AIBU to still not feel myself two years postpartum?

[Ange1502]

is it normal to still not feel yourself 2 years pp? I still would say I don’t feel good, like physically or feel back to myself. I am still bf, and my daughter has never slept through the night.

I still feel like my nervous system is in tatters a lot or the time and I suppose I thought I would feel a bit more “ normal “ by now, but not sure if this is just my new normal. I’ve had loads of bloods etc done by the gp and all come back normal!

is anyone else the same?

Lack of sleep is always going to make you feel awful. I feel dreadfully exhausted/zombiefied every time my kids go through a rough sleep patch. Is there anything you can do to get more sleep? Are you bf through the night?

Im not unbiased because I hated breastfeeding, I did it anyway,
but it wasn’t a zen-mama experience I was hoping for. I felt much more ‘myself’ when my body felt like my own.

If your dd isnt sleeping through you'll be chronically sleep deprived so it'll be that that is making you feel as you do.

I'm sure you've tried sleep training but until you get that sorted you may feel rough for while yet.

Any grandparents or other family that can have her for the night to give you a break?

I think it’s quite deceptive and unhelpful when society says that you can be ‘back to yourself’ after having children. I don’t think you ever feel 100% like your old self. It helped me to reframe it as ‘Do I feel like a new, okayish version of me? If this is my new normal, can I tolerate it? Can I maybe one day even thrive like this?’ I suppose it’s just giving yourself a bit of grace to accept the seismic physical and emotional changes that have happened and accepting their impact on your life.

If you’re still breastfeeding you’re still “postpartum”. Your bodies hormones are still not ‘normal’.

Lack of sleep is also horrible to deal with.

well done for feeding for so long - that’s amazing!

I think you just get to a 'new normal', espeically when chronically tired. I have a 4 year old and a 2 year old (also breastfeeding), they both took a couple of years to sleep well (and often still end up in our bed) and are up for the day at 5-5.30. I still feel like a zombie/my brain doesnt work properly sometimes!

I definitely didn’t feel back to being ‘me’ until i had completely stopped feeding and they were reliably sleeping through. Before that I was just about surviving.