No rest for the weary

I think the only person in our household that got decent sleep last night was Penelope.

Instead of our normal 2 1/2 to 3 hours stretches of sleep, Penny was awake (and hungry!) every 1 1/2 hours. Since it takes a good half hour to get settled and go back to sleep after she's fallen asleep, this means I got an hour of sleep in-between feedings. Luckily Bryan does the second shift, so I was able to get a little more sleep, but I still woke up when she started getting fussy. Poor Bryan didn't get much sleep either since he had to be at work at 7am today.

At one point I fell asleep on the couch while Penny was in the swing - I was too tired to walk & pat her to sleep so I put her in the swing and passed out on the couch. B woke me up awhile later and put us back to bed - but she was awake and hungry again in an hour...

So since sleep was a problem last night I have canceled all of my plans for the day. We were going to go to our weekly New Moms Support Group, but it starts at 10:30 and I don't have the energy to get us both ready in time. I could show up late, but I'm not so keen on leaving the house. I'm also not going to take her to work with me - Bryan should be home in time to take her and I can drop her off at my parent's house if B doesn't make it home in time. She was fussy on Monday (which was probably because we made a formula switch - I won't do that again!) and while I don't think the kids minded, it was a little too much for me. I'll probably occasionally bring her with me, but not until we have a "normal" wake/sleep schedule - otherwise it's just too much.

I have to admit, that while I want to spend as much time as possible with Penny, a part of me is looking forward to a couple of hours sans baby - even if it is work *lol*. I love being a mom, but almost 5 weeks without a real break is beginning to wear me down... Even when other people are holding/feeding her, I'm still there - and so still "on". Don't get me wrong, Bryan is very hands on and we've gotten a lot of help from family & friends, but there's something about being a mom that makes it impossible to really rest/relax while in the presence of your baby. Maybe that's just me.

Ok, baby is asleep and I think I'm going to try and take a nap.