If you saw my post on the 12th Aug then you’ll know that I had grand plans of kick-starting my health, problem is, this just happened to coincide with Poppy going through the most horrendous sleep regression. I’m talking two weeks of maximum two hours of sleep per night resulting in zombie-like parents and incredibly overtired child.

The spell of misfortune started with Poppy cutting her very first tooth (I know, bit of a slow coach on the tooth front!) and knowing that she was in pain I naturally tried anything to comfort and soothe her. Whisking her up into my arms and in to our bed to watch a bit of Peppa Pig whilst administering medicine. Conscious of my husbands 70 mile each way commute I persuaded him to go in to the spare room which only made it easier for me to bring Poppy into our bed.

Then the vicious cycle began. As soon as Poppy made a peep I’d be up and rushing along the corridor anxious that she was waking my husband up then trying anything to calm her down – food, toys, drawing, videos, medicine, food again, different toys. Before I knew it our bedroom resembled a crumb-ridden playroom and low and behold the wake ups came more frequently until they were every hour with me snatching ten minutes of sleep here and there.

No matter how much caffeine I consumed I couldn’t ward off the exhaustion and my daily life was massively suffering. I could barely hold a thought, energy levels plummeted and I suddenly became the flakiest flake in the world.

Then at 5am after a particularly horrific night I am ashamed to say that I reached the limit of my patience. A level that I honestly thought I would never reach. Nothing I did made the slightest bit of difference to the incessant crying and I just couldn’t do it any more. I walked through in to the spare room, practically chucked Poppy on to my husband and walked out.

After an of hour sleep I felt slightly more capable of being a parent again just in time for my husband to head off to work. That feeling of utter desperation was one that I hope to never ever feel again and I knew that I was on the brink for the rest of the day. The only thing to do was to cancel all of my engagements and call in reinforcements in the form of Granny who, at hearing the desperation and dejectedness in my voice dropped everything and was at my door within minutes.

I know that I am lucky that this is the first time I have reached that level and that I had an immediate support network. I honestly don’t know how parents who have set work hours cope. I am literally in awe.

“So how did we solve it?” I hear you cry “You look so youthful and sprightly, there’s no way you are still sleep deprived” Pahaha ok fine, looking at this face no one would ever say that!

After that dark Wednesday morning night approached and the usual nighttime ritual of the babe waking an hour after bedtime started. We went to see if she was ok and the husband thankfully had a little more whits about him and thought enough is enough, as nothing is working lets see what happens if we just leave her.

And you know what? The little bugger went to sleep! Yes she stirred a few times during that first night but we resisted the pull each time and the very next night she slept for twelve blissful hours.

Since then we have been a lot more strict with ourselves and if we think she is teething we will administer medicine in her nursery and put her straight back to bed. No more Peppa Pig binge-watching (slightly devastated about that).