Anyone else suffer from this? My 9 week old has been consistently only getting up once a night for about 2 weeks between 2-3am. I find myself waking up around 12midnight and not being able to fall back asleep (tossing and turning) in anticipation of LO to wake up for feed. I keep looking at the clock thinking, if I fall asleep right now I'll get at least another 2 hours before LO wake. Or if I fall asleep now I'll get 1 hour, and it keeps getting closer and closer until I finally give up and wait up for LO to wake up... Then after feed and LO is back asleep in crib, I toss and turn and maybe get an hour of sleep until the alarm goes off... This is so frustrating... I am getting only 2 hours of sleep a night for several nights now, because of me, not LO. UGH!!!
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@JLC53: Yup. I posted about this over my maternity leave, as well. I was sleeping less than the newborn because I just could not fall back asleep after night feeds!!!! Actually I am not sure I ended up doing anything to change it. I just waited until my son stopped waking up and we all sleep pretty well. Haha. Others advised me not to look at my phone in the MOTN - that might help you if you are used to looking at it!
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Yep. Had this and it was terrible. It started like you described (and about the same time) and progressed to me almost not sleeping at all. I actually started Zoloft and that's been a lifesaver. Until the Zoloft kicked in, I used sonata as a sleep aid. Medication was a complete game changer for me.
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Some nights postpartum I had a really hard time falling back asleep also. Ive heard the hormones flushing out of your body make everything go wacky. I had terrible night sweats and bad dreams also. It passed after a month
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I couldn't sleep at first for the reasons you're describing, plus anxiety about LO. The first month of her life I was lucky if I got 2 hours of sleep a night, and if I took a nap I always woke up in a panic so it was better not to even try. The doctor prescribed me a sleep aid, but I never tried it.
What worked for me was to sleep in the guest bedroom and leave DH in our room with LO. He was then responsible for bringing her to me when she woke. Not being the responsible one allowed me to get back to sleep faster, for some reason. Like @Hoots, I also started Zoloft for the anxiety and that helped as well. By about 3 months I was mostly sleeping well, and back in the room with DH
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I had this on and off while I was on maternity leave. It was horrible. And I do get insomnia (the classic kind, where you can't fall asleep) during stressful times of my life normally as well. The thing that has worked best for me is to use guided meditations when I can't fall asleep. Usually I just end up falling asleep in the middle. Even if I don't, they generally calm me down. Ironically, I actually prefer normal ones (designed to just relax you) and not sleep-specific ones.
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@Dahlia: DH and I had the same guest room arrangement. I think the biggest reason it helped me was that I needed to feel off duty to even begin to try and sleep.
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@Hoots: I think that's exactly it. It made a huge difference for me, and I actually think it helped LO sleep better too. DH is a much sounder sleeper than I am, so oftentimes I would go get her when she was just stirring, but he'd sleep through it and she would also go back to sleep.
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Thanks everyone!
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Torture. It would hit after I was getting up many times with my daughter. It was like my sleep cycle had gotten interrupted enough times that my body figured I should just be awake.
I remember a blogger (Mrs. Confetti, maybe?) writing about trying out a breathing pattern that help--breathing in, holding your breath, exhaling all for a certain amount of time.
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Just remembered that white noise was also super helpful for me. They say to use it for baby, but I was the one that needed it. It drowned out some of her little grunts and gasps. When I would sleep in the guest room I'd literally have 3-4 types of loud white noise going because if I even thought I heard LO I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep.
Looking back, I was really going crazy! But I promise it gets better! LO and I both sleep through the night now (most of the time).
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@Dahlia: That is exactly it!!! I feel like I jump at every noise he makes. While I am not running to the crib, I am staring at the video monitor until he stops fussing and falls back asleep. He isn't even really fussing or crying, just grunting, etc... Then I am so stimulated I can't fall back to sleep. My body has created a pattern now of waking up in the middle of the night and being up for hours... Its driving me crazy...
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Yeah mine turned into full blown PPA but that was the beginnings of it. I went on Zoloft and started taking a low dose of melatonin.
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