Permalink Reply by 99 on August 31, 2010 at 12:30pm
mums need to be encoarage and congratulated what they do do because we men have no clue about the effort and love that they supply in abundance to the little one just born
Thank you for posting this article Mike. I have a couple of comments.
I agree entirely about the quality of sleep. I have grown children, one a daughter who had a baby three months ago. It was very hard for me to see how tired she was getting during the first few weeks with breast feeding about every 2-3 hours, day and night, and it often taking an hour to accomplish. Therefore, she was, at times, literally getting 1 to 1-1/2 hours sleep in between feedings. I knew the sleep cycle was 90 minutes, so I guessed what was going on. She was totally exhausted at times and in tears a lot . All I could do was encourage her and let her know it really wouldn't go on for ever. Luckily the baby is now sleeping longer and feeding a lot faster so mother and baby are both doing much better! This is a good thing, because my daughter had to go back to work this week!
I remember being told by my first sleep doctor, when I was diagnosed with mild SA or UARS, that a LOT of women develop sleep problems when they start having babies. I know from my own experience that this is when I started to sleep a lot lighter; as a result of "listening" for that baby to wake for feedings or worrying about every little sound from the nursery - a room away - before the advent of baby monitors! Now 40 years later, according to my sleep studies, I still sleep lightly, getting Stage I and II, but no Stage III or IV sleep! I do apparently get a normal percentage of REM sleep for the amount of time I spend asleep. But it is the constant awakenings, disturbing sleep, that results in daytime sleepiness and tiredness. I unfortunately could not adjust to CPAP (partly because of the lightness of sleep with the noise of the machine and mask leaks). I eventually tried a TAP 1 oral appliance with a little bit of success, but there are still nights when I awaken often and, according to my sleep study, probably have up to 40 sleep changes and 70 or so hypopneas in a 5-6 hour period of sleep without the appliance.