parental insomnia

[miski]

hi,

My lo is 3 months old and sleep pretty well trhough the night, waking at 4 or 6am. This is great but I can't sleep!! I've been awake now for 3 hours in the night desperately trying to sleep.It's awful because I know as soon as I eventually do get to sleep he will probably wake up and want to feed...
even worse, I know I will be totally exahusted and useless tomorrow, but I still have to look after him all day alone. We haven't lived here very long and our family is far away. I get really stressed because I know I will be alone all day and exhausted tomorrow (which means we will have a terrible day, as I'll be impatient and irritable) and there is no one I can call on to help or take him for a few hours. I think if there was someone who I could call on I would be able to get some sleep, because I would be able to relax..

I used to take Valerian tea when I coiuldn't sleep before I got pregnant, but I guess I can't take that now? I don't really want to use pills either.

Any one have any advice? Or at least knowing there are fellow sufferers out there might help!

I'm pretty sure you could take valerian tea. Did you find it helped you?

There are quite a few insomniacs on here! All of us know about feeling lousy the next day.

Actually there was a prog on BBC1 last night about insomnia, presented by Kate Silverman. If you've got iPlayer, you could watch it through the BBC website.

I had a similar experience last night and posted here about the cause of my insomnia (my DH and I's unequal split of responsibilities). So you have my deepest sympathy, I am too exhausted today and as I run through my to do's for the day I am too wired to put myself down for a nap whilst DD is having hers...

I've also tried some sleep aids in the past, but I found unless I actually addressed the underlying cause of my insomnia most of them didn't work.

Have you thought about why you can't sleep?

Re: about being in a new area, I am not from this country and don't have any family around; friends are mostly far away were I used to live up to 3 years ago. But I found that joining the NCT and participating in a local mums&babies group really helped meeting new people.