How to combat feelings of being overwhelmed/stressed?

res932

DS is going to be six weeks tomorrow. I am still struggling with feelings of being overwhelmed and stressed out. I am very much a Type A personality and want things to be done just so. In addition I have also always been a person that needed her sleep. Now with the baby I am getting 4-5 hour stretches of sleep at night at best, and even then it isn't uninterrupted sleep. DS is a baby who makes a lot of grunting/straining/fussing noises while he is asleep. I usually put him to bed at 10:30 and then he wakes up at 3:30 and 6:30 to be fed. Last night however, he got up at 1:30 after having already been making the noises for a half an hour. When he did this I just got really frustrated because I have been trying to do whatever I can to increase the amount of time he sleeps. I just broke down into tears because I feel like as soon as we make progress on one thing we lose ground on another.So many people I know said that by 6 or 8 weeks their babies were doing 8 hour stretches at night or more. I know every baby is different, but then I wonder why we are only at 4 or 5 hour stretches.

I also get frusterated when I am trying to get hime down for a nap in the afternoon and he just won't cooperate. I work from home doing freelance so in addition to me wanting him to nap so I can nap I also want him to nap so I can do work. Otherwise he would just want me to hold him and rock him.

There are days where I just feel like it is never going to get easier and I am going to be struggling forever. I also worry that he is going to be one of those kids that won't sleep through the night until they are 1 or something and in the meantime I am going to have a total breakdown. How have you ladies dealt with this? How do I relax and just let things happen without getting stressed out? Also, how do you deal with the sleep deprivation?