Guest Blog by Elsa Megan
So my little baby Oscar is now 4 months old (!) and discovering so many new things every
day. Unfortunately, none of those things are how to sleep at night time. His bedtime routine
is pretty much on point now – bath, feed, bed - and Oscar will go off to sleep fairly readily
for 7pm for a couple of hours. After that it all goes slightly to pot…
Some nights he wakes every 40 minutes! Other nights are not quite as bad, maybe going an
hour and a half to two hours at a time. I have tried swaddling, not swaddling, feeding,
skipping a feed, rocking, walking, trying to let him settle himself, keeping him awake longer
before bedtime, napping less, napping more, putting him down sleepy, putting him down
completely out for the count… He still wakes.
I didn’t know it was possible to feel this tired. Some days I am not sure how I am actually
standing, but somehow you just keep going for the little thing that is depending on you. I
have stopped reading sleep tips, because after a while it just gets a bit depressing when
nothing seems to be working. Instead I focus on just getting through until the night Oscar
decides he is ready to sleep.
For anyone else going through the same, I have developed these coping strategies that I find help me make it to morning and not be a wreck (most of the time):
1. Try and go to bed as soon as your baby does. I am not that great at this one, but
when I do manage it I feel a lot better. Mainly because that first but of the night
tends to be Oscar’s longest stretch of sleep, so I can actually get some too. It is really
hard because it means not really having any evening time to yourself, but if you can
even do it every other night it helps!
2. Expect a bad night. If I go to bed basically planning to be awake every hour, I’m not
disappointed when it actually happens. It doesn’t exactly make me feel less tired, but
its somehow not as bad to be woken if you just accept it in the first place.
3. Plan something to do during the wakings. I keep some easy read books next to my
bed to look through when Oscar is feeding at night, or I look at a blog on my phone
or listen to a podcast.
4. Have really sweet coffee in the morning. This makes me feel much better. Also
having a yummy breakfast.
5. Ignore everyone that says ‘just nap when the baby naps’ (unless you are someone
who can drop of straight away in which case go for it!). I find it so hard to sleep
during the day, it does not come naturally to me. I would find myself lying there
getting more and more annoyed with myself for not sleeping, and then Oscar would
be awake again. Now I will sometimes try and lie down while Oscar naps, but if I find
sleep isn’t coming I give up and just do something instead – that way at least I get
some time to do something for myself.
6. Just keep telling yourself it will end eventually! Very very slowly Oscar is getting
better at his nights. I am sure there are some more regressions to come before we
get anything close to a full night from him, but at some point I know he will sleep.
And I am excited for that!!
About the author
Elsa is a mum to lovely Oscar as well as running her own blog documenting her motherhood journey. You can find her:
You can read her previous guest blog post here: Birth In A Pandemic
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