Night feed insomnia - kicking in at four months?

[almmummy]

So I seem to remember lots of issues with getting back to sleep with DD1 after night feeds - especially the 1am/2am feed. I thought I'd dodged it this time with my son - I was successfully falling asleep after every feed pretty much (exhausted!). Now he is four months and the past week or so I've really struggled to get back to sleep after that first feed. It took hours last night - luckily he did a stretch or I would have been awake for the next feed as well.

I seem to remember the problems with my sleep started around this time with my daughter. My question is - does this sound familiar? I was wondering if the body just gets better at coping on little sleep and does not need as much? Or to put it less politely, everything is so f?*ked that it does not know when you need rest?!?

Yes, it kicked in for me about this time. Damn, I was hoping I'd be immune for a second child!

I was really panicked and thought I might never be able to sleep again - feelings that only increased insomnia!

It got better quite quickly and did pass in the end. Things that helped a bit for me: no looking at my phone during night feeds, turning clock away so I wasn't mentally logging how many / what time wake ups, co-sleeping (we used a sidecar crib) so I didn't really wake up fully to feed, just enjoying a nice rest even if I wasn't fully asleep I'd often behalf dozing. I also had a mild anti-depressant from the GP that's safe while BF, which worked by slowing down my over-active brain during the night (didn't make a difference in the day).

Good luck, it'll get better soon x

Just make sure you don't look at your phone!