Sleep Regression And A Schedule Out The Window

 tank || shorts (thrifted) || shoes

I'm pretending Maddox is saying, "Dear mama, please forgive me. I love you and appreciate you.".

 

This post is coming to you courtesy of a 5am wake up call. After a long night of many wake up calls I decided to quit going back to sleep and just stay up and do work. Sometimes going back to sleep makes it worse. It's those mini sleep sessions like an hour here and there that make me more cranky and tired. The feeling of hearing your baby start to whimper, looking at the clock and realizing you've only been asleep for 45 minutes. Yeah, that hurts.

Are you in the midst of your child's sleep regression too? If yes, im sending you a virtual hug, a bottle of wine and an endless tab at Starbucks. Lord knows you need it. 

If you aren't dealing with a sleep regression and your child is sleeping through the night I beg you to feel some compassion and let me whine. I'd also like to hit you, but I won't.

Maddox used to sleep through the night. Starting at 5 weeks old he was like the poster child for sleep. Moved into his nursery, in his crib, going to bed at 8:30pm and waking at 6am for a feeding and then back down until 9am. I had it made. Now he has absolutely no schedule and is waking multiple times a night making this OCD planner, sleep loving mama cray cray! Literally no night looks the same. Let me rephrase that, literally no day OR night looks the same. We had a neat and tidy schedule of sleep, daytime play, naps and feedings. It was quite easy and always on the dot. Now I'm going by his cue's for everything because it's all tossed up in the air. This all happened around 16-17 weeks. He will be 20 weeks tomorrow. So it's been less than a month of what feels like torcher, but nonetheless it's tough.

Occasionally on a weekend Jon will ask me what's the best time to go out and do something and I simply scoff at him, "like I have a clue?". Last night I was finally so over it. I had dinner ready when Jon walked in the door. Maddox had skipped his pre-bedtime nap (typically around 5pm) so he was already a bit cranky. I was hoping he would make it another hour to our "typical" bedtime... He didn't. He had a meltdown in the midst of dinner so I left my hardly touched plate of hot dinner and took him upstairs and nursed him to sleep. As I was finishing up said dinner, now cold, he woke up. I looked at Jon and told him I simply couldn't make another decision. Whether to bring him downstairs and let him stay up or rock him back to sleep, that was the question and I made Jon decide the answer. I physically felt like I couldn't make yet another decision. I went from days full of no thinking, just following the schedule to days filled with questions and only having myself to look towards for the answer. It's exhausting.

I will survive. "This too shall pass" says every mother all around the world.

While this stage of no sleep and lack of a schedule sucks, it's a phase! A phase that's going to bring great new developments. And there will be many more of these phases along the way (from what I've read - thanks Wonder Weeks). 

Welcome to parenthood. Now pass the wine.