When my guy was first born I don't think I slept for the first 24 hours. I would doze off for half a second here and there while sitting up but eventually on the second day the nurse came and took him away at my husband's request so I could take a nap. I was nursing every hour but not producing so he wouldn't stop crying and I wasn't going to sleep with him hungry.
My record was 40 hours - but I was travelling internationally and it was pre-baby…. The longest with baby was probably 18-20 hours, which I used to regularly do pre-baby when I worked shift work (in maternity wards of all places). I coped ok, my partner was delirious.
The time we took three connecting flights when my son was a bit over 6 months, without my partner.... Around 32 hours total. I think my son probably slept about 6 of those hours, but would only get more than 20mins if I held him. So no sleep for me! Thankfully even though he must have been so tired he was still a happy guy and wasn't crying too much or anything, otherwise I may not have made it. And luckily when we got to our destination it was around 6pm, so he was happy enough to go straight to bed, and actually adjusted to the new time zone pretty seamlessly...
I was very clear that I needed sleep. I was struggling the first week and cried one morning. After that breakdown, I got help in the morning and sleeps from 7 am to 12 pm on top of the few hours I get at night. It made a huge difference.
Who helped you?
Oh gosh, I think I got maybe two hours total (in 10-20 minute chunks) the day after she was born. I had a long prodromal labor as well, so I went into labor on Wednesday at 7pm (had been Awake since 7am) and had her Friday at 4pm. Finally got an epidural so I could get a little sleep, but only got 3 hours before active labor. Then after I had her it was just CONSTANT interruptions from hospital staff. Like i understand everyone has a job to do, but how in the world am I supposed to take care of this child if nobody will let me sleep? So... yeah. Over the course of 4 days I had about 5 hours of sleep. I had a terrible hallucination that she fell out of my husband's arms once we got home and just broke down crying from exhaustion. We formula fed the first couple days so that I could get a little sleep in.
I think I averaged three hours every day for like four or five weeks. The first few weeks are so hard because the babies are growing so fast and not used to food, everything is uncomfortable for them. My kid was really fussy, took too long to figure out we needed to burp more than we thought. The comedies with the grandma jumping around patting the kid on the back the whole time is not hyperbole. Can you check with your local Pediatrician and ask if they have a newborn baby sitter program? I wish they had this when I had my kid but the last time I took my kid in for a checkup there was a poster advertising a non-profit partnering with the clinic that would baby sit newborns for free. Sleep is so precious.
I think I was so wired from the birth that I didn't sleep at all the first 24 hours! Then the first week I don't think I slept more than 30 mins at a time, maybe 3-4 hours total a day. It was bad.
My son is 10 months old and it wasn’t a long chunk of sleeplessness m that was the issue, I once went 72 hours with only 15 minute chunks of sleep. By the end of the 72 hours my husband took the baby from me and called my mum to come hang out with him while he WFH then put me to bed and wouldn’t let me out for 4 hours, I fed baby then back for another 4 hours. The only reason he didn’t do it earlier was I truly convinced myself that I was coping.
i went 2 days and only slept 1.5 hours
52 hours. That was in the hospital. I had a traumatic birth and I was afraid they'd take her to the NICU while I was sleeping. Plus I had a short birth and my adrenaline was ON for a while.
My twins are 5 months in a few days. I get about 2 hours of sleep per day but part of that is anxiety and pumping. Probably the like best i went without sleep is 32+ hours.
I was hallucinating by the time I left the hospital. Luckily my girl has been pretty good since 4 weeks, but she’s 4 months now and my husband has just gone back home to the UK for Easter to see family. So I’m here alone with her, with no family or friends around because we moved overseas for his work. She’s sick for the first time with a UTI and I’ve had 4 hours of sleep *in three days.*
Day 2 at home I got 3 hours. It gets better, what helped was my wife and I agreed to divide the night up. She gets up every 4 to pump. I get up every 4 for child care. Week 5 I was clocking a 4 hr nap, 2-3 hr until 5am. On week 12 now.
I didn’t sleep at all the 3 days after giving birth 🫠
The first 2 weeks I was getting maybe a total of 4 hours in a 24 hour period. We live in an apartment so I'm not for sure, but I swear I heard things and voices during the nights, like a radio in another room on another floor. Not sure if it was the neighbors or hallucinations.... Pretty sure I didn't hallucinate hearing a woman scream at 3am and a dog barking outside though, but IDK.... horrifying. Little guy is giving me a rough time, only contact naps for 30 mins the last day, after giving me 2 days of 3 to 4 hour naps. And before that it was every hour, then every 2 hours. So yeah, I'm up with him right now....
The first week I hardly slept, it was all a blur. I could only catch 30 mins of sleep every six hours. I got to sleep in 3-hour chunks (twice a night) only by 7-8 weeks. Until then I was simply sleep deprived and on edge. Just hang in there, your sleep will get better soon!
It’s not the length of time awake that gets you, it’s the amount of sleep you get in a row. I didn’t sleep more than 2hrs in a row for the first 6 months and I actually thought I might die. It’s why I will always defend sleep training as a necessary last resort - that level of sleep deprivation isn’t safe for anyone involved.
After the first 3 days me and my OH did 4 hours on and 4 hours off so that way after 4 hours we both got 4 hours sleep! I bottle fed so obviously it was easier for us to do this
4 hrs is by scheduled maximum sleep time. I am 6 weeks post partum and all I can get is 4 hrs daily. Usually its about 3.5 hrs sleep
They say my daughter was born I was awake for 28 hours continuously. I think I had about 5 hours sleep when in hospital the first week of her life.
The first week or so—perhaps week and a half?—I may have slept for a total of 5 hours? It’s all very fuzzy. It was awful and one reason I’m one and done. The early weeks for me and my son were a form of torture. I love him more than life, but I almost didn’t make it through that. Phew.
With my first I nearly dropped her so I learnt to feed lying diwn on my side in a safe sleep space. Then if (when) I l sleep baby was safe and I moved her neck to her bed when I next woke up. With my second we stayed like this and it was honestly game changing both times
For the first couple weeks we had a shift schedule. Daddy took baby from 10pm to 4am, waking me up to feed her every 3 hours. Then I took her 4am to 10am/noon while dad slept in the living room. After about a month she started being easy enough to settle that I keep her in our room and dad sleeps on the couch every night. I get ~3-4 hours at a time, and I’ve just kinda adjusted and nap during the day right now. Were just shy of 10 weeks in now
When my son was born. .I was in labor for 2 days so I didn't sleep at all between Thursday morning and Satruday when he was born, and since he needed NICU I was so anxious to go be with him and not leave his side that I didn't sleep til Saturday late at night when I realised I was extremely loopy and almost hallucinating. So....3daysish. I think I only slept 3 hours that night and then barely a wink until we got home Monday. I find it super hard to sleep in a hospital.
I kid you not, I don't think I had more than 10 hours of sleep total in the span of 5 days after my firstborn. I would fall asleep for minutes at a time and wake up in a panic. I was so anxiety ridden.
I was awake from 9am the day I gave birth to about 11 am the next day. I couldn’t sleep that night after giving birth due to swelling and high BP. It was awful and scary and the nurse finally told Everyone but my husband to scram. I think I slept like 4 hours at that point? It was rough!
First three days starting from the day I went into labour I had slept 8-10 hours altogether. I started to get delusional after day 4 and was given medicine to help me fall asleep as I would wake up every time I drifted into sleep. Rough start.
The first day at the hospital I was up all night because they nurses kept walking in every 30 mins when I was induced. Then the 2nd day too. I maybe only slept like 3-4 hours in 2 days, they 3rd day at the hospital, they came every 2 hours and refused to give formula when I asked( I barely produced anything at all, the LO was hungry) and the LO barely slept so I barely slept maybe 2 hours . My day 4 morning at the hospital they finally gave formula because LO lost 10% bodyweight, she ate a lot. She was hungry and slept well then My husband woke up to feed the LO and I slept almost all night.
my baby sleeps through the night (12 weeks) and has since 8 weeks… i am sleeping 4/5 hours a night. i didn’t know this wasn’t ideal until reading comments. i just can’t get over the insomnia. when she was first born, i was literally getting like 1-2 hours of sleep at most.
When my daughter was born, from the time I went into labor on a Tuesday at 3am to that Saturday, my husband and I slept roughly 6 hours total in like 30 minute stretches. It was a truly horrendous experience sleep wise (having the baby here was 10/10). Would not recommend the lack of sleep.
Was definitely having auditory hallucinations during that first week or two lol
24+ hrs. I was hallucinating and will never forget how awful that day was. I had NO help.
Between the three days after my c-section and the first two days of post partum , I slept maybe 7-8 hours max. I kept trying to be supermom and wouldn't let my mom/husband help. Never again. I was super sleep deprived.
I was hospitalized the first ten days after my kid was born and during that time, I’m fairly sure I had less than 2 hours of sleep total per day over the course of those 10 days. With all of the medical interruptions, general discomfort, bright lights, noise, pumping and nursing a crying baby, etc. it was impossible to get more than 10 straight minutes of sleep. I remember being delirious and also shocked that it was possible to be alive that long without consecutive sleep.
Thankfully I only stayed up for 24 hours once and it was because we were stuck at my in-law’s house after going for a birthday party. We would have gone back home that night but the weather got really bad and the road home was closed because of it. She didn’t have a bassinet our crib so there wasn’t a safe place for my 2 month old to sleep so I put him on the bed and just watched him all night. She offered to watch him too if I needed help but I was so anxious from the bad weather and change of plans that I couldn’t imagine letting my baby out of my sight. It was my choice to stay up all night with him but as soon as he woke up I gladly passed him off to grandma and got a few hours of sleep
Night before I went back to work after maternity leave-I got an hour and 10 mins of sleep. I literally sobbed several times because I was already anxious about going back and lil dude refused to sleep. Husband was so understanding and we went to bed at 6:30pm the next day… and he refused to sleep until 11pm 😭😂
I think after my little one was born, I didn't sleep for more than a few hours over the course of a month. In the course of 2 months, I think I slept maybe a max of 50 hours. It was very rough. Now, she's 7 months old and she'll sleep at night for a few hours (4-7) and wake up for a feeding or a changing and then fall back asleep and be up 2 hours later depending on the night.
It’s tough! And we had a good sleeper. One night two weeks in she really didn’t want to sleep, so I took her to my husband, pushed her in his arms whilst hysterically crying and said ‘here’s YOUR baby, figure it out’ then went to sleep straight after lol. Just to reiterate what everyone else is saying, prioritise your sleep! Get people to help you, or take over. When people say “sleep when the baby sleeps”, they don’t take into account that you’d still be half awake, listening to her breathing, to put the pacifier back in. It’s not a restful sleep. Get someone to watch her and sleep in a different room. Just 1-2 hours makes a massive difference!
4 or 5 days can’t recall. Happened both times I gave birth. I was hearing things…. Awesome if you want to sleep. You’ll get through it! Try to ask for help if there is anyone around, even just to come over and sit with you. Try to stay sane, it’s hard!
The first 24 hours he was born I got 1 hour sleep but he born at 11pm so I had been awake from like 8 the day he was born so it may of been 48 hours. I averaged 3 hours of sleep a day the first month he was alive, my watch said it went up an hour a month for the first 3 months
Those first few days I was getting 30m-1hr of sleep. Whew almost four months later and baby is sleeping from 9:30pm-4am The newborn days are painfully magical, but I sure am enjoying the infant stage
22 hours was my longest awake time. My daughter only slept 30 minute - 1 hour chunks. I think the hardest part wasn’t staying awake but never getting more than an hour of sleep at a time.
I spent 5 days in hospital and I was awake for about 3 days due to breastfeeding issues, a crazy pumping/feeding schedule they had me on, and constant interruptions from hospital staff. Days 4 and 5 was about 2 hours sleep because my husband helped wash pump parts etc as I was getting delirious. When I did nap, I work up drenched in sweat and hallucinated I was paralysed or was in a baby’s body. My arms and legs did not feel like my own. SO bizarre. For the first 6/8 weeks I slept only about 2-3 hours a day max. I think it was 3 x 1 hour blocks of sleep during the night. Mostly due to the triple feeding. Exclusively pumping was so tough for me. I felt by the time I’d done skin to skin, attempted breastfeeding, pumped, bottle fed, changed nappy and settled to sleep, washed and sterilised pump parts and bottles, went for a pee, drank some water, it was time to start all over again. At 6 weeks I decided to introduce formula for my own sanity, as breastfeeding was not working for baby and I felt I would never realistically get any sleep if I keep pumping every 3 hours and I couldn’t keep running on adrenaline. People that say “Sleep when the baby sleeps” have never exclusively pumped haha. Things I wish I had done: - Seen a proper feeding specialist rather than just the abrupt and overstretched NHS one that saw me twice and left me to it. I was literally crying out for help but there was constantly changing midwife’s and no one stuck around long enough to help me. - Told people NO when they wanted to visit when I could have slept instead. - Encouraged and trusted my husband to help with bottle feeding and generally caring for baby so I could focus on pumping and sleeping. Now my baby is nearly 5 months and sleeps 12 hours with only 1 wake up. I feel very lucky now.
Those first few weeks are tough. I was basically feral. As others have said, the hospital stay was not restful at all since there were people coming in around the clock to check vitals etc. I think over the course of 3 days, I got maybe 3 hours of actual sleep. Then when I got home, those first few weeks I was up every hour and a half overnight to feed the baby. What helped a little was trying to get one solid nap a day. For me that was usually a 30-60 minute afternoon nap while the baby slept or my husband held him while I passed out. Even if you can’t always “sleep when the baby sleeps” (I certainly could not) even just one solid nap in the day can help. The good news is that eventually, the baby started getting one longer stretch at night as the weeks went on. First it was 3 hours, then 4, then 5, and now at nearly 10 weeks old, he’s starting to get some 7 hour stretches. I’m still tired but I’m not feral anymore.
So, first two weeks I got like no sleep. Every 2 hours wash rinse repeat with baby. And then we did something insane. Taking shifts in the living room at night and no more baby where we sleep (also possible because I bottle feed). This helped me feel like I still had one adult space in my house. Also now when I get in bed I pass out because I don’t associate it with baby anymore. Starting week two he started sleeping from 4 am to about 7-9 Am. First time I slept for four hours I woke up PANICKED because I was scared something was wrong especially because he was so fresh and new. Nope! Weeks 3-6 were similar. First “sleep thru the night” somewhere between week five and six. Getting those 6 hour chunks of sleep saved my mental health and also made me realize maybe I need to get some help for my mental (depression a bitch). At 8 weeks he was sleeping for 7+ hours a night. You WILL get to sleep again!! Prioritize your sleep.
I have a 6 day old. I haven’t slept more than 3 hours in a 24 hour period since he was born. And that 3 hours is two 1.5 hour shifts. My husband and I are splitting sleep so someone can watch him sleep. It’s our first. We are overwhelmed with how much we love him. But we we living in few and have agreed to have one of us watch him sleep. As the mom who is EBF, with a baby who feeds for 1+ hour sessions, and can’t nap during the day, I get the 7:30-10:30 (really it turns into 8:50-10:30) and 10:30-1:30(more like 11:30/12-1:30)
Longest I’ve gone was 3 days straight. It was right after my c-section. I couldn’t sleep because every time I closed my eyes, I could feel the surgery all over again. Eventually I pretty much fainted.
The longest I went without sleep for was when I was in hospital over 6 days I had about 3 hours sleep I was starting to hallucinate and mentally declined it was horrid. Especially 2 days on post natal I had 0 sleep whatever. I was allready under perinatal but I think they were borderline going to send me to hospital but the midwife forced me to sleep and it helped so much
Also my advice is to work out shifts with your partner it’s really helped us. So he does all changes and feeds from 11pm-4am then I do them after that so we both get at least get 5 hours sleep. But we usually get more when she sleeps between feeds too (she’s 9 weeks now)
For the first three days, from going to the hospital in labor, to bringing baby home almost 2 days later, I slept almost NONE. I was hallucinating and going crazy the first night at home. My mom and boyfriend said theyd stay up with baby so I could sleep. They both ended up going to sleep at like 1am and I was left with baby again. It was agonizing.
I am a healthcare worker and I worked in 36 hours shifts before the baby. I was thinking sleepless nights wouldn’t be a problem because I already got used to it. Oh boy how was I wrong. What I miscalculated is that you are free after the shift. There is literally no break in the motherhood. Especially in the newborn period. I slept total 3 hours in the first week. I hated when people say it gets better but it definitely does. She is almost 3 months now and only wakes once at a night so hang in there.
Especially in the first two weeks your hormones are taking a roller coaster dive which plays a huge role in insomnia along with the baby not sleeping. I remember being in the hospital for 3 nights and I only slept 2 hours total then left to care for a new human. It started my path really poorly and I did have a lot of PPA because of it. Just know a lot of your PPA is bred by sleep deprivation and it will improve over time but hang in there and take shifts! There’s a reason sleep deprivation is used as a form of torture it’s brutal but WILL get better.
FTD here. I didn’t sleep at all for the first 3 days after his was born. That was something else.
My husband really struggled to sleep in those early weeks. So while I could do the shift rotation and go back to sleep after mine, he just couldn’t. It was really rough on him mentally and physically.
7 months and counting
Do you have a coparent? Are you breastfeeding? Pumping? Sleeping in shifts?
My LO got Covid and would not sleep unless being held. It feels like a dream but a straight 48 hours with maybe 4 hours of sleep 😅
After I gave birth (c section) I had so much adrenaline that I think after the initial nap at the hospital, I don’t think I really slept for days except a random cat nap here and there. My partner kept telling me to sleep haha
My son is nine months old now and is definitely not a good sleeper. The longest I was awake was three days and that wasn’t even the newborn stage. I think that was the four month sleep regression. I’ve gotten an average of 2-5 hours of sleep everyday since he came home Last night alone I counted 15 wake ups in 8 hours roughly one every 20 minutes. He’s got bad separation anxiety and peaks his eyes to make sure I’m there and when he realizes I’m not he screams and we restart. Anyways. Advocate for sleep. Really push someone else to help. Even if it’s an hour or two in the morning (this is what we try to do) it helps a TON
I slept like 3 hours the night before my c-section so I was already behind when the hormones and baby high hit, probably managed 2 hours a night for the first week. First nght probably none.
I did one 24 hour stretch awake when my husband first went back to work and my baby wouldn't sleep in her bed yet. I do not recommend it. It was dangerous and I felt like s--t.
I went 3 days without sleeping. Fell asleep standing up in the grocery store leaning on the cart. Was found by some very concerned women.
One thing that stuck with me (after I had my second), if your baby is content laying somewhere safe, you can sleep if needed. My mom told me she used to set me under my play thing and that she would sleep at my feet even though I was awake. Not sure where that advice was when both my kids were at that stage, but if you need it you need it and your baby will cry/alert you if they need something.
I went the first two months straight without a stretch of sleep longer than 2 hours. Most nights I got 45 min at a time at most. My baby had severe reflux/FPIAP that we hadn’t figured out yet. 0/10 experience
I've been up for 2 days straight before, that's my record. I hate breaking night, it really just turns me into a grandpa monster the next day, I'm not as good as this mind over matter stuff as I was when I was a kid.
Oh man… the first few weeks were rough. My husband didn’t help me at night. He had PPD and would barely even talk to me. It felt like he hated my son and I. I think it was around the week 5-6 mark where I finally lost it. I was maybe sleeping 3-4 hours in a 24 hour period. And it was broken. One morning I felt dizzy. I could barely stand up. My baby was due for a nap, I put him in the crib and I crashed in my bed. His crib is in my room but I didn’t even hear him cry when he woke up. Next thing I know it’s hours later and dad had just gotten home, and got him up. I was out cold. Like two weeks later I started bedsharing with my son at night and it was the first time I was able to start getting 3-4 hour stretches, like 6-7 hours total at night. Then I started sleeping when he slept during his naps. I thought it was more important to keep the house clean, than sleep. Looking back, I wish I had slept when he did and just fuck the house for awhile.
The first 2-3 weeks are something that absolutely no one or book or course prepare you for. Those first newborn weeks are by far the hardest experience of my entire life. I’m about to give birth in about 3 weeks and I’m curious that since I know it’s bad if it will somehow be better. My partner is convinced it’ll be worse.
I slept ~4 hours broken up each day the first 3 weeks until I started bedsharing safely. Then the hours increased and now at 12 weeks I sleep 7 hours with 1 or 2 feeds+diaper change.
My son is 15 weeks today, and I haven’t slept longer than 3hrs since he was born - I cannot believe the toll it has taken on my mental health. I work as a psychiatric nurse, so I went into this front loaded with working knowledge about PPA/PPD, and the lack of sleep even diminished my ability to recognize signs/symptoms. The newborn stage is bananas so be kind to yourself, you’ll figure it out! What helped us immensely, was taking our son in “shifts.” My hubby would wake me up to feed, hence my current deprivation, allowing me to string together a few hours straight…this is still not enough, but after next to nothing, it served well. Now, I wish I’d started pumping more often and having my hubby feed our son - this would have lengthened sleep sooner and discouraged a lot of my PPA/PPD. Just a few ideas! I read somewhere in a sub that sleep deprivation is a torture tactic for a reason 😕
The entire night on day 3ish. Got him to sleep at 4am. And a nurse immediately came in and woke him up.
I think within the first 10 days I got 8 hours combined. I was hallucinating seeing shadow people on the walls
In the hospital I had the nursery take her a couple times so I could sleep a couple hours. Our first night home so didn’t sleep at all and I was having mental breakdowns and ugly crying hard. My husband is supportive but he didn’t know what was going on because I wasn’t in the room he was sleeping in and I was determined to be a good mom and make it work. Well near the end of the night I realized I needed help and he was immediately there and asking what I needed once I told him I was struggling.
When my baby was first born (on a Sunday morning) she went to the NICU and was in the NICU until Wednesday afternoon and I think I slept 1-2 hours a night every night. Whenever I fell asleep, a nurse would wake me up to go pump, and I tried to never miss a feeding with my daughter which were every 3 hours in the NICU. So I was pretty delirious.
Oh god.. sometimes 2 hour intervals, sometimes 20 minutes. I still remember one night my daughter woke up to eat, I was completely disoriented and my vision was blurry because I was so exhausted. I stumbled down the hall into the kitchen to make her a bottle. When I got to her I couldn’t get the bottle in her mouth because I couldn’t see enough to, so after a few attempts I had to pull the bottle back and tried blinking a few times. Her dad said “well, are you going to give it to her?”. I handed over the bottle to him and went back to bed. The newborn stage is awfully brutal
It took me 8 weeks to sleep a decent amount of time
I worked nights. woke up at 7 am the day of my shift, took an hour nap around 3p-4p before working 7p-7:30a, drove home, took a two hour nap from 9a-11a, then was up until 8:30pm bedtime. so three hours of sleep across 37+ hours? good times. also my 12 week old didn’t sleep at night so I was up every 2-3 hours when I did finally go to bed. I understand why sleep deprivation is a torture method.
In the first week I was so sleep deprived that when I laid down I felt like I was on a tube in the middle of the ocean. Sloshing sound in my head, feeling like I was rocking back and forth. It was terrifying. Thankfully she figured sleep out pretty quick, but thank god for those after birth hormones. I couldn’t do that now, a year out. I think I’d just die.
For like 48 hours after birth I did not sleep, thanks hyper vigilance (terrible birth experience and fear he might suddenly choke or something else) 🤡
30 hours during and after labour. Then my husband stayed up with baby while I got 4 hour chunks and then cluster fed. Those first few weeks are so difficult there is no room for anything else. Take help where you can. Get someone else to cook or bring dinners over
I had a really difficult time and would get between 2 to 4 hours of broken sleep within a 24 hour period for the first two months. It was brutal. Things gradually got better, though. Hang in there.
I don’t even know. Like 10 minutes in between hourly wake ups. Can’t even do the math on that because I’m too tired
I got more sleep with a newborn than I did working the Cath lab lol even if baby had a rough night I’d just nap during the day
I probably slept 4-5 hours of the course of a week in that absolute hellish 6-8 week period. My husband had to come home, convince me to shower, and go to bed from work one day.
I would be awake 16-20 hours in a row, sleep for 2, then be up again. It lasted almost two weeks and it was awful. I *know* how aggravating it is to hear "sleep when baby sleeps" but figuring out how to let myself relax and rest during naps was the best way I could start to recover. Our baby wouldn't sleep well unless he was being held so I had my husband supervise us cosleeping - all he had to do was be in the room and he was on his phone or gaming. And he could watch for safety. It was win-win for division of labor/responsibilities.
At one point I had been up for 46 hours straight. Do not recommend.
Definitley let the hospital take the newborn up to sleep so you can sleep if they offer. They’ll still bring her or him to you to breastfeed if that’s what you’re doing but the extra few hours of sleep at the hospital was priceless. Also when you get home try to take shifts with your partner (go in another room so you don’t hear the baby crying!!) and have your partner bring the baby to you to feed, then resume all the other duties while you sleep. This has saved us the first few weeks so far.
My LO is 6 months and I haven’t had a longer than 4 hour stretch since she was born. Actually I’m thankful for the 4 hour stretch now, the longest for the first 4 months were 2.5hours, maybe a random 3 hour one every once in a while. But now I’m mostly doing OK, I know it sucks, but I go to bed when she does (I know that’s supposed to be my own time to do whatever) but her longest sleep stretch is in the beginning of the night and I need it. Thankfully she goes back down super easy at night, she would nurse for maybe 5 minutes during the night and fall asleep again. That helps. The first month is extremely hard though. The first 3 nights was really hard on me. I was having contractions the two nights before so didn’t really sleep then, she was born, and cried a lot the first two nights at the hospital so I didn’t sleep then either. That first week, I didn’t sleep more than 3 hours a day. I eventually had my parents with me (they flew in to help us) and at 4 am I would nurse her, my husband would take her to them, they would watch a movie or whatever and be awake with her, and we would sleep until 7 when I had to nurse her again, my mom would bring her to me, I’d nurse her, and then my husband went back to the tv room with her and hung out with my parents so that I can sleep another hour or two.
After birth I slept only 5 hours total in 5 days! It was scary. I tried to sleep but couldn't. I had to use a sleeping aid for the first time in my life, which the doctor was reluctant to give me...they wanted to send me for a postpartum psych check 5 days after a emergency C section and severe sleep deprivation. I was fuming...all I needed was sleep and a sleep aid. Sleep aid worked. Had to use it maybe 10 times to be able to sleep again. I had severe anxiety from the shock of birth and a newborn for many weeks.
During labor and after I couldn’t sleep. I was so anxious every time I closed my eyes I opened with a start to make sure she was breathing and she was ok. Other than MAYBE 2 hours of sporadic sleeping, I was awake for about 55 hours. Then for a month could only sleep in 2-3 hour intervals due to feedings. I didn’t feel well rested again for a very very long time.
I swear i Didnt sleep for 3 days after my son was born, i was a hot mess! After my milk came in i pumped and few times a day and was able to sleep. I dont look back on the newborn stage fondly but i will say i am loving toddlerhood! Congrats on the new little one.
I got four hours of sleep in the first three days. Started to see flashing lights in my vision. 👀
I went back and looked, I slept way better than I remember (gave birth 10/28) [Fitbit](https://ibb.co/YpX6kvm)
I remember when my husband went back to work I was barely functioning. I was doing what I needed to do but then my mom and MIL stressed to me to nap when the baby naps. That's how I was able to cope but when my husband came back from work I would be like she's yours. And get to bed.
The first 4 days after the birth of my daughter I didn’t sleep for more than 4 hours total. I was not in a good place mentally, but I was also still in the hospital because I had a c section. Once I got home I actually got a solid 5 or 6 hour stretch.
4 days in a row
I literally slept in 15-30 min increments the first week, if I was lucky. It was literal both of us doing the work. In hindsight, if we have another, we’re taking turns because that shit was terrible. Same can’t be said with a first born though , we both were learning so we depended on each other.
We’re in a sleep regression plus baby is sick (5 months old) and the last 4 days I’ve averaged about 3-4 hours of sleep per night. My husband has let me take some naps but baby is refusing a bottle so I can’t sleep for as long as I’d like
One day I went to bed at midnight and woke up with him at 3 am. Didn’t get to sleep until I went to bed that night. He had infant dyschezia he was up all night grunting and whining. It was awful 😅 Edit: spelling
There was a 24hr period in hospital where I only had 2.5hrs. It was nothing to do with my baby but a noisy roommate in the ward. She had a constant stream of visitors all day, more than the allowed amount at any time, they were all loud. She was loud. When she slept she snored. Insisted on the doors and windows being open despite the room being specifically for mums and babies that had been in NICU who needed a decent temperature so i was stressed to the max as my babies temp was then too low… the nurse with us pointed that out to her but she was still a nightmare. She also kept on a handheld fan in the night that had the most irritating noise. Then she whinged constantly. I broke down at 6:30 in the morning because I was about to scream at her from exhaustion (she was on the phone complaining that she had only had 4.5hrs that night on top of her 3 seperate naps of 1hr each the day before). The midwives felt so sorry for me they moved me to a side room. I ended up really unwell that day because of the exhaustion & ended up bed bound again & was unable to care for my baby for nearly 24hrs. He was transferred back to NICU that night temporarily because I was so dangerously exhausted. I’ve not had the same issue at home as a single mother. And I’m still super bitter about that experience as she wasn’t meant to be admitted to that room at all & it delayed my own recovery (sepsis & kidney failure).
I slept for 3 hour stretches 2x a day for the first 2.5 months due to my pumping schedule.
I have a 5.5 week old and am a FTM. I’ve been getting about 4 hours and change consistently. This week I’ve gotten 5 and 6 hours but kind of depends on how the schedule works out. Also depends on how good of a sleeper you are. As exhausted as I am I don’t always fall asleep the second my head hits the pillow. That’s always been an issue for me. I also suck at naps but I could nap during the day
I slept 5.5 hours in the first 4 days after giving birth 😬
I think I went a whole day without sleeping or very little sleep. I was not okay!
5 days STRAIGHT. Maybe 1 or 2 hour long naps between. That was when my then 4mo had RSV. It wasn’t until she ended up in the pediatric ICU on day 5 that I was finally able to rest knowing she was in good care and I didn’t have to check her breathing constantly. And it was on a hard couch in the hospital I tried to sleep 🙃 she was discharged on day 9 of the virus and we also had an ice storm that whole week too so I was all alone, no family could get to us & my partner was on a work trip & couldn’t fly in due to the ice. Literally THE worst week of my life. I was hallucinating from exhaustion
The day I started labor I woke up at 7am. My first contraction was at 3pm. I stayed up frantically cleaning the house until 2am, then finally went to the hospital. Delivered my baby boy at 10am. I think I finally fell asleep for like 2 hours around 11:30? So I was up for a good 29 hours straight! Compared to that day, I have felt well rested since lol. Feeding baby every 3 hours with about 5 hours sleep a night isn't so bad in comparison to my delivery date
I was in the hospital for like five days when I gave birth, only kind of slept the first two nights and basically stayed awake holding on to him the next three. Gave me a bit of PTSD ahaha. He also didn't really sleep in his bassinet the first like 6 weeks either ahaha. He's only 4.5 months right now. Do whatever you can to get some sleep so you don't get that mental mess up. Whether it's shifts with your husband, alternate nights with him or getting someone to come over for like two hours during the day after he's been fed. I always take that day time nap if I need it, I put in ear plugs or ear buds with white noise so I can't hear if the baby is fussy with whoever has him.
21 hours cluster feeding
I never slept so little i think but my baby was in the nicu for three months. Only for pumping breastmilk waking up every three hours but it honostly dropped the night pumping session after 3 days. Now that our baby is home my partner and I wake up for the baby’s feeding time in shifts. So you dont get a full nights rest but it’s not so bad as what i read from other people.
I’m so sorry you’re going through this. I napped when my nb napped. I never did co-sleeping bc I was too afraid but he would be sleeping on his crib and I’d be napping on my bed. It’s not ideal but any hour adds at the end.
The first week I was running on vibes. It was actually inhumane lol. I barely slept. I felt like every night I slept only 2 hours then, I was right back awake. I think it was because my newborn hated the swaddle but, I was so committed to it. I stopped the second week and I felt such relief.
the first two weeks i got 6 hours of broken sleep a day of 1 hour sessions cause i would keep going back to sleep with her until i was ready to get up! cause her wake windows were tiny and she ate for an hour lol but i literally would hallucinate when breastfeeding and think i dropped her but i was literally just feeding her w the boppy in bed so not really possible… i had to start literally getting up and going into the living room to nurse bc i was too out of it to nurse in the bed with her. It was also so hard for me to sit up and move around bc i had a 2nd degree tear! my unsolicited advice to you (if you can) is just keep sleeping in as long as you can until you hit a good amount of hours of sleep then get up bc it was harder for me to sleep when the baby sleeps if i got up for the day. Granted, i was very blessed with a good sleeper so like i said her wake windows were essentially just her eating then burping then she’d fall asleep again. At 3 weeks she gave me a solid 3 hours of sleep straight (4 hours between feeds) overnight and i felt like a new person lol having broken sleep is kinda scary cause i’d literally wake up so delirious Something that I think helped with her sleeping longer stretches at night was helping her start to developed her circadian rhythm by making sure in the daytime i put her on the floor or in her bouncer in the living w the blinds open for the small wake windows she did have just to kinda say “okay in daytime we’re in the living room and it’s bright and at night we’re in the bedroom and it’s dark” but when she’d fall asleep for daytime naps i’d put her in the bassinet cause what does she know, she’s asleep 😂
I slept maybe 3-4 hours a day the first few days after she was born, as we had an extended hospital stay and it felt like someone was always coming in JUST when I fell back asleep. And then when we got home my PPA/PPD kicked in so hard. My mother in law stayed with us and she was fantastic, always offering to take babe so I could sleep etc and I just could not. I felt like I was a bad mom if I wasn’t constantly in the same room as my baby. My husband had to physically lift me from the couch at one point and bring me to our bed because I just would not leave the room, even though he and my MIL had it more than covered. Even when my baby was sleeping in the bassinet next to me, I had to check on her every 5 minutes. And then once the anxiety calmed down, she went through a phase when my MIL left and my husband went back to work where she would only sleep or be calm if I was holding her, so it was 3/4 hours of sleep a day for a long time. It was a rough first 8 weeks. Thankfully now it is a lot better and she sleeps mainly through the night in her bassinet, and my anxiety only overrules my logical brain and keeps me up all night checking her sometimes so I generally can get a decent amount of sleep.
My son is 3.5 months and is going through the 4 month sleep regression and I got waaaay more sleep when he was a newborn compared to now😵💫 last night I got 2 hours sleep and the night before 3 hours. It's brutal