Fatigue help

How do you deal with longterm fatigue?

DH and I are so exhausted. Elle has been waking and playing loudly for hours at night for almost 8 months now.

DH was doing ok but Elle is now SOO loud that he is also awake half the night. She now shreaks at the top of her lungs then giggles at the echo and so it goes on...and on. She is really, really loud so sleeping through it is not possible. Last week she was awake for 5 hours straight 3 nights out of 7 and the other 4 night was awake for a min of 1 hour a couple of times a night.

Both of us are struggling at work, constantly fighting off colds and are just getting so fatigued that is hard to enjoy life in general.   We used to be very fit and healthy people. I was so tired on Sat I almost crashing the car 3 times and ended up in tears and with a migraine.

We've exhausted all possible options in getting her to sleep so until we can buy a bigger house we have to learn to deal with the exhaustion. Any tips? Elle is fantastic during the day now so no issues there...the only issue we have is severe lack of sleep.

In the past 2 years I have only had 3 nights where I have slept 6 hours straight. The rest of the time I average about 4 hours sleep. I seriously wonder how much longer I can keep going like this.

DH and I desperate! Any tips?

I have some that I use about once a week and they help me go straight to sleep but always wake 3 hours later and don't sleep any better the rest of the night. If I take one, and Elle wakes 1 hour later (for example), I still wake too and the pill has no effect from there.

Hi Bombshell - haven't seen you around much.

She doesn't need to get up, just plays happily on her own. If you get her up she gets upset, if you leave her she is happy as larry.

LOL at the cupboard. I was tempted to put her in the car one night! Well, sleep in the car myself that is!

Yeap Simone...tried loads of different ones (I had insomnia before Elle did...I just overcame mine when hers started. Ironic eh).

It'd have to be something very very strong to knock us out enough to not hear her racket.

I got some silcone earplugs on Sat and they are better...don't hurt my ears quite as much but still wake me frequently as my ears ache with them in. We can't both wear them though as we have to be able to hear if something is wrong.

yeah but at least if she is somewhere else you wont hear her and youll get a good nights sleep....

fatigue is NOT nice....ive been fighting it off for three months now....

thats the trouble I guess, you kind of need to be awake to make sure she is safe etc. is she still in a cot or a big bed? If she was in a big bed would she get out?

i guess then eating loads of fresh veges, fruit will help and i have found drinking fresh juice in the morning helps me especially if i put ginger in

So do you want tips on how to make Elle sleep, or how to ovecome the sleep depravation you guys are suffering from?

I would recommend a night away (parents. friends etc) for you guys (different nights) so that you could get at least one good nights sleep.  I think that sleep experts reckon that if you can get 2 good nights, it will catch you up no matter how sleep deprived you are.  Might be easier to deal with life if you guys are feeling happier.

Not too sure about what you can do with Elle - from what I have read you have had alot of suggestions, I don't think I can offer anything different.

Could you take the sleeping pill and wear ear plugs as well one night and get DH to do it the next night and just take turns? that way someone is "with it" to get up if something is wrong and you both get some decent sleep

I'm also one with 2 terrible sleepers so all i can really suggest is having turns going out and staying somewhere else once a week so you at least get one good nights sleep. Also have a morning each to sleep in and get a few extra hours that way.

One good thing about having no sleep is that when you finally get even 6 hours unbroken sleep you feel amazing.

busymum wrote: Can you move your two bedrooms apart somehow? Like, try sleeping in the lounge for example, or the spare room (if you have one?) to create some space to reduce her noise?

We have a 3 bedroom house but can hear her clear as day in every room, incl the lounge at the other end of the hallway. We plan to move to a bigger house once our current one sells.