I can't sleep - Baby sound asleep help!!!!!!!!

[sparkymum]

My son is 18mths old and for the past few months has actually been sleeping through the night from 7 - 5.30.horah you mite think, nut my sleep pattern has gone so far out the window, i have forgotten how to sleep myself. I hav tried , relaxing techniques, sleeping pills, reading, the most boring programmes on tv you can imagine and alcohol, NOTHING is working and now i am desperate........i haven't tried a dledge hammer, but was really trying to avoid it, as i imagine it may hurt........

sparkymum, you have all my sympathy. I do not think my sleep every recovered since having DD1. I did resort to taking sleeping tablets, and if taken correctly is not harmful long term. You need to take a "course' so tht your sleep centre becomes used to the longer periods of sleep so that for 4 nights or so you get in to the habit ... worth a try !

sparkymum. I know the feeling you think must sleep, need to sleep etc

Every sympathy in the world. I really do understand how desperate and frustrating it is. You say you've tried 'sleeping pills'. Do you mean over the counter or prescribed ones?

When same happened to me, my GP prescribed temazepam (sp?). I was in a bad state (crying in the surgery) and, thank God, she didn't quibble about giving me drugs. I was a bit scared (re. dependency etc) but just promised myself to use them sensibly. Which I have. My insomnia problem wasn't getting to sleep at bedtime, it was waking in the night (whatever time it might be) and not being able to get back to sleep. At all. Some nights I'd stir at 3.00am and then lie there awake for 4 hours thinking I'd go mad.

Once I'd got the prescription, I'd take half a tablet when I woke in the night and that was always enough to get me back to sleep (sometimes it took a little while) until morning. The most unexpected thing about them was that they never once made me feel groggy the next day. And I'm convinced that just having them there, on my bedside table, made me relax and not worry and I quite quickly gained back the ability to go back to sleep without the drugs. That course of 30 tablets lasted me more than six months. I've had other spells of insomnia too, (same thing happened after second child started sleeping through the night) and have had two more courses of 30 tablets. All in a six year period. Now I'd say I sleep quite well, but wouldn't hesitate to go back to my GP for more temazepam if I had problems again.

Is it worth considering for you?