u/Caramel_Glitter

Our LO is turning 1 in a few weeks and I am emotionally and physically drained. I feel as though his entire life has been overshadowed by what a horrendous sleeper he is and our entire parenting experience has been tainted by extreme sleep deprivation, exhaustion and growing resentment of every other family who has a baby who sleeps.

Until 9 month (ish) he woke every 2 hours, sometimes less, every night. After that, some light crept in as he started doing much longer first stretches 6-7 hours and we thought this was finally the journey to sleeping through the night. We had a positive few weeks of 2 sometime 1 wake. We really thought this would finally be it.

But for the last few weeks things seems to be going backwards again. We have been back to 3 wakes and even a couple of split nights of being awake for 2 hours (always crying).

He falls asleep independently but we usually put his dummy back in during night wakes.

Schedule is 3/4/4 with around 1.5 - 2 hours nap total in the day. More wake time doesn't seem to help at all.

We are at a loss. I feel like such a failure and I could just cry thinking about the situation, how shit our sleep is, how much it drains our whole life and wondering how long we are going to have to live like this.

Sorry if this seems ranty - I just feel at my wits end.

Has anyone else come out the other side of such a horrific sleeper?

Just moved into our new family home - yey! All livable - but dated. Every room needs at least new flooring/decorating/new doors and bigger jobs include a full bathroom and kitchen renovation (including removing a wall to create an open kitchen diner).

We can't afford to move out and get a wonder company to do it all in one swoop - so we need to approach things bit by bit. Problem is, I'm now completely stumped on where to start!

Should I go room by room? Or task by task (ie. Skim all ceilings, then replace all doors etc etc...)

I suspect the latter is more logical (and maybe more cost effective?) - but it will keep everything feeling chaotic with nothing finished for ages...

Any suggestions, tips or advice greatly appreciated!

I don't cope well in the heat, at all. If I'm not able to be poolside with a mojito, summers usually consist of me hiding in our bedroom sitting next to a portable air-conditioning unit all day...

So now I've seen the forecast of 30 degrees for the best part of a week in London I am seriously stressing!!

What on earth am I going to do with our 10MO all day - and more importantly, at night?!

*cries*

Edit: Really appreciate all the suggestions! Sadly we are in a flat with no garden so paddling pool is out the question cries even more! - but seems like shady park spots, ice cold m&s trips, 0.5 tog with nappy, and getting our air con unit going is going to be the survival approach!

Our 9.5mo terrible sleeper was getting slightly better since dropping to 2 naps a month ago. We were averaging about 2 wakes - the first he would tend to sort himself within a few mins after a small cry and the second I would feed.

We try to keep his schedule at 2.5-3/4/4 as this seems to work and wake 6.45-7am bedtime 8pm ish.

Then, this week, he gave us an 8 hour stretch with only one wake to feed TWICE! These are the only times that's happened since he was born!

We accidently slept in yesterday until 7.45am so wasn't able to wake him until then - capped naps to totall 1.5hours (to keep close to 11hours total awake time) but the night was the worst in ages! *cries* The shortest first stretch he's had in a month of only 2 hours then waking every 1.5-2 hours from there with lots of whimpering in between...

He falls asleep independently without a dummy but sometimes needs assistance and his dummy if he escalates during an early wake (no feeding before 2am).

How can I get Friday and Sunday's 8 hr stretch with only one wake at 4.30/5am ish to happen again?! Feeling so defeated by having the taste of a great night twice and having it snatched away again...