I think one of the bits of advice I heard most often while pregnant was, "Make sure you enjoy your sleep while you can!" I have always loved sleep (who doesn't???) and would happily sleep 9-10 hours a night when I could manage it. In school, I never sacrificed sleep for homework or pulled an all-nighter. I was thankfully a good enough student to be able to afford blowing off assignments that might have necessitated that from time to time. I just didn't see the lost sleep as worth it.
Part of me was actually surprised at how alert I felt after D was born. Sure, I was getting at most 3 hours of sleep at a time, and often felt like a zombie (especially during some of those midnight feedings), but I was amazed at how well I was able to function most days. I'm convinced there must be special mommy hormones that kick in to help with this. Hubby, unfortunately, was kinda worthless in this regard. There was one night when he woke up with me each time D did, every 3-4 hours, to help me feed him, and the next day Hubby was wrecked. I remember getting to annoyed when I heard him complain about how tired he was, when most of the time he got much more sleep than I did, but eventually I learned to accept that we may not be affected the same way by the same obstacles and I may just deal with this particular one better than he did. Oh well.
Now I find that my body seems to have almost gotten used to the sleep disturbances, sort of like when people's bodies go into "starvation mode" and are able to make the most of whatever little nutrition they get. And then when D does have a good night of sleep and goes (gasp!) 6 or 8 or even 9 hours without waking, I almost feel
more tired on those days, and take a few nights like that to adjust. It's as if my body goes "Whoa, hey we're getting back on track, now I've gotta catch up to all that sleep we lost before..."
I'm hoping D starts to "get it" and sleep through the night more consistently soon. Unfortunately our upcoming trip to the US will probably only throw him more out of whack. *Sigh* Maybe by 5 or 6 months he'll be sleeping through the night?
When did your babies start consistently sleeping through the night?
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My daughter still doesn't sleep through the night consistently. She'll sleep through maybe 2 or 3 times a week, but other nights, she'll still wake up once or twice. I don't think it's because she needs to be fed, since i know she can go 10+ hours at night without a feeding and be fine. I think she just wakes up because she's uncomfortable, or just can't go back to sleep on her own, and then requires me to nurse her for comfort so she can fall back to sleep. I can tell she's not actually drinking that much when she feeds overnight and she's more just comfort sucking (but she won't take a paci or her thumb unfortunately).
Yeah I'm amazed too at how moms can function so well on so little sleep. Before I had my daughter, I needed like 9 hours straight of sleep to feel well rested and function. Now, I wake up on my own after 7 and a half hours of straight sleep and can't go back to sleep usually! I agree...there has to be some mommy energy hormones or something to explain why we can function so well when we are sleep deprived!
Adrenaline. Lots and lots of adrenaline. With my first born, I was getting maybe 2 hours of sleep maximum. We were in the process of moving, so I was running on adrenaline, that is the only explanation for the energy to load boxes and unload them and frequent trips up and down the stairs. With my first born, he started sleeping through the night with no nursing when he was a little over a year old. My younger son still does not and he's almost 3 years old. He'll call out in his sleep or climb next to me, sandwiching me between him and his baby sister. We'll see how it goes with my daughter, she's not quite 8 weeks, so it's still very early. I remember being told that my first born should be sleeping through the night at 12 weeks or when he weighed 12 pounds and that I was causing "spoiled baby syndrome" because I picked him up whenever he cried. I miss getting up with my oldest and helping him get to sleep--he's almost 4. I'd love to stroke his hair and rub his back, but alas, he just wants his space to sleep. Enjoy the cuddling them in the wee hours of the morning, those days really will be over before you know it. Honest.
I forget when they started to sleep through the night...but I do totally remember when they did and I was still waking up (like you describe). It was so annoying to lie in bed wide awake and know the baby was sleeping and there was no need for me to be awake!