I’m not sure where sleep-deprived ends and zombie state begins.

I know that for the first few days after Jackson was born I was in zombie state. I was in hospital being induced 3 days prior to giving birth, that alone is not conducive to a good nights sleep, and then stayed up all night in labour and then marvelling at my son. Since then I haven’t had an unbroken nights sleep.

The other night I had no more than an hours sleep at a time thanks to Jackson waking up shouting, not screaming or crying, just awake and shouting every hour. The day after that I’d probably have considered that I’d gone back to the zombie state.

Everyone warns you that you don’t sleep much with a newborn, but my son is no longer a newborn, so when does it start being unusual? The most I am getting is 3 hours at a time, my son is 19 weeks old. The other mums I meet and talk to are down to one feed a night, so is my son needy? Greedy? Attention seeking? I don’t know! I don’t know how to get him to sleep more, to feed less, or more effectively, I’m at a loss and I just don’t know.

He is slowly getting into a bedtime routine, down at 6-6.30 and then up every 3 hours from there. I say slowly as he regularly doesn’t go down until 9 or 10, and that involves me rocking him for hours on end, getting slowly more frustrated.

I’m not sure at what point I should call my health visitor and ask for help again. Will it get easier when he goes onto solids? Will it get worse?

I suppose I will continue muddling through until it gets too much, or (fingers crossed it’s this one) he improves and reduces the night time feeds.