[jitterfish]

I was blessed with Willow, she started sleeping through the night at four months. I was sure Oakley would therefore be a terrible sleeper - I was imagining have a colicky reflux never sleeping baby because everything has to balance out right? From birth he would do 6+ hour sleeps at night, from 2 months he started sleeping through. I was in heaven but darn from 4 months he started waking again. Only once but I miss sleeping through -LOL-

But I'm pretty sure this means I am going to have absolute horrors for teens!

[sacha]

The great thing about having a baby that sleeps terrible for years is that you can't wait to get old.... and drag their 15 year old butts out of bed at 6am and send them off to school!!!!

Revenge is sweet, it's just delayed

But in all seriousness, it's really not that bad. Your body adapts. If mine sleeps 7pm-1am (feed), then 1am-5am (feed), I'm up and feel great at 5am. And there is nothing more precious than little 'milk smiles' (smiles as they feed while half-asleep) at 1am. It's only a few years out of your 70-80 or so years in your life, you will look back and enjoy

[jitterfish]

Oh yeh I love milk smiles. I also love it when they fall asleep while feeding and if you try and pull breast out of their mouth they will suddenly start sucking like "no no, I wasn't asleep, just resting my eyes don't take away my boobies!"

Breastfeeding lasts such a short period of their lives but it really is magical. My lil girl weaned at 9mos I was so sad to stop.

[XLMuffnTop]

It really is a crap shoot if you get a baby who is prone to more sleep or not.

MY DS was fabulous. He was on a perfect schedule of nap, feed, play, rinse & repeat. He would reach for the crib at naptime as he got older. He started sleeping through the night at 4 weeks old (11pm - 6am) then 7pm to 6am a few months later.

DD on the other hand.... my god! That girl can fight naps. From the day she was born, we were lucky if she took two naps a day, that's right TWO!. Even now as 7 months old she might take an hour nap in the AM and one in the PM. She goes down at 7pm then wakes for food around 10-11 then again in the middle of the night. She teased me by sleeping through the night at 8 weeks old for a few days then again a few weeks ago.

Your body does adjust. If I don't get to sleep until 1 am, she wakes at 3 to feed then up for the day at 6, you just go with it.

And, in my opinion, the first two weeks post partum are the worst. Hormones are still at an all-time high, you're adjusting, healing, cranky, etc. I'm not an emotional type person but I would burst into tears and have NO IDEA WHY! Just remember, it's short-lived and gets better.

[jitterfish]

The crazy Mummy hormones - but they also help you adapt to anything. They make lack of sleep a non-issue. yeh you're tired but the moment you hear the baby cry those hormones make you jump up.