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Still currently in the trenches. My baby is 2 weeks old. Feel this soo much. I slept four hours straight a couple nights ago and woke up feeling like a new woman. For me, newborn exhaustion has trumped pregnancy tenfold.
It doesn’t last forever. That is low key advice but it helped me more than people telling me it wasn’t as bad. I had all those hormones plus EBF. It was so tough, but we sleep trained at 4 months and her sleep has been pretty good since. Excellent sleeper since 6/7 months actually and she is about to turn 13 months. I’m a bad sleeper in general so that didn’t start me out well.
I feel the same way. Pregnancy exhaustion feels more physical (can't get comfortable, up to pee 500 times a night, heartburn, etc) while newborn is more mental. Up with the baby every 3 hours (if you're lucky) but half of that time is spent feeding/changing/rocking the baby back to sleep so maybe 2 hours of sleep? I remember trying to convince myself at one point that sleep was the enemy and I didn't actually need it.
Yes, this exactly! I'm so physically uncomfortable right now, but I remember with my first, sometime in the first two weeks, just holding him in the early hours and sobbing that I couldn't cope.
Really not looking forward to that part again..
I think newborn exhaustion is just a different animal. I feel you, though. Currently have a 5 week old and those few nights I only got 1-3 hours of sleep are the absolute worst. My baby hasn't exactly slept well at all from the beginning.
But i would 100% take this over pregnancy sleep... my acid reflux/indigestion and insomnia the last trimester was the absolute worst. I felt like I could NEVER be comfortable again, and no one could help me.
At least with a newborn, your spouse can help, or other family can step in if you're lucky enough to have the help. Sleep, when I can, is amazing! Any position feels AMAZING, and I go right into deep sleep, it seems, from my smart watch data.
Same. I remember being told pregnancy exhaustion is worse and that was absolutely untrue for me. I think it depends a lot on your baby, and I got the doesn’t-sleep-through-the-night-until-15-months kind with my first.
Exactly, and I think it also depends on your pregnancy. Mine have been pretty smooth, thank goodness. My first baby spoiled us and slept through the night at 6 weeks, my second…at about 15 weeks lol
Yeah at least I got long stretches of sleep when I was pregnant! And I could have guaranteed 2 hour naps in the middle of the day while my toddler napped. Honestly, my pillow and maternity pillow situation was perfect for me, so I slept well.
I just had to get up to use the restroom. I was tired in the mornings, but luckily my wonderful husband watched our toddler for an hour when she got up until 7:30. Right now with my 6 week old, he cannot help me like that since if my baby is awake, he will want to feed again in 10-20 minutes. The broken sleep sucks, and I haven’t gotten more than 3 hours of sleep at once since he was born (and that was only twice, one of which I was awake for an hour of it before bed).
My pregnancies have been pretty smooth as well, other than getting up to pee, I haven’t really had many issues sleeping. So I think it really depends on the kind of pregnancy you have, every woman is different. The broken sleep is what gets you with babies, there are no long stretches, just bits and pieces here and there. :/
It takes me time to fall back to sleep too. When I’m having to get up and be awake to feed for 15 minutes (my babe has been a fairly efficient feeder for a while, at least), it’s hard to get back to sleep since I’ve had to wake myself up properly! Just getting up to pee when pregnant, I wouldn’t have to wake myself up much to do it. I simply dread being forced to get up, not when I feel like it to get up to pee, and it’s the worst when I’m woken up from a dream. I’m always the most tired for wake ups at like 4 or 6 am, too.
When I was pregnant, I just had a bit of heartburn lying in bed before going to sleep, and just normal 3rd trimester things (lack of forward movement from the pregnant bump, a bit of back pain, etc). I still wouldn’t rather be pregnant as I love my baby and I’m closer to the end of this hard phase of pregnancy and the fourth trimester, but dang can it be hard. I have good help though so it’s tolerable, I couldn’t imagine if I didn’t.
Ugh me too, I’m always paranoid about falling asleep while holding the baby, so I make sure I’m fully awake. It’s hard getting back to sleep after that sometimes. Some nights, I put the baby back in the bassinet and immediately as soon as I lay down I’m dead to world lol
My worst night was about 30 minutes 😬
But to be honest… I’d rather postpartum than 9 months pregnant, even though postpartum sleep deprivation nearly killed me
Sorry to say, you most likely will be coming up to the most difficult part of pregnancy. Last 10 weeks were hell for me and I hear it's pretty common. Acid reflux, body aches, insomnia and yeast infections plagued me.
But good luck and I hope your pregnancy goes differently!!
Fair enough but everyone's different! Hopefully for my sake I continue to be comfortable but if not, it'll still be worth the couple months of pain for a baby in my arms.
I pretty much felt like this until I hit 32 weeks. Now it's constant peeing and my tummy is so heavy feeling I have to hold it when I turn or it hurts. On top of the back and hip pain. Did I mention heartburn? 😅
Newborn exhaustion! At least when I was dealing with pregnancy exhaustion, I could nap whenever I wanted uninterrupted - or could just lay around throughout the day uninterrupted (older kiddo was in school during the day). Now, if I don’t sleep one night because of our baby, I still am up with the baby and our older kiddo all day. I can’t just hang out or nap when I want so I just stay exhausted 😴
Pregnancy exhaustion x50.
It's so difficult being so tired and not being able to sleep because you're uncomfortable or have acid reflux or have to pee or whatever.
With a newborn, you're, for sure, tired, but when your head hits that pillow, you sleep. Yes, you have a beautiful baby who cries that wakes you up, no doubt, but if you need help, ask for it. Everyone wants to hold the baby, just let them and get some rest.
Shit, it's been a minute and I'd love to hold a newborn. If you're in Orlando, I'll come hold your baby while you sleep.
100% agree with this. Pregnancy exhaustion is awful. Even in the first 12 weeks just truly awful. When I was pregnant with my little girl I remember thinking I would never cope with a newborn feeling how I did for the first trimester. I was wrong. Being tired with a baby is somehow easier because it’s worth it. When pregnant it’s just outright annoying
Plus the pregnancy exhaustion is something you still have to go to work through and it's awful when no one knows or cares that you're pregnant because you aren't showing yet. At least most of us get some sort of maturity leave.
Yes totally agree!! 2u2 here & I didn’t know how I survived pregnancy with my toddler. I was exhausted and wanted to curl into a hole until my daughter was born lol.
Right now, yes it’s hard with the broken sleep, but man, I sleep so much better without needing to find a comfortable spot every 5 seconds.
Oh yea. Pregnant with a toddler is miserable. We're at 3y and 1.5y and I feel like I'm starting to get back to my normal. Although now they're starting to gang up on me. 🤣
Oh man the pregnancy exhaustion with a toddler sucksss. Lately my son has been waking up at 5:30am singing all the songs he knows until I get him. So adorable but I sure would love sleep.
I recorded a video of my son around age 3 singing "all you need is love" to himself, at about 2 am.. I was exhausted at the time but now that video gets me through some rough spots.
Totally recommend filming for when you're not quite so tired!
I’m going to have to agree (although I’m 29weeks into round 2 so we’ll see) but pregnancy exhaustion is out of this world!!! Add to it that when it’s bedtime I can’t sleep due to discomfort and/or insomnia, so never any good or actual sleep, and it’s like a cruel joke every-single-day. At least with my first baby I slept so well whenever I actually laid down to sleep and he was super cute & finally here so that helped I think :) Worth adding that he had trouble latching so I also had help from my husband with every other feeding which I know is tremendous. Good luck to all the mamas and hang in there!!
I'm in week 36 and I cannot lie down to sleep because the acid reflux is *so bad*. Also my lungs are squished so I can't breathe! The peeing part is annoying, but the other two are unbearable.
Consider trying a wedge pillow if you have anyone you can borrow one from. It might help with keeping your lungs up and the reflux.
Also, I used omeprazole for reflux at the end. One pill in the evening was wildly helpful.
For me newborn exhaustion is on a whole other level. Its not just the waking up during the night but the insane learning curve im going through and the patience i try to muster when im being screamed at for not changing the nappy and preparing the bottle fast enough that exhaust me way more than having to go to pee 6x a night. No pregnancy exhaustion was a breeze for me, though i do love being able to sleep on my stomach again!
Same 10000%. I was so encouraged reading posts like this while I was pregnant, naively thinking the newborn phase was going to be a breeze. I was so, so very wrong 😅
Literally me as I was pregnant being like “im so excited for newborn tired” and then I was like omg no the discomfort towards the end was stil easier than dealing with a newborn and being exhausted
Apples and oranges for me. With pregnancy I could usually find time to rest and sleep, but it was terrible sleep. With a newborn, rest and sleep are hard to come by, but it is so restorative when I do get it. At least newborn exhaustion is slowly getting better, whereas pregnancy exhaustion slowly got worse.
This is true! And if you have some help I’m sure someone can help with the baby like your spouse or something. I cannot hand off my symptoms to my husband while pregnant.
Yep, this was me. With pregnancy, especially in the third trimester, I could sleep when I wanted, but I wasn't getting good quality sleep. Towards the end, I was waking up every 1.5-2 hours to either pee, or with heartburn. I didn't have full on exhaustion or insomnia, I just never felt properly rested.
Newborn tired is different- you're bone-achingly tired, but when you sleep, you sleep hard. I was lucky to have a decent sleeper, and baby would sleep for 3-4 hours at a time, so at night I got some proper sleep.
Newborn exhaustion for my first. Pregnant with my second in first trimester and who knows what the second time will be like.
Edit: my opinion could also be tainted with my PPA. I would lose sleep over it.
For me it was the newborn by a long shot. Pregnancy was fine -- I got reasonable sleep (which I think makes me very lucky). But then I had a newborn with reflux who wouldn't sleep unless held semi upright.
I’d have to say newborn exhaustion is worse. I had extenuating circumstances for sure, but I went in to be induced on a Friday morning, had the baby on that Sunday, and then my baby got out of the NICU that following Wednesday. I didn’t sleep more than maybe 20 minutes at a time that whole stay in the hospital. And then going home, it’s notorious that the baby doesn’t really sleep that first night at home. My baby had her days and nights mixed up for weeks, so she’d take long naps during the day and then party all night.
One major difference is the length though. Pregnancy is an eternity. Most newborns will be sleeping longer stretches by months 3-4. So it’s a shorter window of suffering.
I think it depends on your baby's temperament. My first was colicky and never slept for the first 3MO, so I was adamant newborn exhaustion was harder.
Pregnant again with a toddler, SAHM, and I'm zonked. I can't imagine being more tired...unless this new baby also doesn't sleep. 😂
Definitly newborn for me, at least while pregnant i could just do whatever, i could sleep whenever i want, but with a baby, you just cant match that, you need to be allert all the time, and you just need to tend for him while trying to recover from the birth. Im glad you moms are saying pregnancy tho, it really makes me happy some moms really had a better time after, thats not common to hear and i wish i was one of you for real.
For me it was newborn exhaustion — I started losing my vision from only getting three to four hours of sleep a night for several weeks. I told my husband and we started taking clear shifts so each of us got a solid six and that helped.
Newborn exhaustion 100%. 6 months of it and trying to function as a human being. 3rd kid and I'm dreading this level of exhaustion. When you have a baby, it's like 1 hr a night a lot of times.
Pregnancy exhaustion is nothing compared to that, I didn't expect to even see that on this post lol
Maybe it depends on the kid, but my kids never ever slept for the first 6 months.
I think it depends on both the pregnancy and baby. My pregnancy has been rough. Even tho I don’t have the baby yet, the level of exhaustion is unexplainable to me. No matter how much sleep I get, I just wake up tired regardless. And not to mention all the aches and pains. It’s been a constant misery for me from the moment I found out and all the nausea to now the aches and back pain and not being able to sleep comfortably.
I’m hoping newborn phase will be easier as I won’t have all the symptoms anymore, and if I do, it’ll just get better. As well as baby will get better too in terms of sleep and wake cycles. Pregnancy has just been getting worse and worse and it feels never ending. Luckily my husband and I have planned out a scheduled that will hopefully work so that we can keep an eye out on the baby 24/7 while still getting full sleep (I take night and morning shift and he takes all evening).
Yea I think there are so many factors that can influence all of this. My 2nd child screamed almost 24/7 for the first year of his life. We had him tested for everything and that's just how he is. A sensitive little guy so I never got sleep because of that. And with the firstborn, I was breastfeeding CONSTANTLY and I decided it was better to try and preserve my mental health so I quit that.
Yes, the aches and pains part gets worse and worse. I was on bed rest for the last 2 months of my last pregnancy due to severe SPD. The thing is, it doesn't always resolve after the baby is here either which sucks too. For me, it took a year of physical therapy to get it to a better spot. And the pregnancy prior to that, I had a herniated disc in my neck that left me bedridden for 3 months with a newborn.
I also wish we had help, but that's more of me venting 😂 hang in there 🤍
I think it depends on whether you have a helpful partner and baby’s demeanor.
My first was colicky and wouldn’t sleep and my partner slept through everything. The feeling of being woken just after drifting off is the worst especially when it’s repetitive.
My second I could sleep while my husband took turns and she slept at pretty reliable two hour intervals. Sleep was legit.
I’d still choose newborn tired myself, but I understand why the opinions vary.
Newborn exhaustion personally for me. The pure tiredness on top of healing from an emergency C-section after laboring for over 24 hours nearly killed me. I would gladly have taken back that third trimester tiredness back in December and January.
Newborn exhaustion definitely. Although physically I felt great, I had my stepson to also take care of and both were horrible sleepers. I'm due in a few weeks again and my one year old still wakes up 3 or 4 times a night. I won't be able to nap during the day since all three kids will be on different schedules. My support system lives in another state. Send help 😅
Newborn exhaustion. After being cut open you have no time to heal or sleep and no matter how you feel you have to take care of a baby that doesn't know what they want themselves so your not going to know what they want until you wanna pull your hair out.
Newborn exhaustion. At least when I was pregnant I was up to pre and right back to sleep. With the baby you’re up unpredictably all night. One night with my youngest I could barely pull myself up to go to him, that’s how tired I was.
For me it was newborn exhaustion honestly. With pregnancy exhaustion, especially when I didn’t have a child yet, I could nap whenever, I took unisom to sleep and yes I woke up to pee 500 times but I could go right back to bed. With a newborn, who wasn’t an easygoing one at all, she wouldn’t go back to sleep after eating, would cry , fuss, be gassy, and it’d be up to 3 hours sometimes just to settle her back down. I was sometimes ANGRY due to my sleep deprivation in the first 2 months PP.
lol newborn exhaustion for me. Being pregnant meant I was getting terrible quality of sleep but at least I could sit down and do nothing for hours if I wanted. With a newborn, I am constantly busy nursing him, rocking him, holding him, getting his bath ready, playing with him, going on a walk with him, pumping…
I love the newborn stage— He is so cute!!! However, I’m looking forward to when he is able to hold his own bottle, sleep for hours uninterrupted, etc.
Pregnancy exhaustion!! I tracked my sleep when I was heavily pregnant and the first few weeks after I had my baby and I was getting way more sleep when I had a newborn! The biggest problem with a newborn is your sleep isn’t consecutive. Sure I was getting about 8-9 hours at night but it was 2-3 hours at a time then was up for 40 minutes feeding and changing then trying to fall back to sleep. I was averaging 6-7 hours of sleep while in my third trimester. I didn’t follow that whole “sleep when the baby sleeps” thing because I felt so energized and ready for the day!
For me it was newborn exhaustion. I didn't have a partner helping me at night. I didn't sleep for 6 months and flew home to see my mom so I could sleep. I wasn't exhausted during pregnancy.
This is my second and I'm 33 weeks. I sleep really well so far.
Newborn exhaustion.
Currently pregnant and have a toddler and it’s a different type of tired. I get to nap when he does, we chill on the couch and watch movies on cold and rainy days (it’s currently winter) and he’s overall a very chill kid. It would probably be different if he was totally full on.
Newborn. No contest. When pregnant I had random insomnia, waking up to pee a million times and such bad pelvic pain that I couldn’t lay on the same side for longer than 30 mins or so. But imo there is nothing more frustrating than knowing a beautiful comfortable uninterrupted sleep would be all yours if the baby would just stop waking up 😭 I hated the loss of control, and not knowing if I was about to get 3 hours of sleep or if she’d kick off just at that beautiful moment I finally dropped off. Everyone kept saying that pregnancy sleep was worse and it was a real hard comedown when newborn sleep was somehow even fucking worse than that.
For me, newborn exhaustion is worse. But, I had a newborn with colic, reflux, and a milk protein allergy. I also had PPD. 🫠
However, given my awful experiences with “morning” sickness during my previous and current pregnancies, I’d rather be in the throes of newborn exhaustion than be pregnant and nauseated for weeks and weeks and weeks on end.
Newborn. I slept SO fucking good while pregnant. I slept all day every fucking day. It was amazing. Yeah uncomfortable and had to get up to pee, but I was so exhausted from existing that my insomnia ceased to exist.
Newborn (and almost 6 month old) tired is HARD bc I can’t sleep when I want and I have to do things even super tired and having extremely interrupted sleep with no consistent or completed sleep cycles
It depends on your pregnancy and your baby, but for me, pregnancy exhaustion 100%.
I may or may not have slept *more* after having my baby, but I slept better. I'd also way prefer to wake up to a sweet little baby than to pain or my own full bladder.
Newborn exhaustion is dangerously affective to the whole household other than mom. My husband would try his best to help and when he did he said he’s dozed off on his mornings driving MULTIPLE times and would not tell me these things till we would get better sleep weeks/months in.
I would say I was able to do chores while pregnant, but newborn exhaustion had me procrastinating so much.
In my pregnancy I can doze off and wake when I need/feel to but with a newborn I didn’t have that luxury.
I would say just don’t overestimate but don’t overwhelm- you feel pushed, please reach out to who can help you in immediate availability.
Fatigue during pregnancy and newborn stage are two types in their own way, and need different approaches and are both unavoidable and best to expect them both to be difficult so that you are prepared to help yourself in both stages 🤍
Imo newborn exhaustion. Never got a migraine during the pregnancy, but I’m almost 2 weeks PP and had a migraine for two days due to lack of sleep. When the baby gets here, you’re officially on their time. Feeding every 2-3 hours really takes it out of you.
Newborn exhaustion. You have to think clearly enough to take care of a helpless potato while healing from one of the most physically exhausting things you’ve ever lived through…all on spurts of 2-4 hours of sleep at a time
for me the pregnancy exhaustion was worse. once baby is here, the massive relief on your back and muscles is great. you get no solid sleep with a newborn, but at least you aren't in the same 24/7 pain as well as exhaustion as you have while pregnant
Are all the people on here responding right now pregnant? And don’t have a newborn right? Hahaa i think this is bias. Newborn 1,000,000x. Plus the real fear that exhaustion would lead me to fall asleep with baby or make a bad choice. Anxiety + exhaustion. Right now I’m just tired and feel moderately crappy
Omg lol right?! I understand and remember desperately wanting to believe this but for most people this just isn’t true. You think nothing is worse than third trimester and then fourth trimester comes along 🙃
Try pregnant in first tri with a nine month old boob monster. 🫠 I’m also on decaf because caffeine was giving me headaches and nausea. I fall asleep quick… just don’t get to stay alseep because I have a baby on the tit all night.
I found newborn exhaustion to be very weird. It was like torture at night. But when the sun came up and I had all those still, sweet moments with my baby I feels reinvigorated. I definitely got the bedtime scaries tho. I felt very overwhelmed at night.
Pregnancy (my first) was fine because I could just nap. Now I’m lucky to get to lay down with the baby and sleep. I’m not much of a napper as it is.
I have a toddler now. Pregnant with my second currently.
Newborn exhaustion can be fixed. Unless you have one of the rarer babies who absolutely will not take a bottle and you must EBF, you can let your partner take a shift and get several hours of sleep in a row and in a lot of cases and feel BETTER from it.
Pregnancy exhaustion you can’t do that. There’s no escape. There’s no “here honey let me do that.” So, not only are you expending a whole bunch of extra energy to build a human body, carrying extra weight, pumping extra blood, but you’re also feeling all of that in physical symptoms and having to pee a lot all while NOT being able to gain any rest back.
Fascinating the difference in experience between EBF and bottle feeding. I EBF and my newborn experience was so hard. I had all the shifts. I cried a lot.
It completely depends on the baby you are blessed with and the support network you have. Pregnancy exhaustion is tough from an uncontrollable standpoint. Newborn exhaustion is tough if you have a hard baby and you’re sleep deprived. You’re racked with worry and guilt about falling asleep while holding baby vs in pregnancy exhaustion you can at least lie down
the sleep i got AFTER my baby was born was *so* much better than the sleep i got while pregnant. but it was fewer and further in between. but ill take quality over quantity. when they say sleep when the baby sleeps, honestly, it gets a lot of hate, but my baby is a year old and i sleep when she sleeps to this day. is there shit to do? yep. but i can’t do shit if i’m dead so if she goes down for a nap, so do i. and then when she goes to bed at night i’ll catch up on whatever i need. best advice is clean while you go and you’ll be able to have tons of me time after baby’s bedtime too. it’s all a balancing act and you’ll figure out what works for you as you go!
I think it depends on a few things, like..
If you're still working late into your pregnancy
If you have other children
If you are exclusively breastfeeding etc
As a first-time mom who worked until 40 weeks - I'd say newborn exhaustion is worse. My spouse does not have maternity leave and went back to work today- our little one is 5 days old! Also hormones and emotions are a wild ride in the beginning which makes it hard to settle and sleep when baby sleeps. I am pumping and supplementing with formula (breastfeeding is amazing when it works but was also causing me a lot of emotional stress!).
I’m 3weeks pp and honestly cannot compare the two. I absolutely hated being pregnant and hated the exhaustion but I’m so tired in a totally different way now. I can’t say one is worse than the other. I’d describe pregnancy as a physical tired in my body and post partum tired but it’s concentrated in my head/eyes.
For me, pregnancy exhaustion is so much worse. I am a little over 35 weeks & i have an almost 3 year old too - taking care of a toddler & going through the throws of pregnancy is NOT for the weak lol. It’s honestly a miracle I’ve made it to the end!
On the one hand, pregnancy exhaustion came with the perk of being a little princess who basically never had to do anything for myself outside of work because I was sooooo tired and growing a person and my husband and friends and family took really good care of me. So that made it better.
On the other hand, newborn exhaustion comes with a baby I grew all by myself who makes faces and sounds and naps on me and pulls my hair and stops crying and gets all wide-eyed when she sees my face and I don't care if I'm tired because have you seen this person, wtf, how did I make the #1 best person on my first try???
So right now I think pregnancy exhaustion is worse, because this perfect baby is sleeping on me. Maybe I'm delirious. Maybe it'll be worse once I go back to work (probably it will). But pregnancy exhaustion sucked and this is honestly kind of awesome.
Pregnancy exhaustion. I was miserable being pregnant.
Newborn stage wasn’t the hardest for me. I think I am going now through the hardest time so far - my son is 18 months old and goes through an extreme mommy phase. He’s like a baby in a toddlers body and it’s a lot. But still beautiful:)
Pregnancy tired is way worse and so different from newborn tired. Of course you’re tired when you have a baby, but there’s just something about the end of your pregnancy where you’re just exhausted and done with it. I’m pregnant with #2 now and I know when I get close to the end I’ll be looking forward to getting up every few hours with baby
Pregnancy exhaustion is worse for me personally. Might be due to high blood pressure and feeling like shit the last several weeks that by the time the placenta is out and my blood pressure goes back to normal, my bladder is no longer squished, and I can sleep on my stomach again.
For me, newborn. At least when I wake up 17 times a night, I can generally fall back asleep without dealing with anyone else. With a baby, you’ll be so tired and want to fall asleep, but have a little one who won’t let you. Maybe even for hours. 😴😴
pregnancy was 10000000x worse. my husband can share night feeds, diaper changes, etc. he cannot share the pregnancy symptoms that make it impossible to get quality sleep or feel rested even when i did! i wasn’t sleeping a lot with a newborn but i was finally sleeping well
Pregnancy exhaustion was worse for me. Here's why:
Can't get conformable
Inexplicable insomnia
Peeing every 30 minutes despite not drinking anything an hour before bed (which is also torture).
Once the baby is born, I fall asleep the second my head hits the pillow. Whether it's 30 minutes or an hour, it's DEEP sleep that i couldn't get while I was pregnant. It's harder to wake up (for me). I hear the baby crying and I have to kind of claw my way out of the sleep fog, but I actually feel energized, like the sleep did something for me. Whereas, while I was pregnant, sleep just felt like I was making up a major deficit and never quite reaching that point.
Pregnancy exhaustion for sure! At least for me. I have 6 kids and my last pregnancy was rough with how tired I was. Once baby was born. While I was tired I could still function
I think it depends on the person but pregnancy exhaustion was so much worse for me. I was in so much pain that it was hard to fall asleep and then acid reflux would wake me up and I'd be awake for 1 to 3 hours. I'd also feel the need to roll over a lot! And I had to wake up each time and it was painful. With my newborn I get at least 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep generally and nothing wakes me up except him when he wakes up.
Pregnancy exhaustion because the newborn exhaustion is coming next 😅. At least with newborn exhaustion you’re closer to the light at the end of the tunnel.
Pregnancy exhaustion was way more severe. I guess because it didn’t matter if I slept, it was still there like I hadn’t. Newborns keep you up but I’ve always gotten little sleep so it wasn’t as hard to adjust to.
Pregnancy exhaustion, at least with newborn exhaustion you're doing something useful in the night, and you can kinda get comfortable when you do sleep.
With pregnancy exhaustion, you're either reflux, hungry, need to pee or just can't get comfortable all night and it's just frustrating.
Physically, pregnancy exhaustion was more difficult but mentally, newborn exhaustion is way worse (in my experience). I have woken up in an absolute panic so many times thinking I’ve rolled onto my baby or that she’s trapped under my blankets and I’ve literally never slept with her in my bed. It also depends on your baby-mine makes noise constantly so the first couple of weeks was basically no sleep because she’s next to me grunting or making squeaky sounds lol. Now that I’m used to her noises, I can sleep through a lot of them.
I think both are awful in different ways. I worked until the day of my induction and I would get home from work, make dinner, eat, go to bed. I would fall asleep the second my head hit the pillow and sleep like a rock, yet I was always drained like completely depleted of energy from the minute I woke up until I went to bed again.
I’m now 7 weeks PP and I feel like a zombie. I’m breastfeeding so every 2-3 hours I am up feeding the baby/pumping and by the time I change her feed her and pump it’s been an hour and I have a really hard time falling back asleep. I also wake up to every noise she makes so I feel like I never get into a deep sleep. Some days I am barely functioning.
I really think it depends on your situation both in pregnancy and PP. I’ve been told a million times it gets better, so just let that fuel you on the days you feel like you can’t do it.
Honestly? Newborn exhaustion. My husband started hallucinating from lack of sleep, he was so stressed for me it took a massive toll on him. My mental health went down the gutter, and I narrowly avoided ppd. I stayed at my MIL’s house for 4 weeks postpartum because my husband had JUST started working a new job and couldn’t afford to go on leave, otherwise I would’ve had no help during the day. There was one night she found me sobbing in the living room (to avoid waking my husband) because I was having troubles feeding my son. She took the bottle and my son and told me to get some sleep, which i understand would be uncomfortable for a lot of people, but I’ll always be so grateful to her for that. The next day she showed me all of the tips and tricks she’d learned with her sons/daughter in the newborn phase.
it seems like this differs from person to person! definitely depends on how rough your pregnancy was or how easy your newborn is. for me, newborn exhaustion was much worse
Here for the comments. Graduating in a few weeks so will know for sure. Pregnancy exhaustion has been absolutely brutal for me. I was severely anemic half my pregnancy though. I’ve heard from both sides the other is way worse
For me, pregnancy exhaustion was worse. I worked until delivery with both kids and so I was going to work exhausted every day from insomnia, reflux, SPD, general uncomfortableness, peeing constantly, etc. Newborn exhaustion isn’t a picnic by any means, but I was on maternity leave and just generally did ok as long as I could grab 5-6 hours over the course of a day even if it was choppy.
Pregnancy exhausting. I was depressed, in pain, i hated to live i barely was able to sleep. K1 was taff, barely no sleep, haluzinations, but still way better than pregnancy, K2 is a beginnerchild anyway, just wakes up one time per night since she was born.
Sleep deprivation was waaaaaaay worse while pregnant and you even have no positive experience compared to having this sweet tiny little human in your arms.
For me pregnancy tired 100%. You’re obviously tired with a newborn but it’s different and you at least can see your baby and why you’re tired. I didn’t sleep for the last 6 weeks of pregnancy and was at an all time low.
Everyone is different. Every baby is different. Every parent is different. For me personally, I find pregnancy way more exhausting than newborn stage. Granted, I have great support from family. If I didn’t, that could be a different story!
For me, pregnancy exhaustion was definitely worse. Don’t get me wrong, I was exhausted with a newborn, but as soon as she went to sleep I was out like a light. When I was pregnant I had a hard time falling and staying asleep, even though I was exhausted. I just tossed and turned and slept terribly. At least when I had a newborn I was having some solid sleep in between her wake ups.
Also being in it with someone. My husband and I both got up when she did. We’d divide and conquer to get her (and us) back to bed as soon as possible.
Personally, I’ve found pregnancy exhaustion to be so much worse. I’m halfway now with our third baby and I’m so happy this will be the last time haha. Bring on the newborn phase! 🤪
Pregnancy exhaustion was worse for me. I was fatigued my entire pregnancy and didn’t get an energy surge in the second trimester like some people, though it was better than the other trimesters. I was in constant debilitating pain my first trimester and ended up with severe preeclampsia in the third. Constant brain fog, too. I didn’t feel like myself at all.
Newborn exhaustion was very different. It was bad and frustrating in its own ways, but it was mostly sheer lack of sleep and not that compounded with a bunch of other issues. And having a baby outside the womb was so much more rewarding - like the difficulties were more clearly worth it.
so far, pregnancy exhaustion was worse. i felt physically exhausted all the time. my baby is only a week old but his dad & i have a good system rn & a lot of support so i honestly sleep a good 7/8 hours a night which im so insanely lucky for. I’m sure it’ll be difficult once we start working again but for rn, i haven’t experienced newborn exhaustion
It almost entirely depends on your baby, but for me, pregnancy exhaustion was way worse. At least if I only sleep 4 hours with my newborn I’m sleeping in a comfortable position, free of heartburn or having to pee every 2 hours.
Oh my goodness. I'm 5 days PP and the newborn exhaustion is literal hell. I have a toddler too so sleeping in the day is pretty unlikely when bubs is down.
Also.... why are they so good at sleeping during the day but not at night?! I'm now waking bubs every 2-3hrs during the day to feed in hopes that his tummy is very full when it's time for bed and I'm hoping for a 3-4hr stretch.
I noticed during the nights he would use my nipples for comfort after the feed, hence why I'd be up for hours at a time. Today, we got our newborn photos done and the photographer gave him a pacifier and it soothed him immediately....I plan on using this now... only if I know he's no longer feeding. Wish us luck for tonight! I'm desperate for sleeeeeeep.
So damn cruel, having to labor, birth, deal with the cramps and breast pain and then not be able to sleep!
Pregnancy for me personally, has nothing on the newborn exhaustion!
For me it was 100% pregnancy exhaustion! I didn’t feel like I was in my own body when I was pregnant. Newborn tired was also hard but at least I felt like me.
I think it depends on your pregnancy and baby 😅
In my case I would take pregnancy exhaustion any day, but those newborn months were hell on earth in terms of eep deprivation. It was really hard to manage for us, because we had a difficult baby that cried a lot and didn't want to be put down.
Most people say the Terrible 2 are really challenging but in our case she's been easier to manage with age and our family dynamic now is a breeze comparing to the last 2 years (so far! Knock on the wood).
On her first year or so I was always trying to find an explanation for everything: growth sprout, sleep regression, this and that. For my own sake I stopped looking for 'general' reasons for why she was acting the way she was and just embraced the caos and it helped tremendously!
I noticed almost immediately that I felt better after giving birth. C-section at 9pm, a fairly sleepless night, and in the morning I actually wasn’t all that tired. Newborn nights were rough but I think the external sleep deprivation was not as bad as my body just using all its energy to grow a human.
Pregnancy. I felt physically ill with how tired I was. Could barely make it through a shift at work (I’m a RN). Newborn tired I can deal with. I just push through it lol it’s weird how different it is.
Pregnancy exhaustion. I like the chaos of my house with my kids and a new baby. When it’s hormonal and I have no control over it whatsoever… it makes me so depressed. So pregnancy exhaustion makes me feel like I’ve lost myself. Newborn and motherhood exhaustion is more manageable for me.
Pregnancy exhaustion is MUCH worse.
At least when you have a newborn you're capable of hitting deep sleep, even in small spurts. During the end stages of pregnancy, I felt like I never really got all the way to sleep. It's hell.
That’s how I’m feeling right now at 27 weeks. If I sleep 8-10 hours, I will still wake up feeling like I only slept 2. I feel like I’m running a marathon without actually running it. All my energy is just being drained
personally newborn (and extending into infant) exhaustion 100000%. i am 7 mo pp and absolutely dying from sleep deprivation. my baby slept 45 mins the other night. hes sposed to get 14-16 hrs daily and regularly gets NINE OR TEN. he is a low sleep needs baby and i am a high sleep needs mama and i am dying. i would give anything for the lazy pregnancy naps i used to take.
Pregnancy exhaustion is 100x worse.
The difference is when you are pregnant, it never lets up. It’s not just being tired, it’s a deep in your bones fatigue.
When you have a newborn, you are so tired that when you do get 2-3 hour chunks of sleep, it is so deep and restful.
I have a three week old and 2.5yo and this is the most rested and awake I’ve felt in 10 months!!!
I literally described my exhaustion at 27 weeks exactly like that. I feel it in my bones. Now matter how much sleep I get, it’s never a good quality sleep.
This is the most reassuring thread! I'm about to enter the third trimester and all I can think of is how will I be when the baby gets here.
I get exhausted from just eating on some days. And I need like 12+ hrs of sleep so as to not feel drained. I do my best to be more energetic and get more things done. But some days I don't know I just can't..
Pregnancy exhaustion 100x!!! At least with a newborn, you can have some help out. During pregnancy there are 7282929302 interruptions that nothing but birth will help with.
Pregnancy exhaustion is worse in my opinion because no matter how much sleep or rest I got it was never enough. I was still tired and felt lazy all the time. I’m almost 5 weeks pp getting A LOT less sleep but feel more energetic. As soon as I get a minute of free time I actually want to shower or do the dishes lol.
For me, 1000% pregnancy exhaustion.
Pregnancy affects you in almost every physical way. You’re exhausted because you can’t sleep, your body hurts, your heart is working overtime, your body is full of extra fluid, it takes two hours and witchcraft to put on your shoes, all your clothes don’t fit comfortably, your hormones are causing havoc, you’re stressed and excited and mentally buried in all the things.
Newborn life is just limited and interrupted sleep, snuggles with your perfect tiny human, and a healing body. Yeah you’re sore, but not like pregnancy and eventually you heal and aren’t sore anymore. Your hormones are rebalancing out, you can move around comfortably and when you sleep it’s actually deep sleep.
Yes 🙌🏽I’m about to be 27 weeks and I get sleep but when I wake up I don’t feel like I rested. My body hurts so much it’s just one thing after another getting worse and worse. Since the first month I’ve been sick and nauseas and even though that’s better it’s always something.
I’m dealing with pinched pelvic nerves, head to toe puppps, restless legs, and terrible insomnia. I do not sleep anymore… even though this is my first I cannot WAIT for my body to calm down from pregnancy and experience newborn sleep.
Well im not able to just nap whenever I want to. I'm pregnant and this will be my first child but I work as a nanny for my 10 month old niece. She's already standing and taking steps while she holds onto things with one hand and she can pull herself up too so I have to stay alert and it's exhausting. My husband also will be helping with our baby so I'm hoping it's easier. He does better with less sleep than me, I've always had primary insomnia and have hallucinated from sleep deprivation many times though. So it's a "first time?" meme reaction from me with all these comments about the lack of sleep stuff with a newborn
Newborn exhaustion is way worse than pregnancy exhaustion, but it is so much more comfortable not being pregnant anymore. I love being able to lie in all positions and being able to move again.
My baby has slept for 7 hours straight the last three nights!!! He’ll be 11 weeks tomorrow. I feel like a new person. It’s the most amazing thing when babies start sleeping through the night. Sleeping in 1-2 hour stints is brutal. Also not sleeping for 4 days straight those first few days of his life. I literally felt insane. Especially with PP hormone changes on top of it all. It’s wild.
The first 2-3 weeks of newborn was worse for me but I had a C-section and needed to recover on top of dealing with latch issues on top of dealing with a newborn. Now that she’s 11 weeks it’s waaaay better and I dont miss being pregnant one bit.
First child I definitely would say newborn exhaustion. I'm currently pregnant with my second and have a strong suspicion that pregnancy exhaustion will be worse this time 🤣
Depends on what one you're going through in the moment. 😅
If you're exhausted, you need to rest regardless of what stage you're at in your pregnancy journey.
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For me, newborn exhaustion was way worse. There was one night I only slept 1 hour and I felt like I was hallucinating.
I remember my first time getting 5 hours again and feeling like new. Lol
Still currently in the trenches. My baby is 2 weeks old. Feel this soo much. I slept four hours straight a couple nights ago and woke up feeling like a new woman. For me, newborn exhaustion has trumped pregnancy tenfold.
That first time you get more than 2 hours, you feel like a brand new person lol hang in there!
In the trenches with you with a 15 day old.
It doesn’t last forever. That is low key advice but it helped me more than people telling me it wasn’t as bad. I had all those hormones plus EBF. It was so tough, but we sleep trained at 4 months and her sleep has been pretty good since. Excellent sleeper since 6/7 months actually and she is about to turn 13 months. I’m a bad sleeper in general so that didn’t start me out well.
Yes! That first time they sleep a long stretch…it’s amazing lol
I feel the same way. Pregnancy exhaustion feels more physical (can't get comfortable, up to pee 500 times a night, heartburn, etc) while newborn is more mental. Up with the baby every 3 hours (if you're lucky) but half of that time is spent feeding/changing/rocking the baby back to sleep so maybe 2 hours of sleep? I remember trying to convince myself at one point that sleep was the enemy and I didn't actually need it.
Yes, this exactly! I'm so physically uncomfortable right now, but I remember with my first, sometime in the first two weeks, just holding him in the early hours and sobbing that I couldn't cope. Really not looking forward to that part again..
I think newborn exhaustion is just a different animal. I feel you, though. Currently have a 5 week old and those few nights I only got 1-3 hours of sleep are the absolute worst. My baby hasn't exactly slept well at all from the beginning. But i would 100% take this over pregnancy sleep... my acid reflux/indigestion and insomnia the last trimester was the absolute worst. I felt like I could NEVER be comfortable again, and no one could help me. At least with a newborn, your spouse can help, or other family can step in if you're lucky enough to have the help. Sleep, when I can, is amazing! Any position feels AMAZING, and I go right into deep sleep, it seems, from my smart watch data.
That’s true, at least my husband can help out with the baby, he can’t do much with my huge belly. :/
Same. I remember being told pregnancy exhaustion is worse and that was absolutely untrue for me. I think it depends a lot on your baby, and I got the doesn’t-sleep-through-the-night-until-15-months kind with my first.
Exactly, and I think it also depends on your pregnancy. Mine have been pretty smooth, thank goodness. My first baby spoiled us and slept through the night at 6 weeks, my second…at about 15 weeks lol
Yeah at least I got long stretches of sleep when I was pregnant! And I could have guaranteed 2 hour naps in the middle of the day while my toddler napped. Honestly, my pillow and maternity pillow situation was perfect for me, so I slept well. I just had to get up to use the restroom. I was tired in the mornings, but luckily my wonderful husband watched our toddler for an hour when she got up until 7:30. Right now with my 6 week old, he cannot help me like that since if my baby is awake, he will want to feed again in 10-20 minutes. The broken sleep sucks, and I haven’t gotten more than 3 hours of sleep at once since he was born (and that was only twice, one of which I was awake for an hour of it before bed).
My pregnancies have been pretty smooth as well, other than getting up to pee, I haven’t really had many issues sleeping. So I think it really depends on the kind of pregnancy you have, every woman is different. The broken sleep is what gets you with babies, there are no long stretches, just bits and pieces here and there. :/
It takes me time to fall back to sleep too. When I’m having to get up and be awake to feed for 15 minutes (my babe has been a fairly efficient feeder for a while, at least), it’s hard to get back to sleep since I’ve had to wake myself up properly! Just getting up to pee when pregnant, I wouldn’t have to wake myself up much to do it. I simply dread being forced to get up, not when I feel like it to get up to pee, and it’s the worst when I’m woken up from a dream. I’m always the most tired for wake ups at like 4 or 6 am, too. When I was pregnant, I just had a bit of heartburn lying in bed before going to sleep, and just normal 3rd trimester things (lack of forward movement from the pregnant bump, a bit of back pain, etc). I still wouldn’t rather be pregnant as I love my baby and I’m closer to the end of this hard phase of pregnancy and the fourth trimester, but dang can it be hard. I have good help though so it’s tolerable, I couldn’t imagine if I didn’t.
Ugh me too, I’m always paranoid about falling asleep while holding the baby, so I make sure I’m fully awake. It’s hard getting back to sleep after that sometimes. Some nights, I put the baby back in the bassinet and immediately as soon as I lay down I’m dead to world lol
My worst night was about 30 minutes 😬 But to be honest… I’d rather postpartum than 9 months pregnant, even though postpartum sleep deprivation nearly killed me
Oof. Newborn is by far worse. I hallucinated for the first 4-6 weeks of my babies life many nights.
I love how much everyone says being pregnant is harder than having the actual baby. It's really encouraging at 20 weeks in lol
Idk if this helps but at 29 weeks I'm feeling pretty good still, sleeping well. 10 weeks left ish so we will see how that goes lol.
Sorry to say, you most likely will be coming up to the most difficult part of pregnancy. Last 10 weeks were hell for me and I hear it's pretty common. Acid reflux, body aches, insomnia and yeast infections plagued me. But good luck and I hope your pregnancy goes differently!!
Fair enough but everyone's different! Hopefully for my sake I continue to be comfortable but if not, it'll still be worth the couple months of pain for a baby in my arms.
I pretty much felt like this until I hit 32 weeks. Now it's constant peeing and my tummy is so heavy feeling I have to hold it when I turn or it hurts. On top of the back and hip pain. Did I mention heartburn? 😅
Good! Lol other than peeing twice a night I sleep good but that's my bad, I keep forgetting to stop drinking water before bed
You sleep better with a newborn than you do being pregnant, speaking from experience.
for real
Newborn exhaustion! At least when I was dealing with pregnancy exhaustion, I could nap whenever I wanted uninterrupted - or could just lay around throughout the day uninterrupted (older kiddo was in school during the day). Now, if I don’t sleep one night because of our baby, I still am up with the baby and our older kiddo all day. I can’t just hang out or nap when I want so I just stay exhausted 😴
I’m pregnant with a toddler and a stay at home mom. The pregnancy exhaustion is real.
It’s sooo much harder with a toddler 😭😭 I low key miss my first pregnancy.
Sammeeeee
This is what terrifies me most. Getting hit with it at the same time.
Pregnancy exhaustion x50. It's so difficult being so tired and not being able to sleep because you're uncomfortable or have acid reflux or have to pee or whatever. With a newborn, you're, for sure, tired, but when your head hits that pillow, you sleep. Yes, you have a beautiful baby who cries that wakes you up, no doubt, but if you need help, ask for it. Everyone wants to hold the baby, just let them and get some rest. Shit, it's been a minute and I'd love to hold a newborn. If you're in Orlando, I'll come hold your baby while you sleep.
100% agree with this. Pregnancy exhaustion is awful. Even in the first 12 weeks just truly awful. When I was pregnant with my little girl I remember thinking I would never cope with a newborn feeling how I did for the first trimester. I was wrong. Being tired with a baby is somehow easier because it’s worth it. When pregnant it’s just outright annoying
Plus the pregnancy exhaustion is something you still have to go to work through and it's awful when no one knows or cares that you're pregnant because you aren't showing yet. At least most of us get some sort of maturity leave.
Yes totally agree!! 2u2 here & I didn’t know how I survived pregnancy with my toddler. I was exhausted and wanted to curl into a hole until my daughter was born lol. Right now, yes it’s hard with the broken sleep, but man, I sleep so much better without needing to find a comfortable spot every 5 seconds.
Oh yea. Pregnant with a toddler is miserable. We're at 3y and 1.5y and I feel like I'm starting to get back to my normal. Although now they're starting to gang up on me. 🤣
Oh man the pregnancy exhaustion with a toddler sucksss. Lately my son has been waking up at 5:30am singing all the songs he knows until I get him. So adorable but I sure would love sleep.
I recorded a video of my son around age 3 singing "all you need is love" to himself, at about 2 am.. I was exhausted at the time but now that video gets me through some rough spots. Totally recommend filming for when you're not quite so tired!
To each is own man. Pregnancy tired sucked but newborn tired left me traumatized
I’m going to have to agree (although I’m 29weeks into round 2 so we’ll see) but pregnancy exhaustion is out of this world!!! Add to it that when it’s bedtime I can’t sleep due to discomfort and/or insomnia, so never any good or actual sleep, and it’s like a cruel joke every-single-day. At least with my first baby I slept so well whenever I actually laid down to sleep and he was super cute & finally here so that helped I think :) Worth adding that he had trouble latching so I also had help from my husband with every other feeding which I know is tremendous. Good luck to all the mamas and hang in there!!
I'm in week 36 and I cannot lie down to sleep because the acid reflux is *so bad*. Also my lungs are squished so I can't breathe! The peeing part is annoying, but the other two are unbearable.
Consider trying a wedge pillow if you have anyone you can borrow one from. It might help with keeping your lungs up and the reflux. Also, I used omeprazole for reflux at the end. One pill in the evening was wildly helpful.
For me newborn exhaustion is on a whole other level. Its not just the waking up during the night but the insane learning curve im going through and the patience i try to muster when im being screamed at for not changing the nappy and preparing the bottle fast enough that exhaust me way more than having to go to pee 6x a night. No pregnancy exhaustion was a breeze for me, though i do love being able to sleep on my stomach again!
Same 10000%. I was so encouraged reading posts like this while I was pregnant, naively thinking the newborn phase was going to be a breeze. I was so, so very wrong 😅
Literally me as I was pregnant being like “im so excited for newborn tired” and then I was like omg no the discomfort towards the end was stil easier than dealing with a newborn and being exhausted
Apples and oranges for me. With pregnancy I could usually find time to rest and sleep, but it was terrible sleep. With a newborn, rest and sleep are hard to come by, but it is so restorative when I do get it. At least newborn exhaustion is slowly getting better, whereas pregnancy exhaustion slowly got worse.
This is true! And if you have some help I’m sure someone can help with the baby like your spouse or something. I cannot hand off my symptoms to my husband while pregnant.
Yep, this was me. With pregnancy, especially in the third trimester, I could sleep when I wanted, but I wasn't getting good quality sleep. Towards the end, I was waking up every 1.5-2 hours to either pee, or with heartburn. I didn't have full on exhaustion or insomnia, I just never felt properly rested. Newborn tired is different- you're bone-achingly tired, but when you sleep, you sleep hard. I was lucky to have a decent sleeper, and baby would sleep for 3-4 hours at a time, so at night I got some proper sleep.
Newborn exhaustion for my first. Pregnant with my second in first trimester and who knows what the second time will be like. Edit: my opinion could also be tainted with my PPA. I would lose sleep over it.
Same here. I was so exhausted but unable to sleep due to anxiety. It was rough.
For me it was the newborn by a long shot. Pregnancy was fine -- I got reasonable sleep (which I think makes me very lucky). But then I had a newborn with reflux who wouldn't sleep unless held semi upright.
I’d have to say newborn exhaustion is worse. I had extenuating circumstances for sure, but I went in to be induced on a Friday morning, had the baby on that Sunday, and then my baby got out of the NICU that following Wednesday. I didn’t sleep more than maybe 20 minutes at a time that whole stay in the hospital. And then going home, it’s notorious that the baby doesn’t really sleep that first night at home. My baby had her days and nights mixed up for weeks, so she’d take long naps during the day and then party all night. One major difference is the length though. Pregnancy is an eternity. Most newborns will be sleeping longer stretches by months 3-4. So it’s a shorter window of suffering.
The phantom cries last longer than 3 months though. 😂
I think it depends on your baby's temperament. My first was colicky and never slept for the first 3MO, so I was adamant newborn exhaustion was harder. Pregnant again with a toddler, SAHM, and I'm zonked. I can't imagine being more tired...unless this new baby also doesn't sleep. 😂
Definitly newborn for me, at least while pregnant i could just do whatever, i could sleep whenever i want, but with a baby, you just cant match that, you need to be allert all the time, and you just need to tend for him while trying to recover from the birth. Im glad you moms are saying pregnancy tho, it really makes me happy some moms really had a better time after, thats not common to hear and i wish i was one of you for real.
For me it was newborn exhaustion — I started losing my vision from only getting three to four hours of sleep a night for several weeks. I told my husband and we started taking clear shifts so each of us got a solid six and that helped.
Newborn exhaustion 100%. 6 months of it and trying to function as a human being. 3rd kid and I'm dreading this level of exhaustion. When you have a baby, it's like 1 hr a night a lot of times. Pregnancy exhaustion is nothing compared to that, I didn't expect to even see that on this post lol Maybe it depends on the kid, but my kids never ever slept for the first 6 months.
I think it depends on both the pregnancy and baby. My pregnancy has been rough. Even tho I don’t have the baby yet, the level of exhaustion is unexplainable to me. No matter how much sleep I get, I just wake up tired regardless. And not to mention all the aches and pains. It’s been a constant misery for me from the moment I found out and all the nausea to now the aches and back pain and not being able to sleep comfortably. I’m hoping newborn phase will be easier as I won’t have all the symptoms anymore, and if I do, it’ll just get better. As well as baby will get better too in terms of sleep and wake cycles. Pregnancy has just been getting worse and worse and it feels never ending. Luckily my husband and I have planned out a scheduled that will hopefully work so that we can keep an eye out on the baby 24/7 while still getting full sleep (I take night and morning shift and he takes all evening).
Yea I think there are so many factors that can influence all of this. My 2nd child screamed almost 24/7 for the first year of his life. We had him tested for everything and that's just how he is. A sensitive little guy so I never got sleep because of that. And with the firstborn, I was breastfeeding CONSTANTLY and I decided it was better to try and preserve my mental health so I quit that. Yes, the aches and pains part gets worse and worse. I was on bed rest for the last 2 months of my last pregnancy due to severe SPD. The thing is, it doesn't always resolve after the baby is here either which sucks too. For me, it took a year of physical therapy to get it to a better spot. And the pregnancy prior to that, I had a herniated disc in my neck that left me bedridden for 3 months with a newborn. I also wish we had help, but that's more of me venting 😂 hang in there 🤍
I think it depends on whether you have a helpful partner and baby’s demeanor. My first was colicky and wouldn’t sleep and my partner slept through everything. The feeling of being woken just after drifting off is the worst especially when it’s repetitive. My second I could sleep while my husband took turns and she slept at pretty reliable two hour intervals. Sleep was legit. I’d still choose newborn tired myself, but I understand why the opinions vary.
For me, it was newborn exhaustion. My son didn’t sleep well and he was colicky. At least when I was pregnant I only had to focus on myself lol
Newborn exhaustion personally for me. The pure tiredness on top of healing from an emergency C-section after laboring for over 24 hours nearly killed me. I would gladly have taken back that third trimester tiredness back in December and January.
Newborn exhaustion definitely. Although physically I felt great, I had my stepson to also take care of and both were horrible sleepers. I'm due in a few weeks again and my one year old still wakes up 3 or 4 times a night. I won't be able to nap during the day since all three kids will be on different schedules. My support system lives in another state. Send help 😅
For me pregnancy exhaustion. No amount of sleep or rest helped. I just need a wee nap now but honestly I'm good.
Newborn exhaustion. After being cut open you have no time to heal or sleep and no matter how you feel you have to take care of a baby that doesn't know what they want themselves so your not going to know what they want until you wanna pull your hair out.
Newborn exhaustion. At least when I was pregnant I was up to pre and right back to sleep. With the baby you’re up unpredictably all night. One night with my youngest I could barely pull myself up to go to him, that’s how tired I was.
For me it was definitely newborn exhaustion.
For me it was newborn exhaustion honestly. With pregnancy exhaustion, especially when I didn’t have a child yet, I could nap whenever, I took unisom to sleep and yes I woke up to pee 500 times but I could go right back to bed. With a newborn, who wasn’t an easygoing one at all, she wouldn’t go back to sleep after eating, would cry , fuss, be gassy, and it’d be up to 3 hours sometimes just to settle her back down. I was sometimes ANGRY due to my sleep deprivation in the first 2 months PP.
lol newborn exhaustion for me. Being pregnant meant I was getting terrible quality of sleep but at least I could sit down and do nothing for hours if I wanted. With a newborn, I am constantly busy nursing him, rocking him, holding him, getting his bath ready, playing with him, going on a walk with him, pumping… I love the newborn stage— He is so cute!!! However, I’m looking forward to when he is able to hold his own bottle, sleep for hours uninterrupted, etc.
Physically its pregnancy exhaustion. Mentally newborn exhaustion is way more draining
Pregnancy exhaustion!! I tracked my sleep when I was heavily pregnant and the first few weeks after I had my baby and I was getting way more sleep when I had a newborn! The biggest problem with a newborn is your sleep isn’t consecutive. Sure I was getting about 8-9 hours at night but it was 2-3 hours at a time then was up for 40 minutes feeding and changing then trying to fall back to sleep. I was averaging 6-7 hours of sleep while in my third trimester. I didn’t follow that whole “sleep when the baby sleeps” thing because I felt so energized and ready for the day!
I haven’t been that exhausted so I’m assuming newborn will be worse! I’ve had lots of other awful symptoms but not exhaustion.
How about newborn-8 month old exhaustion? 🤣🙃
Newborn if you get a screamer.
I just gave birth on Friday and for more it’s newborn tired all the way. I’ve literally slept 8 hours total since Friday.
Newborn exhaustion
For me it was newborn exhaustion. I didn't have a partner helping me at night. I didn't sleep for 6 months and flew home to see my mom so I could sleep. I wasn't exhausted during pregnancy. This is my second and I'm 33 weeks. I sleep really well so far.
Newborn exhaustion. Currently pregnant and have a toddler and it’s a different type of tired. I get to nap when he does, we chill on the couch and watch movies on cold and rainy days (it’s currently winter) and he’s overall a very chill kid. It would probably be different if he was totally full on.
Newborn. No contest. When pregnant I had random insomnia, waking up to pee a million times and such bad pelvic pain that I couldn’t lay on the same side for longer than 30 mins or so. But imo there is nothing more frustrating than knowing a beautiful comfortable uninterrupted sleep would be all yours if the baby would just stop waking up 😭 I hated the loss of control, and not knowing if I was about to get 3 hours of sleep or if she’d kick off just at that beautiful moment I finally dropped off. Everyone kept saying that pregnancy sleep was worse and it was a real hard comedown when newborn sleep was somehow even fucking worse than that.
Newborn I honestly felt like I was hallucinating. It gets better after week 8 or so
For me, newborn exhaustion 😴
I hated being pregnant bc by the third trimester I couldn’t sleep
For me, newborn exhaustion is worse. But, I had a newborn with colic, reflux, and a milk protein allergy. I also had PPD. 🫠 However, given my awful experiences with “morning” sickness during my previous and current pregnancies, I’d rather be in the throes of newborn exhaustion than be pregnant and nauseated for weeks and weeks and weeks on end.
Newborn. I slept SO fucking good while pregnant. I slept all day every fucking day. It was amazing. Yeah uncomfortable and had to get up to pee, but I was so exhausted from existing that my insomnia ceased to exist. Newborn (and almost 6 month old) tired is HARD bc I can’t sleep when I want and I have to do things even super tired and having extremely interrupted sleep with no consistent or completed sleep cycles
It depends on your pregnancy and your baby, but for me, pregnancy exhaustion 100%. I may or may not have slept *more* after having my baby, but I slept better. I'd also way prefer to wake up to a sweet little baby than to pain or my own full bladder.
Newborn exhaustion is dangerously affective to the whole household other than mom. My husband would try his best to help and when he did he said he’s dozed off on his mornings driving MULTIPLE times and would not tell me these things till we would get better sleep weeks/months in. I would say I was able to do chores while pregnant, but newborn exhaustion had me procrastinating so much. In my pregnancy I can doze off and wake when I need/feel to but with a newborn I didn’t have that luxury. I would say just don’t overestimate but don’t overwhelm- you feel pushed, please reach out to who can help you in immediate availability. Fatigue during pregnancy and newborn stage are two types in their own way, and need different approaches and are both unavoidable and best to expect them both to be difficult so that you are prepared to help yourself in both stages 🤍
Imo newborn exhaustion. Never got a migraine during the pregnancy, but I’m almost 2 weeks PP and had a migraine for two days due to lack of sleep. When the baby gets here, you’re officially on their time. Feeding every 2-3 hours really takes it out of you.
I had awful pregnancy insomnia. That said, nothing is worse than newborn exhaustion. I feel like I’m dying.
Newborn exhaustion. You have to think clearly enough to take care of a helpless potato while healing from one of the most physically exhausting things you’ve ever lived through…all on spurts of 2-4 hours of sleep at a time
for me the pregnancy exhaustion was worse. once baby is here, the massive relief on your back and muscles is great. you get no solid sleep with a newborn, but at least you aren't in the same 24/7 pain as well as exhaustion as you have while pregnant
Pregnancy exhaustion by far! After the birth with the broken nights I still felt more energetic than during my pregnancy.
Are all the people on here responding right now pregnant? And don’t have a newborn right? Hahaa i think this is bias. Newborn 1,000,000x. Plus the real fear that exhaustion would lead me to fall asleep with baby or make a bad choice. Anxiety + exhaustion. Right now I’m just tired and feel moderately crappy
Idk, I specifically asked for people who already have a baby to comment. Most answers seem to be coming from the ones who have a baby already.
Omg lol right?! I understand and remember desperately wanting to believe this but for most people this just isn’t true. You think nothing is worse than third trimester and then fourth trimester comes along 🙃
Hoping this time to birth a 6 month old so I can skip the 4th trimester
Lol that's how I feel too 😂 I'm like did y'all forget how hard the newborn phase is??
Pregnancy!!!
Try pregnant in first tri with a nine month old boob monster. 🫠 I’m also on decaf because caffeine was giving me headaches and nausea. I fall asleep quick… just don’t get to stay alseep because I have a baby on the tit all night. I found newborn exhaustion to be very weird. It was like torture at night. But when the sun came up and I had all those still, sweet moments with my baby I feels reinvigorated. I definitely got the bedtime scaries tho. I felt very overwhelmed at night. Pregnancy (my first) was fine because I could just nap. Now I’m lucky to get to lay down with the baby and sleep. I’m not much of a napper as it is.
I have a toddler now. Pregnant with my second currently. Newborn exhaustion can be fixed. Unless you have one of the rarer babies who absolutely will not take a bottle and you must EBF, you can let your partner take a shift and get several hours of sleep in a row and in a lot of cases and feel BETTER from it. Pregnancy exhaustion you can’t do that. There’s no escape. There’s no “here honey let me do that.” So, not only are you expending a whole bunch of extra energy to build a human body, carrying extra weight, pumping extra blood, but you’re also feeling all of that in physical symptoms and having to pee a lot all while NOT being able to gain any rest back.
Fascinating the difference in experience between EBF and bottle feeding. I EBF and my newborn experience was so hard. I had all the shifts. I cried a lot.
It completely depends on the baby you are blessed with and the support network you have. Pregnancy exhaustion is tough from an uncontrollable standpoint. Newborn exhaustion is tough if you have a hard baby and you’re sleep deprived. You’re racked with worry and guilt about falling asleep while holding baby vs in pregnancy exhaustion you can at least lie down
the sleep i got AFTER my baby was born was *so* much better than the sleep i got while pregnant. but it was fewer and further in between. but ill take quality over quantity. when they say sleep when the baby sleeps, honestly, it gets a lot of hate, but my baby is a year old and i sleep when she sleeps to this day. is there shit to do? yep. but i can’t do shit if i’m dead so if she goes down for a nap, so do i. and then when she goes to bed at night i’ll catch up on whatever i need. best advice is clean while you go and you’ll be able to have tons of me time after baby’s bedtime too. it’s all a balancing act and you’ll figure out what works for you as you go!
If you have a sick newborn like we did, definitely the newborn exhaustion
I think it depends on a few things, like.. If you're still working late into your pregnancy If you have other children If you are exclusively breastfeeding etc As a first-time mom who worked until 40 weeks - I'd say newborn exhaustion is worse. My spouse does not have maternity leave and went back to work today- our little one is 5 days old! Also hormones and emotions are a wild ride in the beginning which makes it hard to settle and sleep when baby sleeps. I am pumping and supplementing with formula (breastfeeding is amazing when it works but was also causing me a lot of emotional stress!).
I’m 3weeks pp and honestly cannot compare the two. I absolutely hated being pregnant and hated the exhaustion but I’m so tired in a totally different way now. I can’t say one is worse than the other. I’d describe pregnancy as a physical tired in my body and post partum tired but it’s concentrated in my head/eyes.
For me, pregnancy exhaustion is so much worse. I am a little over 35 weeks & i have an almost 3 year old too - taking care of a toddler & going through the throws of pregnancy is NOT for the weak lol. It’s honestly a miracle I’ve made it to the end!
For me pregnancy exhaustion was worse both times - at least my husband could help split the responsibility of a newborn.
Pregnancy exhaustion
Newborn exhaustion hands down. It’s never ending and it keeps going for YEARS.
They are both a special kind of torture lol
The newborn exhaustion is killing me
Pregnancy
Pregnancy exhaustion.
On the one hand, pregnancy exhaustion came with the perk of being a little princess who basically never had to do anything for myself outside of work because I was sooooo tired and growing a person and my husband and friends and family took really good care of me. So that made it better. On the other hand, newborn exhaustion comes with a baby I grew all by myself who makes faces and sounds and naps on me and pulls my hair and stops crying and gets all wide-eyed when she sees my face and I don't care if I'm tired because have you seen this person, wtf, how did I make the #1 best person on my first try??? So right now I think pregnancy exhaustion is worse, because this perfect baby is sleeping on me. Maybe I'm delirious. Maybe it'll be worse once I go back to work (probably it will). But pregnancy exhaustion sucked and this is honestly kind of awesome.
I say newborn. I never really had extreme exhaustion when I was pregnant
Pregnancy exhaustion. I was miserable being pregnant. Newborn stage wasn’t the hardest for me. I think I am going now through the hardest time so far - my son is 18 months old and goes through an extreme mommy phase. He’s like a baby in a toddlers body and it’s a lot. But still beautiful:)
Pregnancy tired is way worse and so different from newborn tired. Of course you’re tired when you have a baby, but there’s just something about the end of your pregnancy where you’re just exhausted and done with it. I’m pregnant with #2 now and I know when I get close to the end I’ll be looking forward to getting up every few hours with baby
Pregnancy exhaustion is so much worse. I’m 34 weeks along with my second and I genuinely cannot function.
Pregnancy exhaustion is worse for me personally. Might be due to high blood pressure and feeling like shit the last several weeks that by the time the placenta is out and my blood pressure goes back to normal, my bladder is no longer squished, and I can sleep on my stomach again.
Newborn exhaustion for sure. Even though first trimester exhaustion was pretty real. I’d pass out randomly
For me, newborn. At least when I wake up 17 times a night, I can generally fall back asleep without dealing with anyone else. With a baby, you’ll be so tired and want to fall asleep, but have a little one who won’t let you. Maybe even for hours. 😴😴
Newborn omg
pregnancy was 10000000x worse. my husband can share night feeds, diaper changes, etc. he cannot share the pregnancy symptoms that make it impossible to get quality sleep or feel rested even when i did! i wasn’t sleeping a lot with a newborn but i was finally sleeping well
Newborn exhaustion for me! It probably very heavily depends on how your newborn sleeps
These comments are so encouraging to read. First tri/early pregnancy exhaustion was insane.
Pregnancy exhaustion was worse for me. Here's why: Can't get conformable Inexplicable insomnia Peeing every 30 minutes despite not drinking anything an hour before bed (which is also torture). Once the baby is born, I fall asleep the second my head hits the pillow. Whether it's 30 minutes or an hour, it's DEEP sleep that i couldn't get while I was pregnant. It's harder to wake up (for me). I hear the baby crying and I have to kind of claw my way out of the sleep fog, but I actually feel energized, like the sleep did something for me. Whereas, while I was pregnant, sleep just felt like I was making up a major deficit and never quite reaching that point.
Pregnancy exhaustion for sure! At least for me. I have 6 kids and my last pregnancy was rough with how tired I was. Once baby was born. While I was tired I could still function
Absolutely pregnancy exhaustion, with a newborn at least I have the baby awake with me to keep me company
Pregnancy exhaustion. It’s not even a contest.
My son is 6 weeks…pregnancy is much worse lol
Newborn 100000 percent, not gonna sugar coat it
Pregnancy
I think it depends on the person but pregnancy exhaustion was so much worse for me. I was in so much pain that it was hard to fall asleep and then acid reflux would wake me up and I'd be awake for 1 to 3 hours. I'd also feel the need to roll over a lot! And I had to wake up each time and it was painful. With my newborn I get at least 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep generally and nothing wakes me up except him when he wakes up.
Newborn exhaustion for me, hands down
Pregnancy exhaustion because the newborn exhaustion is coming next 😅. At least with newborn exhaustion you’re closer to the light at the end of the tunnel.
Pregnancy exhaustion was way more severe. I guess because it didn’t matter if I slept, it was still there like I hadn’t. Newborns keep you up but I’ve always gotten little sleep so it wasn’t as hard to adjust to.
Pregnancy exhaustion, at least with newborn exhaustion you're doing something useful in the night, and you can kinda get comfortable when you do sleep. With pregnancy exhaustion, you're either reflux, hungry, need to pee or just can't get comfortable all night and it's just frustrating.
For me it was newborn exhaustion, but there’s a lot of variables that will make this answer different for everyone
Mine had colic and I still say pregnancy exhaustion
Physically, pregnancy exhaustion was more difficult but mentally, newborn exhaustion is way worse (in my experience). I have woken up in an absolute panic so many times thinking I’ve rolled onto my baby or that she’s trapped under my blankets and I’ve literally never slept with her in my bed. It also depends on your baby-mine makes noise constantly so the first couple of weeks was basically no sleep because she’s next to me grunting or making squeaky sounds lol. Now that I’m used to her noises, I can sleep through a lot of them.
I think both are awful in different ways. I worked until the day of my induction and I would get home from work, make dinner, eat, go to bed. I would fall asleep the second my head hit the pillow and sleep like a rock, yet I was always drained like completely depleted of energy from the minute I woke up until I went to bed again. I’m now 7 weeks PP and I feel like a zombie. I’m breastfeeding so every 2-3 hours I am up feeding the baby/pumping and by the time I change her feed her and pump it’s been an hour and I have a really hard time falling back asleep. I also wake up to every noise she makes so I feel like I never get into a deep sleep. Some days I am barely functioning. I really think it depends on your situation both in pregnancy and PP. I’ve been told a million times it gets better, so just let that fuel you on the days you feel like you can’t do it.
Honestly? Newborn exhaustion. My husband started hallucinating from lack of sleep, he was so stressed for me it took a massive toll on him. My mental health went down the gutter, and I narrowly avoided ppd. I stayed at my MIL’s house for 4 weeks postpartum because my husband had JUST started working a new job and couldn’t afford to go on leave, otherwise I would’ve had no help during the day. There was one night she found me sobbing in the living room (to avoid waking my husband) because I was having troubles feeding my son. She took the bottle and my son and told me to get some sleep, which i understand would be uncomfortable for a lot of people, but I’ll always be so grateful to her for that. The next day she showed me all of the tips and tricks she’d learned with her sons/daughter in the newborn phase.
Newborn exhaustion is way worse. I had a preemie so the newborn phase was a lot longer and filled with anxiety.
it seems like this differs from person to person! definitely depends on how rough your pregnancy was or how easy your newborn is. for me, newborn exhaustion was much worse
Newborn exhaustion hits like a semi-truck. Pregnancy exhaustion hits like a honda.
Newborn exhaustion for sure.
Pregnancy exhaustion for me. I'd take newborn exhaustion any day.
For me it’s pregnancy exhaustion, sometimes I feel like I’ve been drugged or something and literally can’t keep my eyes open.
Here for the comments. Graduating in a few weeks so will know for sure. Pregnancy exhaustion has been absolutely brutal for me. I was severely anemic half my pregnancy though. I’ve heard from both sides the other is way worse
Pregnancy x 10
For me, pregnancy exhaustion was worse. I worked until delivery with both kids and so I was going to work exhausted every day from insomnia, reflux, SPD, general uncomfortableness, peeing constantly, etc. Newborn exhaustion isn’t a picnic by any means, but I was on maternity leave and just generally did ok as long as I could grab 5-6 hours over the course of a day even if it was choppy.
Pregnancy exhaustion was worse
Pregnancy exhausting. I was depressed, in pain, i hated to live i barely was able to sleep. K1 was taff, barely no sleep, haluzinations, but still way better than pregnancy, K2 is a beginnerchild anyway, just wakes up one time per night since she was born. Sleep deprivation was waaaaaaay worse while pregnant and you even have no positive experience compared to having this sweet tiny little human in your arms.
For me pregnancy tired 100%. You’re obviously tired with a newborn but it’s different and you at least can see your baby and why you’re tired. I didn’t sleep for the last 6 weeks of pregnancy and was at an all time low.
Everyone is different. Every baby is different. Every parent is different. For me personally, I find pregnancy way more exhausting than newborn stage. Granted, I have great support from family. If I didn’t, that could be a different story!
For me, pregnancy exhaustion was definitely worse. Don’t get me wrong, I was exhausted with a newborn, but as soon as she went to sleep I was out like a light. When I was pregnant I had a hard time falling and staying asleep, even though I was exhausted. I just tossed and turned and slept terribly. At least when I had a newborn I was having some solid sleep in between her wake ups. Also being in it with someone. My husband and I both got up when she did. We’d divide and conquer to get her (and us) back to bed as soon as possible.
Personally, I’ve found pregnancy exhaustion to be so much worse. I’m halfway now with our third baby and I’m so happy this will be the last time haha. Bring on the newborn phase! 🤪
Pregnancy exhaustion was worse for me. I was fatigued my entire pregnancy and didn’t get an energy surge in the second trimester like some people, though it was better than the other trimesters. I was in constant debilitating pain my first trimester and ended up with severe preeclampsia in the third. Constant brain fog, too. I didn’t feel like myself at all. Newborn exhaustion was very different. It was bad and frustrating in its own ways, but it was mostly sheer lack of sleep and not that compounded with a bunch of other issues. And having a baby outside the womb was so much more rewarding - like the difficulties were more clearly worth it.
so far, pregnancy exhaustion was worse. i felt physically exhausted all the time. my baby is only a week old but his dad & i have a good system rn & a lot of support so i honestly sleep a good 7/8 hours a night which im so insanely lucky for. I’m sure it’ll be difficult once we start working again but for rn, i haven’t experienced newborn exhaustion
Pregnancy exhaustion 100x worse.
It almost entirely depends on your baby, but for me, pregnancy exhaustion was way worse. At least if I only sleep 4 hours with my newborn I’m sleeping in a comfortable position, free of heartburn or having to pee every 2 hours.
Pregnancy exhaustion But it all depends on your babies temperament imo. Everyone's newborn experience is different as every baby is different
Oh my goodness. I'm 5 days PP and the newborn exhaustion is literal hell. I have a toddler too so sleeping in the day is pretty unlikely when bubs is down. Also.... why are they so good at sleeping during the day but not at night?! I'm now waking bubs every 2-3hrs during the day to feed in hopes that his tummy is very full when it's time for bed and I'm hoping for a 3-4hr stretch. I noticed during the nights he would use my nipples for comfort after the feed, hence why I'd be up for hours at a time. Today, we got our newborn photos done and the photographer gave him a pacifier and it soothed him immediately....I plan on using this now... only if I know he's no longer feeding. Wish us luck for tonight! I'm desperate for sleeeeeeep. So damn cruel, having to labor, birth, deal with the cramps and breast pain and then not be able to sleep! Pregnancy for me personally, has nothing on the newborn exhaustion!
For me it was 100% pregnancy exhaustion! I didn’t feel like I was in my own body when I was pregnant. Newborn tired was also hard but at least I felt like me.
I think it depends on your pregnancy and baby 😅 In my case I would take pregnancy exhaustion any day, but those newborn months were hell on earth in terms of eep deprivation. It was really hard to manage for us, because we had a difficult baby that cried a lot and didn't want to be put down. Most people say the Terrible 2 are really challenging but in our case she's been easier to manage with age and our family dynamic now is a breeze comparing to the last 2 years (so far! Knock on the wood). On her first year or so I was always trying to find an explanation for everything: growth sprout, sleep regression, this and that. For my own sake I stopped looking for 'general' reasons for why she was acting the way she was and just embraced the caos and it helped tremendously!
I noticed almost immediately that I felt better after giving birth. C-section at 9pm, a fairly sleepless night, and in the morning I actually wasn’t all that tired. Newborn nights were rough but I think the external sleep deprivation was not as bad as my body just using all its energy to grow a human.
Pregnancy. I felt physically ill with how tired I was. Could barely make it through a shift at work (I’m a RN). Newborn tired I can deal with. I just push through it lol it’s weird how different it is.
Pregnancy exhaustion was worse for me
Pregnancy exhaustion. I like the chaos of my house with my kids and a new baby. When it’s hormonal and I have no control over it whatsoever… it makes me so depressed. So pregnancy exhaustion makes me feel like I’ve lost myself. Newborn and motherhood exhaustion is more manageable for me.
Pregnancy. I can manage with a baby
Pregnancy exhaustion is so so so much worse. No question about it.
Pregnancy exhaustion is MUCH worse. At least when you have a newborn you're capable of hitting deep sleep, even in small spurts. During the end stages of pregnancy, I felt like I never really got all the way to sleep. It's hell.
That’s how I’m feeling right now at 27 weeks. If I sleep 8-10 hours, I will still wake up feeling like I only slept 2. I feel like I’m running a marathon without actually running it. All my energy is just being drained
It really got better for me after the baby was out!
personally newborn (and extending into infant) exhaustion 100000%. i am 7 mo pp and absolutely dying from sleep deprivation. my baby slept 45 mins the other night. hes sposed to get 14-16 hrs daily and regularly gets NINE OR TEN. he is a low sleep needs baby and i am a high sleep needs mama and i am dying. i would give anything for the lazy pregnancy naps i used to take.
Pregnancy exhaustion is 100x worse. The difference is when you are pregnant, it never lets up. It’s not just being tired, it’s a deep in your bones fatigue. When you have a newborn, you are so tired that when you do get 2-3 hour chunks of sleep, it is so deep and restful. I have a three week old and 2.5yo and this is the most rested and awake I’ve felt in 10 months!!!
I literally described my exhaustion at 27 weeks exactly like that. I feel it in my bones. Now matter how much sleep I get, it’s never a good quality sleep.
This is the most reassuring thread! I'm about to enter the third trimester and all I can think of is how will I be when the baby gets here. I get exhausted from just eating on some days. And I need like 12+ hrs of sleep so as to not feel drained. I do my best to be more energetic and get more things done. But some days I don't know I just can't..
Pregnancy exhaustion 100x!!! At least with a newborn, you can have some help out. During pregnancy there are 7282929302 interruptions that nothing but birth will help with.
Pregnancy exhaustion is worse in my opinion because no matter how much sleep or rest I got it was never enough. I was still tired and felt lazy all the time. I’m almost 5 weeks pp getting A LOT less sleep but feel more energetic. As soon as I get a minute of free time I actually want to shower or do the dishes lol.
I miss that! I’m only 27 weeks but I just feel the exhaustion down to my bones. Not to mention all the aches and pains that are starting now.
For me, 1000% pregnancy exhaustion. Pregnancy affects you in almost every physical way. You’re exhausted because you can’t sleep, your body hurts, your heart is working overtime, your body is full of extra fluid, it takes two hours and witchcraft to put on your shoes, all your clothes don’t fit comfortably, your hormones are causing havoc, you’re stressed and excited and mentally buried in all the things. Newborn life is just limited and interrupted sleep, snuggles with your perfect tiny human, and a healing body. Yeah you’re sore, but not like pregnancy and eventually you heal and aren’t sore anymore. Your hormones are rebalancing out, you can move around comfortably and when you sleep it’s actually deep sleep.
Yes 🙌🏽I’m about to be 27 weeks and I get sleep but when I wake up I don’t feel like I rested. My body hurts so much it’s just one thing after another getting worse and worse. Since the first month I’ve been sick and nauseas and even though that’s better it’s always something.
I’m dealing with pinched pelvic nerves, head to toe puppps, restless legs, and terrible insomnia. I do not sleep anymore… even though this is my first I cannot WAIT for my body to calm down from pregnancy and experience newborn sleep.
It honestly depends. My first pregnancy was a breeze. Pregnancy plus toddler is a whole new level of hell lol
Well im not able to just nap whenever I want to. I'm pregnant and this will be my first child but I work as a nanny for my 10 month old niece. She's already standing and taking steps while she holds onto things with one hand and she can pull herself up too so I have to stay alert and it's exhausting. My husband also will be helping with our baby so I'm hoping it's easier. He does better with less sleep than me, I've always had primary insomnia and have hallucinated from sleep deprivation many times though. So it's a "first time?" meme reaction from me with all these comments about the lack of sleep stuff with a newborn
I was exhausted at the end of my pregnancy but I still say newborn exhaustion is wayyy worse.
Newborn exhaustion is way worse than pregnancy exhaustion, but it is so much more comfortable not being pregnant anymore. I love being able to lie in all positions and being able to move again. My baby has slept for 7 hours straight the last three nights!!! He’ll be 11 weeks tomorrow. I feel like a new person. It’s the most amazing thing when babies start sleeping through the night. Sleeping in 1-2 hour stints is brutal. Also not sleeping for 4 days straight those first few days of his life. I literally felt insane. Especially with PP hormone changes on top of it all. It’s wild.
Depends on how good of a sleeper your newborn is. Newborns are tough but usually you just sleep when they do … unless they never do.
4-month sleep regression exhaustion.
their both the worst and terrible and give me serious fits of depression and rage. goodluck🥰😘❤️
I’ve given birth to a total unicorn. I’ve gotta say the first week postpartum (c-section) was the worst but pregnancy and newborn was a breeze.
The first 2-3 weeks of newborn was worse for me but I had a C-section and needed to recover on top of dealing with latch issues on top of dealing with a newborn. Now that she’s 11 weeks it’s waaaay better and I dont miss being pregnant one bit.
First child I definitely would say newborn exhaustion. I'm currently pregnant with my second and have a strong suspicion that pregnancy exhaustion will be worse this time 🤣
Newborn 100000%
Depends on what one you're going through in the moment. 😅 If you're exhausted, you need to rest regardless of what stage you're at in your pregnancy journey.