Hi again, last year when dd was 2.5 and ds 1.5 I suddenly stopped being able to cope. I got myself through the day, went to play groups and "functioned" but as soon as the children went to bed I either cried or went to sleep, except I couldn't sleep and would lie in bed for hours wide awake and then be exhausted all day. I stopped being able to socialise very well as I "couldn't be bothered". For a long time I put it down to exhaustion until one day I went to the health clinic for some reason and they had a leaflet on Depression, I could tick nearly every box so I thought I had better see someone! (Only box not to be ticked was the lack of appetite - typical, I get a chance to lose weight with no effort and I get the opposite symptom!)
I think there is a very fine line between depression and exhaustion, you say you are on medication, is that for "D" or something else. And like Deegward says coping is a personal thing.
Apparently it is quite common for people to become depressed when "new" baby is 1 or 2 especially if it is likely to be the last one as they start to think... what am I going to do with my life, this one will be at school soon and then what? Certainly I think that is what happenned to me along with lots of other things.
This is what I did.
Eventually I went to see my Health Visitor, she came to see me for a "chat" each week for a while. That in itself was helpful.
I started making the effort to eat 5 a-day, and I had Yakult at breakfast. I will tell you what, I felt better almost immediately, there must be something in this 5-a day thing! I am terrible at eating fruit and veg so for breakfast I had yakult, a glass of apple, a glass of orange and a banana. I reckoned that was a good start - only 2 to go then,
I started taking Nytol, didn't stop me getting up in the night but at least I went back to sleep.
I went to see the gp who prescribed me Prozac, by choice I'd rather not have taken it but Christmas was coming and you can't really compromise how you look after the children, I could have got worse before I got better.
The doctor put me forward for counselling but my appointment was 3 months later and I was well on the way to recovery by then.
The best advice I can give you is to go and see your Health Visitor, that's what they are there for, I held off for ages because I thought she was really busy and she said I was "silly" that was what she was there for. It doesn't matter what is cuasing you to be like this a non emotive person is really nice to talk to sometimes.
I hope this helps, look after yourself, you are not alone, sleep deprivation is a killer even without 3 children all wanting a piece of you. Don't under estimate the job you are doing - 3 kids, WOW, I'm sticking at two another one really would finish me off. Take care.