Hardest age was the very beginning; I had really low supply so he was starving and cried hysterically until we figured this out. Then he has acid reflux so would cry hysterically while eating but still be hungry.
Sleep deprivation was worst at the beginning too, but we are lucky in that even if he woke up often he's always gone back to sleep easily. He's still up usually between 2-3 and then 5, but eats and goes back to sleep. He turns four months tomorrow so I'm prepared for this all to go to shit, however.
Post by loskadoodle on Jul 15, 2014 10:18:34 GMT -5
The whole first year was tough. I think it started getting easier when he started walking. The hardest with sleep deprivation was the 4 month wakeful because he was up 2-3 times a night, then up for the day at 430 every day, and I was back at work.
We are only 5 months in but, so far, the first month was hellish. Her sleep was the worst then, we didn't know what the fuck we were doing and were so worried about all her health issues.
Post by badtzmaru22 on Jul 15, 2014 10:23:44 GMT -5
DD's sleep totally went to shit between 9-10mo. I was about to lose my mind, since we had been in a good routine with one MOTN feeding for a while, which was totally manageable. This was around Thanksgiving. In the weeks between that and Christmas, she got two teeth and grew three inches. I blame that, looking back. But I was insane.
Newborn phase was hard, but I was crazy myself then, and I pretty much had been expecting it to suck. However, we didn't have colic, and DD was actually a really good baby. We didn't realize how good we had it! It makes me so nervous for this time.
4-6ish months. We were trying to transition to the crib from the RnP and stop swaddling and it was just a mess. He slept worse than he did as a newborn and I was just exhausted. Then magically one night, he slept through the night and I was able to function as a normal human being again.
Around 9-18 months is always the hardest age for me. DS3 is 15 months now, and I think it is such a hard age. Too old to be happy just being carried around, too young to really communicate well or be entertained by anything for more than 10 minutes at a time. And a bad age for travel, restaurants, etc. in my experience.
Sleep deprivation is generally worst for me at 3-4 months and then again around 8-9 months, but I still think one year olds are harder than infants (or 2 or 3 year olds) overall.
Post by maebyfunke on Jul 15, 2014 10:31:12 GMT -5
The first few weeks. Nursing was excruciating at times for a little while. I cried when we went to bed because I knew I wasn't going to get a good night's sleep and because I felt like we had made the biggest mistake of our lives, and then I cried for thinking that lol.
The hardest sleep deprivation age was around 8ish months I think. He was up 3-4 times per night, and I couldn't put him down for an hour or so afterward without him waking up and crying, so we spent a lot of time in the glider. It was a pretty awful time.
Post by countthestars on Jul 15, 2014 10:33:40 GMT -5
Probably 3-5 months. I expected to not sleep in the beginning but I had no idea how bad the sleep would be after months of up a million times plus no napping unless I was driving.
For sleep deprivation - 9 mo growth spurt. She had already been sttn for a while by then, so going back to nightly wake-ups was.really.hard. Plus the nature of the growth spurt was such that nothing soothed her much. It just had to run its course.
Post by scribellesam on Jul 15, 2014 10:36:48 GMT -5
I think months 4-8. His sleep was so awful and he never let me set him down to nap, so I spent hours just rocking with him. He'd scream himself to sleep while I held him, sometimes for up to an hour. Then he'd have 2-4 wakeups every night and I had to hold him from 4-5am onward every morning to get him to sleep at all. I was so angry all the time, sometimes I wonder if I had undiagnosed PPD.
With my younger child, the sleep deprivation was the worst between 4 and 7 months. It was extra tough because the older one quit napping around then and I'm at home with them, so there was very little downtime during the day.
Two times in particular stick out in my mind. The night of the baby's 4 month vaccines, I was awake and fell back asleep ten separate times. Then, after doing five nights alone because of travel when she was about six months old, I called my husband at work on a Monday morning in tears because I was so exhausted. He was rather concerned and raced home to let me sleep for an hour and a half before he had to go back to work. I clung to the idea that it had to get better soon, and fortunately, it did.
The most challenging time so far as a parent is right now with the three year old. The baby is very easygoing and a piece of cake compared to her sister.
Post by kittycatlove on Jul 15, 2014 10:41:46 GMT -5
The hardest for me was probably the first 6 weeks or so, but that was mostly due to my struggling with PPD.
We really haven't had too much of a bad time with sleep - ducks from the flying objects - but we did have about 2 weeks of multiple middle of the night wakeups around 9 months or so.
If you ask my DH he's struggling right now. DS is 3, need I say more? LOL.
for sleep issues: 0-6 mo for DS2. He got RSV and pneumonia during that time, didn't sleep for more than 2 hr at a time, and we were dealing with DS1 sleep regression. Holy hell. That was perhaps the toughest 6 mo period of my life. I thought I was going to lose it, and DH and I were not in a good place with the sleep deprivation. I don't know how people have a 3rd kid!
but hardest age? 2-3. I was not a DS1 fan at all during that year, and DS2 is in the thick of it now. Those terrible twos. I know some folks hate the trying threes, and the fucking fours. Those have been cakewalks compared to two. Two year olds are jerks
Post by timorousbeastie on Jul 15, 2014 10:55:39 GMT -5
Month 4 was the worst so far, hands down. DD was an easy newborn; if all babies were like that, I could have 10 of them! But then shit hit the fan at 4 months with sleep, and I was not a happy camper the whole month. Things are much better right now, at a little over 5 months.
DS hates sleep - napping, nighttime, all of it - but the worst time thus far was from 3.5 to 4.5 months. It would take HOURS to get him to go to sleep, and then he'd be up every 1-2 hours all night long. Awful. It was also the hardest age for the same reason. His sleep has been particularly awful again, but not to that level (knock on wood). It was really, really bad. Thank god for my H.
The 4 month sleep regression wasn't that bad. It didn't even last a full week for us, but those few days were awful.
We're really lucky he hasn't had any major sleep issues. Usually if he wakes, there's a good reason and we can remedy it. Around 6-8 months he woke a handful of times to eat due to growth spurts, and then around a year he's woken off and on when teething after Advil wore off.
0-7 was the worst for me. It started to get better at week 7 because his sleep improved and we got into a routine. So even though he wasn't sleeping through the night, I at least knew what to expect.