Not able to sleep between baby waking

[sidonie1]

Does anyone else struggle to sleep between baby feeds? I have three month twins who wake twice a night and settle really quickly, but I cannot sleep between feeds and am starting to feel desperate.

I also have a toddler, so can't sleep when they do in the day. The insomnia seems to be getting worse and worse.

Anyone had this and found good ways of getting to sleep?

I had this with ds, and it's really hard. I remember getting so frustrated with myself for wasting precious sleep time, which obviously also doesn't help. I can't imagine how hard it must be with two different wakenings with twins, so you have my sympathy!

I don't think I had any miracle cures unfortunately, I think the only thing that really helped was when ds went down to one feed a night, at about 3 or 4 months I think. I felt more relaxed at that stage as I knew I had a good few hours to sleep afterwards rather than anticipating another wake up in a couple of hours and just feeling the time slipping away. In the meantime, I bought myself one of those tiny reading torches so I could read in night without disturbing dh. I figured I may as well use the hours I was awake, and I think that actually helped stop the insomnia too - once I used the time for something I didn't mind as much, I stopped dreading/stressing about it.

My ds (10 months) has become a noisy sleeper after a sleep regression period so keeps waking me up with random noises and I'm back to quite often not getting back to sleep like the good old days! The book torch has come out again

Oh I suffer from this really badly atm. Ds is a terrible sleeper at 18 months and I struggle to get to sleep inbetween wake ups. It is rubbish isn't it?

My experience with night feeds was mercifully short and finished over a year ago, but I thought I'd share my miracle solution for insomnia:
Audio books on my iPod. Not books exactly, but radio shows. I put them on low with 1 earphone in (so I can still hear DD) and just close my eyes. I deliberately choose radio comedies becaise they're light and don't engross me too much. I usually last about 5 minutes before I nod off, even if not tired.
It may not work - but it's worth a try.

Try hypnotherapy CDs. I use a breathing technique I learned on my pregnancy hypnotherapy cd and it's very useful for clearing your mind and relaxing your body.

I've been like this with my 2 month old DS who wakes every 2-3 hours, it's because I know I might be awake soon so I can't sleep! I find a quick burst of relaxation music.

Helps! Posted too soon. I'm better now he wakes less and also I don't listen to every breath/grunt etc with rapt attention.

I moved my dc out into their own room otherwise the insomnia was driving me insane I just couldn't sleep at all

I had this with my ds. I used to read books until I could fall asleep (doesn't work: would just keep me awake!)

However when I had my dd, I did all the things that you do to keep babies sleepy. Warm dressing gown, stayed in the dark, didn't eat or drink much, and I used to co sleep too. I mastered the art of sleeping sitting up!

Thanks everyone, I will try each of the suggestions. A friend also suggested creating a sleep association with something, such as peppermint tea. By having it every night before bed it becomes a cue to sleep; then if you wake and can't sleep, it can help. Will also try

Lavender scented pillows might help? Also, I personally found stressing about not sleeping made it less likely I would. Keep telling yourself it's ok not to sleep, resting is good too, and listen to something like pp suggested.

Hi - I had this too. A glass of wine before bed (just one - any more ultimately has opposite effect) and either a white noise machine or ear plugs - neither so much that I couldn't hear baby when he cried, but just enough so I wasn't actively listening out for him IYSWIM. Also, DH is a light sleeper (who has no probs getting back to sleep after getting up!) so had that as a back-up which was reassuring I suppose. As someone else said, when he went to 1-2 wakes per night, I found it a lot easier. Also, definitely true ^^ that stressing about it didn't help. But woe betide anyone who told me I just needed to relax. GRRRR!!! Good luck and hope you can get some rest. It will pass :-)

I had this and it became a huge issue. I had a fantastic GP at the time, who understood how terrible I was feeling. She prescribed me some sleeping tablets (zopiclone), on the understanding that I wasn't necessarily to use them, but that it might make me feel better to know I had something in the house that would make me instantly drop off of I ever reached breaking point.
It worked like a charm and totally broke the psychological cycle. I think I only ever actually took one of those tablets, and I can't even remember why that was, it was a very specific set of circumstances! Just knowing I had them in the house was so reassuring and stopped me lying there in a panic of 'I HAVE to go to sleep '.

I learnt to feed laying down. That really helped and if I nodded off it wasn''t as dangerous as if I'd been sitting up.