Awww Fenella. I don't have much help as Matilda woke every 2 hours for the first 4 months and then slowly stretched it out to 3 hours and then around 4 hours by the time she was 7 months. Its exhausting & to be honest she's still not so good on the whole sleeping through the night thing. We still get up once at least. But... I think just knowing you aren't alone is sometimes helpful, and knowing that sometimes we have to develop coping strategies for lack of sleep.

With Matilda I always lay down with her nap, now that she is at one nap a day. When she had more, I always laid down with the second nap. The first one was for picking up & the second was for resting. I let go of the housework & anything else I "needed" to do and stayed home & rested for at least one hour a day. I had too because I couldn't cope without it and stay sane for Matilda's sake.

The only other coping strategy I had was have a day off. I would take a half day off when Matilda was younger & just rest. On Saturday's DH would take her to the shops & put her to bed for her first nap so I could rest. Sometimes I wanted to be involved with them in family time & other times I needed to go far away. Its a coping mechanism to refresh, because a worn out tired mummy isn't good for bubs either. I know that Tasmin is breastfed so you feel like you can't be far away for too long, but you can feed & then go for an hour or so, or hop in the bath after a feed so you can have some "me" time.

Good luck & feel free to vent here!! Its exhausting.