I’m really struggling with the exhaustion of being a mum to a 3 mo and 19mo as well as, what I now realise, is a form of pnd/postnatal ocd.
I won’t write war and peace but will try not to drip feed either. DD2 and I had an extremely close shave during her birth , acute placental Abruption and hemorrhage in birthing pool , cat1 section very scary indeed, thought we were both going to die and had long recovery. Have always suffered from anxiety but never the checking behaviour of ocd.
Have been plagued with fears that my children will come to harm / die since DD2 birth. Only get around 2-3 hrs sleep per night , and tiredness makes it worse .
One of my triggers is the cat - please don’t tell me i am being silly I am in tears writing this . There are other triggers such as worrying that the house will burn down and getting out of bed repeatedly to check oven off etc.
We have a large black harmless Tom cat , he is scared of is own shadow so I feel guilty even thinking this. But I’m terrified he will try and sleep on one of the babies and kill them. I have found him asleep during the day twice in the babies cot when my husband left the door open and I think this has triggered it.
I get up countless times all night long and check that the cat is not in the bedroom , that the door is shut, i take multiple photos of the door to prove to myself that it is shut. The baby very nearly slept through last night and I am shattered as I had one hour of sleep from checking the door etc. once i am satisfied Te door is shut (4am this morning) I am too scared to leave the bedroom, even to go to the toilet , in case he gets in. I often lie awake and watch the baby breathing , even though I am so so incredibly tired . I know this sounds mad.
The ocd (I think it’s ocd) has other forms as well but all are related to my babies being harmed or killed.
I have spoken to gp and health visitor and am due a visit from mental health team but not for a couple more weeks.
It’s hard enough having 2u2 without dealing with this too. I have no family around to help. I need to get to grips with this and I think re-homing the cat would help as it would be a removal of a major trigger . But a very sad shame - I do love my cat and , to a sane person, he really isn’t a threat.
Does anyone have any experience of this ? I am too tired to think straight most of the time so it’s a vicious cycle.
I was going to take my toddler to the beach today but am scared to drive as am so tired so the poor thing yet again will lose out. My issues are really taking their toll on everything and everyone.
Thanks for reading.