Parenting with postnatal insomnia

[Tallblue]

My DD, almost 5 months old, has recently started to sleep through the night however I'm not feeling the benefit of this as I wake anywhere between 3-4.30am and can't get back to sleep! I think when DD was waking for night feeds I was so shattered it was easier to get back to sleep. I now wake in the early hours and get really wound up that I'm awake which makes it worse. I count the time as it ticks away knowing DD will wake up soon. Now, I've been up half of the night. Not sure how I'll get through the day, I know it sounds stupidly dramatic but things seem so much worse during the night!

I usually try to at least go out for a walk each day with DD but getting up, ready and out seems like an impossible feat. Somehow being up at 3am after a block of a few hours sleep feels worse than a full but intermittently broken night's sleep.
Not sure what's causing this. Might be due to hormones? Who knows. Anyone with a similar experience and advice on how to stay awake through the loooooong day ahead?!

I just try to go to bed as early as possible 730-8pm. Then if I'm lucky and I get to sleep and stay asleep I might sleep till 3 and I've had a full nights sleep!

I had trouble with this around 5 months and wondered if it was to do with hormones from cutting down the oxytocin in the night as the night feeds reduced. I've never been a great sleeper but was much better when pregnant and in the early months with the baby, which I'm guessing was to do with hormones.
It was so frustrating though!! I had been waiting so long for the baby to sleep through and then just couldn't sleep myself.

No magic solutions I'm afraid, I found it did improve. Also, although you won't feel like it, getting out in the fresh air during the day, and also I found tv shortly before going to bed made it worse

No advice but I can certainly empathise - my DD is 10 months but obly just started to reduce her night feeds and the insomnia has kicked in for me too. It's miserable. I'm also feeling like I'm getting less sleep than when she was tiny and I used to go straight back off after a night feed. As a pp said, I guess it's hormonal. I've asked a few friends and seems it's pretty common. If bloody annoying!

I'm going to disagree with Wonkyparsnip! Sorry! I was waking up at 4/4.30 every sodding night after ds's sleeping got better, when my OH pointed out that I'd been asleep since 9pm so had my nights sleep and was probably just ready to get up. I actually sleep better now I go to bed a little later. You get into a cycle of early waking making you tired, so you go to bed early, so you wake early and so on-If it carried on we'd have ended up just going to bed when ds does at 7 o clock and just starting the day at 4, everything was just creeping earlier.
Advice on how to get through a long day?? Oh now you're asking! I find breaking the day into "chunks" (usually around Ds's naps) and having one or two things to do in each chunk helps. Also, identify the time you feel most tired in the day and make that the treat time so if you like coffee with other mums/walk/massive piece of cake arrange it for then. For me it's mid afternoon and find just being in the house doing nothing hard at that time.

Thanks all. Slightly better sleep last night (I'm overseas so in a different time zone hence probably odd UK time on this post!). Went out for 2 long walks during the day with DD. Will try the same again today.

I'm totally sympathise! I 'developed' insomnia from when DD2 was about 4/5 months old and after she had started sleeping through and I'd stopped night feeding. There's got to be something in it hormones-wise as I didn't realise it was so common and it's just so cruel! With DD1, I slept OK for the first year (although I had PND and was diagnosed bipolar) and then was completely fine from then on....However, I've had problems with sleep for over a year now since DD2, but it's definitely a hell of a lot better than it was. I was getting as little as 2 hours sleep some nights and even 45 mins on one occasion which was torture! It's just not possible to cope on such little sleep (especially with my bipolar diagnosis) and I ended up taking diazepam and then zopiclone. It became more important to sleep, even if it was chemically induced. I now only take it occasionally but hopefully it won't come to that for you. I read the other day that it's actually best to just not do anything to help sleep (we're often told to have a cup of hot milk, have a warm bath, sniff lavendar, not watch TV before bed etc.). I tried everything religiously, to the point of it becoming an issue too! The best thing for me in terms of self help was listening to a body scan meditation CD. It's meant for mindfulness practice (not really for sleep) but it never failed to send me off! Sorry if this is a bit too in depth for your current issues, it sounds like it's only just started to be a problem and I hope it will resolve itself as your body adjusts to the new pattern. I just wanted to say that I've been there and know how awful sleep deprivation is and that I hope you won't be affected to the degree that I was....BUT, it will get better in the end! I have the odd bad night now but nothing like it used to be. Hugs x

Hello, I've just been diagnosed with ppd and have severe insomnia!! It's taking over my life...will I get through this? I'm currently on 100 sertraline and taking tamazepan! I'm worried that I will never sleep by myself again.