Sleep - mine not ds's!

[Dmum]

Mr DS is almost 9 months and has been sleeping through since around 4 months and rarely wakes in the night. I wish I could say the same about myself - I have no trouble getting to sleep, but often wake up during the night (usually to have a wee!) and find it difficult to get back to sleep. Also, I often wake up quite early in the morning and am just nodding off again when DS wakes up. My DH (who used to be able to sleep through anything) is also having similar problems. I know disturbed sleep is a symptom of depression, but we're definitely not depressed.

For the 1st 4 months of DS's life, his sleep was awful and we often only got around 4 hours sleep at night. I'm sure what we're experiencing will get better eventually, but can anyone give some advice to help in the meantime? (I've tried lavender in the room and Bach's Rescue Remedy.)

Thanks.

[prettycandles]

It can take a while to re-learn sleeping. I think it took me about 4m or more with each of mine. Do you eat or drink before bedtime? That can disturb your sleep. When you go to the loo, do you switch on the light? I find that if I do that I'm less likely to be able to drop off again easily, so I leave the hall light on which gives enough light not to need to switch on the bathroom light - sounds daft, but makes a big difference! Are you absolutely knackered when you go to bed? Being exhausted can worsen your sleep, so maybe a rest or a nap during the day might help. Yes, I know it's impossible - I can rarely sleep during the day if I'm alone with the children, even if they're asleep - but worth a try if you can, weekends maybe. Do you get to talk out issues during the day? Sometimes unresolved problems can keep your brain ticking over, even if you're not actually thinking about that problem. When I was struggling with sleep I found that writing myself a list of things to do or think about the following day helped me to switch off.

HTH!